6 Things To Spice Up Your Event Photography

6 Things To Spice Up Your Event Photography

6 Things To Spice Up Your Event Photography

fed up of photos of the backs of people’s heads?

Fed up photos of the backs of people’s heads or seeing cables trailing across the floor of your event photos?.

Taking great photos of your event is a fantastic way to promote yours or your client’s business’, and more importantly, it just makes brilliant content in general. We all know, content is king.

In this digital world – everyone is constantly learning new skills to keep on top of the changing technology and techniques, (and if you are not, you should be!). So are you taking that time to focus (excuse the pun) on small aspects of your business that can really make a difference overall? By making an effort to take great event photos for your business you are showing your clients and your competitors that you’ve got this down. So on that note, let’s get going, I won’t keep you waiting for the good stuff…

1. Be personable


You can claim to be the best photographer in the whole darn world, but if you can’t interact with other human beings to help them feel at ease at the end of your lens, then you can’t be that great. We’re all human and (most of us) react well to a bit of simple communication and good manners. Rather than relying on your ability to cull through photos of people looking awkward, start the event right by being approachable and open.

If you take a nice photo of someone, show them the back of the camera. Humans are self-conscious beings, but if they see that actually, you’re doing a decent job they’ll more than likely just leave you to it and not keep hiding behind their hands or a rather cliche and over-the-top table ornament.

Have the photos you’d like to get in your mind, listen out for happy chatter, or if in a seminar setting, hold out for the jokes to capture genuine smiles. Photos that show natural reactions are much more personable than asking people to pose. Scan the room before you start taking photos, a lot of the best photos are taken when you’ve been able to predict what will happen next. Noticing which people are the most interactive, or waiting for the perfect moment. Don’t just take thousands of photos and hope for the best, there’s no shame in taking a few moments to just watch.

 

2. Be prepared

The clue is in the title. You should start the job with a mental (or physical) checklist of all the shots you aim at getting. Keep in mind where the photos are going to be shared and what you intend on doing with them. Make sure you take photos that have space for text should you choose to add some at a later date – good to have this in mind prior to the event. A bit of ‘white space’, rather than just filling the frame, may just help you or your client in the future.

If you’re going to be taking group shots, make a list that you can check off as you go. This means that you won’t have missed any ‘important’ shots you were hoping to get, and ensures you don’t end up taking the same group over and over again.

 

3. Keep it natural
For some of us, our natural reaction when we see a camera is to pose, pout and “shuzz” the hair. If you nail the personable part of photography, then being able to capture photos of people looking natural and ‘normal’ will come easily to you. Getting a good mix of posed and unposed shots is a great thing to do, natural images are always going to showcase your event better because it looks less like they’ve been forced into looking like they’re having a great time.

 

4. Invest in a basic camera kit

Firstly, I just want to reiterate, you don’t need a full-on camera kit to take good images – I even go on about how fabulous a phone camera can be in our blog ‘Stop Using Stock’. However, it is going to up your game tenfold (which is what we want to do right- it’s why you’re here!). An entry-level camera is about £200 then you can get a basic 50mm lens for between £70-100 dependant on brand. That’s all you really need to start taking some great shots. It’s very important to remember that lenses are ultimately what is going to change your image quality. There’s no point investing thousands into a camera body and not getting a good lens. So if you can afford it, always upgrade your lenses first.

 

5. Think about composition

When taking your images, avoid showing empty chairs as much as possible, this makes your event look less well attended and could be off-putting for future attendees. The same applies if you are in a huge room, get closer and focus on smaller groups of people to make it look fuller. You should always be trying to fill your frame with people having a great time and enjoying your event.

 

6. Have fun!


The last thing I want to leave you with is how important it is to just have fun while taking images! You’ll enjoy it more and it will show through the photos you produce. Get creative. Use elements around you and mix up the angles you’re shooting at. There’s no harm in getting a bit artsy every now and then. It could even end up being your favourite photo.

So get out there and do the thing! It’s time to start taking the photography you’re using seriously and keep improving your skills. By taking a little more time to prepare for the event and taking in consideration how important the images you use are you can truly up your content marketing game.

