Photos: when a shoot really changes something.

Published on 12 September 2026 · 5 min read

Photography is the line item people hesitate over most, because it is visible and it is not indispensable. A professional shoot is negotiated, in Switzerland, between CHF 400 for a half-day with a young photographer and CHF 1,500 for a full day with retouching. Here is how to know whether it is your case.

What photography actually changes

It does not make your offer better. It does two things: it proves that you exist, and it shows the level of finish of your work. That is all — and depending on the trade, that is either enormous or negligible.

The three cases where a shoot pays for itself

1. Your work is visible. Hairdressing, cooking, joinery, interiors, bodywork, beauty, landscaping, flowers. The photo is the sales argument. Here, bad photos cost more than no photos, and a shoot is the first investment to make, before the site itself.

2. People are buying a person. Therapist, lawyer, coach, broker, notary, doctor. A decent portrait — looking at the camera, soft light, neutral background — clearly increases the rate at which people get in touch. No need for a full day: an hour is enough, and it is the best value for money on the whole list.

3. Your premises are an argument. Restaurant, hotel, salon, practice, shop. The client wants to see where they are setting foot. Here the shoot has to happen at the time of day when the place looks best, which means blocking out a slot.

The three cases where it is not the priority

1. Your work is invisible. IT, accountancy, consulting, insurance, translation. Photographing people smiling in front of a computer adds nothing. Put the money into the copy, into client references and into the Google profile.

2. You sell a product the manufacturer has already photographed. Use their images: they are often better and supplied free, just check that you have the right to use them.

3. You do not yet know what you are selling. If your offer is going to move in six months, the photos will too. Start with a phone: you will do the shoot when the offer is stable.

What a phone does very well

A recent phone, at the right time of day, gives very good results. Three rules are enough:

• Daylight, never the flash. Put the subject facing a window, not with their back to it. Outdoors, avoid the full midday sun: the end of the day is more flattering.
• Clean up the frame. The trailing cable, the cardboard box, the bin. Cleaning the background does more for a photo than any filter.
• Frame wide and horizontal. You can always crop in, never out. A vertical photo does not fit in a site banner.

Keep the original files: a screenshot of a photo, or an image that has been round WhatsApp three times, arrives beyond saving.

The brief to give the photographer

The difference between a useful shoot and a pretty one comes down to what is asked for beforehand. Six lines are enough:

1. What the images are for — site, Google profile, social networks — and in which formats.
2. Three compulsory images (for example: the frontage with the sign legible, the team, a finished job).
3. One very wide, horizontal image for the top of the home page, with empty space on one side: that is where the text will sit.
4. The style: two or three examples of sites you like, which is worth more than a page of adjectives.
5. The rights: unlimited web use over time, and in writing.
6. The delivery: original files at full resolution, plus a lightened version for the web.

That last point matters: 8 MB images delivered as they are onto a site make it slow, and a slow site loses visitors. We systematically resize and compress what our clients send us, but it is better to start from the right files.

How much to spend on it

• Portrait only — CHF 150 to 400 for an hour. Worth doing as soon as your face is your offer.
• Half a day on site — CHF 400 to 800. Enough for a shop, a salon, a practice.
• Full day — CHF 900 to 1,500. Justified when several services or several locations have to be covered.

A useful benchmark: if your site costs CHF 500 and your photos CHF 1,200, that is not absurd — in visual trades, the photography works harder than the layout. The reverse is sometimes more so.

If your visual identity is being redone at the same time (logo, colours, variants), this is the right moment: that is what the Branding pack is for, and it avoids photographing a sign you are going to change three months later.