Portrait Photography Tips for Staff Photos

At some point in your career as a marketer or advertiser, you will need to take photographs of people at your company. It could be for your website, at an event, for your annual report or corporate brochure.

A good portrait will contain at least one element that reveals the person’s personality, attitude, unique mannerisms or any other features or traits that form the individual nature of the person. It will tell us something about the subject.

The following are some tips to consider when taking portrait photography for work.

1. Lighting
Use soft, diffused lighting – cloudy-day lighting or indirect window light is perfect, such as a large north-facing window. This type of lighting will help to reveal your subject’s features in a flattering way. You should also try to avoid harsh shadows.

2. Background
Keep the background simple to avoid distracting elements. Pick an appropriate background that will not wash out your subject’s features. Your goal is to achieve a distinction or contrast between the person and the background. Having the background out of focus is another technique to use that can soften and enhance the focal point of the subject.

3. In Close or Full Figure
Move in close for an above-the-waist or head-and-shoulders composition. For a less traditional approach, move back to show the entire figure. Take a few of these different positions; this will give you a few options to choose from when making your final selection as to what photo to use.

4. Perspective
For a traditional effect, position your camera at or slightly below your subject’s eye level. For a more dramatic effect, try an unusual angle or perspective.

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Marketing and Public Relations Ideas for Recruiting

Every day, thousands of job candidates look for a job. They begin by looking for a publicized opening or contacting a third-party recruiter. Once they see or hear about a position that interests them, they begin to research the company. This may include checking the company’s website, joining online chat rooms or forums about your company or industry, searching online, contacting friends or family that may know or have worked for your company, going to their social media communities, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Recruiting an “employed” (passive) professional, now means that a company must have a much more sophisticated marketing and public relations (PR) approach to recruiting. Improving your visibility will help with your recruiting efforts and your ability to attract the best possible candidates as new employees.

Promote Your Company As A Great Workplace

One of the primary ways of convincing applicants to work for your company is by building your company and its brand as a great place to work. This is where a consistent flow of PR and marketing is essential to having a successful recruiting process. This means creating a public image of your company whereby a quality candidate is going to look to your company to give them not only financial opportunities, but also a career where they can grow with the company. Today’s job hunters want to work for companies that will train them for the next job.

Take a few minutes a day and join chat rooms, forums and social media discussions about your industry. Look at where the people are going that you want to recruit. Review the blogs specific to your industry.

One of the best ways to get the word out about your company is to have the support of your executives to consistently promote your company as a great place to work. When any executive speaks internally or externally, they must mention how important recruiting is for the future of the company. It doesn’t need to take long, just a few seconds every time they speak.

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Working With A Creative Agency

The following overview will help you become familiar with creative process and give you an understanding of your role in ensuring the success of your projects when working with your creative agency.

S t e p  1 – Assign A Project Manager

Assign one company staff member as the decision maker and contact person for working with your creative agency. This person should be prepared to be available when needed, be ready to make decisions in a timely manner and be responsible for getting the necessary approvals
from within your company.

S t e p  2 – Your Creative Brief

It is important to establish clear direction at the onset of a project. This ensures that everyone has a common understanding of what is to be accomplished.

The best way to do this is to work with your creative agency’s Account Executive (AE) to establish clear objectives and expectations on the outcome of your project. The AE should ask you a series of questions in order to create a design brief for the project. A design brief is important in defining project goals and objectives, identifying audiences and key messages, establishing a budget, setting a completion date, and identifying the desired outcome and how it will be measured. This should be given to the creative team and used as a reference throughout the design process.

Working closely and clearly communicating with your AE is the best way to ensure your project’s success. You must articulate your project objectives, establish processes and ensure that the creative agency has access to what it needs from you to complete the project on time and within budget.

S t e p  3 – Initial Research

An agency’s job is to create strategic communications that will establish a distinct position for your company, your products and services. In order to do this effectively, they should work to understand your business and objectives. Their initial research should include a review of your competitor’s and company’s current communications, marketing messages and activities.

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