If you’re interested in learning a little more about taking great photos in general, take a look at our blog ‘Stop Using Stock’ or if the idea of speaking to people terrifies you, you can take a look at our ‘Networking for Introverts’ blog.

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Using Personal Branding Visuals To Further Your Business

Using Personal Branding Visuals To Further Your Business

Using Your Image To Further Your Brand

are selfies really a bad thing?

Is it possible to use your own image to help further propel your brand, and add that oh so important personal touch? *spoiler alert* – it is.

A quick scroll through Instagram or Facebook will show you those whom enjoy sharing their own selfies. It’s probably quite a few… but are they just being “vain” or is there something deeper to it?

Before we start, for those of you who have been under a rock for the past 10 years, the Oxford English dictionary added ‘selfie’ to its pages back in 2013 when it was awarded ‘word of the year’, giving it the description – “A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media”

There is so much more to ‘the selfie’ than just being a photo of your face. It can also be about establishing yourself in your industry and getting yourself known.

Kids nowadays are brought up to believe that sharing images of themselves on social media is a normal part of their life and we can prove it. Take 30 seconds to jump out of this blog and open up Instagram, (but please come back) scroll through the images until you find a selfie of someone… didn’t take long, did it?

Those over the 30 landmark (or so my boss says), will see selfies as a vain and narcissistic approach to self-affirmation. Before selfies, the only time we saw our own images were in accidental reflections in car windows and shiny objects. Most selfies for those over 30 are usually covered in plastic in the front pages of a passport.

Selfies have since moved on.

Whilst the sharing of selfies has become a lot more prevalent, a recent survey found that 90 percent of participants consider other people’s selfies to be self-promotion, with less than half (46%) of those same participants viewing their own selfies that way. This fascination with selfies has always interested me (as a so-called Generation Z), as a whole it would seem the general stance on them is quite negative.

But hey, is self-promotion really that bad? From a business point of view, sharing your image can help you be recognised at events and be a great reminder of a piece of content you produced that really sparked a potential customer’s interest.

All it needs is a simple tweet or social post letting people know you’ll be there, now you’re back to the front of their mind again and who knows, this might even be the moment they decide to convert.

You’ve potentially opened up an opportunity by simply putting a face to your name. A potential talking point – just like that. People, especially those who are introverted (see our blog introvert’s guide to networking) love anything that will make their life easier, and if that means checking Twitter on the way to an event to see who’ll be about, rather than having to scan every awkwardly placed lanyard in the room when they get there, then that’s what they’ll do.

Researchers at the University of California found that taking selfies can lift your mood by helping you to recognise positive things about yourself and letting others share in that too.

But how else can a selfie help with branding?

For small and freelance businesses, making your own image part of your brand is important as it’s who you are and we all like a personal touch! Selfies may seem less relevant if you are a larger business, due to the multiple personalities involved, however, using images of people (real people!) is still important. People want to know who they are talking to, they want to see you aren’t a robot and are actually capable of human emotions, after all, people buy from people.

These are just some of the reasons we share selfies online (as well as to show off the brand new designer glasses we just bought). But in all seriousness, people notice faces first. Just think back (if you can) to being a newborn baby, faces and facial expressions are the very first thing we see – we learn through our parents and it’s also been proven online through eye tracking on platforms such as Facebook. You’re automatically going to stand out from those who have a photo of a car as their profile picture. (Do people still do that?)

The image shows how people look at a webpage, you can see by the heat spots that people focus mainly on the profile pictures. The most focus being on the red spots while they glaze over the written content. This brings us back to the previous point we’ve made in our Social Media Matra about using images in every bit of content where appropriate. It’s a brilliant opportunity to capture people’s attention – then you have the hard bit, keeping their attention while you say what you want to say.

Seeing the people behind the business can make your brand appear more trustworthy and promote confidence from your customers. I go into a little more detail on how you can create unique images quickly and easily in our “Stop Using Stock” blog so be sure to take a look once you’ve finished up here.

Your own image is the ultimate way to showcase personal style. So celebrate it.

Take a look at our social media or brand and you will see that amongst the purple, we also ensure that each individual Giant is represented across our marketing. We’re proud of who we are and we aren’t afraid to show it. Think about what your personality can bring to your brand, share images, videos and opinions. You could even end up being the next big thing, and if you are, don’t forget about us! We were here at the beginning.

