think like a video editor

When it comes to creating maximum value during your lifestyle portrait session...

...think like a video editor.

When I was a freelance editor at Yahoo, I was never sure what my day would look like going into the office. 

Most days, I would be charged with cutting simple, feel-good, viral clips for one of the platform verticals. 

Other days, I would be handed a beefy interview where I would have to incorporate multiple camera angles on the interviewer/interviewee, graphics and music. 

The key to the whole operation?

A wide variety of B-Roll. 

As anyone who has ever put together a speaker reel with interview footage, you understand the need for diverse, B-Roll footage.

Wide shots, medium shots and close-ups. Different locations. Different activities in front of the camera. Different expressions on the interviewee’s face. 

I wanted the chance to grab from a huge pool of footage in order to weave together the story and visuals in an interesting and compelling way. That’s what keeps viewers attention. 

On some occasions, the person who shot the interview would drop the ball, and the B-Roll was light on options. I would be given a small handful of shots that basically looked the same from one to the other. 

So I would have to put on my save-this-dumpster-fire-of-a-situation hat and make it work. And sometimes, that meant breaking the cardinal rule for video editors:

Repeating the same B-Roll shots more than once. 

It’s a sin to repeat because it takes away from the visual presentation because the visuals become predictable and boring, which distracts from the overall sentiment of the story.

This scenario is similar to what speakers, authors, trainers and other expert business owners face with their own image content. 

Many clients find their way to me with an image portfolio that is light on visual variety. 

They have 3-5 photos that they use consistently across their online presence because that’s all they have to use. 

While these photos undoubtedly look magazine-quality beautiful, there’s simply not enough to satisfy all of the image content needs they have - social content, blog thumbnails, promotional images, slide deck material, and photos for their website. 

That’s why it’s important for experts to approach their branded lifestyle portrait sessions with the mindset of creating photo B-Roll, and not just be content with a handful of pretty pictures. 

This will offer them a ton of visual flexibility with every single image need they have moving forward. 

This type of visual variety not only serves your creative needs, but consistently sharing a wealth of various lifestyle photos goes a long way to help position you as an authority in your space of expertise.

The alternative? 

You’ll end up like me in that Yahoo editing suite, pulling your hair out while trying to figure out how to not bore the hell out of your audience with the same 3-5 photos over and over and over again.

The choice is yours :)

To learn more about the type of photo B-Roll that I create with my clients, check it out here.