Press Photography for Social Media Outlets

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For the first time in 15 years, I have completed a PR commission (a long three day one at that) where the client had no intention of sending the images to a newspaper or magazine.

Of the 5000 images taken during the event, the client selected 200 from their large scale fashion show, and all were uploaded to Facebook.  Not one single image was sent to the traditional media outlets.  Facebook was the only outlet used.

From a photographic point of view, it was quite exciting in that traditional deadlines for newspapers were now irrelevant.  There was a 24 hour rolling deadline, and images had to be uploaded within a hour of a particular fashion show finishing.

You may be thinking that this is no different to submission to a national newspaper for example.  However, from a photographers point of view, technology rules now.  Not just a fast laptop, but also software that can edit and transmit huge numbers of images in one go (that are also prepared for online usage).  In fact, without specialist software, the deadlines set by the client would be impossible to meet.

This change has been coming for a while, but it is interesting to be part of a large scale PR event where the client looks at how their customers consume news, and sees that it is almost exclusively online.

Picture Editor / Client Relationships

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The chances are that your PR client will never meet a Picture Editor on a newspaper or magazine.  However, they have a huge effect on each other, and can be the making or breaking of your story.

Picture Editors frequently set the requirements for photographs that are to be used in a publication e.g. a regional daily newspaper will have a tendency to use more upright photos, taken outdoors, with a small number of people.

It is down to the press photographer, or your PR photographer, to know this and provide suitable images.

However, your client has no way of knowing this, and will frequently have misconceptions about what will, or should, be taking place.

So, when the photographer arrives asking for three people to go outside to be photographed, away from the company logo – they are working to the Picture Editors guidelines.

Unless your clients are particularly media savvy, they aren’t going to be happy that their new pop-up stand with their logo on isn’t going to be used.  But why would it be used?  This is PR, not advertising – this is meant to be all about the story – not free advertising.

I have worked next to Picture Editors who sit at their desks looking at the photo feeds arriving for consideration, and instantly delete any that have a logo.  Some are a little more forgiving, but only when it suits them e.g. the financial press.

Where does this leave you, as the PR professional?  Well, if it is the first time your client is to be photographed, go along and brief them before hand that it may not be exactly what they have in mind, but that relaxing and co-operating goes a long way to keeping the Picture Editor happy, thereby ensuring good coverage.

Pink briefs

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Think where your photos will end up.  A PR firm arranged for the very nice gentleman above to be photographed and featured in the Financial Times.  Lovely.  Result for the PR firm.

One small detail hadn’t occurred to them. The room he was to be photographed in (it was a feature on his home) was a shade of pink – and the newspaper is printed on pink paper.

So, we had to move the required furniture around and light the room extremely well. Luckily, in this instance, we had the time to do such manoeuvrings – that is not always the case.

Time for a photo shoot

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You have decided you are going to put on a photo shoot.  The press release has been sent to the media inviting photographers for 3.30pm.

The cakes are out, and the ribena has been poured in anticipation. Four o’clock soon becomes five o’clock, and it becomes apparent to you, and your clients, that a press photographer won’t be coming today.

It doesn’t make sense, it was a nice story.

Well, staff photographers on newspapers are like everyone else, they have working hours that they try to stick to. Three thirty may sound like a nice afternoon appointment – but if you have been photographing since 8am, anything after 2pm gets placed in the ‘only going if I absolutely have to’ category.

Looking at the photographers working day it becomes clear why late afternoon is a poor choice when it comes to arranging photo shoots.

8-9 Arranging photography for the day with Chief Photographer/Picture Editor

9-11 Photograph any urgent, same day photographs, then process images and send to Picture Desk

11-2 Photograph other non urgent diary jobs

2-4.30 Process all images from the day

5/6/7 Home

So, your 3.30pm job gets put at the bottom of the pile.  Even the ‘night photographer’, who (depending on the paper) starts between 2pm and 6pm will be reluctant to come to your job as he/she tends to be on call for urgent jobs only (and will usually be covering a huge geographical patch).

If possible, arrange your photo shoots between 11-1, and if they can’t be co-ordinated for that time slot, it may be wise to have your own freelance photographer in attendance who can supply the press the same day.

A real life photo brief

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FT Photography Brief

Working in a PR agency, or as part of an in-house team, means that you will probably deal with the requirements of journalists on a daily basis – often writing articles for them.

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:

–

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.

Change the top Jamie

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Jamie Oliver

A nice pic of the chirpy chappy himself. After being commissioned by a magazine to take a photo of Jamie at 7.30am, he turned up in a very dark check shirt.

It is probably pushing your luck to ask a man to get changed, but good old Jamie ran upstairs and came down in a much more media friendly top.

The media don’t want to use a washed out photo of someone in a dull top.  The photo was used full page.