Are you too cheap to have a professional photoshoot? Find out how much it costs and 3 tips to get the most out of your session in the studio.

Hello, my name is Jim James and I am your host on SpeakPR. Now, on this podcast, I'd like to help you to unlock the value in your business by providing some free and effective communications tips and tools. Now, I do this by sharing my experience as an entrepreneur and a PR agency owner for over 25 years, serving over 500 clients large and small. Today, I'm going to talk about photography. I'm going to talk about getting your own photography done if you are running a company or if you're representing a company like I am with east west pr. This is something that, amazingly enough, many people don't invest in. And yet it's crucial, partly because if we take an old saying from Vidal Sassoon's advertising, if you don't look good, they don't look good. Now what I mean by that, of course, is that if you, if you're representing the company, don't have great headshots and don't appear in a well presented photograph, it's saying something about the company that you represent or that you own. So why don't people invest some time and money in getting proper professional photographs done? Well, there are a few reasons I think in my experience over the years, or one is to do with cost. People think that it's going to be expensive, but actually to get good photographs done can take half a day and could be, you know, even as little as £200. Up to you can spend a thousand or more depending on the location, the maturity of your photographer. But even just a basic entry level press photographer might only cost you 200 to 300 pounds to get you one or two great shots. So don't let money be a barrier to getting great headshots. Second one I found is people are worried about how long it can take and that of course it can be an issue. But scheduling time away from the business, of course, isn't always easy. But if we can't get half a day away from the company during the weekday, we can often find a photographer willing to work on the weekends. In terms of the time it takes to, for example, get to a studio, that could be offset if the photographer is willing to come to you, to your office, to your home. Now obviously it can cost a little bit more time and money if the photographer comes to our own venue, but it saves time as well. Now, today I drove off to see the photographer that I work with, Marcus Ahmed from the Bristol photography studio. And my shoot only took two hours today because I went to Bristol, I went to his studio and I Did that because I know having done more than one photo shoot in my time, that photographers have a huge amount of equipment with them. Professional photographers will have lighting, they'll have canopies, they'll have light reflectors, they'll have light meters and monitors and multiple lenses too. So if you want to really get the most out of a photographer, my recommendation is to go to their studio because they have the space set up with for example, backgrounds, furniture, props and so on that by and large we don't have lying around our house. It also kind of helps to get you in the mindset. If you go to a studio, you feel like, wow, you know, I'm in a studio. This is, this is pretty cool. Now another reason I think that companies don't invest in professional photography is they think they can do it themselves. So they think, oh well, I've got an iPhone, I can do it. Or my child has got a dslr, I can do it myself. But having spent a couple of hours with Markus on this shoot, and also we did a full half day shoot previously with video as well, it's an expert craft, taking a great photograph. There are many fine adjustments in a camera to do with the aperture of the lens, to do with the amount of light, to do with which aspects of the subject they focus on, whether it's the eyes or the nose or the, or the hair. So it's not just about having a point and shoot camera, it's about the expertise in the eye of the camera person. So thinking that we can do it ourselves, we might have some of the tools, but having an expensive camera does not make us necessarily an expert photographer. Now another thing I would say is that when we look at the equipment, I thought that I had a good mirrorless digital camera in the Sony that I had. But when I go and see what Marcus has got, he has multiple lenses and multiple bodies and when he's taking photographs, the average file size that he's shooting are 60 megabytes compared to the 5 to 10 megabytes that my Sony was getting. The computer consumer cameras or Semi Pro are really geared around you taking a lot of photographs, but them not taking up too much storage, but the resolution, the crispness, the attention to detail that a 60 megabyte per frame camera captures is just breathtaking. So we might think we can skimp. But actually for my money, photography and investing in is worth it because it's showing how much we invest in the image of ourselves and of our company. So if we are representing a company which most of us are doing at some stage or other. If we have a low cost, cheap portrait, then it's saying something about how we feel about the company. We wouldn't think about having a cheap logo, wouldn't think about having a cheap sign above the building or a cheap website. Even so, this isn't a holiday photograph trying to capture happy memories. This is a shot of a person who defines how a company is seen. And a company, of course, wants to look reputable and trustworthy and creative and fun to work with and high quality. So why would we not invest in having a photography session that represents those key values? So often when we've sent out media releases, we've had clients that have not provided great photographs. And quite often the media won't run the story. Remember that media, all media, including our own media, thrive on great content. As we know, tweets with images get twice as much engagement as tweets without. If we look at something like Instagram, it's all images. So why would we not want to invest in creating great ones of ourselves as spokespeople of the companies? So often a great photograph will carry a story that may not be a great story, but is a great picture. When I launched Morgan Cars in China, I spent a huge amount of money on photography of the cars themselves and of myself with the cars because I was promoting and building a brand of a lifestyle. The story revolved around the images and the narrative, the text and so on, especially for a Chinese language audience at the time, was as much about what the picture said as the text. So we can get great coverage if we have great photographs. Now, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then imagine the message that a great photograph sends. So we can say whatever we like about ourselves. But if then we turn up in the photograph looking dishevelled, disorganized, and maybe a little bit late to the shoot, then it's sending a message that says that our individual personality, but possibly our company, is not on message. Now, whatever impact you're trying to create, great images will certainly help. But now Marcus likes to suggest that, and I think it's a great idea that there are two different sort of strategies here. One is about branding, and in branding, Marcus says that's when someone is doing something. And the second is a headshot which is showing someone. So a branding photographer is taking pictures of individual doing something, for example, like a celebrity chef or a mechanic or a plumber or a architect. And a headshot is just showing the individual that's separated from the work itself. Now Perhaps having convinced you of the merits of actually looking at hiring somebody, I'd like to give you some tips that I've had from my own photography over 25 years and working with great