From brochures to websites to press releases, political photography plays an important role for any political candidate. We live in a visual world, so your images need to be compelling and help tell a story to voters.
Besides your campaign logo and colors, photos are crucial in creating a personal brand. Images are used for print, websites, social media, and even television. Having a good stock of visuals on hand will make it easier to design quality promotional material and create your website.
Here are some political photography ideas, tips, and best practices to help you get the most eye-catching visuals.
Your candidate head shot and portrait
Your head shot is one of the most important pictures you will take. It will be used over and over again throughout the campaign. Take several sets with different outfits. If you are wearing a formal outfit, try taking some pictures without a jacket. Solid colors are better than patterns and stripes. Patterns can create blurriness or distortions, especially when the size of the image is reduced. If your headshot is going to be edited for a campaign website, brochures, or direct mail, use a contrasting neutral background.
Here are headshot tips that work well for your website or social media header:
- A head-on or three-quarter view is typical.
- Make sure BOTH shoulders can be seen. Don’t crop them off!
- The best images for site headers are those where the subject is standing against a solid, contrasting background. This allows the background to be more easily cropped out.
- Large, high resolution images are best. Large-sized pictures can be scaled down, but small, low-res graphics cannot be improved much.
- Dress appropriately.
- Don’t forget to smile!
Family photos to show your personal side
This is probably NOT how you want to stage a political family photo. It’s a little TOO cute…
Though they may not be directly involved in your campaign, family photos are an important way to give voters more idea about your life and story. These can be staged in your home or in outdoor settings. You should be the center or main focus. Avoid elaborate vacation settings or any activities that too out of the ordinary – unless you are making a particular point.
Informal candidate photos in natural settings
These can be taken both indoors and outdoors. They can show you in a variety of activities, even in private moments. They don’t all have to be ‘happy’. For example, show yourself work setting, getting the job done. Get some non-staged pictures from special events or just slices of life in daily activity. Some of the best photography looks natural.
Show the candidate with different audiences
Show yourself engaged with others. This can include senior citizens, youth or students, veterans, work organizations, or other groups. Focus on the voter groups or organizations that you are specifically targeting. These types of photographs show that you have a relationship with that segment of the electorate.
As election season continues, be sure to have pictures taken at rallies, fundraisers, debates, and other events.
Engage with your audience, rather than simply posing with them. Check that you are not over- or under-dressed for the occasion.Some of the photos should appear “candid,” looking like they were taken by an audience member or participant at the time.
Photos with notable people and endorsers
A photo with a prominent endorser can improve your reputation and show that you have a relationship with notable people. Group table or side-by-side event pictures are good, but photos of the subjects interacting or speaking together are particularly powerful.
Other ideas to consider include posing with staff and volunteers while on the trail. These types of pictures show your staff’s appreciation, boost morale, and are great for posting to social media. If someone who is voting for you wants a picture with you, go for it. Make sure you ask for and have permission to use the image in your campaign material.
Pictures with local landmarks and locations
Take pictures of local locations and notable landmarks for reference.
Have yourself photographed in locations that voters can identify. They can include local neighborhoods, schools, parks, waterfront, or major landmarks. Dress appropriately for each location. For example, dress more casually in a park or natural setting. Be sure to get any required permissions for your locations. Take different pictures from different angles, and don’t make the candidate the center of each picture. Leave large areas of space around the subject so that designers can later use that negative space to add text and graphics to the image.
Take some extra photos of the landmarks alone. They can be used for other design purposes, such as watermark backgrounds, as part of a website header, or as reference shots in print material or mailers.
Hiring a professional photographer for your campaign
Professionals have experience capturing important moments. They can guide you in deciding on photo opportunities, and provide quality images.
Photoshop can fix many things, but it can’t fix bad photography.
Consider hiring a professional photographer. Quality photography pays dividends in your campaign’s overall impression and professionalism. A photographer may be one of the earliest items you budget for. Professional photographers who are used in political campaigns are skilled in capturing candid moments, have an eye for composition, know how to balance ambient light with artificial lighting, and are able to work quickly under pressure.
For example, in the 2020 presidential election, both Joe Biden and Donald Trump hired photographers to take photos of themselves at their events. This photography was then used in campaign advertisements.
If you decide to take your own photos, you can still make them great. Most smartphones have fantastic built-in cameras to take photos and record video. Have a volunteer or two help, as you can’t do it all yourself with just selfies!
Schedule a day for a political campaign photoshoot when you can get natural and well-composed shots in a variety of settings, like local parks or public landmarks. Plan out your photo shoot day ahead of time.Outfits, locations, and extras should be ready to go. Have extra pictures taken with different combinations of outfits and positioning. Having a large library of photos will be invaluable as election season rolls along.
Finally, make sure that you get the rights to use all the material for whatever purposes you need.
Release Forms: Anyone who is photographed for a campaign should sign a model release. This includes the parents or guardians of children. If you are taking photos of a group event, make sure that the people are aware. This helps protect the campaign legally and prevents unnecessary surprises. If you hire a professional photographer, make sure you have a contract in place that gives you complete ownership of the images.
Print vs web graphics – there’s a big difference!
A picture’s quality can vary depending on the type of media it is being viewed on.
Most graphics in their regular state (such as digital photographs) are too large to server on web pages. To get around this, a designer must compress the graphics in order to reduce file size but not necessarily dimensions. This requires balancing the quality of a graphic with file-size savings.
Tips for getting images together for your campaign website:
- High-quality JPG or TIF file formats are best for web designers to work with. A designer will be able to resize and cut down the size of the images as needed.
- Prepare several good, high-resolution head shots of the candidate. Those photos should include the shoulders and upper body.
- Prepare images of recognizable landmarks, particularly if your issues touch on those areas.
- Think wide! Consider how a photo might look as an edge-to-edge website banner.
- Try to include descriptive captions for photos of groups or specific locations whenever possible. This information can be used as image alt tags or as captions on a page or post.
- Make sure you have permission from others who are in your photographs.
- Set aside some high-res photos for your online press kit.
Always keep backups of your original, uncompressed graphic files. Once an image is compressed by being saved as a JPEG or GIF file, data is lost, and you cannot recover it from that image file.
A word on safety…
We encourage you and your team to take the necessary precautions when conducting a campaign photoshoot to ensure everyone’s safety.
Great photos help us create better political campaign websites for our clients. With four different packages and upgrades, which option is best for you?
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