Business Portraits Should Not Be Sidelined

This week there has been a catalyst to me writing this blog.

I thought I would be writing about estate agents and homeowners in relation to property photography.  That now is for another day, however it was an estate agent that performed the role of catalyst.  My local paper, the Farnham Herald, has a significant property section, as do most local papers and this week a full page was taken by a local estate agent, not advertising homes but rather the staff.

There is nothing wrong with the idea, in fact it can be quite productive as it introduces the personalities to the public.  The advert was designed to basically introduce the team and employed the expected head and shoulders mugshot.  Which is where I pull up short and start ranting at the advert.  I found myself talking to myself out loud, which to be fair is quite common these days!

What I really struggle with, is why people invest so much time and money into aspects of a project and then seem to bolt the photography on as an afterthought.  I still look around the internet and see well planned and executed websites for, say, accountants and solicitors, only to be let down by personnel photos that look like something from Crimewatch.  Often it extends to all the photography including the facilities interiors, products and general viewing photos but why do staff still seem happy to look so 'last minute'?

For most things and I'll accept I am biased, the photography should be the starting point.  In this day and age photos are king.  Photo sharing media sites sell for billions of dollars or have valuations high in the atmosphere like: tumblr, Instragam, flickr and facebook which is as much a photo sharing site as anything else.  The prolification of personal social photography and the instant migration of those photos across the web, coupled with advertising, PR and marketing campaigns centred around strong photography, prove that photos are the medium which lead the story.

So, why does an estate agent offer up a page full of under par mugshots?

I honestly don't know.

It isn't a painful experience to organise a set of good, clean, engaging portraits of the staff.  There is a choice as to the style and type of photos you have done and a range of photographers to choose from, according to the approach you want.

They can be done environmentally, essentially in your place of work/setting, which puts you and your job in context or in a studio (which can incidentally come to you). You can have individual photos done or go for the team photo or a mix of both.

The point is these images say a lot to your customers.  Get it wrong and the overall message you are trying to get out there is corrupted, in fact get it wrong and your advert might just do the opposite to what you intended.

Your customers might think that if you can't present the team well in the photographs, or indeed any other aspect of you company, you might not present well in other areas.  This means that if you decide to photograph your staff as a means to promote your business, apply high standards and don't succumb to the 'point and shoot', 'in house' option.

The portrait below was done for a client, Chris Lane (www.chrislane.co.uk) wanting a set for his website.  We worked on a variety of images changing the pose and clothes but this is a clean and straight forward example.

The following two photos were done in the same style as above, but for a different client.  These are samples of the individual photos with the one following these two, the whole team (Market Focus Research Ltd www.casme.com)

If you are looking to promote your staff a group photo can suggest unity and teamwork, with the emphasis given to highlighting the company as a whole.

This portrait was taken within a large set illustrating a The Pilates Suite in Farnham (www.thepilatessuite.co.uk).  The photoshoot produced photos of the equipment being used by models as well as the owner, Kirsten Harle, in her environmental setting.

And here we have an estate agent, Ian James with Strutt & Parker in Odiham!  Nothing to do with the catalyst mentioned above but hopefully a clean engaging portrait.

Even photographers sometimes need promotional photos. This is not me I hasten to add, but sometimes photographers have to photograph photographers! Peter Wright, an outstanding house photographer with whom I often collaborate. (www.peterwrightphotography.co.uk)

And last but not least I did a selection of portraits for a PR firm, Spotlight Communications (www.spotlightcomms.co.uk) and this is one of the bosses, Lesley Bennett. The whole team came to the studio and we used the studio to emulate an office environment.

So, if you have read through this and you fancy now getting some portraits done of yourself and your staff, my diary is waiting!