Photography Is About Capturing Souls

When most companies allocate their business expenses, professional photography is one of the costs they often consider as expendable. The dilemma of whether the cost of professional corporate photography is worth the investment and if they can get by without it is one that is experienced by new businesses and well-established businesses alike.
On other instances, some companies wonder if they can take the pictures themselves or use stock photos. The result is often low-quality photography or photos that look like everyone else’s!
The truth is that every business in every industry can benefit greatly from professional corporate photography. Here’s why!

1. Showcase your team

These days pictures are worth at least a thousand words – probably more! Photos enable the companies to show their clients and customers their team. In this day and age, consumers like to see the products for themselves before they make a purchase. Product photos with your team in them gives your company more context.

2. Your photos speak for your business

Often times the cost of professional photography makes it tempting for business owners to take photos themselves or find a lower cost alternative to hiring a professional corporate photographer. If this thought crosses your mind, remember that: photos represent the business. Low quality, unprofessional photos will communicate the same about your organization. A professional photographer from the Luminous Productions team, for example, will always have more experience, the right equipment, and professional editing skills.
3. Photos of your team build trust
Stock photos is one alternative that some organizations consider when they feel a photo shoot with a professional corporate photographer might be out of reach. While stock photos are certainly helpful for some purposes, they are not the best way to showcase the people behind your company. Why? Because they are not photos of your team.
When people visit your organization’s website, they want to get to know THE COMPANY! Stock photos don’t help them do that. When a client visits your office and sees the same people he saw on your website; this builds trust. The best way for potential customers to get to know the business is by showing them actual photos of the business, the team members, and the products.

4. Images Can Help Your Company Get Found On the Web

There are many elements to SEO, and one element is images.
Optimized photos can help a company’s website get found in the image results and perform better in the overall search results. They can also help to engage customers and keep them on the site for longer, or encourage them to choose your company over a competitor.

Remember that your company is not only about the products, services, location or results. It is also about the team that works there. On the occasion that a prospective client searches the name of our CEO at Luminous Productions, for example,  his photos will lead back to our company website, these can help us get found online.

5. Professional Photos are Versatile Assets

Online, photos can be used to make the website infinitely more personalized and more engaging. Photos of your team enjoying their work can also be used to build a brand on LinkedIn encouraging more people to want to work for your company.

In this article, we’ll be looking at a variety of corporate photography styles, each of which may suit a different client or a different set of circumstances, paying particular attention to lighting considerations.

Studio Portraits

Outdoor Portraits

Business in Action – The Editorial Shot

Group Portraits

Environmental Portraits

Headshots

These six different styles can be used to create a wide variety of corporate photos, so it’s worth having several of each in your portfolio. Each one demands a different skillset and technique—so if you can master them all, you’ll become a well-rounded corporate photographer.

Studio Portraits (lead image)

The key to being a consistently good studio photographer, rather than scoring with the odd lucky shot, is to understand lighting. The benefit of studio portraiture is the ability to completely control how much and what type of light falls on your subject. Studio photography in corporate portrait photography, gives you complete control over the look of the image you are creating as you are able to modify the lights in all sorts of ways, such as the angle, distance from subject, and light output.

One of the most effective methods is to use two infrared flash lights, especially if you’re looking for clean, crisp portrait on a white background. The trick is to bounce your master flash onto your subject, while targeting your slave flash at the background wall. These will work even with cheap paper backdrops and, with a white background, the resultant shot can be easily incorporated into documents. Furthermore, you have a straightforward setup that works for when you need to take multiple portraits in a short space of time.

The size and volume of potential light modifiers makes it impossible to carry all the equipment available in a studio on location and so offers a broader spectrum of options in your images.

Outdoor Corporate Portrait Photography

The outdoor portrait shot can give a much better sense of place than a studio shot—whether in highlighting your client’s place of business or in some other setting that has a particular resonance for the subject. But the downside is that you’ll have far less control over the lighting.

But by using multiple flashes, you can manipulate the light in such a way as to make your subject stand proud from the background—making sure your subject stands out of the scene. This effect is quite affective at dusk.

If the scene is too bright for the sort of shot you want, look for shadows from trees or doorways. Even dark jackets held close to the subject help reduce the light… methods employed on many, many shoots. Use what you can to get the shot!

To give your image an ‘old masters’ style of artistic lighting, use two flashes trained at your subject from different angles combined with an underexposed background.

One way of tackling larger groups is to angle the camera down from above so people in the front row don’t obscure those behind. Then use your flashes to bounce light down from the ceiling. Have the faces angled upward so all will be suitably illuminated.

Environmental Portraits

This means picking a relevant environment for your picture that is as much the focus of the shot as the person being photographed. In corporate photography this might mean in a factory, down a mine or in some other extraordinary location appropriate to the subject’s business.

If you get the opportunity to shoot in any of the above, you must treasure every second of it. It not only gets you out of the typical office shots, but provides a great experience that can be added to your portfolio.

The key concern on location is that equipment might need to be limited and you’ll probably have less control over the lighting. These days, offices have motion sensors that turn on mixed temperature lighting that cannot be controlled by your client, so be prepared.

Including the environment within corporate portraits can be the most successful, as they really do tell a story.

Headshots

These are probably the most common of corporate portraits, but with some imagination, you can make your headshots stand out from the crowd. Try a different angle, an unusual lighting effect or cropping. If there’s any way of incorporating something from the business, try it out. Look for ways to create an image with impact. Your subject, of course, will want the most flattering picture possible, so diffuse your light to help hide fine lines and blemishes.