BBC Pictures
guide to taking publicity stills
A good publicity photograph can have immense impact, create intrigue and drive audiences to
your programme. It will work on its own as a ‘pick of the day’, or within a listings page. Online
it will be used by BBC iPlayer. It may also feature on our Twitter and Facebook pages and on
third party news and entertainment sites. It will sell the primary qualities of your programme
to potential viewers. Such images need to be eye-catching, tell a story, be visually appealing
and of good technical quality.
To follow are some creative guidelines to help you achieve better photographic results.
Quality
Take time composing and thinking about the photographs and get plenty of light on the subject. In low light levels it is likely that
there will be movement and blur in the image if you do not use flash – an image may look fantastic on the screen on the back of the
camera, but enlarged, there could be too much movement. Try to keep shutter speeds above 1/100 of a second and avoid
photographing anything with a lot of movement in low light, or use a flash. However the best option is good quality continuous light
or daylight, as flash can be harder to control.
Take lots of images. Professional photographers shoot
lots and lots of frames, to give them a choice of the best
expressions and compositions.
Creative images (e.g. silhouettes) can be useful, but we
would always ask that these are extra and not the only
shots that you supply.
Please do not treat images with special effects or
shooting in black and white. It is easy to apply such
effects in post production, but always imperative that we
start with a high-quality colour original.
Editorial Guidelines
All images supplied to the BBC must be factually representative of the editorial content of the
programme they have been taken for. They must also abide by the BBC editorial policy
guidelines. No images can be released to publicise the programme without written consent
from the BBC Executive. Further information is available at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/page/guidance-stills-photographs-full
Context
The images should communicate the unique selling points of your
programme and tell a story without narration or being part of a sequence.
Simple representation of these selling points often works best. Remember
that images may be printed as small as a matchbox . As a guide, think about
the size images appear on your phone if you’re browsing through iPlayer.
Equally, if your image is on the cover of a TV magazine, will viewers’ eyes be
drawn to your image and will they gain insight into your programme?
Location / scenario – How much relevance does the location have? If it is
important then build it into the shot (see composition). Weather, seasons
and time of day can all set the scene.
Props / objects / tools – these will give context to an image and inclusion
can create an instant visual reference to the programme subject.
Actions – Are there any actions that could be photographed which might
work better than just a static image?
Consider the key elements of a programme or an episode / scene:
Presenter / Talent - What is their role in the programme? Are they the
interviewer or the investigator, actively involved or passive? Key
contributors are also very important, capture them engaging with
presenter, in context, demonstrating or showing us something.
Tone - The mood of the pictures must reflect the content of the
programme. A smiling presenter in a war zone may not work.
Composition
The composition is the key to creating a visually appealing shot and
displaying the contextual elements of the image. A simple uncluttered
composition often works best for publicity photographs.
Try to take a variety of portrait and landscape format images.
Presenters and people should be prominent and
the inclusion of other elements should be
considered and purposeful. Try to fill the frame
and get close to the subject.
If there is an interesting or relevant background,
put people to one side of the image and fill the
other half with the background or landscape.
You will often achieve a better photograph of a person, by lowering the camera position, try shooting from chest-height rather than
eye-height; this also helps to fill the top of the frame.
Key Points
To Remember
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Try to keep shutters speeds 1/100 of a second or faster.
Use a minimum 8 megapixel resolution camera on finest setting.
Think about the unique selling points of your programme.
Take a mix of posed and action shots.
Presenters and people should be prominent in the shot – your images need to
work when printed small.
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Take shots of your subjects looking to camera
and away.
Take a variety of landscape and portrait format
shots.
Avoid people squinting into the sun. Wearing a
hat may create shadows across their faces.
Avoid movement in low light.
Shoot lots and lots of frames.
• Avoid treating images with special effects.
• Be aware that auto-focus may focus on background.
• Avoid taking loads of pictures of the crew. Press will rarely print a picture of the crew unless the
programme has a unique filming story.
• You may need to get written permission from your subjects to use their image to promote your
programme.