Want better photos of you public speaking?
- tawfiqabdulaziz
- May 5
- 3 min read
Let's paint the context -- You were just the keynote speaker at an event, and everything went great. Your energy and message connected with the audience and the organization. But you get the photos back and your face isn’t captured quite right. Your mouth is open, skin scrunched up in odd places, eyes are wide, you have dark shadows, there’s a mic in front of your face blocking your nose...the list goes on.
If this is you, or you are wanting to prevent this from being you, follow a few of these tips to increase the likelihood of you getting great photos when you speak.
Tip #1 - Identify the photographer(s)
Knowing who the photographers are is important, because now you know who to look for when you’re on stage speaking. You also want to collect their contact information.
Photographers are usually at 3 main angles to the stage.
Those are:
12 o’clock - straight ahead of you (this where the mic can be in-front of your face in the picture)
9 o’clock - off to your left at a 45 degree angle
3 o’clock - off to your right at a 45 degree angle
(There are more positions photographers can and will be at, but those 3 angles will cover everything you need captured.)
Now that you know who to look for, and the general angles to use, we can get into finer details.
Tip #2 - Move the mic from in front of your face when public speaking.
When you get to the venue, take a moment to find out at what position the mic needs to be positioned for you to be heard, and seen. Sometimes microphones can obstruct your face when speaking. To help alleviate this issue, during your mic check, see if you can position it in such a way that it reduces or eliminates being right in the way.
Tip #3 - Pacing your speech makes better photos.
How does pacing your speech help you get better photos when speaking? It’s simple really.
Most speakers talk and talk and talk and talk, and rarely ever use silence as a technique in their speech. Silence is powerful at the end of a pointed statement. It’s at those moments where the audience is absorbing your words, eyes are affixed to your position, and breath hangs.
It is during that silent moment, you look to ANY of those 3 angles, and pause.
*Click
Depending on the context of your speech, you might be smiling, you might be serious, or pensive, etc. Use the face that fits the emotion of your words. The key here is to feel the pace of the speech and pause.
Tip #4 - Actually get the photos after your speech.
The job isn’t done until you’ve retrieved the images. Simply reach out to your client and request the photos. Since we also know the photographers, we can contact them and look to receive their permission to access the photos.
Keep in mind that neither your client nor the photographer are obligated to give speakers the photos. Generally, most people are willing to share. If you run into issues, consider hiring your own photographer to follow you at your events.
And that’s it.
That’s how you can consistently grow your archive of great speaking photos. Very simple things that add very little extra work to your current process.
If you want to get more out of your photos, reach out to Original Studios. We are always down to talk.
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