By Katie Weeks

So you've put the finishing touches on the latest jewel in your portfolio. Construction is done, the furnishings are in, and the client is happy. All that's left to be done is to document your handiwork. Easy, right? Not so fast. Securing the best shots requires preparation and legwork done long before the shutter captures a frame.

Prior to commissioning a photographer, figure out why you're shooting, says Adrian Wilson, a New York-based photographer. Photographs for a competition have different requirements than those shot for publicity or a portfolio. If you're shooting for a specific competition, analyze entry requirements as well as past winners. Are the past winners' images artificially lit or natural? Are they wide shots or details? Do they feature quirky angles, or are the shots straight on? If you're shooting with your portfolio in mind, Wilson recommends asking the photographer's advice on prints and presentation. Images should be consistent in quality, and, if a photographer can consult your portfolio, he or she may try to link the new shoot to previous work to help maintain consistency.

Images for publicity, Wilson cautions, are entirely different from portfolio or competition work. "You may not like the images that a magazine editor would love," he explains. "Target your magazines, and have a ranking as to where you want a project to go." Consider your timing and subject matter: A magazine may not be interested in an office interior if it just finished an issue dedicated to the same subject. Find out if the magazine prefers digital, chromes, or scans, and ask the photographer if he or she has been published in your target magazines.

In choosing a photographer, remember you often get what you pay for, and good photography may be expensive, notes Nick Merrick, a photographer represented by Chicago-based Hedrich Blessing. It's also important to remember that photography takes time. "I've had clients tell me they need a photo and to shoot the shot tomorrow morning, no matter what the light is or what shape the site is in. Simply saying, ‘You're the photographer, just make it look good!' is the biggest ‘don't' I can think of," says James Steinkamp, a Chicago-based photographer.

"The time of day or night, the time of year, geographic location, streetlights, interior lights, ambient light, direct light, shadows, natural light, contrast, and how the subject accepts the light are all key factors," Steinkamp explains. "Should you wait until after March 21st for northern light, or shoot at dusk and go back in the spring? Brick, for instance, looks good with more direct light and may look better in early spring, late fall, or winter. Glass can appear opaque, transparent, translucent, reflective, or clear depending on light; a gray sky out of a high-rise window looks like a sheet of drywall pressed up against the glass.

Once you've decided to shoot a space and booked a photographer, your work isn't over. Prior to the shoot, check with various users about the readiness of the site, advises Peter Aaron, a photographer represented by ESTO. This includes checking on construction work, street construction, lighting troubles, special events, and landscaping. Send plans to the photographer ahead of time, with some angle ideas indicated. Will you want people in the shots? What about greenery? Are there specific elements or spaces you want captured during the shoot?

Provide the contact info of a senior designer or someone who is invested in the project and knows it well, and have them start a dialogue with the photographer. Even better, send them out to scout the space with the photographer a few weeks ahead of time, and then have them block out time to attend the shoot.

Photographers often come into a project cold, not knowing the initial layout, and clients often change things in a space once they move in, Merrick notes. David Wakely, a San Francisco-based photographer, recommends a walk-through. "Tell them the story of the project, what your client needed, and how you solved the problems. The obvious may not be obvious to someone seeing the project for the first time," he says. "Always plan enough time for the photographers to take scouting shots. These become source material for planning the photo shoot."

However, in giving suggestions, don't be overbearing. You have, after all, hired the photographer for their skills and eye. "It's great when the client helps with the site prep, contacts, shoot list, shot set up, site plans/floor plans, and purpose," Steinkamp notes. "But it is also mutually beneficial when the client is open to and excited about hairpin turns during the course of a shoot when those non pre-visualized magical moments happen on assignment." After all, he says, "Subject matter and photography can be related to carving a sculpture. Photography is a subtractive process in the fact that you start with everything then subtract away until only the photograph is left."   

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