When your press release is accompanied by a clear, colourful and interesting picture, the chances of attracting great press coverage can dramatically increase.

These days, a Smartphone is usually capable of taking a perfectly acceptable press shot – although we do recommend investing in some professional photography for things like websites and brochures.

But great press shots still require a little more thought than the standard ‘point and click’ approach; here are some tips for capturing the perfect image of your product, service or team.

1. Pick a focal point

Press shots (with the exception of some generic shots) all need a point of interest or focal point, and usually that’s a person. People like to see people, so the media try to avoid using plain images of shop fronts or logos and are much more attracted to shots showing a person or group of people.

2. Choose horizontal over vertical

Generally, images work best for press when they’re taken from a horizontal perspective (as you can see in the pictures above), rather than a vertical perspective. People often take vertical shots when they’re trying to fit a subject in to a shot, but pictures look better if you step back a few paces to fit everything in, and take it in landscape format.

3. Avoid monochrome or filters

Great press shots are always shot in full colour and taken in bright, natural or artificial light; never black and white, and never with artistic effects like filters.

4. Use odd numbers

This isn’t always the case, but placing an odd number of objects or people in a photo tends to look better than an even number. Odd numbers can make your picture look more balanced, since one object or person is always in the middle of the shot.

5. Have fun with perspective

Changing the perspective of a photo can give it added impact, so rather than shooting your subject ‘head on’, try crouching down and pointing the camera upwards, or standing on a chair and shooting down directly over your subject.

6. Get the light right

One of the most important rules in photography is that a picture should never be taken with the source of light behind it; so if you’re taking a headshot of someone, position them so that they’re facing a window, and therefore a source of light.