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Coronavirus pandemic has affected almost every other industry and has changed the way we work. The new normal now is social distancing, staying at home, and taking maximum safety precautions. Though there are many industries that can still continue to work remotely that includes the IT industry, eCommerce sector, etc, still there are few jobs or work that cannot be managed virtually or remotely. Similar is the situation when it comes to providing professional photography services.
As we know that these are the challenging times for all of us, the spread of the COVID 19 virus has made the government take drastic actions and impose tight guidelines. This has made most of the business owners change their business model and operations and similar is the case with photography and filmmaking. Photoshoots have changed since 2020, as photographers are now trying to be more creative and are keeping their businesses up and running by following the social distancing guidelines. According to the retail intelligence firm Stackline, camera sales in the US have dropped by 64% amidst the COVID outbreak.
Since the spread of the virus, professional photographers are putting their best efforts to come up with new approaches to get their work done safely without impacting the quality of the work, but they are facing challenges keeping up with the pace amidst the drastic situation that everybody is facing. In this article, we will discuss some of the most important tips that will help professional photographers continue with their projects and provide photo retouching services during the COVID without any further hindrances. So let’s begin!
1. Sanitize And Clean Your Gear
There is no doubt that photographers understand that cleaning their cameras and lenses often is quite beneficial as it helps with the maintenance of the gear and results in superior work quality during photoshoots. But during these tough times sanitizing and cleaning photography gear has become the need of the hour for the photographers. This activity is one of the most important COVID 19 photography tips in our today’s list and we will recommend professional photographers to clean and sanitize their gear whenever they get free time staying at home. This will not only ensure that your gear and accessories are clean and properly maintained but will also get you good results during the photoshoots and provide excellent photo enhancement services.
To start with, first, clean your gears including the camera and lenses, and after that wipe your camera, lens, tripod, and stand with a disinfectant in order to sanitize it completely. Always keep in mind that you can use any kind of substance to clean and sanitize the gears and accessories but be very choosy when it comes to cleaning screens and lenses as even a little carelessness can damage your costly equipment. Therefore, it is better that you use specific lens and screen cleaners to make sure that you are not damaging anything at your end.
2. Don’t Share Your Professional Gears Ever
We can understand that being a part of photography or a photoshoot is a collaborative process, but do not forget now is not the time to share your equipment while conducting photoshoots with your teammates. Ensure that each of your teammates has their individual professional gears and accessories that they might be needing during the photoshoots as the motive here is to stop sharing professional gears completely. The reason being that the virus can stay alive on objects and surfaces for a long period of time and sharing equipment on a frequent basis will keep you and your team members at a big risk of getting the virus.
3. Start Using Your Zoom Lens
As the social distancing guidelines suggest a minimum of 6 feet of distance between people, this is the best time for you to pull out the zoom lenses of your camera to make things a bit easy during the COVID 19 pandemic. Using the zoom lenses, you can definitely take good quality pictures without actually going close to the people and the objects you and your teammates are shooting. Just make sure that you are using a high-quality camera along with decent lenses to get images that are not pixelated when clicked through zoom lenses and also you are able to capture each and every required detail without compromising the quality of the image.
4. Wear Masks and Maintain Social Distancing
We are quite sure that until now you might be well versed with the term social distancing and have been already practicing it at your workplace to flatten down the COVID 19 curve, but make sure that you are keeping social distancing with masks on your faces. We completely understand that photography and photoshoots cannot be conducted virtually sitting at home or working from home and avoiding face-to-face meetings or visits to shoot locations, so the best way to keep up with the situation is to follow social distancing guidelines at every place that you are visiting and keep your masks on wherever possible. This will not only help in cutting down the covid chain but will also make sure that you are keeping your business and work up and running.
Remember that either you are working as an individual or in a team, everyone including models should wear the masks at the maximum possible time.
5. Go With Virtual Pre-Shoot Communication
Planning is one of the most important aspects when it comes to photography and photoshoots. Usually, a team of professionals has to visit the client’s place to understand the detailed requirement of the photoshoot in order to provide the desired output. But during the COVID times, physically meeting your customers and understanding their requirements face to face is not advisable at all. Physically meeting customers for pre-shoot communication will increase the chances of spreading the virus and there are chances that either of your teammates or your customers can get the virus which may spoil everything. So the best way to conduct your pre-shoot communication is to opt for a virtual option.
You and your teammates can easily have healthy and detailed communication regarding the upcoming photoshoot via an online platform including Zoom or Skype. Do not forget to prepare the main points, creative photography ideas, and mood boards before going with the virtual pre-shoot communication option.
6. Stop Shooting in Public Places
The most dangerous thing about the COVID 19 virus is that people are carrying it without actually showing any major or minor symptoms. So, it is quite understandable how risky the situation can be if you are shooting outside in crowded public places. Though shooting outdoors has its own advantages as you can easily maintain the 6-feet distance guideline between two or more people, it is best to choose large and open areas where there is minimum public gathering and you and your teammates along with the models can easily conduct the photoshoot without putting anyone at risk.
Also, if you are one of them who are just shooting in public places to get good pictures for your social media marketing and promotions then we would like to tell you that this is not the appropriate time for such activities. All you need to do is try avoiding public places and instead shoot at remote locations where you can get involved with a minimum number of people.
7. Accept Online Payments
Basically, there are two modes of payment offline and online. Offline payment involves payment via cash, check, and money order, while online payments can be done via NEFT, debit/credit cards, Paytm, Google Pay, etc. Amongst the Coronavirus pandemic, avoiding offline payment mode and going with online payment methods can be one of your wisest decisions. Ask your clients and customers to pay you via bank transfer as this is the safest option as of now. Also, if you have customers who use different currencies like yours, then you can ask them to pay your fees or dues by using credit cards.
