Thanks very much for joining me back on the blog. A question sent to me recently, How do I build a 'Hero' shot?
So, first of all, you will need to know what a 'Hero' shot is. And it is kind of a general term used by the industry to say it is a shot, that is absolutely all about one category or is a primary image to be used in someones marketing.
It's a fantastic shot that you are going to use on your marketing and your advertising for one service or product. This is going to be the shot that you keep going back to, and you keep referring your clients to.
A photographer will take many, many shots throughout a shoot. But, there will be one overriding shot that actually makes your front page or is worthy of being the stand out 'hero'. If you were to put a picture on a front page of a newspaper, that is going to be your 'Hero' shot. And so, all the other ones are secondary by comparison.
To build a 'Hero' shot, it has to talk about a story. For example, it has to talk about the area that you are in, or it has to talk about the person that is working there. It has to be a particularly strong image.
Most websites have categories at the top of the webpage. So, there will be this nice big picture running along the top. Mostly it is a letterbox sort of shape.
What I tend to do is, think about the shape and think about when I am walking around how that is going to translate into the environment I see. Generally speaking, I look to create a bit of space off to the right-hand side or the left-hand side and off-set the composition of the picture. And so the focus is more on the person, or the activity is more off to one side so you can actually drop text in on the other side.
So, when you are walking around just keep in your mind that sort of letterbox shot or letterbox ratio. And think about how when you are photographing them, how you would build that in. Usually straight horizontal lines work very nicely, so look to build that into the background. Don't go for anything with crazy angles because that very rarely works. But, something very flat and straight and then build it off to one side so that provides space to drop text into.
So, thanks very much for your question. If you've got more, I would love to hear from you. Drop them in the box below and I will come back to you. Thanks very much.
Here's some examples of Hero shots for advertising.
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