Good public relations is about more than words. Journalists are crying out for decent shots as it makes their publication/website look more compelling. However, in my world of B2B PR, there seems to be a dearth of decent images as PR people struggle to persuade their clients to invest in some photography.
Photography isn’t just for the big consumer brands as the right image can be instrumental in promoting any company’s brand and its products/services. Even in the trade publications, decent photography can often make the difference between a story being covered or canned.
And, please don’t make the mistake of thinking you can do the photography yourself. Professional photographers can make all the difference between a badly composed ‘snap’, that has been taken in-house, and a correctly posed image with impact and interest.
It’s essential that you work with a photographer who specialises in your industry, as well as the subject type. For example, some photographers are brilliant at taking product shots, but fairly dreadful at photographing people (there are exceptions to this rule!). Also, for B2B images, it’s essential to work with industrial photographers who are used to finding themselves photographing subjects that are challenging to portray in an interesting manner, such as machinery and electronic equipment.
The best way to see what I am banging on about is to look at the website of some decent commercial photographers:
http://www.paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk/photography/commercial/
http://paulcarter-photographer.co.uk
