Fundamentals First
Fundamentals First an IT company based in Leeds, formed by software experts Phil, Hamish, Chris and another Phil.
The purpose of this photoshoot was to create images for the personal Brand, marketing, PR and new website.
CLICK TO SEE THEIR WEBSITE
For this project we follow our usual process of:-
Discover
This included few phone calls with Phil to discover who their target audience is and how they would want to be perceived. Also, we had previously run a Photoshoot at Nexus, at Leeds University campus, where Fundamentals First are based. So we could show them example images from that to help visualise the venue’s potential.
Define
We decided to create a formal look, with suits, and a more relaxed look you’d expect of a tech-company.
The team would wear suits to start, then change into their usual t-shirts more casual clothes halfway. We also chose to use one of the meeting rooms and re-create a brainstorming session and board meeting, then use the building’s impressive atrium for headshot backgrounds.
A second set of headshots would have the Nexus logo in the background, and finally we’d create a few group photos.
This formed our shot list and a plan for the session. We were going to deliver 2-hours on site and 25 edited photos for them to use in their marketing and promotion and quoted on that basis.
Shoot
The shoot was from 10 till 12, starting with the suits on in the meeting room. Hamish had provided a few more example images he really liked so we recreated those. We tried a brain-storming shot with suits, but it looks a little bit unrealistic to be that formal! With a bit of clever camera work and seating, we managed to make them all look close together yet be safely distanced – just briefly coming a little closer together for a couple of the group photos.
Next, we did the formal headshots and formal seated shots. After this, the guys got changed into their casual gear.
After that we went back into the meeting room to get the brainstorming shots, downstairs to get the Casual headshots, a few casual group photos indoors – finally as it wasn’t raining, one outside to finish off.
It was a fantastic shoot, all the team were great sports, took direction and ideas really well, including many silly things I asked them to do to get them relaxed and smiling for the camera – and it shows on the photos.
Choose
After I returned to base, I created the 400+ previews straight away and put them on Dropbox for them to view that very afternoon.
I don’t always do this because I like to take time I’m to sift out the best shots, but the team was very keen to see the results whilst they were together that afternoon.
They went on to choose 25 great shots, plus a few extras.
Style and Deliver
As part of the previews phase, I often supply a few different colour toning options.
So a :-
- Straight edit – no tone
- warm version,
- cool version,
- very colourful version
- low colour version
- and black and white version
They went for the straight edit without toning
We got the images edited at the first opportunity and delivered them on Dropbox straight away, giving them the following formats
- High res – perfect for print
- Web-sized – smaller versions which can be directly uploaded to most social media sites
They’re ready to be used for the new website, linked in and everywhere else in their marketing.
Feedback
Having spoken with Phil Jeffries, he said that the guys really enjoyed the whole experience. Especially the photoshoot itself, where we managed to make everybody relaxed and laughing for most of it, which is totally different to photo shoots they have had in the past. They were spoiled for choice with the previews and love the final results.