1. Start at the beginning. Always a good place to start, but what I mean here is think carefully about what you actually want. What is the aim of the project? What sort of style and look do you want the photography to do for you? Where will the images be used, online only, billboard advertising(!) etc. Make some notes and you will have the start of a brief. Start to think too about your budget. A good photographer will always be happy to spend time with you going through the process if you are not sure.
2. Look for specialists in the type of photography you are looking for. A specialist wedding or family portrait photographer is unlikely to also be a specialist marketing/ commercial photographer and may not get the best results for your needs. A photographer used to shooting for design and marketing should know how to produce images that work for your brand. Your images may be beautiful but do they also reflect your corporate identity? They may speak a thousand words, but are they ‘on message’? A good photographer will understand how images can work for your business, how they need to visually communicate your brand or message. Make sure your choice of photographer does too.
3. A photographers lighting ability is arguably the most important skill needed on any shoot.  This is where your project will be made or broken.  Great lighting will greatly enhance your products or turn your average lifestyle shot or portrait into something that jumps off the page and is more than just a little engaging.  All photographers who shoot regularly for advertising, design and marketing will have and use professional studio type lighting for most of their shoots and be able to use it creatively to give your shots the edge.
4. Good photographers should be able to help with or handle the pre-production of your shoot – casting/ sourcing/ booking models, locations, hair and makeup, styling etc.  Using the photographer’s contacts & experience will quite often result in reduced shoot costs, so don’t be put off and think you need to handle this alone.
5. Set up a meeting; always try to meet with your photographer beforehand. A good photographer should meet with a prospective client to discuss your ideas, without obligation. Talk to them about your brief, they should be enthusiastic and interested and bring ideas/ suggestions of their own about how to get the best photography for your project. Get an idea of the rates they charge, how they work, their approach and set up.
6. Develop your brief, with the photographer’s input; remember they have the technical and creative skills to help you. Talk to your photographer about costs, they are the experts and will know how to work in the most cost effective way and how to get the best out of your available budget.
7. Finalise the brief. Include all the basic information such as the date, time, location, shoot list, contact details, what the final images are to be used for etc. Ask your photographer for help if you need it, they will be as keen as you are to get the brief right.
8. If you are using a graphic or web designer, put them in touch with your photographer. If your new website or brochure has been designed around images of a certain size, the photographer needs to know. It will save time and money if your photographer knows how the images will be used in the final design.
9. Check your photographer’s terms and conditions. These should be fairly standard, but check and ask questions if you are unsure about anything.

Enjoy the day of the shoot, it will be hard work, but should be fun and rewarding!

Spent a few hours last week shooting a mini range of QDOS’s great Smoothies iPhone cases, specifically for the South African market.  Tricky products to photograph – making sure the black areas are rendered correctly while retaining the punchy colours – pretty happy the way these worked out.

We recently spent the day at the Spread Eagle Hotel shooting fashion for Rainmac. The images are for their latest catalogue and website.

Spent another couple of days in the studio last week shooting some REN products and another tranche of shoes for W&M.  First out of the blocks are….

Been busying away in the studio for the last couple of days shooting Fashion for new client www.woodiemorris.co.uk.  Here are a selection of the shots – coming to their new website soon..

Have spent loads of time in the studio recently, shooting various products.  For print, for websites, for packaging – you name it we’ve been doing it.  Well not really but it seems like it!

One client we have working hard for recently is QDOS (www.qdossound.com), a company going places.  They produce fab covers, cases & accessories for all your Apple (and other) devices.  Here is a selection of some of the things we have photographed.

Been in the studio shooting this last week for an American company www.flowerpowerworldwide.com who are updating their Marketing and website.  Various ‘room set’ scenarios…

In the office

American Football

Home Office

Jewish New Year Celebration

Took a couple of hours out this morning to climb Blackdown (NB:  Highest point in Sussex) iPhone in hand… so close to the house but so quiet!

Just finished working a shoot we did recently for Tuff-Luv Cases.  The client gave us an outline brief , location & model requirements and a deadline – from this we pulled the shoot together, casting & booking models, location scouting etc.  We then shot it - 4 Locations over 2 days.  The images are for exhibition panels and other marketing materials.

Here are some of the images:

Thanks to our great models – Jake & Sophie and assistant Andy Pye.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about retouching in beauty product advertising, so I thought I would show you 2 versions of an image from a business portrait shoot we did last week – one ‘straight out of the camera’ (well almost!) and one subtly retouched.

Can you spot the differences and if the shot was of you, which would you prefer?