Anyone who has followed me for a little while, will know that photography for PR is one of my passions! One of my consistent messages is about having really good photography to go with everything that you are doing in your business. Why wouldn’t you want to show your hard work off??
If you have a news story you need some photographs. Perhaps if you start a collaboration, launch a business, celebrating a special business anniversary – you need a photo to bring that to life.
You can use them on your social channels, your emails & your website but equally it is something you can give the media whenever you share a story alongside your media bio. So they have everything all in one place.
What types of photos do you need?
For small independent businesses which are run by business owners and is a personal brand (if it is a service based business particularly), then you definitely need high quality photos of yourself, preferably taken by a photographer. Using a professional photographer means you have the right composition, lighting, high resolution etc. They will ensure you get high quality shots rather than an awkward selfie in your garden!
Use the photography to bring your story to life, so think about your key messages and do what you do best, perhaps ‘a day in the life’ of.
You also need high quality traditional head and shoulder shots of yourself which you can use for guest features (think about guest blogs/podcast interviews etc)
You can pay for a professional branding photoshoot and they will get you in multiple different locations and situations that will bring your brand to life. The photographer will ask you what sort of shots you want, so do some research online to find ideas to share with your photographer in a pre-shoot brief. Pinterest is a great place for this.
Predominantly you are looking for landscape shots, not portraits but you can do a mix. Landscape images are used by most media, particularly online, and are easier to use on social.
If you are product based, then you need great photography of your products. If you don’t have the skills or the camera for this, I would highly recommend calling in a professional to do this too.
You will need lifestyle shots (product in situ, such a cushion styled on a sofa, or a necklace on a person) but you also need to be able to cut out these images. For example if your items got placed into a product gift guide, they don’t want a lifestyle image, they want a transparent .png image so they can put it on any background they wish.
TOP TIP – tell the photographer that’s what you need and they can work with you on ensuring you have every aspect covered!
REMEMBER product based business owners also need photos of themselves, ideally in action making your product or with your products.
How do you get these photos?
The best way is by hiring a professional photographer!
I have worked in PR for 20 years and from the start of my career, I was always told by every boss that we always need a good image to go with the articles, so we would always encourage the client to invest in professional photography.
Without it, it becomes practically impossible to do my job!
How do you find great photographers?
- Search online for branding / PR photographers with experience in your niche
- Ask in public forums/groups you are part of for recommendations (if you need any recommendations for Yorkshire-based photographers send me a mail and I can help!)
- For press shots (to go with a press release) ring the local paper and see if they can recommend anyone they have used before
How do you send the photos to journalists?
Usually when you work with a professional photographer they will send you the images in full resolution, so they can be large in size. Ideally you need a much lower resolution photo to send – up to 1Mb in size MAX. You can use a free online program (e.g Google picture resizer) to compress your images to a smaller size.
Also do not overwhelm journalists with millions of images, only send 1 or 2 at the most as email attachments. With product photography you definitely want to send more.
Journalists don’t like WeTransfer, they much prefer things like Dropbox, where you can send them a link and they can just click on it without having to download anything to view it. So save the both versions of the imagery (high and low res) into Dropbox and share them the link.
With product photography you can embed a couple of the images into the actual email itself.
Try and make it as easy as possible for journalists to view your images and edit them – you don’t want to crash their computer!!
If you have any specific questions on PR photography, do put them in the comments below
You can catch the video replay now:
https://www.facebook.com/CheerleaderPR/videos/308708403757602
I’m offering some spots for 2 hour 1:1 Strategy Calls to help you to get clear on where you focus your PR efforts going forwards and even what photos you need to go with it. To book your Strategy Call click here.
