Getting Ready: Commercial & Industrial

This advice helps you prepare your operations and staff for industrial and commercial photography at your location. Let’s prepare and succeed together!

I often spend the first 60 to 90 minutes addressing the issues outlined here on many commercial photography projects. When you consider and act on these suggestions before I arrive, I’ll spend more time creating your photographs and not managing personnel or dealing with location issues.

That being said, you might not be able to control all these factors, and that’s okay. I’ll work around challenges as they occur. That’s why you’re hiring me, right?

Personnel Suggestions

  • Inform all employees about the project date and goals.
  • Provide employees with detailed wardrobe instructions.
  • Make sure employee uniforms are clean—or dirty if appropriate.
  • Ensure employee uniforms aren’t wrinkled.
  • Employee uniforms should be fitted and not too baggy or tight.
  • Ask employees to groom carefully before the project date.
  • For close-up hand photos in clean environments, consider manicures.
  • When manicures aren’t practical, make hand lotion available for staff.
  • Ensure that any required PPE is in good working order.
  • If safety vests are part of your PPE, ensure they feature your branding.
  • Employees should wear clear eye protection. Avoid dark safety glasses.
  • Ask employees to avoid chewing gum on the project date.
  • Bribing employees with swag or lunch in exchange for participation can be helpful.
  • Employees should avoid wearing logos that aren’t associated with your company.
  • Ask staff to remove earpods or headphones if that doesn’t further your branding.
  • For people-at-work photos, choose long-term, highly valued employees when possible.
  • Consider employee lunch breaks when scheduling photography and creating shot lists.

Location Suggestions

  • Remove clutter from office and warehouse spaces.
  • Sweep, vacuum, and dust spaces where photography might occur.
  • Wash any vehicles included in your photography plan.
  • Move vehicles, pallet jacks, and machinery that aren’t central to your story.
  • Make sure vehicle interiors are tidy and van-stored equipment is organized.
  • Add branding if vehicles, machinery, or facilities aren’t branded.
  • Clean screens and displays, removing fingerprints and smudges.
  • Erase whiteboard information and prepare it with relevant information.
  • Prepare graphics for screens and monitors; dark screen content is preferred.
  • Conceal small trash cans in office and clean room environments.
  • Hide cleaning supplies like brooms, mops, dustpans, and slippery-when-wet signs.
  • Check entire area for safety violation issues.
  • If you have products with glass panels, removing the glass will simplify your project.
  • Neaten computer and equipment wiring; zip ties work great.
  • Remove non-permanent signage and notes from walls and equipment.
  • Organize inventory and materials on pallet racks.
  • Remove empty pallets from areas being photographed.
  • Make sure everything is ready to go before I arrive. Let’s avoid wasting time.