London Photography Archives

Photographs of Corporate London, The City.

In normal business times, the majority of our corporate photography commissions would be in client’s offices based in The City the corporate area of London. Over the years we have captured street-level views of photographs of corporate London buildings and Landmarks. The City of London has some of the oldest buildings and original markets called Cheaps. Today we have street names such as Eastcheap and Cheapside. In the heart of The City, you will find Leadenhall market which we often wander through just to pick up the atmosphere of Old London.

Leadenhall Market

Moving from corporate photography commissions we often walk through Bank and Cornhill which seems to be where several major London streets all link together. Always busy with business and tourist traffic this always seems like the centre of the City to us.

Cornhill and Bank

We have already mentioned that the City has some of the oldest buildings in London and now due to a corridor or sightline London rules it now has some of the newest and tallest buildings. When they built St Paul’s the people of London grew very fond of it on the London skyline and in 1938 a law was passed to protect the view. There are 13 protected corridors in which planners are not allowed to block the view of St Paul’s. These corridors all extend out in a West, South and North direction. Most of the City sits to the East of St Pauls which meant buildings going up to the East of St Pauls did not break any building laws.

City Of London The City

Our favourite building would have to be the Lloyds buildings on Lime Street. Built-in 1978 by Richard Rogers and Partners it still looks modern and although it is now standing in the shadows of much larger office towers it still retains a certain charm and which surpasses many contemporary neighbours.

City of London Lloyds building.

Photographs of Corporate London © Corporate Photography Ltd.

Corporate London Photography

20th September 2018/in corporate photographer in London, Corporate Photographer London, London Photography /by Editor

Series of City photography featuring corporate London scenes.

Working as a corporate photographer in London we get to visit some of London’s finest architecture and see some wonderful cityscapes from high office buildings. What is interesting is that we are rarely commissioned to photograph these views and instead we photograph City landmarks and then photoshop them as backgrounds for people’s corporate headshots.

Corporate London photography City skyline view

Corporate London photography with City skyline view

Here we used one of our London City photographs and added it to a headshot that was taken in our studio. We added the window frames as well and blurred the background to give the corporate headshot a very realistic look.

I think the reason for the lack of corporate London photography commissions is that clients are wanting to show their offices and people rather than images of where they are located in London. This is due to the fact that London cityscapes are easily accessible from photo library and therefore companies are wary of using library images or photos that could be mistake for stock photography.

On our file sharing website corporate photographer London we use a selection of various corporate London images and feel these are appropriate as they give a feel for what we do and at the same time being of general interest to our clients. Our aim was to change these images every week so that clients returning to the site to download their recent commissioned corporate headshots or event photos would see a fresh set of images.

Corporate London photography city streets traffic view

Captured on London Bridge approach road as the traffic moved forward we blurred the image to give an iconic view of London.

Corporate London photography London Bridge view

Commuters walking over London Bridge early on a winter rush hour morning.

Leadenhall Street as businessman rushes to a meeting.

Corporate London photography Gherkin skyline view

Top of the Gherkin or to give it its proper name and address 30 St Mary Axe.

Corporate London photography Heron Tower skyline view

The new Leadenhall building AKA The Wedge or The Cheesegrater with 20 Fenchurch St AKA The Walkie Talkie and The Shard.

How do you work out your corporate photography rates in London?

5th June 2018/in Corporate Photographer London, Corporate Photography Rates, corporate photography tips, London Photography /by Editor

A question we often get asked by other photographers and we find it hard to give an answer. Not because we do not want to divulge this information as for many years we had it on our website, but you have to come to this decision based on your situation and many other factors that are involved in corporate photographers undertaking a commission.

We have always quoted our rates which include the rights to all the headshots and corporate images with a full licence to use in any media over an unlimited period. Many other photographers retain control over their photographs and stipulate terms of usage and periods of licence. This is clearly another way to gain revenue and therefore these photographers could reduce their corporate photography rates and making their quotes more attractive at first glance.

Another factor which comes into play is charging for post production. We include airbrushing and retouching with our headshot and corporate photographers rates but do put a limit on the number of photos included. Post production rates vary and the quality certainly can vary but when setting out their stalls photographers look at the complete service that is being offered to clients and corporate photography rates are not the only factor businesses take into account when choosing who they will use.

We get a least four emails everyday (weekends included) from retouching companies in China and India. Prices are so low you wonder how they ever managed to afford the computer to do the work on. We do not outsource our post production and with all the data protection laws being tightened are very unlikely to do it in the near future. I do most of our headshot retouching and airbrushing and find it a real pleasure these days. In the past when I was working alone I found it a chore as I was always having to tag it on at the end of the day and clients would be needing their photographs the following day. These days I have block periods during the working day to complete corporate photography post production and have began to get better and better at it. I find the trick is to make sure you can not see that the headshots have been retouched. Subtle is the best word to describe our post production and people look better but not overworked or false in anyway.

