As an event photographer, you will specialise in photography taken at various public and private events. These events tend to be corporate related, for example, business conferences and award ceremonies. However, you could also specialise in private events such as birthday parties, anniversary parties etc.
Each event requires a different set of shots. Some clients might require more natural, reportage style photos while others will want you to capture more formal portrait images.
Generally, there are five main types of event photography.
Corporate Events
Corporate event photography is by far one of the most popular specialities for event photographers and involves taking photographs of important company events. These events could include conventions, conferences, corporate dinners, trade shows, cocktail receptions, seminars, marketing events, holiday parties and charity events.
This type of photography has a very lucrative market with a captive audience as many company directors and employees will use the images takes to publicise and advertise their business, as well as for personal use.
Equestrian Events
Equine photography is becoming an increasingly popular form of event photography with an incredibly loyal clientele. Some events that you might cover include horse racing, show jumping, dressage, polo and pony clubs.
Many equine photographers also now offer on-site printing at the event so that competitors can take away commemorative photos while the emotion is still fresh.
Dance & Theatre Events
Dance and theatre photography is a specialisation that requires a lot of work and practice as well as having many factors to consider - from movement to lighting.
Some events that you may cover include dance classes, dance competitions, amateur theatre products as well as professional performing arts productions.
Motorsport Events
Motorsport is a fast-paced and exciting sport with hundreds of varied events taking place each year. Some events you might cover as a motorsport photographer include Formula One, stock cars, drag racing as well as vintage rallies. However, this is also a genre that needs to be mastered as you will have to deal with a lot of movement as well as difficult terrain.
Sports Events
Sports photography is a genre that encompasses all types of sports from rugby to swimming. As a sports photographer, you would specialise in covering all sporting events, from professional competitions and matches to amateur events.
As an event photographer, you will want your website to be not only well-designed but also functional. After all, your website is one of the best ways to market and sell your event photography business.
The majority of event photographers tend to choose to have a darker, moodier website as this typically makes the most of the vibrant colours often found in the event images.
Another thing to consider when designing your website is your client gallery area. Take some time to design a clear and elegant way to display clients' images as this is the aspect that clients will interact with over and over again. Therefore, it should be simple, easy to use and look professional.
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Make it easy for your visitors to find and follow you on social media by linking your profiles to your website. You can link to your social media profiles from anywhere on your site, but typically, the most popular places are in the website footer, website header and your contact page.
Pop-Up Boxes
Ensure that your visitors see your most important information when they visit your website by using pop-up boxes.
A pop-up box is designed to appear periodically on your site, according to your chosen schedule, and to isolate your visitor's attention to what you consider the most vital piece of information. For example, you might want to encourage your visitors to sign up to your mailing list, follow you on social media, check out a special offer you are currently running or to spend over a certain amount at the checkout.
You can choose to display your pop-up box on just one web page or on every page, to display every time a client visits your website or just the first time and you can even select different pop-ups to appear on different pages. This allows you to really customise the client experience.
Notification Bars
Notification bars are mainly used as either an announcement bar or a cookie bar.
An announcement bar is typically used to display current information that you deem to be important for your visitors. For example, information regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, your holiday breaks, scheduled maintenance, a current special offer or other important information.
Alternatively, a cookie bar is used to link to your cookie and privacy policy so that visitors can read, should they want to, how you handle their information and data. A cookie policy is required on any website using persistent cookies i.e. if you are offering gift vouchers to customers.
If in doubt, we would recommend that you always display a cookie policy, just to be on the safe side!
Cover photos are a beautiful way of introducing your client to their client gallery. A cover photo displays an image of your choice, full-screen with the collection name in the centre.
You can completely customise your cover photos by selecting different settings and options for each collection.
Add An Attachment
Add a file attachment option to your advanced contact form to make it easy for clients to upload relevant documents. This would be really useful if you often require a written brief from clients, a signed and scanned contract or proof of identification.
Big, Responsive Thumbnails
Display your image thumbnails as large as the browser window will allow or as small as you want them display. You can either set this globally, so the same setting is used throughout all of your collections or on a collection-by-collection basis. This option gives you a lot more control over how your images display within your collections and gives the opportunity to really customise the appearance of each client gallery and therefore the customer experience.
Date & Time Field
You can add a date and time field option to your advanced contact forms and checkout questions. This is particularly useful for event photographers as when a client contacts you, they can indicate the date they would like to book your services. This can streamline the booking process for both you and the client.
Access Code Box In Navigation Menu
Make it easy for your clients to view their images by adding an access code box to your navigation menu. This functionality is particularly useful if you would prefer not to have a dedicated client area page too.
Proof Delay
Proof delay allows you to "hold" orders for 1-28 days. This "hold" gives you time to review cropping, retouch files or simply upload your best hi-res originals. This is particularly useful for event photographers as you will likely be taking hundreds of images and therefore cannot be expected to check, retouch or upload hi-res files of every one.
You can then choose to "approve" the order and immediately send for printing or, alternatively, take no further action and leave the order to automatically be sent for printing after the specified number of days. This ensures that no orders are forgotten or overlooked.
Custom Watermark
Using a custom watermark allows you to customise the appearance of your watermarked images to best suit your needs.
You can also display a different watermark on different collections, allowing you to customise the appearance on a collection-by-collection or client-by-client basis.
You can sell anything in an online shop with theimagefile, from physical products (such as traditional prints and other photo products) and stand-alone products to digital downloads, and services.
As an event photographer, you will most likely want to focus on selling downloads. Many clients will want to purchase digital images to use in their own printed materials, on their websites and social media. You may also want to offer a selection of prints for those clients that would like to purchase an image for personal use.