Getting the most from your photography

Photography helps to capture the audience’s attention and great images can help build brand awareness. The more images and content you create the more you will entice customers to stay on the site for longer. 

In this section you will find:

• Photography tips for tourism & hospitality businesses
• Content creation
• The key areas to focus on
• Checklist: Top 10 tips for taking photos with your phone

Photography tips for tourism & hospitality businesses

As part of the Tourism Enterprise Development (TED) Programme, Speed Motion Films shared some guidance about getting the most from your photography.

40% of good content is more likely to get ‘shared’ on social media. This helps to broaden the reach and advocates trust to new potential customers, as those ‘sharing’ the content are promoting the business – for free. 

This is the perfect time to spend more time creating content for your business and get a leg up on your competition! 

Think of content creation as a 3 layer cake: 

Layer 1:  Create your own content  

• Take pictures and examples of what your business does and share them with followers online. 
  
  

Layer 2: Social Media Influencers  

• Connect with your audience and people who are passionate about what you are selling  
• Great images give your audience an idea of the business without having to read a word 
• Remember to re-share other people’s images and tag them – say thank you, engage with them as you are the voice of the company  
• Personalise your brand by becoming your own influencer. Adding a face to your brand creates trust and legitimacy.  

Layer 3: Professionally Produced Content  

• Work with local agencies to help create your vision and ideas.

The key areas to focus on:

Camera phone settings

How to set up your phone to get the most out of your photos 

• Upgrade your phone to the latest iOS software 
• In the camera settings turn camera mode off, creative controls off and turn LIVE photo on 
• Turn on the ‘grid’ which will help to create balance in the image 
• In ‘Formats’ set to ‘Most compatible’ as this creates a standard jpeg image which can be used across most platforms easily 
• Images look professional when camera is kept on ‘wide’ mode 

Shooting tips and techniques

• Make sure lens is clean
• Light up the room! Remember natural light works best, make sure the subject is not lit from behind, move subject or move camera if so. Great lighting not only makes the image look professional, it makes you look professional! Tip: Use white paper to reflect the light if necessary  
• The grid on the camera helps to create balance and is useful when taking landscape pictures to get the angle on point.
• Styling your images a particular way shows people what to expect from your brand. Framing the photo draws the attention to what you want to highlight. Look for unique ways to capture the product you want to showcase, and remember to add in your own personality  
• Think of themes you may want to consider, what angle you can shoot from, experiment and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! 

Editing Tips and Techniques – Make your images stand out online  

• In order to enhance your image you may want to edit, crop or change the colour filter! This can all be achieved using free tools within with photo settings or by downloading free and cost effective apps which allow you to manipulate the image making it internet ready! 
• Play around with the editing tools in order to create an image you feel stands out and will attract the target audience! Remember to add in your personality and creativity. 
• Free editing apps include Snapseed. Snapseed includes the ‘healing’ tool that can take our small errors without photoshopping. 
• Pic-tap-go is also a useful editing app and is priced at £2.99 on Google store 

Equipment that can help bring your images to the next level  

The equipment below can be used to enhance your images without having to break the bank! 

• Mini tripod  
• LED light 
• Clip on lens providing a wide angle look  
  
  

Checklist: Top 10 tips for taking photos with your phone 

• Makes sure camera settings are correct 
• Clean lens 
• Think about your photo - the angle, camera height and position of the camera 
• Shoot through something 
• Think outside the box 
• Use natural light were possible 
• Frame the photo and find something unique to brand 
• Try tilting also as the camera doesn’t have to be straight 
• Don’t over edit!!! 
• Get passionate about your business and products you are selling and use your creativity 

Download: