Hotel photography: how to prepare your hotel for the shoot

The first thing to settle is where the pictures will be used. That decision drives the subjects, the formats and the length of the shoot.

A website mostly needs wide frames, Instagram works in portrait, and a booking portal expects a complete, legible view of every room category.

So I plan portrait frames alongside the usual landscape ones, and I leave open space where a headline or a graphic element can sit later.

A shot list creates clarity and keeps an important area from being forgotten. It is agreed with marketing, management and the departments in charge — not in passing on the day of the shoot.

For larger properties I put the list in order of priority. Whatever feeds bookings directly is photographed first, so an afternoon delay never costs a core subject.

A hotel room reads differently in a photograph than on a walk-through. The camera shows small irregularities a guest in the room never notices: a crease in the sheet, a pillow out of line, a cable on the nightstand.

Personal decoration goes in only where it matches the brand of the house. Too many accessories make a room look smaller and busier than it is.

Not every room in a category photographs equally well. Differences in view, floor plan, daylight or furniture are plain to see in a picture.

The pictures should be appealing and still promise no fitting that the booked category does not have. A frame showing more than the room delivers costs more at reception than it earned at the booking.

The lobby, reception and corridors are in constant motion. Without an agreement you get waiting time, or frames with a luggage trolley parked in the middle.

The best slot is a quiet stretch of the day. Reception and housekeeping know the schedule, and luggage trolleys, cleaning equipment, deliveries and internal notices leave the frame for the shot.

Hospitality is not only about the furniture. Table setting, light, food and service all have to work inside the same frame.

Before the shot the tables are laid completely and consistently, with glasses, cutlery, napkins and chairs aligned. The bar top, the bottle shelf and the coffee machine belong to that list too — they sit in the background of nearly every frame.

For food photographs the kitchen needs the schedule early — not once the camera is already standing there.

A plate holds its best look for a few minutes. So camera, light and composition are set before the dish reaches the set, not afterwards.

A bar lives on the movement behind it: the glass, the bottle, the hand on the shaker. Those frames need somebody behind the counter who can repeat the motion several times, and a shelf that has been tidied for the camera.

Price tags, sinks and cleaning cloths jump out of a picture, and they take a minute to clear away. The eye goes exactly where the mess is.

An empty meeting room looks matter-of-fact and rarely inviting. A full seating layout and a matching table setting show what the room can actually do.

Screens and projection surfaces get prepared content. Confidential data, other brands and a makeshift desktop have no place there: they ruin a good frame, and that only becomes clear once the shoot is over.

The exterior is often the most important subject a property has, and it depends on the time of day and the weather. Early in the morning the driveway and the entrance are quiet. In the late afternoon and at dusk the mix of remaining daylight and switched-on interior light carries the mood.

Weather cannot be ordered. A fallback date in the offer is not caution, it is part of the plan.

Different bulbs produce different colors in the same room. It shows most where very warm tungsten, cold LEDs and daylight meet.

Broken lamps are replaced beforehand, and where possible the color temperature is brought into line. Every visible fixture should be lit, including the ones the exposure does not need — a dark lamp in a picture reads as a fault.

Timers and motion sensors are the second point. Somebody in the house should know how to keep the relevant circuits switched on, or off, for as long as the shoot lasts.

How long a hotel shoot takes depends on the number and complexity of the subjects. A room is not photographed in a few minutes: preparation, angle, light and details all take time.

One contact with the authority to decide should be reachable throughout. Most delays do not happen at the subject — they happen at a question nobody present is allowed to answer.