 

 

I hope I’ve convinced you of the power behind a shameless selfie when it comes to marketing a business and establishing your brand. I’m hoping to see a lot of smiling faces on our news feeds soon.

If you’re interested in learning some more about taking images for your business take a look at my previous blog “Stop Using Stock” for some advice and tips on getting started or if you’d like to know more about what to do with them once you’ve got them you can take a look at our Social Animalcourse for some in-depth training from the experts at Sleeping Giant Media.

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4 favourite features of iOS 12

4 favourite features of iOS 12

4 Favourite Features of iOS 12

the most exciting updates to the Apple operating system

Apple took to the stage to deliver its WWDC at the beginning of the week where they explained laods of amazing new features coming in the next operating syste update and we are SO EXCITED.

There are so many new features, and a massive benefit is that they’ve really pushed for these updates to be available to earlier devices, some spanning back to the iPhone 5s.

As quite a big Apple fan I thought I’d summarise some of my favourite features – some of which weren’t mentioned in the developers conference, but have been discovered during the beta. If you’re an Android user and have made it this far, then congratulations.

Photos app

Photos app

Apple is finally bringing order to your photos library with iOS 12! New features will be able to index our photos like never before, recognising what’s in the photos, the time, the place etc.

It already recognises faces, geotags and the basic subjects of your photos, all searchable through the Photos tab in the app. But now the new search tools will even enable you to use multiple search terms, such as ‘Danny and flowers’ to find exactly what you’re after. (The two are regularly found together…)

Speaking of tabs, there will even be a new one called For You which will let you share full-resolution photos with friends through the Messages app. Then, magically, Photos will search your friend’s camera roll for similar photos (such as from the same event) and recommend that these photos are shared in response. This sounds awesome but potentially dangerous…

As someone who never cleans out her Photos app and has thousands and thousands clogging up the feed, I think I’ll really benefit from this improved search feature.

Screen time

Image result for screen time ios 12

We all love to scroll through our phones and peruse social media a slightly crazy amount – don’t pretend you don’t! A new feature in iOS 12 will now track your screen time and let you specify how much time you want to spend on each app. So, if you’re wasting too much time on Facebook, you can set yourself a limit and the new feature will let you know when you’re coming up to the end of your allotted time.

For parents, there will be the option to set restrictions on the time your children’s screen time if you’d like them to unplug of an evening.  

We’re excited to track the amount of time we spend on our devices and see where our “priorities” really sit. Think it’ll be a 50/50 split between Instagram and texting for me… I’m so cultured.

Markup colours

Color selector

This is probably going to sound like the saddest thing to get excited about, but as someone who annotates screenshots on an hourly basis, this is gonna be awesomeeeeeee.

In the current iOS for iPhones, you only have a selection of about five basic colour options. But now, in iOS 12, there is a whole spectrum of colours to work with.

No more taking to Instagram to do more in-depth annotations and weird illustrations, we can do it in-device now. 

Siri Shortcuts

Image result for siri shortcuts ios 12

Siri has stepped up its game and can now work alongside third-party streaming apps such as Spotify. I’ve been moaning about this one for months so I’m incredibly happy.

Siri Shortcuts is a new app that’ll allow you to build ‘recipes’ for shortcuts, in a similar way to how IFTTT works. This means it won’t be as smooth as Siri is with apps like Apple Music, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

This also works by setting up a series of actions that are prompted by a specific command phrase. For example, Apple showed us a setup shortcut to the phrase, “Heading home.” When Siri hears this phrase, it automatically acts the preset series of actions:

  • Retrieves directions home with the least traffic.
  • Texts the user’s roommate to let them know the user is on their way.
  • Sets the home thermostat to 70 degrees and turns on a fan.

This is going to be awesome. I’ve wanted to control Spotify through Siri all this time. It also means Head Boy Danny can set up even more automation with his Philip Hues!

Image result for ios 12

As I mentioned before, all of these new features coming to iOS 12 (expected release in September) are going to be available to work on older models, dating back as far as the iPhone 5s. They’ll be improving battery and general device performance capabilities too. I can’t wait!

Amber Vellacott

Amber Vellacott

Content Marketing Lead

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