Planning a shoot: a one-page brief
One page, six questions. What a shoot brief should settle before anyone stands in front of the camera, and what it should leave open.
A brief is not a contract and not a mood board. It is one page that answers the questions I would otherwise ask by email, in the order they matter. If it cannot fit on one page, the shoot is not clear enough yet.
The page has a second job: it puts the photographer, the people in front of the camera and anyone helping on the same set of expectations. Most disappointing sessions are not caused by bad light. They are caused by two people imagining different photographs.
Start with the purpose
Begin with what the pictures are for: a wall, a work profile, a family album, an announcement. That one sentence decides more than any reference image. A photograph for a wall can be quiet and wide; a headshot has to survive a small crop. When the purpose is vague, every decision after it becomes a guess.
Write it as a sentence, not a category. “Photographs for my mother’s birthday” says more than “family photos”.
The people and the feeling
Names, how many people, and who is comfortable in front of a camera. Then three words for the feeling — calm, direct, warm — not ten. If there is a photograph you love, include it. Three references are useful; thirty are a different brief.
Say what you like about each reference: the light, the distance, the colour, the mood. “Like this” is not information. “Like the soft light and the plain wall” is.
Place, date and light
One primary location, one backup for rain, and a time window rather than an exact minute. Note anything practical: parking, stairs, a long walk, a venue that needs permission.
If the place matters because of the light, say which light. Morning and late afternoon are not interchangeable. A street that is empty at eight can be unusable at noon, and a wall that glows at sunset may be flat grey two hours earlier.
Clothes and preparation
List what you plan to wear, not what you might wear. Two or three options, shoes you can walk in, layers for movement. Add hair and make-up notes if they matter. Keep this section short: a brief is not a styling document. A link to a longer guide is better than a second page.
Deliverables and boundaries
How many edited photographs, in what format, delivered where, by when. State the use: private, portfolio, social media, print. Those words decide how the images are cropped, edited and licensed.
Then write the other side of the page: what is not included. A second location, an extra outfit, heavy retouching, printed albums. A boundary written down is easier to respect than one mentioned at the end of the day.
Keep it to one page
Bullets, not paragraphs. Three references, not a folder. Replace adjectives with decisions: “soft window light and a plain wall” instead of “natural and timeless”. Anything that needs a paragraph belongs in conversation, not on the page.
After the brief, I turn it into a route and a short shot list, then send it back for confirmation. The brief is finished when nothing on it needs explaining. The rest of the day can stay open.
