Photo shoot procedure

The idea that most of us have of a photo shoot is mainly influenced by TV shows and Instagram. The process of a photo shoot seems quite clear to most people who are not photographers themselves. Meeting, shooting, sleeping twice and then the pictures are ready for further use. Social media & co often report one-sidedly from the perspective of the models. For the photographer, however, the work is far from over after the shoot. From the first meeting to the final product, there is a lot more behind it. Everything that the photographer reworks and adjusts in the background is, of course, also working time that has to be paid for by the client. This raises the question for many clients: How does a photo shoot actually work and what actually happens behind the scenes?

Preparation of a photo shoot

Before we can even prepare an offer, we have to find out what kind of service is actually required. This happens during a consultation on the phone. In addition, this first conversation serves to build trust, the most important basis for a successful photo shoot. During this first meeting, the customer can be prepared for the following points to be discussed in detail. The conversation lasts between 10 and 20 minutes, depending on the wishes and ideas of the customer. 

What industry is the client in and what purpose should the images serve? Business website, marketing, social media or sedcard? This gives us an indication of the style of the photos and how much effort the shoot will involve.

Does the client already have shooting experience and how does he or she imagine a photo shoot? Some situations make people uncomfortable in front of the camera. In order to make the shooting as pleasant as possible, the client's wishes and ideas as well as the photographer's possibilities are openly discussed. 

In the course of the conversation, it then becomes clear whether the client's ideas and the photographer's possibilities can be reconciled. So it is all the more important to communicate clearly. This is about finding out whether I am the right service provider and can help the customer with his or her request.

When everything is right between photographer and client, a plan for the shoot is drawn up. This means that we start planning the locations, dates, choice of clothes and, if necessary, make-up. This is also where we decide on the style of the shoot. Ideally, the image style and location should be well coordinated to get the best out of the shoot.

The Shooting Day

A social media branding shoot lasts between 1.5 and 3 hours.

During this time, around 500-1200 pictures are taken in raw format, which have to be sorted after the shoot. A lot of pictures are deliberately taken in order to have as large a selection as possible later on. This raw material offers the photographer the best and most versatile options in terms of colour choice and image style when editing later. 

Raw material is a term for the raw files of a photograph. A RAW file is a collection of data that contains all the uncompressed data from the camera's sensor. This is why RAW files occupy a particularly large amount of storage space, but provide the photographer with a large amount of image data. In short, these photos not only contain all the camera's settings, but also the maximum amount of image information and then have to be processed further.

The photographer makes a potential pre-selection here after the photo shoot in order to provide the client with the most versatile range possible.

Adobe Bridge is used to select the images. The programme is wonderfully suited for this because the selection made can be exported directly to Lightroom and processed there. Selecting the images takes between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours.

Colour editing of the images after the photo shoot

After the selection of images has been approved by the client, the colour processing takes place in Lightroom. All selected images that come into question are cut in Lightroom and given a basic colour. In addition, the image is sharpened and light and shadow are optimally adjusted. Depending on how many different camera settings were used during the shoot, this process can take quite some time. Since different lighting conditions often prevail in the various settings and different camera settings are used, the colour settings cannot always simply be copied, but must be individually adjusted for each image.

We determine the colour for each camera setting here at 80 % and also crop the images if necessary in order to provide the customer with as accurate a preview as possible of the final result during the pre-selection. Finer adjustments are made later in the final processing with Photoshop. Depending on the number of images, this takes between 1 and 2 hours. If we had to deal with particularly different lighting conditions during the shoot, this step can also take longer, but present more versatile results.

Final selection of images

In order for the customer to make their final selection from the colour-matched images, they are uploaded to an online gallery. Depending on the shooting package booked, the client receives a selection of between 100 and 300 images. Again, depending on the agreement, a certain amount of photos will be selected for the last, final editing step.

Editing the final selection in Adobe Photoshop

Last but not least, the final selection is given the necessary finishing touches in Photoshop. Any questionable deviations are corrected here, the light made softer or harder and the model's skin retouched accordingly, depending on the client's wishes. In this step, the appearance of the picture is perfectly adjusted to the desired purpose. The general time required for the photographer here is between 5 and 15 minutes per picture.

Is the next project already around the corner? The pictures on the website are getting old or the sedcard needs new material? Then take a look at our shooting offers and contact us for a personal consultation. We not only take photos for companies, start-ups and private individuals throughout Germany, but also in Spain and Italy on certain dates.