Planning a Photoshoot
One of the things that I’ve noticed people both daydream of and forget about when planning a photoshoot is the planning for the images. A moodboard, colorways and pose guide to make sure that the images tell a story that you’ll be happy with at the end. Be it for a commercial photoshoot, lifestyle photoshoot or just portrait photos, having the plan for the images helps generate something that is truly a moment in time.
Where to start with this?
I begin with a simple question and build form there. Where are you going to be using the images? This gives me the jumping off point in planning, what goes out for social media compared to what will be used as a billboard or sign is a completely different feel to shoot!
What is the story you want to tell with these photos?
This starts building the posing guide, the angle guides and location ideas. I want to do everything we can to make sure your photoshoot becomes campaign and story with intention that gets results from your clients.
Are there brand colors and a style guide?
Some companies have a great branding guide, and some are in the need of one. What we will do is create a guide for the day-of for our team to use, and if needed we can bring in a partner to help generate a formal branding guide for the company as a whole.
Can you pull a handful of images for colors and lighting you like, and a couple with poses, angles and locations that make your heart stop?
This helps make sure that I have what I need to shoot what you like. What is often missed in commercial and lifestyle images are the little details that made the image work. What was the lighting motivation? What are the colors that the shadows and highlights have? What is the angle it was photographed from? Are the locations something we can easily find in Houston or is intensive scouting going to be required?
What do we get from all of this?
All of this allows me to build a moodboard, a guide and shot list, as well as equipment and crew for the shoot before the day of. We move from just running and photographing the session to something with intention! This gives you a collection of images that your marketing team can use to really engage your audience visually.
More about Charlie Horse Photos
At Charlie Horse Photos, we aim to make sure that your commercial images, lifestyle photography or Influencer photos don’t just look good, but are unique to you. We study our lighting, our editing and shooting styles continuously so that every time we pickup the camera, we are a little bit better than the last time.
Some of our viewable moodboards are visible on Pinterest!
