How I Planned a Brand Photoshoot That Really Worked for My Client

Dr Tofi Oni – Orthopedic Surgeon

When I’m working with a business to plan a brand photoshoot – be it an individual or a large corporate business, I start by thinking about what the business actually needs the photographs to do.

When I worked with Dr Tofi Oni, a hip and knee orthopaedic surgeon, we quickly established that Dr Oni was setting up his own private client website and needed a collection of professional photographs and video that would help introduce him, his work and his approach to his patients.

This was a great example of why a brand shoot needs a bit of planning. We weren’t simply taking some ‘nice’ pictures of Tofi and calling it a day. We needed images that could work across his website and help someone visiting it understand what an appointment with him might actually feel like.

So, this is how we approached it.

The location was an important part of the story

Sometimes a client might not have a suitable space for a brand shoot and we would need think about finding somewhere to carry out the shoot.  Luckily, this one was relatively straightforward.

Tofi consults at The Horder Centre in Crowborough, so the hospital itself was the obvious location for the shoot.  We had to consider the fact that it is a working hospital, so we needed to choose our timings carefully to avoid disrupting the day-to-day operation of the site and to ensure we had access to the rooms we needed for the shoot.

We used a clinic room, the reception area and, rather excitingly for me, were able to get into an operating theatre.

Each location gave us something different; the clinic room allowed us to create photographs that felt much more like a real consultation. The reception area and corridors gave us an alternate setting for portraits and environmental photographs.

And then there was the theatre.

Getting into an operating theatre gave us a fabulous opportunity to create something a little out of the ordinary; something much more striking; something demonstrating Tofi’s excellence in his professional field.  These are very different from the usual corporate headshots and I think give the website some real impact.

It also means that the photographs tell a much bigger story about who Tofi is and what he does.

We thought about how the images would fit into the website

This is something I think is really important when planning any brand shoot.

It’s worth looking at an existing website before we start taking photographs.

Will there be a large banner image at the top of the homepage?

Does the website need a landscape photograph with space for text?

Are there sections that would work better with a portrait image?

Do you need photographs that can be cropped in different ways?

For Tofi, we deliberately created a mixture of landscape and portrait images and varied the composition throughout the shoot.

Some photographs placed Tofi centrally. Others gave him more space around him, which gives a website designer much more flexibility when placing text alongside an image.

It might sound like a small thing, but thinking about this before the shoot can make the final images much more useful.

We planned for video too

Because Tofi also needed a video for the website, right from the beginning we had to consider this and schedule in what shots we needed to film.

It wasn’t something we decided to tack on at the end once all the photographs had been taken.

The film was to be a ‘client journey’; from arrival at the centre through to consultation.  Tofi’s patients are greeted by his assistant, so Libby also needed to roped in to be filmed!  It was important that the photography and videography worked together rather than feeling like two completely separate pieces of content.

A short video can be a really effective addition to a business website, particularly when you want people to get a feel for who you are and what it’s like to work with you.

But, just like photography, it works best when you know what you want it to achieve.

So, how can you get the most out of your own brand shoot?

Your business won’t necessarily need a clinic, a theatre or two willing models!

But the thinking behind the shoot can be exactly the same.

Before your photographer arrives, think about what you actually need the photographs to do.

Look at your website and ask yourself:

Which pages need new images?

Do I need a hero homepage banner image?

Will I need landscape or portrait images?

Do I need photographs with negative space for text?

What do I actually want potential customers or clients to see when they visit my website?

Then think about your business itself.

What does your working environment look like?

What do you do during a normal working day?

Could your products, tools, workspace or processes be photographed?

Would it be useful to show you working with a client?

Do you need other people in the photographs?

Would video be useful?

And don’t forget the little things. Detail photographs can be surprisingly useful when you’re creating social media posts, writing blogs or adding new content to your website.

Take a look at Dr. Oni’s website here.