Don't miss out on capturing candid pictures of you speaking from the stage!
Candid pictures from the stage = magical content...
...candid pictures are magical because it's showing you at the height of your powers - authentically, :)
While a high-volume, image library of branded lifestyle portraits is the foundation for promoting yourself on social, another great way to illustrate your level of authority is to share candid pictures of you sharing your expertise from the stage.
Whether a workshop, fireside chat, panel discussion or keynote, these images cement in the minds of your followers that you are, in fact, the authority in your given field and that your thought leadership is game changing.
Having candid pictures like these are not only important as visual cues, but they also are important with respect to visually punctuating certain types of stories you share with your audience.
One of my clients, Ted Rubin, leverages his speaking from the stage photos in various ways, such as using them as thumbnails for his blogs, social post punctuation, and my favorite, adding his personalized quotes that touch on various topics:
However you decide to leverage these candid pictures, they’re valuable assets to leverage.
That’s why before your next speaking opportunity, make sure that the event organizer will supply a photographer - if they don’t, it might be a good idea for you to hire one for yourself.
Whether a photographer is included or you hire one on your own, here are some guidelines for you to discuss with the person charged with capturing you doing your thing from the stage:
Capture candid pictures from all vantage points throughout the room
If all of the photos are taken from one spot in the room, these photos will eventually begin to feel stale and old to your tribe.
Instruct the photographer to walk around and capture a variety of areas so that the backgrounds of the images look slightly different from shot-to-shot.
Include the audience in some of the photos, especially if it’s a BIG crowd!
If the photographer can park him/herself behind you and frame the audience in the shot, great.
Or, if he/she can capture a profile image of you addressing the crowd, that’s awesome, too. The point is to show that you’re not talking to yourself, and to visually reinforce the point that there is a large gathering of folks who are excited to hear you speak!
What if there are only 4-5 people in the room? No biggie.
Just instruct the photographer to park him/herself behind the heads of those people and shoot through it like this:
And your tribe will be none the wiser as to how many people were there to hear you, :)
Low angle, candid pictures = hero shots
A candid portrait taken from a low vantage point gives viewers a perspective where they are looking up to the speaker in the image - presenting the person on stage as powerful and commanding the attention of the room.
People pay more attention when they are visually cued by a strong presence, and hero shots from the stage create that space for you.
This is the type of sentiment you want to create through candid pictures of you speaking, especially when you are using these photos to visually punctuate various stories you want to share with your followers.
Capture various facial expressions
Oftentimes, I’ve gone through an album of speaker photos with my client that was captured by another photographer, and I shake my head at how similar the facial expressions are from shot-to-shot.
No bueno, folks!
Although it is awesome to some candid pictures of you from the stage, it’s even more awesome if you’re smiling, frustrated, pensive, animated, melancholy, happy, excited while talking with your hands, pacing, laughing out loud, etc.
Why?
Remember the reason why you want these photos in the first place - to visually punctuate stories about your business, brand and life. These stories run the gamut of emotions, and your facial expressions need to follow suit in order to be properly leveraged.
I will admit, this is a challenging aspect to photographing a speaker who walks and talks all over a stage, but, that’s why photographers get paid the big bucks - to have the patience and wherewithal to stand in and keep shooting until they get what you need!
Once you and your photographer are on the same page, then you can go back to preparing to kill your talk!
How have you leveraged candid portraits of you speaking from the stage?
Never have? Or, were you unhappy with the results?
Interested in changing that for your next talk?
Schedule a time to chat with me and let’s make sure we make that happen for you, :)
PS - For those of you who aren’t in the know, I mail out these blogs 3x a week, and lemme tell you, they’re a real party, so, if you’d like to get in on this, sign up for it here and I’ll throw in a free gift for you...because I care, :)