Posted by: Catherine Morley
Category: Designers Working With
Bookmark on: del.icio.us

If you’ve never worked with a photographer before, then you’ll most likely find this series helpful. Understanding how photographers work will go a long way to making your relationship easier down the road. And not just your relationship with the photographer. You need to know what questions / suggestions to put to your client before you even get to the point of purchasing photos.

Starting off with question one, I asked “What are the main points that you’d expect / want designers to know before contacting you about a project?”

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Bill

First of all, I’m delighted and grateful when any potential client contacts me — and I always welcome them. I feel honored that they’ve heard about me, or have seen my website, and are calling me to involve me in their project. And it’s great to be contacted at an early stage of the planning, when I can hopefully help them plan the photography component well.

Of course, at some point, we have to think through together and articulate the specifics of what they need: the number of shots, a description of them, the feeling or ambience they would like the shots to create, the deadline, the planned usage and so on.

Sometimes clients call up and just ask something like “I need photographs of a kitchen, how much will it cost?”

As stated, that’s impossible to answer authoritatively.

I’ll probably reply along the lines of “I’ll create really beautiful kitchen photos for you, photos that you and your client will just love and which will help you achieve all your marketing goals . . . . but now, in order to give you a really accurate estimate for this assignment, I need to understand a bit more about the specifics of what you need . . . for instance, how many shots are there? Where is the kitchen? What is your deadline? What is the usage? Are their any special details that the pictures should show? What is the general feeling or ambience the pictures should evoke? How much are you planning to allocate for all this photography, what is your budget?” etc.

Bill Wisser | Advertising and Editorial Photographer
Bill Wisser Photo.com | The Naked Eye

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Bruce

This varies according from designer to designer. I’ve been asked to be involved in concepting which means very little is known and I’ve been asked for an estimate when nearly every detail about the project is set. Besides a project description, details like Copyrights needed and budget target are necessary if you want an accurate estimate of price and scope. Unless you want bids, offering even an approximate budget target will help define the scope of the project; projects are somewhat scaleable as I’m sure you know. Without a ballpark figure, I approach an estimate assuming no compromises. These days, however, compromise and budget tradeoffs are a reality – it’s best to confide in the photographer you really want to work with rather than to pit one against the other price wise.

Bruce DeBoer | Photographer
DeBoerWorks Photographic Productions

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Damian Counsell

I’d like to know what they want on three levels:

1. The boring technical level: Do you want JPGs, PNGs, transparencies or prints? What size, resolution, colour? When will you need them?
2. The artistic level: What kind of look are you after? What kind of effect are you after? What kind of image does your work already have?
3. The functional level: What do you want to achieve? Are you trying to sell something? Are you trying to illustrate something?

Number 3 is the most important. Design is art with a purpose. If I get an honest answer to 3—from any kind of client—then I can use my experience and knowledge to provide sensible answers to questions 1 and 2.

Damian Counsell | Photographer
Sepial fine film photography | The Wedding Photography Blog

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Dave

First off, there is next to no money in selling original fine art photography on the web (which is what I do). So if they are going to target a fine-art photographer with the promise that they can help them sell their photography on-line - that is probably not going to work.

If they are going to contact the fine-art photographer with the idea of making an attractive online portfolio that can help them have a web presence, then keep it simple and cheap.

Commercial Photography is different, and by commercial I include wedding photography. This is a very lucrative (or can be) profession where the touch of a beautiful web design can be just the enticement the would-be bride/groom need to make a decision.

The wedding photographer has specific needs that usually go past the simple portfolio. The bride/groom will want to make their selections online. Online functionality can be expanded past a simple browsing portfolio. The couple can say, we’d like two of these at this size. We’d like the wedding album to be like this. In other words, a full-service wedding photography site can be complex, but as I mentioned there is money in shooting weddings.

The same goes for just about any other commercial type of photography: tabletop, portrait, food specialist. Again - this is more of a portfolio and as a web designer - this may be one of the best opportunities because the functionality is going to be simple, and the client will have money.

Dave Beckerman | Photographer / Owner
Dave Beckerman Photography | Black and White Photography

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Jeffrey

I want to know as much about the project as possible. For instance, how the image will be used, and what audience the image needs to appeal too. I need to know as much about the physical project (subject) as possible. Is it interior, exterior, will I need a studio or is it a location set? If they have specific ideas about the creative approach or are they wanting to rely on my vision or are they interested in a collaboration of sorts. They need to know what they want in this regard, it is very important, if a client contacts me about a project and says they want my vision, then arrives the day of the project with all kinds of preconceived ideas (that they have kept all to themselves until the shoot day) it’s likely no one will realize their vision.

Jeffrey Jacobs | President
Jeffrey Jacobs Photography Inc.

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Jon

It would be very nice to know/have as fuller brief as possible in order to estimate. Estimating is tricky at best of times so a full brief including a shot list etc (if known) is a great benefit. Professional photographers price on the media usage of the images so details of the campaign’s proposed uses of the images are crucial as it underpins the license granted and fees charged. This applies to both above and below the line jobs. Any mockups, artwork or art direction is also of benefit to see how involved the job is, what style is required, what sort of retouching is needed, location scouting/permits required, models, crew? etc etc.. The approximate number of FINAL retouched images to be delivered is also of huge benefit. This normally changes on any project but initially are we looking at one hero shot, five, ten? Also, a rough guide to the budget available would be good. Though rarely given, if a figure is proposed the photographer can let the designer know what they can expect for their budget.

Jon Boyes | Advertising and Editorial Photographer
Jon Boyes

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Patrick

Firstly, I would expect the designer and their client to have a relatively clear idea of what they hope to accomplish and an idea of what they want the finished images to look like. Often supplying a tear sheet showing a mood or feeling helps to visually ensure we understand each other. Although, I truly enjoy the creative process of working together with a designer/client and crafting an image.

I would want the designer to have an idea of a layout, knowledge of the product, if the product is to be close cropped, and/or a rough image sizing. Although understanding the restraints of any design, a product with horizontal dimensions does quite often look better in a horizontally formatted crop. I’d also expect the designer to have knowledge of any overlaying type. There is nothing more heartbreaking then to have a well crafted image reshot because there was not enough room for type, and/or the type covered up an important element of the image.

I would hope the designer/client would come equipped with a relatively fair time line for completion of the project and the appropriate budget.

Patrick Chuprina | Photographer
Chuprina Studios

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Rochelle

The key points are budget, deadline, and expectations.

Rochelle Dahl | Photographer & Designer
Rochelle Dahl Designs

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Tom

There is a lot of overlap between the photography and design fields, especially in the preplanning. With any photographer it helps to know the final specifications for what is required before the job starts. Do you need a single photo, or a series of photos, room for copy, landscape, portrait, overall colors, etc. Understanding the requirements allows me to deliver exactly what the client expects with a minimal amount of miscommunication.

Tom Smalling | Photographer
Tom Smalling Photography & Design | Tom Smalling’s Photography Blog

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Will

The target audience of their project. If the the imagery doesn’t mesh, the message can easily be lost or misinterpreted and then everyone has failed at their objective.

Will Williams | Photographer and Designer
Perspective-Images.com

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In the hopes of benefiting from their experiences with designers, next up in the series is question number two: “When working with designers, what do you see as the top problem areas?”

until the next
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