Tips for making a photography client feel more relaxed

Why we care about photographs

Surveyors photograph everything, but those pictures are evidence, not advertising. Brokers and charter companies need the other kind: pictures that make someone want to be on board. We often share a sea-trial day with a photographer, and we have watched good and bad shoots up close. The good ones always have one thing in common. The people in them are relaxed.

Staging the deck on a sea-trial day

A sea trial is a working day. The engineer has hatches open, the surveyor is logging temperatures, and the broker is on the phone. If the photographer needs the deck clear, agree a window before you leave the berth, usually the run back once the trial readings are done.

• Walk the boat at the dock and pick your three key frames before anyone is on deck.
• Clear fenders, lines and survey kit from those frames, and ask the crew where things may safely go.
• Keep cushions and towels in one colour family. The Adriatic is blue enough on its own.
• Shoot the flybridge and foredeck early, while the sun is low across the deck and the crew are still fresh.

Clients relax when they can see you have a plan. A photographer who wanders the deck looking for shots makes everyone feel they are in the way.

Chase-boat gimbal work in Adriatic chop

Running shots come from a chase boat, and our sea is not kind to them. The Bora throws up short, steep waves with little space between them. The Jugo brings a longer, oily swell from the south-east. Each needs a different approach.

Bora chop

Short period, sharp; shoot downwind of the yacht, keep the chase boat on the plane, use a fast shutter around 1/2000 s

Jugo swell

Long period, rolling; time frames to the top of the swell, a three-axis gimbal on a slower follow speed

Calm morning

Glassy water shows every wake; keep the chase boat well off the yacht’s quarter

Drone backup

Check local airspace rules near Trieste airport and naval areas before you fly

On the gimbal, lower the follow speed in pitch and leave roll locked. Brace your knees, not your arms, and let the boat move under you. A skipper who knows the shot list will place the chase boat far better than one who is guessing, so give your driver the plan as well.

Briefing charter guests

Charter lifestyle shoots use real guests or models acting as guests. Either way, the brief does most of the work. Tell them what the day will look like, how long each set-up will take and what you want them to do, which is usually nothing in particular. People look natural when they have something real to do: pour a drink, read, swim off the platform, take the tender to a cove.

• Explain the boat before the camera comes out. Show them where to hold on and where the heads are.
• Give seasick-prone guests the first shots at anchor, not underway.
• Show them a few frames on the back of the camera early. Confidence grows quickly when they see they look good.
• Never ask a guest to sit on a rail or a bow pulpit. A relaxed pose that is unsafe will not get past the captain, and should not.

Briefing the crew

Crew are often the hardest people to relax, because they are still working. A stewardess carrying a tray in front of the camera is thinking about the tray. Ask the captain which crew are happy to be photographed and agree what they will be doing. Let them do their real job, well, and photograph that. It always looks better than anything staged.

After the shoot

Send the client a short selection the same evening. It closes the day on a good note and gives the broker something to post while the boat is fresh in buyers’ minds. For a yacht on the market, pair the pictures with clear facts. Buyers who can check speed and range for themselves, using a tool like our hull speed and passage fuel calculator, tend to trust the listing more.