Booking a professional photographer and writing a brief
Email the Photographer for a 'Quote' send the following information:
Where is the photography to take place?
When is the photography to take place?
When is the photography deadline date?
What is the subject?
What is the final use of the photographs?
What is the resolution needed of the final use of the photos?
What sort of post production is needed?
What is the budget?
Where is the photography to take place? Access (one off or continued over a period of time) has to be negotiated especially if a third party is involved.
When is the photography to take place? Seasons, weather, time of day. It's surprisingly how often the time of year is not considered. I've had commissions that had to cover a garden in the bleak mid winter or when the flowers are not quite out in May. I've also had someone trying to book me for an outside shoot at 2 pm on a sunny December's day for 4 pm not realising that it would be dark by the time I traveled to the the location.
When is the photography deadline date? Which may be near or far off. It's good to keep in mind the time of year if the shots are in natural light in the winter the light levels can be lower the closer in time you are to within 3 hours of sunset and sunrise. Also the weather and season can have a huge effect on the look of the photograph. The best time is from the end of May to October. Plan ahead if your not in a hurry it's good to leave it up to the photographer when he does the exterior photography, rather than settling a date.
What is the subject? Reference shots of the item or place are useful too, if you are unhappy with your existing photography what about it do you dislike. Also any research shots you have on the style you like are really helpful. If you are not sure yet what photography talk to me. Make a list of the subjects you wish to photograph from the most important to the least. I usually allow from 10-20 minutes per photograph depending on the subject, it's surprising how the physical size of the subject impacts on the time taken to photograph it. Jewelry can be take longer than a building. Allow for waiting and setup time, it's amazing how waiting for the cloud to pass or setting up some additional lighting can improve the look of a photograph. If you run out of time due to the weather or situations beyond your control then at least you've cover the most important.
What is the final use of the photographs? Print, websites and social media? What is the shape of the final use of the photos? Square, panoramic, portrait, landscape, letter box or something weird. Instagram mainly like you to displays square images. Websites are often designed with a panoramic header.
What is the resolution needed of the final use of the photos? Printed material needs higher resolution than the internet. The image looked great on your computer screen, but when you printed it. There simply are not enough pixels in most internet images to allow them to print at high quality it either printed at the size of a postage stamp or it printed at a decent size but looked blurry or blocky. An image in print needs 100 times the information that a same sized image on a screen has. This means that you can shoot hand held in poor lower light conditions for the internet than would be acceptable if the photo was used for the printed medium.
What sort of post production is needed? I mainly shoot in RAW format, which is like a digital negative and gives the most leeway to alter the image without affecting quality, also as RAW processing software has developed you I've seen older images reprocessed to a higher quality and more aesthetically pleasing outcome. The fashion today is to produce a bright brave new clean wold looking image with no large areas of shadows. These look good on phone or tablet screens where the end user has the control over the brightness of the photograph being displayed. I've seen clients viewing images when their monitors are set to paper white, so all the photographs with subtle shadow tones end up looking like night shots. E-commerce sites may need white background product shots but social media images look better with a lifestyle feel.
What is the budget? If you have a set budget to work within, often contacting the photographer with a list of your first, second, third priority shots etc and you are flexible with the date of the shoot plus the deadline. The photographer will often give you a lower quote to improve his work flow. It's surprising how much can be covered, especially outdoors when its a fine day. I have often completed a commission over an extended period of time by visiting the site over several times when I was passing going to and from other commissions and even visiting friends and relatives. This is useful when you are relying on the position of the sun to light a specific scene.
Biographical Information
Andrew Findlay, Photographer
Findlay, Andrew (1966 — Present), photographer and artist, was born in Carlisle, Cumbria, the son of James, a mechanical engineer, and Doreen, a secretary. Findlay grew up in a house on the outskirts of Carlisle. When Findlay was a young boy he would spend all day playing and fishing in the local countryside.
The second of four brothers, Findlay was born into a house which became increasingly hectic. Had working parents, modest family history, and close relationship with his grand parents all combined to create an environment that was decidedly busy and both socially and emotionally liberating. Findlay's mother spent much of her time looking after the brood and fretting over the day to-day pressures of living. James Findlay, deeply and patiently influenced, encouraged, and supported his son.
Natural shyness and a certain intensity of genius, coupled with the dramatically "Golden Hair", caused Andrew Findlay to have problems fitting in at school. There is also the distinct possibility that he may have suffered from dyslexia. He was not academically successful at schools of which his parents sent him; consequently, his father and mother where surprised at his final achievement of eight O levels.
The most important result of Andrew's somewhat solitary childhood was the joy that he found in nature, as evidenced by his taking long walks in the still-wild reaches of the Caldew valley. Nearly every day found him walking the hills or meandering along the River Caldew, or out to the River Eden, fly-fishing.
When he was eleven he taught himself to draw and paint. For the next half dozen years art was Findlay's primary hobby and, by 1987, it was used in his intended profession as a Graphic Reproduction Artist. Whilst training for his job he studied reproduction photography. As a part of the course he joined a photography class, where he discovered the possibilities of the art. Although he ultimately gave up his job at Metal Box to go and study photography at Blackpool, the job brought substance, discipline, and structure to his youth. Moreover, the careful training and exacting craft required of a Graphic Reproduction Artist profoundly informed his photography.
