How To Pull Off The Perfect Photoshoot

‍9 Step Checklist

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1. Brainstorm session

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First things first, a brainstorming session. This is where your best ideas will come from, and your worst … but that’s the point. By brainstorming you allow yourself and others to think freely which helps to find the best theme for your shoot. If you’re out of ideas, or you just don’t have the time, at One76 we offer creative consults before your shoot. Perfect for those days when the creative juices just aren’t flowing and your stress levels are already sky high. Just shoot us a message and we can set you up with a session with our team of creatives.

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2. What’s the point?

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This one is another HUUUGE time saver. If you pre-plan your shoot with intent e.g. write the website copy or the social captions, beforehand, you’ll be able to set out your entire shoot with a purpose. Plus, it’ll also save you hours and hours of trying to find the right images to fit in with your written content after the shoot is done.

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3. Set the mood (aka moodboard)

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Communication is key when it comes to working with a team, especially when it’s a visual project. Having a moodboard is the key to aligning your team with your vision. We’re not talking about cutting up magazines and gluing them to a board in your bedroom (unless you’re into all that). It’s the 21st century and there’s an app for that aka Milanote. This tool is the bee’s knees for organising your ideas and projects into one easy-to-digest visual board. You can add notes, images, links and files, organise them visually and share them with your team.

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4. Repurposing, done easy

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Another pre-shoot must is to map out what the content will be used for and make time for getting the same shots in different formats. If the main objective for the shoot is for updating your website but you’re also going to be repurposing the content for socials, you should aim to get the same shot in different formats. This could be simply done by taking the website shot on a camera and the shot for socials on your phone in a story format, it’s going to save you a lot of time trying to resize in post-production.

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5. Organise your creative crew

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Teamwork makes the dream work, and having a good creative team by your side is the best way to reach your content creation goals. Depending on your budget and the goal/size of the shoot, your team is going to vary. If you’ve never worked with any creatives before, we’d be happy to help put you in touch with the right people for the job. If you’re shooting at One76, and you’re just in need of some helping hands, we offer a shoot assistant for as little as $25 an hour. The shoot assistant can help out with moving gear, adjusting the coloured backdrops or even advice with preferred lighting. When booking online just let us know in the notes that you’d like a photographer, shoot assistant, etc. and we’ll be in touch to get the project started. Or if you want to contact us directly you can enquire online or give us a buzz on 0424 544 471

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6. Plan or die

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Bit dramatic but if you go into a shoot without a plan you’re going to find yourself shooting aimlessly, stressed out of your mind and probably left realising you’ve missed a crucial shot right after you’ve packed up. So to avoid this fiasco you’re going to want to streamline your shoot with a call sheet. What’s a call sheet you say? A call sheet is a detailed tool used to outline crucial elements and activities that need to happen during the shoot. Without one, disaster strikes. A good call sheet will basically tell everyone on the day where they need to be and what they need to be doing.  

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‍What goes into a call sheet? Location. Starting times. Details of everyone involved in the shoot. Break times (if any). Shot List – along with the sequence. Props list (if any). Milanote is also a great tool for creating your call sheet. Or you can download a template here.

7. Be timely on shoot day

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To keep it short and sweet, you get what you pay for. Meaning on the day of your shoot punctuality is appreciated by everyone involved. So, if you’ve hired a photographer and you’re an hour late, you’ll be down an hour of shoot time. Or if you’re using a studio you’re not going to be able to turn up three hours early for makeup or stay past your welcome, unless you’re prepared to fork up.

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8. Shoot for the edit

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This is a simple technique that’ll save you hours of editing in post-production. If you keep the editing process in mind while you’re shooting, you’re going to make the editing process a whole lot easier. Again, if you already have a photographer or videographer on the case, you can skip this step. The best way to do this is to make sure you’re using the right lighting for the shoot.

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9. Post-production

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If you didn’t take any shortcuts with your pre-shoot planning and you have used the right lighting techniques then your post-production shouldn’t be all that hard.  Whether you’re an Adobe wizz or new to the scene of editing, Adobe Creative Cloud is your one-stop shop for post-production.

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Adobe Lightroom: Adobe Lightroom is perfect for beginners or when you need to edit on the go. It has everything needed to create, edit, organise, store and share photos across any of your devices. There’s also access to presets that you can set across all of your photos for ease and consistency.

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Adobe Photoshop: Adobe Photoshop on the other hand is much more complicated and will require some expertise, or at least a few YouTube tutorials before you get the hang of it. Photoshop can be used for almost any kind of photo editing, from touching up photos to creating high-quality graphics.

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Now if you’ve made it this far without any major dramas, then we’re guessing you just pulled off a stress-free photo shoot. Hooray!

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