Hotel Photography for Historic Hotels © Michelle Chaplow
Looking for Tips for a Historic Hotel Photo shoot? You have come to the right place, in this blog post we share real life, expert guidance on photography for Historic Hotels by photographer Michelle Chaplow.
Always remember that when browsing online, as we compare one hotel to another. Guests can check out of your hotel before they have even checked in, based on the quality of their hotel photography.
KEY POINTS FOR A HISTORIC HOTEL PHOTO SHOOT
Heritage Choose a professional photographer who is genuinely interested in your hotel’s heritage. If your history doesn’t spark her/
his curiosity, then this essential interest and engagement won’t be reflected in your photos.
Essence The essence of your historic hotel is in the details that distill the feeling, the heart and the very soul of the hotel. Give the photographer time to seek out and identify those details.
Light A photographer must be passionate about your hotel to portray it in its best light. An advance visit will allow him/her to observe the interplay of light both inside and outside – good lighting is key to strong visuals.
Quantity and Quality The two go hand in hand
– you need to be realistic in your requests. As a guide, a refurbished hotel is 7–14 days shoot. A hotel update can be anything from 2–10 days.
TECHNICAL CHECKLIST FOR A HISTORIC HOTEL PHOTO SHOOT
Digital and Print Let your crew see your brochure and website layouts. This will help them to shoot suitable visuals – especially if you intend to use panoramic crops.
Big Pictures create visual impact Ask your photographer to shoot in “full frame” as it will display well on your website and is perfect for magazine editorial.
Seasons You may need to bring in the crew two or three times in one year to capture the hotel in different seasons. Ideally, shoot just before the high season when everything is pristine.
Geo-Identifiers A great crew will pick out your key Geo-Identifiers immediately and use them to draw guests to your hotel’s unique location.
Styling & Lifestyle A good crew will have a stylist that knows your market.
Accentuate your best points If you are famous for something, make sure you have a photograph of it in your archive. Ask yourself, why am I different?
Visual story telling Use not only the architecture of your hotel but the details to bring out your hotel’s history. Romance and nostalgia are two key elements to highlight.
View In order to capture a room AND a view, use a digital technique called High Dynamic Range (HDR). This requires the photographer to shoot multiple exposures so that the areas both inside and outside the room are both perfectly exposed.
Photo Selection Take advantage of a professional set of eyes – ask the photographer to help you choose the best images.
Files Ask for high-resolution “TIF” images for print and low-res “JPEGs” for digital media. Insist
that primary photos are selected and sorted into sensibly-named folders for YOUR easy retrieval.
Social Media files Ask your photographer to provide a third copy of all the images at 1200-2000 pixels on the longest side, for social media – it will save you a lot of time in resizing and they will do a better job.
Back-ups Tips for a Historic Hotel Photo shoot also includes those all important Back -up files.You should have three digital back- ups: one on-site, one off-site and one with the photographer.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT & HUMAN RESOURCES
Preparation Book the photographer three days early to pre-plan the shoot and experience
the hotel as a guest. This is a relatively small additional cost that will reap huge rewards.
Pre-shoot planning Plan ahead with the photographer to develop the production schedule from your desired shot list. Do this before the full crew arrives to ensure a smooth running shoot with minimal disruption.
Make the crew feel welcome It may sound obvious, but there is a huge difference between making the crew feel welcome, and making
the crew feel that the photo shoot is causing a disturbance.
Coordination Allocate a member of staff to be the coordinator during the shoot; this will save a lot of time.
Production shoot planning The production planning needs to be updated at the end of each shoot day. Good forward planning will ensure minimum disruption.
Assistance Appoint a junior member of your staff to help one of the assistants for any last minute details.
Models It is an advantage if the crew is experienced in casting and can help with the model selection. Staff are usually willing models and this can work well, but professionals are a far safer bet.
Waivers Ask all models, both professional and staff, to sign a waiver authorizing the hotel to use their images. This can avoid costly complications at a later date, particularly if staff subsequently move on to another hotel.
CHOOSING A PHOTOGRAPHER FOR A HISTORIC HOTEL PHOTO SHOOT
Passion Choose a professional photographer who is truly passionate about historic hotels
and thrives on each opportunity to communicate their essence to the world. It will show in each and every image.
Experience Be sure the photographer has plenty of experience in communicating what it’s actually like to be a guest in a historic hotel – and has a portfolio to endorse it.
Choose someone that you feel you can trust and will enjoy working with – excellence in photography is a team effort.
A special thank you The information from this blog post was part of a Keynote speech “Tips on hotel photography for historic hotels worldwide, how to prepare a Historic Hotel Photo shoot”. the speech was delivered by Michelle Chaplow at the Annual conference of Historic Hotels of America and Historic Hotels Worldwide held at the Omni Homestead Hotel Virginia USA. The flights to America were sponsored by HHA, HHW and British Airways.
The lead image from this article shows historic hotel photography shot on location at The Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, Casa Numero 7 in Seville, The Alvear Palace in Buenos Aires and Raffles Hotel Bejing. View more examples of Historic hotel photography by Michelle Chaplow here