Shooting different formats

Unconventional or extreme sizes

From your planning and storyboarding, you should know in advance of your shoot whether you will be using your images in an unconventional or extreme size, such as thin pull-up banners or wide web banners. These formats are tricky to capture, and you may need to consider large areas of negative space either above the subject, or to the left or right. It isn’t possible to capture this type of shot in every location and so a visit in advance of the photoshoot is invaluable.

Subjects in different positions

It may not be possible in every location, but try to experiment with, and capture your subject in, a variety of positions within the frame. Think about whether you need negative space in the picture, so that there’s space for you to add text or allow for the fold in a double-page spread. Do you need space above or below, or to the left or right? Try to capture images with the subject(s) looking to camera and in action.

Space for cropping

Always check to make sure important information won’t be cropped out of your image once the image is placed into different formats. Framing the shot too tightly can lead to important parts of the image being lost when it is cropped for its various uses.

As well as the perfectly framed shots, capture some images where you see the frame and then take a few steps back. This leaves space to crop in tighter at design stage if needed. Remember, you can easily crop into an image afterwards, but can’t add image which isn’t there.