photographers like Marcus. First of all, let's look at location. I personally recommend going to the studio because the photographer then will have locations in and around the studio for where they want to do outside work. For example, today when I went to Marx's studio, he has growing in a nearby area some bamboo. And as my company is called, East West Public Relations and I started the business in Singapore, he chose this location with the backdrop which looks great. Another friend of mine just told me that they borrowed a couple of cars from the neighbors so that they could have in the, in the picture behind them a couple of Land Rovers. So think about the location. Second is going to be looking at your clothing. What are you going to wear? Now? I personally always take a range of different clothes. So take something dark, something light, something formal, something casual, something to go underneath and something to go on top. Can you take accessories for example, pocket squares or jewelry or sunglasses or hats. So clothing and take a selection of those because then you can mix and match a little bit. Another aspect is personal grooming. I remember working with a client many, many years ago in Singapore who turned up for an interview on Bloomberg TV in a, in a sort of a greenish shirt and he hadn't had a shave that morning and this was 8 o' clock in the morning, live filming. And he also had wispy hair and he really looked red because he was running in the heat and you could see the stubble and you could also see through the backlight in the studio the wisps of his hair coming out. So for men, let's be serious about it. Most of us have got either some hair, not enough hair like me on top, or too much hair coming out of the wrong places, like me, out of my ears. Make an effort the night before to forgive me ladies for the detail here, but you know, clean out all the areas where hair might be growing, that it shouldn't be. Tidy up the hair where it should be because the intensity of that 60 megabyte photograph will pick up the finest of hairs. And you want to look as though you run your personal life like you run your company, which was the tension to detail. Now when you go and see the photographer or even beforehand, make sure that you're on the same page in terms of the outcomes. So Marcus and I discussed that we want to have three different photographs today. One outside and two inside, one outside that I could use for sort of conference speaking. One inside, which is a serious portrait for, for example, my LinkedIn profile. And one more relaxed for editorial opportunities that might come along where there's room maybe to add some text along the side. A full body length shot. So how many shots do you want to get from your session and what's the purpose of those? What's the image that you want to present? Is it serious? Is it humorous? Is it relaxed? Is it tense? And you can do both of these in the same shoot, but don't try and do them all with the same photograph. So think as well if you want color or black and white, because the setup can be different. If you're doing black and white photography, then it's good to have fabric in your clothing that has more texture, for example, or you can even get away with wearing a pattern. So thinking about the purpose of the shoot and the photographs themselves will give you and the photographer really a schedule of what you want to photograph against. Now, I worked with Nick Hems, who's a stylist down here in Bath, and he is wonderful at helping to set up the selection of what you're going to wear and the accessories, but also arrangement of those. It's very hard for the photographer to be looking at the model or the person themselves and looking at the shot. They may have an assistant with them to help set the lights and the, the reflectors and the, the other tools that they're using. But you can have someone like Nick Hems, who's a professional stylist, who would then work in, for example, the best mixture of colors and clothes and styles for each individual shot. It is a bit of a luxury, but ideally you can have someone like Nick on board before the shoot, and they can even bring certain items with you. And for the ladies amongst you, it's great to have someone there to help, for example, with hair or maybe lipstick or other cosmetics, because this person has an independent eye. And I find if I'm sitting there in front of the photographer, I'm as busy thinking about if I'm sitting up straight, if I'm got my shoulders straight, if I'm smiling or not smiling, if my head is straight up, all those things go rushing through your mind. And having a third party there to help you look good can really take your mind off it. So you can relax now. One of the things talking to Marcus about is the setup of the photograph itself. So you might say that you want three shots and you want them for your Editorial and to go out, for example, for your speaking opportunities or for your maybe a company advert. But what Marcus also likes to think about is how he sets up the photograph itself. So by that I mean that we took some today with a single simple lens and some with a wide angle lens. The wide angle lens then have got nearly two thirds of the photograph image available for text. For example, if I wanted to run this as a double page spread or as a banner ad, then I could run some text about myself and about the company. So thinking about how the shoot will go is important because that means that when we get the photographs back, we've got all of the different uses already planned. Instagram only wants a square, for example. So if we're shooting in landscape, then the chances are that we're going to miss being able to use most of that photograph in Instagram. So just think about the kind of output that you want and that will really help everybody to save time. Now, what we also want to do is to think about whether we're going to be creating a series of photographs or focusing on just one photograph for one purpose. Today, Markus and I wanted to shoot three different kinds of photographs in one shoot. It was quite ambitious, but because we've worked before together and he had an assistant and I went to his studio and I took my props, we were able to move quite quickly through the photographs. About 35 to 45 minutes per photograph, including setup. But if it's your first photograph and you haven't got a good headshot yet, go to the photographer asking just for the one. We can take literally 30, 40, 50 photographs before we get the one that we're happy with. The main thing is it's better to have a professional photograph. It may or may not be perfect, but it'll be better than an iPhone or a personal selfie. And as we're going out to represent our companies, we really want to put our best face forward, not just for ourselves, but for our staff and for our partners, and especially for all of our customers. So that's a little bit of a roundup about personal branding and personal photography for those of us that are representing our companies or our organizations. I've just taken more photographs today with Marcus Ahmed in Bristol. It's a pleasurable experience. It's a little bit special, something out of the office. And I really recommend you to get in touch with, with a photographer or with me if you'd like an introduction to Marcus. So on that note, I'd like to say thank you so much for listening to this episode of Speak pr. My name is Jim James and if you're interested in other tools and tips and technologies for public relations, please visit our website@eastwestpr.com we have a five stage methodology called speak PR and that's all detailed and listed on the site with free downloads of tools and templates that you can use. In the meantime, I wish you the best of health, a profitable business, and that you keep on communicating.