Choosing the right architectural photographer impact greatly about your business and brand.
It translates hard-working time, creation, and execution of your project in a manner that translates to results.
Here are a few things you might want to consider when hiring a professional for your next project.
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Much more than beautiful images
Many architects and developers think they should measure their architecture photographers by the beauty of their visuals.
Although it’s true, The ultimate goal is that you will have stunning images that represent your work, more importantly, they should sell your work, services, or property.
This is one of the most technical and experience-based professions, there’s a difference between beautiful images and the right images.
Your next potential client has only a few seconds to decide and be captured by your visual. Those visuals have to be right, meaning they should translate your work by incorporating space, vision, and usability.
You invest a lot of resources and time in creating a space, from consultation, vision, drafts, and planning to execution and supervision of the project which translates to hundreds or thousands of working hours.
Always ask yourself,
- Do the images translate all of the above?
- Would I, take myself to a project?
- Would my clients understand what I did?
- Would they know what I do differently from all the competitors?
How to Review Photographer Portfolio
While many look at one’s portfolio to find the exact look and feel of similar projects they are working on, the bigger picture counts.
Review the entire portfolio, start to end.
- Do the small projects look as good as the bigger ones?
- Do the budget projects look as good as the expensive ones?
- Do they have quality consistency in their portfolio?
All those elements count, if you feel excited viewing his/her images and they are consistent through all of their projects you might find the perfect professional you are looking for.
At the end of the day, you can read more about them on their “about page”, and you can see their “client list” but nothing replaces reviewing their entire portfolio and making sure no matter what kind of project you have you will receive the same or better quality of photos than your best competitor.
Quality over Quantity
Your next client has a few seconds to decide. Exactly like you, you don’t have the time or power to read long emails, listen to long lectures, or hear their life story.
It’s been proven that fewer images give more impact and translate to results, now I know everyone wants more, but listen to the only person that knows better and it’s you!
Did you ever see any of your favorite brands, service provider, or product retailer use more than 1 photo per space? And more than 5-10 images per project?
Try to think about “small brands” like McDonald’s have you ever seen more than one photo of a burger? What about Ferrari? Have you seen more than a few in their campaign or ads? How about Watches and Bags, Yachts and Luxury homes? All of them know that less is more.
Having more than a few images gets your client to try and find out why he or she is not sure about making the “investment”.
Now don’t get me wrong, When we have large-scale projects we do multiple days to get the clients more visuals to work with, The key is quality, photos that sell and not the same photo in more variations getting your client to try and compare.
Local, National, or International Photographer
No matter where is your project located, Munich, Hamburg, Paris, Copenhagen, or the Carbines.
If you have the budget, take them nationally and internationally, ultimately what counts is that your portfolio has a consistency that leads to the same results of selling your product or services over and over again.
We have been blessed to work with clients all across the globe making sure their portfolio and brand have the consistency to do the same sales process and winning awards, publications, and new clients keeping them “second to none”.
When I asked my client why you take me all over the world, for sure you can find a local pro. They answered that “what’s not broken you don’t fix” and the bigger picture does not measure in one project, it measures by the overall impact of their work.
When you build your design style, people start to know your work before you even wrote your name, making sure your portfolio is at its best through all of your projects is crucial for your brand identity.
Added value for you
Professional and experienced professional brings much more value than striking images that sell.
They bring their experience in project management, planning, and execution.
They should be your visual advisor on what you should have in mind when photographing a new project, how many images, and the right order that which you should present your work.
Consultation for our clients is always free, we often advise about portfolio renewal, order, amount, and removing or adding new images.
Bottom Line
Can you get the same or better visuals than your best competitors?
There is no good space in the middle, there is only one good place on the top.
Help your next client fall in love with your projects and capture their commitment by nailing the right image that gets them to the feeling of “ I want this “ and not how much it cost.
There’s no such thing as an insignificant project that does not worth it for you to capture.
Like us, your portfolio diversity matters, people want to see you can execute large the small project and make sure you can provide solutions to all scopes of your client business.
Make sure you and you’re professional have great communications, that they provide added value and bring you quality over quantity.
Lately, be open to trying new photographers once, in a while, it will let you understand if you can get better images for your business or understand the real value of your current professional compared to others.
