So it happens all the time. You’re a construction company, and you work on a project for nearly a year. After it’s wrapped, you snap a few photos, maybe make a quick video with your phone and then move on to a next one.
No! Stop it. This is such a waste.
I’m going to share my thoughts on how to shoot photos with posting in mind, so that you can get the most out of your content as a construction company.
Yesterday, I did a shoot with a construction company who had just finished building a custom home from the ground, up.
They want to do more of these, and with rising interest rates they know that they need to push their marketing a little harder.
The owner usually calls me once or twice per year for projects like this.
We approached this one a little differently than usual. I didn’t want to feel rushed, and I certainly didn’t want to rush the company owner either – as he would be talking on camera – so we spent the whole day there.
We got there at 10am and started with a nice chat for an hour or so. We just hung out, caught up and got comfortable in the space.
From there we just shot photo and video until about 4:30pm – and I was content with what we got.
Why, so often, do we feel that taking some photos and a video of a project aren’t deserving of that amount of time?
You see, you spent just about a year building the thing – why shouldn’t we spend as much time as possible documenting it to share with other potential clients online?
Once I’m done editing all of this content, Ravenshead Homes will have a plethora of organized media to share. They’ll have short form and long form video, vertical reels as well as wides, and a bunch of photos.
I’m even going to organize all of the photos into separate posts for them, and that’s where we’ll dive into my topic here – shooting photos with posting in mind.
You can do this yourself too – it just takes a little bit of extra time, thought and effort.
First, start with the whole room. This is called a wide shot. Get your wides from all of the angles first.
If you’re on an iPhone, you’ll want to switch the setting on the bottom of the screen to 0.5x.
Grab all of your wides and then switch your setting back to 1x. Now start on your medium shots. If you’re in the kitchen, is there a nice frame of the island with the stove? Do some stools sit nicely on their own?
Get as much as you can – overshoot.
Once you’ve gotten your medium photos, shoot some closeups. These details can include cabinetry hardware, the grain in the countertops, the light fixtures, and anything else that may catch your eye.
Take your time and enjoy the process. Allow yourself to fall in love with what you and the crew built.
Remember that if you’re taking wide photos, they’ll end up being posted as squares on Instagram (for the best results), and if you shoot vertical it’ll be removing a bit off the top and a bit off the bottom when it gets posted.
By photographing a space in this way, we’re allowing ourselves to tell visual stories. The variety of photos in each posting carousel will inform our copywriting, and our copywriting will allow our viewer to understand what we’re trying to share with them.
Instead of just sharing one wide photo of a room, dig a little deeper, and share the textures, colours and energies of the spaces that you’ve built.
Doing so will allow your audience to immerse themselves in your work, and they’ll be more likely to fall in love with it just as much as you have.
If this all sounds like a little too much time, please reach out for a chat. four32 MEDIA loves working with builders to help reach their goals, and we’re pretty good at it too.
To Your Success,
Jay Ashcroft,
four32 MEDIA