In the typical day of running a business, professional photography may not cross your mind. Nevertheless, photography is an investment worth making and can be an asset to your brand strategy. From corporate events to press releases, photos provide a way for your target audience to learn more about you and why you do what you do. In this article, we offer business photography tips that can help you establish yourself in the market and get an edge on the competition.

Corporate Events: Does your company try to balance work and play? Birthday parties, holiday potlucks, conferences, receptions, trade shows, and sales meetings are all events worth documenting on camera. Customers expect personality as much as they expect professionalism, making it all the more important to capture the smiles of employees and guests. Although it may be tempting to try photographing your own event to cut down on expenses, we highly recommend hiring an experienced, professional photographer to handle it for you.

Individual Portraits: In addition to capturing the fun side of your business, it is extremely important that you convey a sense of professionalism to potential customers. Corporate headshots demonstrate the credibility of your business while simultaneously providing customers a glimpse into who you are as an individual. Before scheduling employee headshots, determine the look you want and make sure everyone’s on the same page about appropriate attire.

Team Photography: While corporate headshots can be used to identify key roles within your company, team photos convey how your employees work together to accomplish a common goal. Team portraits can be professional or funny and taken in an office or at an unusual location, but they should inspire your audience to trust you and your team. Some companies opt for a specific dress code when it comes to team photos, but a dress code can detrimentally communicate a sense of conformity and individuality is often lost on the customer you want to reach.

Office Environment: Are you proud of the working environment you’ve cultivated? It may finally be time to show it off! Action shots and ambient photos show your target audience what day-to-day life is like at your office. The last thing you want to do is use stock photos to advertise what’s actually a well-oiled machine. Try to take wide shots in realistic lighting. Whenever additional lighting is needed, you or your photographer should use small flash units or large strobes to make the lighting look as natural as possible. Stage your items and furniture to effectively capture your eye for design.

Products & Services: Without rich visuals to refer to, your customers won’t have any perceived value of the products or services you provide. Plus, the aesthetics of a photo shoot can be the difference between a conversion and no sale at all. For consistent results, we recommend using a tripod. Shoot a wide variety of images, so you have plenty of shots to choose from. Visuals can also be powerful marketing tools. When at all possible, give your photographs a boost with titles, keyword tags, sitemaps, and other SEO-friendly features to help them rank and reach more customers.

Don’t forget, many of the candid shots, portraits, and team photos you take may be suitable to use on websites, billboards, printed materials, and social media. When you can use photography to bolster your brand identity, take full advantage of the opportunity! Hopefully, these business photography tips provide the inspiration you need to take on photography with confidence. Please feel free to contact MSP Design Group with any questions you may have.