Planning a brand photography day: the shot list that pays off

Start from where the images will live

Most disappointing brand shoots share one cause: nobody decided in advance what the images were for. The photographer captures a beautiful set, and three months later the web designer needs a wide hero with space for a headline, the social team needs vertical frames and the HR manager needs a team photo that includes the two people who were on holiday that day.

Before you write a single shot, list every place images will appear in the next twelve to eighteen months:

• website pages, including the home page hero, service pages, the about page and the contact page;
• social channels, with their formats and how often you post;
• paid ads, which often need several variants of the same idea for testing;
• press and partner material, speaker bios and LinkedIn profiles;
• recruitment pages, proposals, pitch decks and printed material.

Each of those destinations becomes a section of the shot list. This is the planning step we spend most time on in brand photography projects, because it decides whether the set is still being used two years later.

Write each line of the list so that someone else could shoot it without asking you. A useful line names the scene, the people in it, the location, the orientation and the destination: “Two designers reviewing a layout at the big table, horizontal with space left, for the web services page”. Mark each line as must-have or nice-to-have, so that if the day runs late the photographer knows what can be dropped. A list of 30 to 50 lines is realistic for a full day with several people and locations; much more than that usually means rushed scenes and fewer good frames.

The categories every shot list needs

The exact list depends on the business, but almost every brand shoot draws from the same six groups. Aim for a mix, since a library of only portraits or only product shots runs out quickly.

People

• Individual portraits for the website and LinkedIn, with a consistent background and light so new staff can be added later in the same style.
• Relaxed portraits in context, at a desk, in the workshop, behind the counter.
• A team group shot, and smaller groups that still work if someone leaves.

Work and process

• People doing the actual work: a meeting with a client, a chef plating, a consultant at a whiteboard.
• Hands and tools in close-up, which are useful because they age well and do not depend on who is on the team.
• Steps of a process, so a service page can show what the customer will experience.

Place, product and detail

• The space: entrance, interior, the view, any signage.
• The neighbourhood, if being in Christianshavn, Nørrebro or Aarhus Ø is part of your story.
• Products, materials, textures and small details that work as backgrounds or social fillers.

Crops, formats and space for text

The same scene often needs to work in very different shapes. A photographer who knows this will frame looser and shoot alternatives, but it only happens reliably if the shot list says so.

For the most important scenes, mark the list “H and V”, meaning shoot both horizontal and vertical. Ask for a few frames with deliberate empty space, such as a plain wall, sky or table surface, where a headline, an offer or a logo can sit without covering anyone’s face.

Scheduling the day around people and light

A shot list is only useful if the day is scheduled to deliver it. Turn it into a timed run sheet that everyone receives a few days in advance.

1. Group by location, not by category. Moving lights between rooms takes time. Shoot everything in one space before moving on.
2. Put portraits early. People look fresher in the morning, and the photographer can relax into the documentary shots later.
3. Book people into slots. Fifteen minutes per portrait is a reasonable starting point. Tell each person exactly when they are needed.
4. Plan for daylight. In Copenhagen the sun rises around half past eight and sets before four in December, while in June there is light from before five in the morning until after ten at night. Winter outdoor scenes need to fit into a few hours around midday.
5. Leave a buffer. Keep 30 to 60 minutes free at the end for missed shots and the ideas that come up on the day.

Prepare the space too. Clear desks, hide cables, remove old posters and check that screens show something you are happy to publish. Agree what people wear: plain colours that fit the brand palette, no large logos from other companies, and a spare top in case of a coffee accident.

Consent, rights and staff who move on

Photos of identifiable people are personal data under GDPR. The Danish Data Protection Agency (Datatilsynet) generally expects consent before portrait-style images of a person are published, while some situation images of people in a setting may be used on a different basis. Brand marketing images often sit close to the portrait end, so written consent is the safe default. If in doubt, take legal advice for your situation.

• Collect a signed consent form from every identifiable person, including staff, customers and passers-by who are clearly visible.
• Say what the images will be used for and for how long. Consent can be withdrawn, so keep track of who appears in which files.
• Plan for staff leaving. Group shots in which one person can be replaced or cropped out will outlive a single tight team photo.
• Clarify image rights with the photographer in writing: who may use the images, where, for how long and whether you can edit them. Under Danish copyright law the photographer usually keeps the copyright unless the contract says otherwise.

If the contract or the licence terms are unclear, our copyright guidance can help you read them before you sign, and before the images go into an ad campaign.

After the shoot: selection, delivery and use

A good day can produce several hundred usable frames. The value comes from selecting, editing and organising them so the team can find the right image in a minute rather than an hour.

• Agree in advance how many edited images you will receive, and in what formats and sizes.
• Ask for files named and sorted by the categories on the shot list, with web-ready and full-resolution versions.
• Store them in one shared library with simple tags, such as people names, locations and the orientation.
• Plan the first month of use straight away, while the set is new and everyone is enthusiastic.

The best way to stretch a shoot is to plan the publishing alongside it. A single day, combined with a few short video clips filmed at the same time, can feed weeks of posts; that is the idea behind our social content packages. Review what was used after six months. The shots nobody picked tell you what to drop next time, and the gaps tell you what to add.