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Introduction
Building an image library isn’t necessarily at the top of every marketing
director’s list, but it should be. Without high-quality images you can
actually use, you sacrifice your brand identity and give in to expensive,
played-out, or low-impact stock art.
How do you fix it?
Use this template (slides 3-12) to provide guidelines to anyone taking
photos for your company. If you have a brand style guide, social media
guide, and/or marketing plan, refer to those resources when filling out
the template to ensure your images align with these branding tools.
Soon you’ll have the images you need, when you need them—and you’ll
know where to find them!
Company ABCImage Guidelines
Revised: 1-31-2020
Insert your company name.
Insert your logo
Update the “revised” date if you make changes.
Give this guide
to staff,
freelancers, or
anyone else
taking pictures
for your
company.
Contents
1. Resolution & Size2. Content3. Composition4. Enhancing & Editing5. Upload & Storage
Add key descriptor and URL. This will
be useful to freelancers or contractors who
aren’t familiar with your company.
Insert your company’s key descriptor here.
www.yoururl.com
1. Resolution & Size
Set your camera or phone to the highest-quality setting
possible to ensure images are useable across all
media. Print minimum standard is 300dpi at 4 x 6
inches. Images captured on a camera phone must be
larger than 1MB.
If you plan on using images
larger than 4 x 6, say on a
poster or in an annual report,
note the minimum
requirements for that particular
collateral.
2. Content
Include people whenever possible.
[The bulk of this section will depend on what your company or organization does. For example:
If your business is helping people, staff should take pictures of people—not the tools you use to help
them. If your business is product-based, take pictures of people making / enjoying / using your
product. Factory or production line photos are great (and necessary) for your company’s website!]
Focus on the details.
When photographing people, make sure they are dressed appropriately for the context, and watch out
for (and correct) things that may make the shot look unprofessional. This includes, [straightening
hoods, removing headphones, tucking in shirts, cleaning up workspaces, removing restricted items
such as open water bottles near computers].
Pay attention to background objects with equal weight to foreground objects. Avoid things such as
[trash cans, other companies’ advertising/billboards, people in awkward positions].
Customize the text in brackets to align
with your company’s work.
3. Composition
Take a variety of shots: close-up, medium, and wide-angle. Be
creative—photograph from multiple angles.
If photographing a person with the product isn’t an option, shooting
from different angles becomes increasingly important. Looking at your
subject from another point of view could enhance a boring product
image.
Incorporate elements of photography in every shot, including the rule
of thirds and look space.
• The rule of thirds relates to the focal point of an image. If you
draw a tic-tac-toe board over it, the focal point should land at one
of the points of intersection (not dead center).
• The space in the frame should be larger on the side that the
subject is looking to, or look space.
Add any other elements of photography you
want staff to focus on—and their
definitions—here.
4. Enhancing & Editing
Using filters to enhance images is acceptable under
certain circumstances.
Refer to the chart on the following page for a complete
list of approved filters and to which mediums they
apply.
Use editing software to improve composition and color
only. Do not alter the meaning of the image. If you have further editing protocol,
add that here.
Acceptable Filters Approved for Blog Posts
Approved for Social Media Posts
Approved for Print
e.g. vignette X X
Fill in the chart with
acceptable filters and delineate to
which mediums they apply with an
“x.”
5. Upload & Storage
All images are stored on the web at
[www.google.com/picasa].
Save all images using the subject (person’s name or
product) and the month and year the photo was taken. In
instances when there are several images of the same
subject, add a number. For example,
[rollerskates_Jan20.jpg, rollerskates2_Jan20.jpg].
Use tags to group like images. If the image is of a person,
begin by tagging with their name. Then, refer to the chart
on the following page for location, subject/campaign, and
product tags.
Provide URL and login
information. Edit nomenclature
guidelines as necessary.
Site Subject / Campaign Product
e.g. Milwaukee, Highland Park
e.g. JanMarketing e.g. RollerSkates
Categorize tags using columns.
Update as necessary.
[Picasa] Image Tags, [Company XYZ]
Conclusion
This template was created to help ensure
your business has quality, one-of-a-kind
images to accompany your unique brand
identity—and save you time during the
image selection process.
For more on this,
check out our blog: 4 Tips for Building Your Image Library.
Request a free inbound marketing assessment from Yodelpop.
Want to put your image library to workimproving your sales and internet marketing
efforts?
