Photoshoots for Florists - Top Tips
Photoshoots are such a huge and vital part of growing your floristry portfolio and business. They are a really great way to meet others and start building your own connections, particularly within the wedding industry. But there’s a lot of things to look out for and consider, costs can be considerable for florists so it’s important you make sure you get what you need from the experience.
We’ve shared some of our top tips for before, during and after…
Have a really clear understanding of the entire brief
Make sure you fully understand the overall style and desired outcome for the full shoot. Ask to see mood boards/images to help you get a feel for the scheme, and even consider creating your own to share with other suppliers beforehand. It’s important that everyone is clear about what’s expected on your part, stylists can tend to be a bit fanciful when they get you on site and decide that an entire staircase could do with dressing when all you were told to supply were bouquets and table centres. We would suggest having a full breakdown of pre-agreed items with whoever is running the shoot.
Confirm others involved
Confirm all other suppliers involved, and particularly who you’ll be working with directly on the day. We would suggest reaching out to anyone who you’ll be relying on during the day, e.g. props, ribbons, stylist etc and make sure you’re all bringing what you need. There’s nothing worse than being told the stylist is bringing the vessels for your flowers, turning up without your own and then ending up without anywhere to put your blooms!
Make sure you get to know or already know the photographer, reach out to them beforehand and start that rapport. It’s important to point out and make them aware of anything specific you’re hoping to gain/capture.
Consider your own shot list for the day
You don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you’ve spent a good amount of time, and potentially money, to only get a couple of shots back for yourself afterwards. Make sure you have an idea of your own shot list that you can discuss with the photographer, and make it clear beforehand the items you hope to get good images of. There’s a lot for them to factor in for everyone involved, so they’ll really appreciate this clear guidance from the start.
Confirm timings
If there’s a timeline for certain things in place it’s good for you to know this before you start. There’s no point spending your first hour on the table displays to then be told they need to shoot the installation NOW and you’ve barely started. Obviously be prepared to be a bit flexible as there’s so many factors involved, the light, the weather, various suppliers schedules, but a good timeline beforehand gives you something to fall back on and helps everything run as smoothly as possible.
Ask for an itinerary of the day, and be prepared to be the first one on site and the last one to clear up and leave at the end of the day - the florist's life!
Don’t feel you have to take part for free!
There’s lots of shoots out there that allocate a budget to certain aspects of the shoot, and most appreciate the real costs involved when it comes to the flowers. Don’t be afraid to ask if there’s a budget allocated, or explore ways for costs to be shared amongst all involved. Most importantly, don’t feel like you should take part for free unless you feel like the shoot is of real value to you. Ideally you would have all flower costs covered and also something for your time - so plan your own budget and see if you can work this in. If you need additional freelance help make sure you’ve built it into your costs too. Ultimately shoots aren’t a reliable revenue stream, so you really need to way up all factors and feel clear about what you will gain from it afterwards.
Utilise and keep costs down
This is not a wedding, so you can be strategic and clever with your arrangements and use things twice to stretch that budget a bit further. Use table centres to bulk up a dramatic staircase. Created a table garland? Move that to a mantle piece to add drama. You can be really creative and resourceful with this, as long as it suits the structure of the shoot and ties in with the schedule.
If you have covered the cost for flowers then make sure you have a plan to utilise them afterwards, can they be used in something else? Can they be made up into things to help market and promote your business/floristry? Or at the very least make sure you have some time set aside the day after to play and capture some of your own imagery and content.
Use seasonal flowers where you can. We always want the best blooms available for shoots, however you might need to be a little restrictive when ordering and not get too carried away! Having some exquisite blooms is great, but try and remain controlled, by planning and using seasonal flowers where possible will make a huge difference to cost.
Be very hands on and flexible during the day, this will allow you to fill the time frame as required, you might not need a whole table or staircase dressed, and could get away with just a section. Keep an eye on the photographer’s view and communicate with them so you can tweak things as needed.
Make sure it feels aligned for you
Lastly, but most importantly, make sure the shoot feels aligned with your style and your future floristry goals. This isn’t just about the photographer’s style, it’s about everything, from the venue to the finer details of table decor, it all needs to work for you and what you want out of the shoot.
Shoots are an amazing time for creating and capturing the type of floristry you are working towards and exploring - the style and features you want to be making more of in the future. It’s a great time to step out of your comfort zone slightly - try something a little different, and get creative!
After your shoot….
Make sure you have a full list of all suppliers and their social media handles, the shoot coordinator should be able to provide this. Copy and save this to the notes section of your phone for quick reference.
Confirm a rough timeline for images back, so you can plan for future marketing
Confirm and agree with everyone what images you want to share before doing so. Some shoots, especially those wanting to submit to a wedding blog, won’t want too many images shared from a gallery before they’ve heard back from blogs. Lots of blogs want exclusivity for images these days, so a good tip is to select maybe 5 or so images that you all agree on which show the best of all suppliers involved - and obviously make sure an image of the flowers is prominent.
