From conferences to award ceremonies, inaugurations to Christmas parties, companies are often looking to hire event photographers to cover corporate events. You put lots of effort into organizing your corporate event but missing an opportunity to capture it can be disserving not just to you but the event itself.
Whether it is your first time organizing a company event or hiring a professional photographer, this post is for you. You will not only learn how to choose an event photographer but also set it up for a successful event.
What is Event Photography?
Event photography involves capturing pictures at important business gatherings, including meetings, conferences, award ceremonies, concerts, sports events, and much more.
Basics of Events Photography
Building a vision ahead of your event demonstrates how you would like to document your event. The next step is to share your vision with the hired event photographer. The photographer will then provide the feedback, make necessary tweaks, and elaborate on the setting and mood of your event and the moments you wish to capture.
A professional event photographer understands the importance of moments and which ones are worth capturing to fit your vision. Another perk of hiring an events photographer is that they will consider all angles when setting up a shot without getting distracted by the surrounding.
Styles of Professional Event Photography
Here are 5 styles of event photography you must consider when developing your vision for an event.
Candid
Candid event photography captures an event in its natural state where guests do not purposefully pose for the shot. The photographer will take random pictures while the guests continue to enjoy your event. Mostly, your guests will not even realize their picture is being taken. These pictures are low pressure and a great way to capture genuine happiness and smiles on your guests’ faces.
Conceptual Style
If you wish the images captured to represent an idea, conceptual photography is the answer. This style uses themes and symbols to reinforce the predetermined concept of your event. Therefore, it is perfect if you want to use images as advertising content or marketing material.
Journalism Style
In journalism-style events photography, a photographer will cover an event by taking candid images to create a unifying story as your event unfolds. This will be a great way to reinforce the theme or storyline of the event in visual form by creating a series of images. This style of event photography is ideal for events blogs, presentations, and a white paper release.
Portrait Style
This style uses dramatic backdrops, lighting, and poses to capture the style and personality of the person in the frame. Suppose you are aiming for pictures to capture executives and employees and use these images on a website, social media, and printing material. In that case, portrait style is an ideal way to do it.
Hiring an Event Photography Service
An event photographer may also assist you with setting up the event and extend excellent customer service to help run the entire event smoothly from beginning to end. However, the cost of hiring an event photographer may range from $100 to $600 an hour.
The money is worth spending to cover the celebration of your brand and audience because a trained eye of an event photographer knows exactly which moments are worth capturing. A professional event photographer will offer consistency to the visual portrayal of your event space, speakers, and guests.
While anyone can take photographs with a smartphone these days, an event photographer will provide high-quality images covering every important moment. Your company can use these professionally captured images as marketing content for digital advertising on websites, social media, and other mediums to increase your brand’s visibility.
Things to Consider for Event Photography
Several factors come into play when you hire a corporate event photography service. Here is all you need to know about things you must consider.
Do Your Research
By now, you must know which of the above-mentioned event photography style is suitable for you; it is time to start your search for an event photographer. Hiring a corporate event photography service with good reviews and experience will ensure that you get professional photographs with impeccable services.
Checking Online Portfolios
You must always consider a corporate event photography service with a well-developed portfolio of photography services in the events. Most corporate event photography services have an online portfolio that you can browse through, or they can send you personalized samples.
Go through the collections and photos to ensure that the quality of images and style of photography aligns with your vision for the event.
It is a good idea to Google the event photography service for reviews on Google, Facebook, Yelp, and other business listing websites. You can learn a lot about an events photography service by knowing what their previous clients say about the services.
You can ask the corporate event photography service for references. Feel free to call each of the references provided and ask any questions you may have about the ethics of the company, photographers, quality of images, and post-event services.
Ask if the photographers were good at dealing with last-minute changes and about the behavior. Make sure to hire an event photographer who is well-dressed, well-spoken, and polite in nature. This is important because guests will perceive the photographer at the event as an extension of your brand. Anything a photographer does will create an impression of your company.
Asking the Right Question
Do not just ask for the price; dig deeper to find out the specialization of the corporate event photography service you want to hire. The more information you have about their professionalism and photography style, the better you will be able to assess if they are the right fit for your event.
Here are some additional questions you must ask:
Has the events photography service you are hiring covered similar events before?
Does the service cover the style of photography you are looking for?
How many photographers will you need to cover the event? This depends on the size of the event.
How many photographers will be at the venue? Find out who they are and what they specialize in?
Learn about the total cost and if the charge will be by the image or the hour.
If you are a corporate entity or business that wants to get the most of your event photography, you must make sure to define a vision. Clear all expectations with the event photography service you hire and outline this in a document.
Do not forget to provide your event photographers with a list of VIPs such as award recipients and guest speakers. Other important details to provide would be a planned schedule of the event’s day.
It would also be a great idea to provide your event photographer with any references pictures you wish to capture. However, you must take care of this in advance and not on the day of the event.
Always treat your photographers well, and do not forget to offer them lunch or dinner on the event’s day. This also shows that your company’s ethics involve caring for people working for your brand.
