Business

What is a Photography Standards Document?

In our world of commercial photography, a photography standards document is for the sole intention of providing direction to the photographer or photographers in the lighting, composition and requirements of the company or person requiring the photography. Both large and small companies can benefit from the creation and use of a photo standards document. Firstly they will maintain consistency in their visual brand from photo session to photo session. Whether formally written out in a single page or a 100 page document.  The photography standards document should outline and illustrate the desired outcomes of the photography session. And secondly the steps to follow to achieve results.

For the purpose of this blog I will be discussing the creation of a simple one page document. The documents sole purpose is in achieving consistent head shots or executive portraits for a company website. However, Photography Standards Documents are common in many areas including one area that we do extensive work in as a hotel photographer.

The creation of the Photography Standards Document for an executive portrait.

As business portrait photographers we follow and create photography standards documents all the time. These documents are not always a formal document that is passed on from photographer to photographer. Sometimes the Photography Standards Document for professional head shots is very simple. They may include just a few notes we have on a client as to where the lights are placed, the backdrop that is used, and the pose required. This process is what we follow for all of our regular executive, sales and real estate clients. However for a larger or national client sometimes a document needs to be more formal. This provides photographers in different parts of the country a document to refer to when creating the photograph.

We created a formalized version of a standards document for a local client with national scope. They have offices across the country but required head shots that were uniform in appearance. Photography needed to adhere to their visual brand, to look good on their website when placed together. In the final images, we actually place a different background in for each member of the executive team. However all color backgrounds follow a specific colour palette. In addition we are also the ones to choose and coordinate with the photographers in other areas of the country.

The document we created provides a lighting diagram, photography tips and requirements and an illustration of how to achieve the desired photographic outcome. Also in the document is a sample of a final professional headshot. This allows us to provide our client with a consistent look to their corporate head shots no matter where their employees are. We handle all of the post processing, retouching cropping and sizing to ensure that consistency.