Guest house and hotel photography is a growing aspect of my professional photographic services. The range of guest houses and hotels is as diverse as Cape Townians are. They range from simple bed and breakfast houses to luxury and boutique hotels.
From my experience of photographing guest houses and small hotels, I want to share with you on how you can get the best results out of your photo shoot. There are a few ways to help you to get the images you want.
Do your homework
Have a marketing plan
If you think creating a web site is a marketing plan, think again. A web site or brochure are tools that you use for marketing. Do you know, what makes you different in the market? Do you know on how to translate that into a marketing strategy? Who is your target market? .. If you need help with that, I can put you in contact with the experts.
Meet with the photographer before the shoot
This meeting is important to communicate with the photographer, the main purpose of the shoot. You will be able to explain, who your target market is and describe, what you want to have photographed.
Best place for the meeting is your guest house. The photographer will be able to see the location and can plan the shoot with you. For various reasons, it might be necessary to plan more than one session. Maybe some of the rooms, you want to have photographed are occupied on the shooting day or you want to have an evening shot of the presmises.
On the day of the shoot
Preparation
It is needless to say, but I say it anyway. Your guest house should be in perfect condition on the day of the shoot. Every room or area, you want to have photographed has to be spotless clean and everything in working order. All decoration, you have planned has to be in place.
If you decided to have people in the photographs, make sure that everyone looks their part. For individual and especially closeup portraits, consider hiring a makeup artist. I can organize that for you.
Be present
It is essential that either you or another decision maker is present throughout the shoot. Only, by being present, you will be able to know that everything is photographed the way, you want it to be presented. Sometimes things need to be moved around or rearranged. You know best, what your guest house’s style for decoration and placement of furniture is.
Photography is a creative process and during the photo shoot, the photographer might have an idea on how to shoot something differently. Being present, this idea can be quickly evaluated and executed.
You can give the photographer immediate feedback on the pictures and clarify your vision, if needed.
Duration
The duration of the shoot varies. A more complex assignment requires more time than a simple one. Plan at least half a day for the photography. Lighting and camera have to be set up individually for every photographed area.
After the shoot
Selection
After the photographer backed up all images and selected the best images, it is time to view them. Meet with the photographer at his office or studio. Most likely, he works with a calibrated screen and colours will look perfect. Meeting at the office, allows also discussing different crop options or editing alternatives (converting images to black and white for example.)
Delivery
With the final selection completed, your images will receive the final edit and delivered to you. I prefer using an online service called Photoshelter.
I hope this helps you working with a photographer for your guest house or hotel photography. If you have any questions or suggestions, please send me a message.
If you are currently looking for a photographer for your guest house or hotel, please contact me and I can see on how I can help you.
Excellent information, Jurgen!
If a client takes a little extra care their photos can be stunning AND exactly what they wanted! You should make everyone read this before you even go there!
Thank you Retha. I want to help my clients to get the best out of their shoot. I believe, the more a client knows, the better it is to help him or her.