We are living in a digital age and with this in mind we are also living in the age of visual culture. In PR, this translates to your client’s brand, business and professional image. In PR, we find that images are so important for press coverage. Put it this way, an image in low resolution that has been sent to a print publication is about as useful as taking sand to a beach.

Useful tips:

1. Have a decent selection of images.

Have a selection of high resolution and low resolution images; these will be useful for different types of media outlets e.g. print, online or TV. Great images market your service, product or brand in the best way possible and help to illustrate what you want to communicate.

2. ‘A picture says a thousand words’ in a press release!

Whether it’s a product image, image of you, your team members, your offices or images from an event. Including an image in press release will grab the attention of journalists.

3. Have a variety of shots.

You need to have a variety of lifestyle images and cut-out images. It is important to be ready for different types of coverage, not every publication will have time for a photo shoot with your product, so lifestyle images are useful. These are images of your products in action. Having a good selection of ready-made lifestyle images in high resolution gives you a greater chance of having a decent spread within a newspaper or magazine or even the front cover spot. Cut-outs, are essentially your product on a plain white background. Cut-outs are great way of making your images appropriate for most uses and essential for product placement.

4. Invest in a proper photo shoot and a professional photographer.

Never underestimate what good photography can do for your brand. A professional photographer can advise on the kind of images you need to show your business in the best way. They can suggest the right lighting and professional backdrops and also develop creative ideas to really make you stand out. Also remember, some photographers are specialists in taking shots of people and others specialise in taking shots of products. Not every photographer is skilled in taking images of both, so it is important to get one that has experience or the skill set of taking the kind of photos you need.

5. The resolution numbers.

Newspapers and magazines will only use high-res images, so ensure that any images you have are a resolution of over 300 dpi, (these are basically dots per inch) and are at least 1MB in size. Online publications can also receive images of this size, but be mindful of images that are over 5MB in size, these could be two heavy, so it is always a good idea to have two versions (high and low) of each picture.