Our corporate photography rates are charged out by a combination of people and time. We can photograph X amount of people in X amount of time. So we structure our costs in hourly, half day and day rates all plus the good old VAT.

Should you put your corporate photography rates on your website? A few photographers do and many do not. We used to display them but got feedback that we were either undercharging or being undercut. Several times we lost work due to people charging just a little less than us. Also I had a call once from a leading London corporate photographer who left a voicemail saying that we were not charging enough as they had picked up a job we could not attend and the client had told the photographer what we had quoted. I suppose at the end of the day it all boils down to what your costs are, against what profit you need to survive or prosper.

Recently I have began looking at what other photographers charge and it varies greatly for the same sort of service. My research saw headshots in London studios for as little as £50 (not sure how that is possible with London rates) going up to £500 for a top London studio. It must work along the lines of the first studio doing 10 shoots a day and the top London studio doing the one per day as I can not believe they would be booked out at that price. But my point is they are making the same amount per day and that is why corporate photography rates can vary so widely in London.

Please get in touch if you would like to discuss our corporate photography rates and different package options.

Grantly Borrett-Lynch

Corporate photographer and editor.

Corporate Reportage Photography

9th May 2018/in Fly on the wall corporate photographer, London Photography, Reportage Corporate Photography /by Editor

When we are approached to undertake corporate reportage photography in London we often get asked to photograph the subjects ‘in action’ or ‘fly on the wall’ as the word reportage is rarely applied to the corporate world.

The term reportage comes originally from press and broadcast media and describes the use of photography for reporting the news. The classic reportage images are usually in black and white and feature iconic moments in history. The term has now spread into most forms of photography from weddings to commercial and generally means a more natural photo, being less posed and contrived.

Reportage is not for all photographers as it is less controllable and you can be tripped up if you do not allow sufficient time and have a few little tricks to rely on. To get the corporate meeting and general office life photos take patience and concentration. There is no point wandering around the corporate building in the hope you will stumble on a great reportage photo. You need to recce the areas you can access and then decide which have the most potential and then wait for the interesting moments to happen. You also need to allow time for the people in the office to forget you are there and get on with their working day. When people are focused on their work you can capture some great reportage images. Certain points in the day lend themselves to better opportunities. Meetings are ideal as you have a group of people who are not moving around all focused on what they need to discuss. You get people looking professional and sometimes smiling and enjoying there work.

Lets look at some corporate reportage photos and understand how they were captured.

corporate reportage photography London

Taken in a meeting with the photographer using the back of a person as a out of focus shape and then capturing the director as he was talking to another member of his staff. It is best to be at the same height as your subject so you the photographer looks like he was sat at the meeting room table. Best to capture plenty of images as with all people/reportage you get plenty of out takes when people are talking and smiling.

corporate reportage photography London

These two samples were taken at a presentation but show the variety if you move around the room and test out better angles. The one thing you can be sure of in a corporate presentation is that most of the people will be looking at the presenter most of the time. So use this to position yourself to get a natural and action photograph.

corporate reportage photography London

When shooting reportage photography be open to the corporate environment and use elements of the office to assist your images. We often blur people to make them a part of the composition and not always the main point of interest. Without the person this photograph would be pretty bland the the figure who is talking brings the photograph together.

corporate reportage photography London

As with all creative arts you need to balance between peaks and troughs so remember the close ups and wider shots. Close ups are great for showing details of corporate life and they are simple to capture and as they often do not show an individuals face have a wider use on company websites as they can be used as generic corporate images.

Use interesting compositions to make the reportage photos graphic more interesting and this allows designers areas to drop in text. The photos above use the office environment to make shapes and reflections which take a fairly ordinary photo and give it an edge.

Use reflections to create quirky and unique corporate reportage photography. As long as the idea and execution of the photo is correct then anything can be used within the office area which is not the case in most other forms of corporate photography. Reflections on glass can be turned to the photographers benefit which you would normally try and avoid but in the above photos they add the images.

corporate reportage photography London

Lastly always consider every aspect of the clients building and we took this reportage photograph after we had finished the shoot. We were leaving the building and saw this image. Balancing people with building and signs can create excellent corporate photography. Without any one element in this photo it would not work as well but you could not take the man out of the image as he holds it together.

As with all reportage photography you have to be open to ideas and have plenty of time to explore them. We always tell our corporate clients in London that the reportage images are not just snapped as we wander around their offices. They will need to let has recce and spend several hours on site.

If this post was helpful you might like our tips on corporate headshot photography.