A good brief is the difference between a gallery full of nice pictures and a gallery full of pictures you can actually use. It doesn't need to be long, ten minutes of thought before the day will do more for your results than anything else.
At a glance
- Share the running order — it's the single most useful document you can send.
- List the must-have shots: speakers, sponsors, VIPs, awards, anything for a specific campaign.
- Say what the images are for — press, social, website and print all shape how things are shot.
- Name a point of contact on the day who knows who everyone is.
Send the running order
Timings are everything at an event. Knowing when doors open, when the keynote starts, when the awards are handed out and when people will drift to the bar lets me be in the right place without being asked. If the schedule changes on the day, that’s normal — just tell me.
List the shots you can’t do without
Everything else is judgement, but must-haves need naming. Typically that’s the main speakers mid-flow, the sponsor banners in a natural context, any award or handshake moments, group shots of the team, and a handful of wide room shots showing a busy, full venue. If there’s a specific campaign the images will feed, say so.
Naming your must-have shots takes two minutes and removes all the guesswork.
Explain what the photos are for
This changes how the day is shot more than people expect. Press images need clean, uncluttered frames and room for a headline crop. Social needs a mix of orientations, including vertical. Website banners want wide shots with space for text. Print wants everything at full resolution. Tell me the end use and I’ll shoot accordingly — it costs nothing and saves a lot of cropping later.
Tell me what the pictures are for, and I’ll shoot them so they work.Nicola Gotts
Give me a contact on the day
One person who knows the room — who the chief executive is, which guest is the important one, where the sponsors are sitting. It saves an enormous amount of time and stops the wrong people ending up in the key shots. Ideally someone who isn’t also running the event.
Flag anything sensitive
Some delegates would rather not be photographed, some sessions are confidential, and some venues have restrictions. Tell me in advance and I’ll work around it discreetly. It’s much easier to plan for than to correct afterwards. If you’d like to see how this all comes together on the day, my event photography page walks through the process.
From planning call to delivered images — see how a shoot runs.
Event Photography
