How often have you dealt with the requirements of a photo editor? Probably not very often, and it may be unlikely you have ever asked them what their particular needs are – when doing so would enable you to provide a clear brief to your photographer, and in turn increase the chances of coverage for your firm or client.

What follows is a real brief from a national newspaper that arrived in our offices yesterday (it relates to a feature portrait arranged by a PR firm) and highlights exactly what a picture editor requires:

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I now have the details for the shoot in Sept with xxx xxxxx.

Date/Time: 11am on xxxxxx at the following address:

xxxxx

xxxxx

Stratford-upon-Avon

I’m assuming you’ll be driving, but if not, the closest train station is xxxxx. If you let me know when you will arrive and his PR will organise a car to pick you up from the station.

On arrival, if you ask for xxxxx or xxxxxx (their PA’s).

Ideally if you can arrive just before 11am, then whilst the interview is taking place you can have a look around and decide where you want to shoot  – it’s a big estate apparently.

If you have any queries, about getting there etc you can call the PR, xxxxx, on xxxxx.

So re the brief – it is for our ‘At Home’ feature (you’ve done this before) – so basically I need some portrait type images of them at home – If I can have a mix of inside and outside the house pics, obviously if it is an attractive house (sounds like it should be), otherwise maybe some nice garden shots, and then some interior images with him.

As you know, we print on pink paper, so nice strong colour where available and good contrast is essential, otherwise our images tend to go a bit flat. A nice bit of depth of field always works well for the ‘home’ shoots too.  If you can send a mix of landscape & portrait shots, so we have options on our layout, and a nice selection of different set up would be good.

I will also need some images of their ‘favourite things’ – the PR knows about this so hopefully the items will be available and ready to shoot.  Please shoot them separately and full frame as we often cut these out.

Hope this all makes sense- let me know if you have any queries.