How To Shoot For Publications

How To Shoot For Publications

by William Lulow

When you are going to shoot for a magazine, newspaper, blog or brochure, you need to keep several things in mind:

• How has the publication used images before?
• What is the average length of their articles?
• Who is the art director?
• What is the publication’s audience? (Is it trade or general public)
• What is the circulation?
• Is the shoot for a cover story?

These are just some of the questions that you need to answer BEFORE you begin a shoot. I will address them one at a time:

• You need to know how the publication has used photography previously because your images need to be tailored to fit the same format.
• You need to know the length of their articles because you may need to shoot images to cover the whole story. You will need close-ups, long shots and possibly some cover shots to illustrate where the story is taking place.
• You need to know the art director because you should know what the person likes to work with – how many images are desired and whether or not he or she likes to crop them, use them as is and/or what kind of layout they have in mind. I always try to see some kind of galley for the article or a layout before a shoot.
• You need to shoot different kinds of pictures if the publication is a trade magazine. People in the field like to see details. They like to see who is doing what so that may dictate doing the kinds of shots that show people at work with the particular machines they use. If it’s a general public magazine, they normally like to focus on what people look like, what their families are, where they live, etc.
• It’s important to know the circulation of the publication in case you need to sell images or license them after the shoot.
• If it’s a cover story you are illustrating, you need to know the cover’s aspect ratio and dimensions so that you can shoot a cover image that has room for the title and other copy. In other words, your compositions need to lend themselves to making covers which usually contain plenty of blank space so that the art directors can easily fill it with copy.

When I’m shooting for a magazine, I like to show people in a variety of poses doing what the article mentions. The photographs are there to illustrate the article so that readers get a visual idea of the points mentioned. This adds to the reader’s overall understanding of the article and helps to give it greater meaning and appeal. So, I shoot a lot. If I see something that I think is particularly important, I will cover it from several angles. I will shoot horizontals and verticals so that the images can fit easily into whatever layout the art director wishes to create. I will show a person standing, sitting, leaning, casually, purposefully, intensely, relaxed, looking at the camera and looking at a light source. My intent is always to provide enough choices.

Here are a few images from a recent magazine assignment:

As you can see, I photographed my subject in various places with different expressions and poses. This gives the art director or editor enough images with which to build a good story. 

This was the cover: