Our in-house photographer documents life on campus while supporting colleagues with photographic projects of relevance to the wider university.
The university’s in-house photographer supports the strategic goals of the Marketing and External Relations Directorate, such as student recruitment and raising brand awareness.
Their focus is on photographing life across the university, producing on-brand images suitable for a wide range of marketing collateral. They also support departments and faculties with their own projects if the photographs taken will be of general use.
Collaborations with the wider university include projects such as:
- Events of strategic importance to the university, including Open Days and welcome weeks
- Marketing campaigns
- Stock imagery for our website, strategic reports, and university-wide initiatives
- Photos of our campus facilities for student recruitment.
Given the size of the university and its breadth of activities, our in-house photographer cannot accept every request for support. Priority is given to projects that align with the directorate’s strategic goals and where the photos produced will have multiple uses. Team capacity is also an important factor, so please provide as much notice of your project as possible.
The content and brand team can help you find a freelancer if needed. Our freelancers work on external and internal/department-only projects with no wide strategic importance and where the photos taken won’t be of general use.
See below for more information on outsourcing your project.
Creating appropriate content
All photographs taken should be in the university house style, as set out in the brand identity guidelines. This means, for instance, that photographs of people should feel real, warm and honest. Shots of locations, both on and off campus, should capture the sites’ energy and atmosphere.
Whether your project involves a carefully staged shoot with choreographed models or spontaneous photography at a live event, the more planning you do, the more successful the photos are likely to be.
Working together
Responsibilities for the shoot are divided between the client and the content and brand team.
The person who commissioned the shoot in the department or faculty will act as the lead project manager. It is their responsibility to:
- Provide a brief and communications plan (messaging, channels, format, etc)
- Source any students or staff needed as models
- Organise schedules
- Book locations – this should be done at least two weeks before the shoot (allow additional time where Old Royal Naval College and library permissions are required)
- Obtain consent forms
- Circulate photography disclaimers before and during the event.
The content and brand team must:
- Notify those appearing in the video about the dress code
- Provide advice on locations, if required
- Set up and put away equipment at the photography shoot
- Create risk assessments
- Edit images
- Supply images.
Requesting photographic support
You must submit your request via Brand Centre, the university’s digital library, or by completing our photography brief template and sending it to content@gre.ac.uk if you don’t have a Brand Centre profile.
Before you submit a request for photographic support, please check out our content and brand guides, particularly those on the following:
- The types of projects we can and can’t support
- The process for working with our designers
- Estimated notification and turnaround times.
Once you’ve read these, if you are still unsure if we can support your project, don’t potentially waste time creating your brief or Brand Centre submission. Instead, please contact us at content@gre.ac.uk.
You must supply a comprehensive brief as it will enable our in-house photographer to understand your needs and accurately schedule your job. Please supply as much detail as possible, including your project objectives and expectations, and how the images will be ultimately used (channels and formats).
An incomplete brief can lead to misunderstandings and delays, meaning that the photographer may be unable to meet the agreed deadline. In some circumstances, if the request is incomplete, we will ask you to resubmit it.
Important note: your brief must be reviewed by all stakeholders and approved by your line manager/director via email. You must send the approval email to us with your brief. This will help ensure a streamlined process and reduce the risk of disruption.
Outsourcing your photography project
If you want to outsource your photography project, please contact content@gre.ac.uk and we will recommend a photographer based on your requirement.
Freelance photographers must follow our house style. As the client, it is your responsibility to ensure that they are fully briefed and can adopt this.
Our media agreement must be signed by the freelance photographer and either yourself or another appropriate university representative. Once signed, please send a copy to content@gre.ac.uk.
Please ensure that the agreement includes a ‘licence in perpetuity’. This will enable you to use the images indefinitely, as long as you stay within the agreed terms, and means you won’t have to spend money later on potentially costly renewals.
For more on outsourcing your photography project, see our guide.
Downloading university images
You can download images in the following ways:
- Click on the ‘Find a photo/video’ link in Brand Centre to search with tags, key words and subject-specific folders
- Explore Brand Centre’s curated folders with selected images of people and buildings and campuses.
- Visit our internal brand toolkit, which has a selection of some of our most popular university-related images.
Please bear in mind that some images may have specific permissions and usage restrictions.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, please contact us at content@gre.ac.uk.
Uploading images on Brand Centre
As we have limited storage space on Brand Centre, we can only upload images that will be of use across the university. We also can’t accept any images that are not on-brand.
To request an upload of your images, see our step-by-step guide.
Feedback
We always strive to improve the information we provide. If you think something is missing from this page, please let us know at content@gre.ac.uk.