Remember that if some of your clients and customers are not willing to pay you with any of the methods mentioned above then you can use offline methods too but use these methods carefully by using disposable gloves and other measures that can avoid spreading the virus while exchanging money.
8. Edit the Photographs Remotely
Yes, it is true that the major part of the photography is completed during the photoshoot itself, but still, there are some post-processing activities that can be performed after the photoshoot including the editing part. Instead of editing your work on the shooting side, you can choose the option to edit them remotely, sitting at your home or office. Providing photo editing services remotely, will not only give you sufficient time to edit them professionally and provide output as per the requirement but will also ensure that you are spending only the required amount of time at the shooting site thereby limiting the spread of the virus.
Remember providing photo retouching services remotely, can actually help to break the chain of the virus for the photographers. To know about product photo editing tips in detail, read this blog.
9. Use Digital Methods to Deliver Your Photos
Most of the professional photographers use USB sticks or similar devices to deliver the photographs that they have taken during the photoshoot to the client. This was considered as one of the easiest and most convenient ways to deliver the work done by the photographers before the COVID situation. But now, keeping in mind the current pandemic, you have to be very careful if you are using physical methods to deliver the photographs. If you are delivering the photos using a USB stick, you need to sanitize the device, before actually sharing it with the client to avoid spreading the virus. But keep in mind to sanitize the USB carefully so that the device is not damaged.
Also, you can share the output of your professional photography services with the client in a digital form. You can either send them over email or can even share the photographs with the client using photo-sharing sites by providing the download link for the images to the clients.
10. Talk With Your Client for Safety Measures
When you are done taking all the necessary safety measures for yourself and your team members, the next thing you need to do is talk with your client about the things that you want them to do to ensure that they are participating in a safe and healthy photoshoot. Talk and let your customers know that safety should be their topmost priority during the shoot. Also, make them aware that you have all the necessary things that are required to conduct a safe photoshoot and they should not worry that the COVID pandemic will hamper the quality of the work during these tough times.
There are certain things that as a photographer you can avoid during the photoshoot to enhance safety measures for your clients. Before COVID 19, photographers helped the models fix their hair and clothes for the perfect pictures with their hands, but now this thing can be avoided and the photographers can ask the models to do this on their own. Also, photographers should give directions to the models regarding the poses from a distance. They can either explain the poses in words or can ask family members to help the models to make things easier for them.
11. Use Barricading
Barricading can also be considered as one of the best safety measures that can be taken by photographers to provide professional photography services during the COVID 19 pandemic. Earlier, plexiglass barriers have shown their presence at a lot of public places including restaurants, malls, salons, etc., and yes, these can be used at the shoot sites too to maintain the required distance from each other be it, models, photographers, etc.
12. Install Sanitizing Stations
Besides asking the participants of the photoshoot including models, professionals, etc. to bring their own sanitizers, masks, and gloves, make sure that you are providing the safety tools at the shooting site too. Try to install enough sanitizing stations to sanitize hands, and provide masks, wipes, and gloves at the shooting side to ensure that you are taking the required safety measures to make your photoshoot a COVID-free shoot. Also, try to use disposable towels, masks, and wipes to ensure maximum safety.
As you know that it is mandatory that all the participants should wear gloves and masks and use sanitizers during the whole photoshoot, so it becomes your responsibility to provide the required equipment while providing photography services during the shoot.
13. Limit the People Count
We know that providing professional photography services is not a one-man job and it requires a big team of experts to organize a professional photoshoot that can provide good results. In most of the states, health organizations have limited the number of people that can actually participate in a photoshoot and so the specific guidelines should be strictly followed by the professionals depending upon the place where the shoot is about to take place.
There are various ways by which you can cut down on your fully equipped big team of professionals and can pick only those who are the main heroes. Like, you can ask your stylist to sit back for the time being and ask your other teammates to multi-task for a few days or months till the situation gets in control. Besides, limiting the number of crew on the shooting site, you can also do some early preparations for the shooting to make sure that you are spending only the required time at the site and can start your shoot without wasting time and can pack up as soon as the shoot is done.
14. Provide Ventilation
If you are going for an indoor photoshoot, make sure to provide enough ventilation at the place that you have chosen for the shoot. During these tough times, having fresh air is one of the major requirements to avoid the virus and stay COVID-free. There are various ways by which you can provide ventilation in the shooting area. You can either open doors and windows of the room where you are shooting or can even place and switch on fans near the windows to increase the airflow.
Also, air conditioners can be of great use for the purpose but remember to install them correctly so that they can serve the purpose. It is most important that an air conditioner should be installed in a way to provide 100% fresh air from outside which can ultimately enhance the indoor ventilation with fresh air from outside.
15. Practice Post-Shoot Safety Measures
Practicing post-shoot safety measures is one of the important things that should be taken care of while providing professional photography services. You must ensure that the current photoshoot should be conducted in a safe and healthy environment so that the next or the upcoming shoots are not hampered. Suppose, you are organizing a new year photo shoot, then do not forget to sanitize the items used for decoration, the props, and clean all the surfaces that can be touched with hands.
The main motive here is to clean all the touchable things, surfaces and areas post every photoshoot to minimize the spread of COVID 19 and get yourself ready for the next shoot.
Conclusion
Photography business is one of the most affected one during the COVID pandemic as professional photography services can not be provided virtually or remotely. In this blogpost we have discussed 15 things that you need to take care of as a photographer to keep your business up and running during these tough times.