What is Location Photography?
Location Photography is any photography that takes place outside of the studio, such as the client’s location or a specific location that needs to suit the client’s brief. Some of the locations I have worked on are hotels, conferences, trade shows, car showrooms, and even catwalks.
What makes a good location?
I suppose there are two answers to this, location photography depends on the client’s needs,
Client Location
This is where the client has a location that they want to be photographed for example it could be a new building that they have been involved in or any kind of project that they have done that they need photographs of for marketing purposes.
Specific Location
It may be the case where the client could have a product that needs to be shot on location, rather than in the studio, which could be anything from clothing to a car, in which case it is up to the photographer to find a suitable location or hire a location finder. Good locations need good access if a large number of people are involved in the shoot, toilet, and catering facilities.
How do I find a good location for photography?
Most photographers do have a pretty good knowledge of locations near to them which they use for location photography regularly, but if it’s further away, you can hire a location finder, but this has budget implications, or just look online if you google lots of locations on an image search, it should throw up plenty of results, you can check where they are and do another search narrowing down the area.
Can a picture tell you the location?
Sometimes you can check the exif data on an image and find out where the location photograph was taken.
What do I need to know about the location before the shoot?
Personally if possible, I would always advocate visiting the location before the shoot to see for yourself, if it’s an urban location, say a building it’s not so important, as with a combination of Google Streetview and Google Earth it should be possible to work out exactly which direction the location is facing and therefore the time of day is going to be best for your location photography.You are also going to find out about any special permissions for using the location, and or fees involved, plus any special requirements, for example public liability insurance.
What are the different types of locations?
On a basic level, you are almost certainly going to be looking for either an indoor or outdoor location, often when you need to do several different shots you need to find a location with lots of different options for location photography to ring the changes.
Which are more difficult to shoot, indoor or outdoor locations photography?
Indoor and Outdoor, both can be challenging, in outdoor locations, you have the weather to contend with, the sun which depending on what you are shooting, is sometimes not very flattering, Indoor locations may well need quite a lot of lighting, imagine you are in a huge room in a stately home with high ceilings, you are going to need a serious amount of lighting, to get a good result, especially if you are shooting people, as they move, so you cant just use a slow shutter speed.
What other considerations do I need to take for location photography?
It depends on what type of location photography you are doing, and the size of the crew, it is fashion or clothes, are there facilities for the models to change, plus facilities for ironing or steaming the garments, what about parking, how many cars do you need parking for, bearing in mind that a lot of the crew are going to have heavy equipment to unload. You will also need to take into consideration catering and toilet facilities, and whether is there a backup plan in case the weather changes for the worse.
What Camera should I use for Location Photography?
Any good professional DSLR camera would be fine for location photography, especially if you are shooting people, but as location photography, tends to be expensive, do make sure you have plenty of file cards, batteries, and backup equipment, in case a camera or lens fails on the shoot, and believe me it does happen.
