A photographic brief or creative brief is a description that explains to your photographer what you want. Your first task is therefore to understand your aim. Start with the basics. Ask yourself who, when, what, where and why. Photographers, by their nature, are visual so adding examples to your brief is a very good idea. Try to avoid making it to wordy. I’ve had briefs that are little more than examples in the past but I’d encourage you to give all the detail you can. It’s important that you get what you want. It you leave it to chance you might get what the photographer thought was what you wanted or simply what they wanted.
Portfolio
These images all had creative briefs.
Any photographer that’s worth their salt should know more about your needs than you do so listen out for good questions, get a feel for their listening skills and make sure you and they are on the same page. The only problems I’ve experienced in the past have flowed from both poor communication and assumption on both sides.
Some of this may not apply to you so just take from it what fits.
By giving the photographer the full picture you stand very good chance of getting what you want. Having read this you shouldn’t go in to a cold spin if you can’t answer all, some or any of the questions. What’s important is that you have an idea and the reason you’re looking at photographers is that you hope he or she can do the job better that you might. You’re also very likely to be seriously considering the added value good images might bring you in the future?
Some people have very little idea about what they want but many do have a very clear idea too. The key however is to know what the purpose is.
I hope this was helpful, feel free to leave comments or ask questions below and I’ll endeavour to answer them. Good luck.© London photographer Charles Sturge 2015
© Charles Sturge, Corporate Photographer, London | 22 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU
