What goes on behind the scenes of a photoshoot

Musselburgh Racecourse Blog

 Stunning PR photography keeps Musselburgh Racecourse in the headlines

WHEN telling a story for your business, it can be hard to grip a reader’s attention. But throw in some media-ready, eye-catching PR photography to do the hard work for you and telling the rest of the story is easy.

The team at Scotland’s Outstanding small PR agency understand that pictures are a key element to catching the imagination, putting a face to a name and illustrating a story to target media.

We have enormous experience in the field of visual communications, from photograpy to  video and graphics. Quality photography is at the heart of everything we do, including setting up photo calls, photoshoots, capturing images and editing them for use by clients across various sectors and the media.

So what actually is involved in getting professional looking images? Here (and in the video, above), we take you behind the scenes of our recent photoshoot for Musselburgh Racecourse in the stunning setting of  Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh.


ONE – THE BRIEF

As part of the lead up to the Stobo Castle Ladies Day at Musselburgh Racecourse, our account manager  Ainsley Piggott was working numerous story lines to project and promote Scottish racing’s hottest summer date.

But the piece de resistance of the public relations campaign was when Holyrood PR suggested, negotiated and delivered a tie up with Edinburgh Fashion Week.


Essential business guide to public relations photography from Holyrood PR in EdinburghYour eyes don’t lie and when you see something evocative, beautiful or startling it can stop you in your tracks. Such is the power of photography. Find out how it can be harnessed to benefit your business or organisation in this essential guide.


That move not only positioned Ladies Day as style setting where women must be seen, it also helped reinforce how the five star visitor attraction is just a few short miles from the Scottish capital, widely recognised as one of Europe’s finest architectural gems.

So, our brief was to come up with a stunning visual way to tie three themes together – horse racing, fashion and Edinburgh.

To that we conceived and delivered a  photoshoot which left our client delighted. Here’s how:


TWO – THE PLAYERS

Edinburgh Fashion Week shares style tips for Stobo Castle Ladies Day at Musselburgh RacecourseAs storytellers, we know that there is more to the story than the plot and twists in the tale. But nothing is more vital than the characters.

The same is true of visual storytelling and when it comes to photography, images work best when they feature bold characters.

So to make sure we were hitting the themes home, we let our characters project the fashion and horse-racing elements.

Firstly, we asked Laura Russell, personal stylist and blogger at Satisfashion, to take part in the photoshoot. Laura was well placed after just finishing seminars at Edinburgh Fashion Week 2016, with a few dedicated to fashion at Ladies Day.

So, we asked her to demonstrate the ideal Ladies Day outfit in the shoot.

What she wasn’t expecting was that there would be a second, surprise character involved in the photoshoot. After all, nothing says horse racing more than cheering fans, jockeys – and of course horses.

So with the help of Musselburgh Racecourse we found a four-legged friend to pose alongside our fashionista, Laura.  All that was left was the location.


THREE – THE SETTING

Edinburgh Fashion Week shares style tips for Stobo Castle Ladies Day at Musselburgh RacecourseWith our photography team, our client, and our models set and rearing to go, all that was left was to secure an Edinburgh location to do justice to the well-groomed models.

We could have gone to the top of Calton Hill, but as experts in the media who observe and read the media day after day, as a location for photo shoots, Calton Hill has been repeated more than replays on UKTV Gold.

After we set our focus on the backdrop of Edinburgh council. Ainsley was back on the phone looking for permission to not only photograph commercially but to also accommodate a horse for a
couple of hours.

After some liaising with staff at the council, she secured our photo shoot in Princes Street Gardens. At this point our clients at Musselburgh Racecourse were amazed that Holyrood PR had worked to gain the rare opportunity to bring an animal into the gardens without breaking the budget.

With some careful negotiating with the very spirited race horse, some very quick training of horse handling for our nervous fashion stylist, and some two hours
later of walking the horse along the gardens and attempting to get the horse to stand still long enough for a picture, our in-house photographer was well underway to finishing a fantastic set of PR photography.


FOUR – FEAST YOUR EYES

Edinburgh Fashion Week Offer Top Tips For Prestigious Race Day-10AT Holyrood PR we work with a host of top notch snappers -but we’re also lucky enough to have our own multi-talented house photographer.

As soon as he completed the shoot, he was adding the finishing touches to the images uisng Photoshop and soon had a range of images ready for the client.

Musselburgh Racecourse were not only impressed with speedy turn around time, but were hugely impressed with how we captured the day.

Follow this link to see the full suite of images in an attractive picture gallery.

Just to make the photo shoot all the sweeter, Musselburgh Racecourse got the added venue of keeping the pictures for their on use on the social media and website, observing all the extra engagement that pictures add to social media posts.

Not only that. Organisers at Edinburgh Fashion Week also shared the pictures, therefore sharing our PR story to all their followers. Even more results for our client.

All this on top, of the fantastic coverage we gained with our media story and the images we created to bring the story to life.


Find out how your business could benefit from the expert PR services of our award winning agency

To find out how we can achieve results like this for you call us on 0131 561 2244 or fill in the contact form below and we will get back to you.

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