If Andrew Findlay's love of nature was nurtured in the Lake District, his life was, in his words, "coloured by man and sculpted by the great earth gesture" of the Lake District National Park. He spends a substantial amount of time there. From his first visit, he was transfixed and transformed. He began using the Canon AE1 he had bought himself. He hiked, climbed, and explored, gaining self-esteem and self-confidence.
Nineteen ninety was the pivotal year of Findlay's life. He made his first fully visualized photograph, "Ullswater Boats", with his home made 4X5 camera. Which was used in Commercial Unions 1992 Calendar. His creative energies and abilities as a photographer blossomed after being commissioned by Kodak to photograph the Germany section of their 1992 calendar, and he began to have the confidence and wherewithal to pursue his dreams.
Although Andrew's transition from Graphic Reproduction Artist to photographer did not happen at once, his passion shifted rapidly, and the projects and possibilities multiplied. In addition to spending time photographing for commercial clients. he began to pursue "digital photography," in which the control of the image was emphasized, and the final result gave no appearance of being manipulated by the computer. Findlay was soon to master, articulate and champion colour photography. [Ed. Note: Manipulated in this instance meaning altering the clarity or content of the photographed subject matter. Techniques such as "burning" and "dodging", as well as the adapting the Zone System, a scientific system developed by Ansel Adams, is used specifically to "manipulate" the tonality and give the artist the ability to create as opposed to record.]
Andrew Findlay's star rose rapidly in the early 2000s, propelled in part by his ability and in part by his effusive energy and activity. Findlay was compelled to spend much of his time as a commercial photographer. Clients ran the gamut, including the Jack Wolfskin, Kodak, CGU, Jack Wolfskin, West Cumberland Farmers, Country Collection, Direct Rail Services, Lawtec, Kier Construction, Rolls Royce, BBC, Sunday Magazine, The Necessary Angel, Border City Windows, City and County Councils — in short, everything from PR portraits to catalogues to architectural. On 2 July 2004 he wrote to his brother Steven, "I have to do something in the relatively near future to regain the right track in photography. I am literally swamped with "commercial" work — necessary for practical reasons, but very restraining to my creative work." Although Andrew Findlay is an unusually skilled commercial photographer, the work was intermittent, and he constantly worried about where the next job would come from.
Findlay's technical mastery is greatly admired. His friend Johnnie Walker frequently consulted him for technical advice. He served as principal photographic consultant to 'The Necessary Angel' Gallery. He applied the famous and highly complex "zone system" of controlling and relating exposure, enabling photographers to creatively visualize an image and produce a photograph that matched and expressed that visualization. Findlay's energy and capacity for work is simply colossal. He often labored for eighteen or more hours per day, for days and weeks on end. There were no vacations, no holidays, no Sundays in Andrew Findlay's life. His hyper-kinetic existence was also fueled by the passion for photography.
Andrew Findlay describes himself as a photographer - artist - observer. It would perhaps be more accurate to say that he was simply - indeed, compulsively - a communicator. He endlessly seeks out new commissions in pursuit of both the message he can reveal and photograph. He felt an intense commitment to promoting quality photography as a form of business communication and hopes to play a key role in the development of the business.
Findlay was an unremitting activist for the cause of the Cumbrian business photography. He hopes his images became symbols, the veritable icons, of the business. When people think about the business community of Cumbria, he wishes that one day they will envisioned them in terms of an Andrew Findlay photograph. His colour images were not "realistic" documents of services or products. Instead, they sought an intensification and purification of the psychological experience of the business image. He created a sense of the sublime magnificence of commerce that infused the viewer with the emotional equivalent of the message, often more powerful than the actual thing.
— Andrew Findlay
Located in Cumbria working throughout Alston Appleby-in-Westmorland Aspatria Barrow-in-Furness Brampton Carlisle Cleator Moor Cockermouth Egremont Grange-over-Sands Kendal Keswick Kirkby Lonsdale Kirkby Stephen Maryport Millom Penrith Sedbergh Ulverston Whitehaven Wigton Windermere Workington Dumfries Gretna Stranraer Wigtown Galashiels Hawick Jedburgh Kelso Melrose Peebles Alnwick Amble Ashington Bedlington Berwick-upon-Tweed Blyth Cramlington Haltwhistle Hexham Newbiggin-by-the-Sea Prudhoe Rothbury Wooler Barnard Castle Billingham Bishop Auckland Chester-le-Street Consett Crook Durham Darlington Eaglescliffe Easington Ferryhill Hartlepool Newton Aycliffe Peterlee Seaham Sedgefield Shildon Spennymoor Stanley Stockton-on-Tees Tow Law Willington Wolsingham Cumbria The Lake District Northumbria Lancashire Durham The Scottish Borders North Yorkshire The North West of England Dumfries & Galloway Southern Scotland.
relations property corporate advertising industrial products tourism editorial food stock about contact
