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Italiano Visuals are an important component of a crowdfunding campaign. Good quality photos and videos can convince potential donors of your serious intentions. In addition, photos are easier to perceive and remember than text, and potential donors often form their opinion about a project based on photos.
You are sure to get good quality photos, if you hire a professional photographer, but it is not the most cost-effective option. In addition, it is the project founder’s task to find a photo subject and arrange its publication, while a photographer won’t be very helpful in this case. What you have do to get sellable photos and videos? This article offers information on how to shoot both, and it explains when and which way is the best to publish your visuals.
How to choose the subject
A good photo should illustrate your project’s stages or present it in its entirety. Ideally, you should have a series of photos that you take as the project moves forward to show the donors how it progresses.
The first photo should show the outcome you are aiming for. It should demonstrate a gift to the donors. It could be the product’s prototype, a model, a diagram or drawing. At this stage, you want to help potential donors visualize your product and understand how it will work.
At the next stages you need to show how the idea is being implemented. When the project is completed, you can demonstrate the output, and show how you arrange the rewards delivery to the donors.
A common mistake: selfie postings to illustrate your efforts. Yes, it is essential to tell your story to help build donor confidence in your project and yourself. However, you should not replace the project’s story with one about yourself, even if you are the project’s founder. Donors care more about the progress of the project they have donated their money to, than who you are or look like.
The ‘minimum selfies’ rule works for both charitable and commercial projects. In a commercial project, people especially want to see a specific result or information about success and progress. In a charitable project, however, donors hope to see that it has benefited someone in a specific way. That is, people can be photographed with food kits, after successful surgery, etc. The only exception to the selfies rule are projects where you raise money for personal projects. In such a case, you are the project.
How to take good pictures
Unless you’re prepared to use a professional photographer’s services, make sure you produce clear and high resolution photos. Otherwise, users won’t see what you want to demonstrate and this may be perceived as an irresponsible attitude to picture taking. So, it may damage your brand’s reputation.
Professional shots inspire more confidence in users. However, you don’t have to be an experienced photographer to take a good shot. Here are a few tips that will help even a novice to take quality pictures:
- Use a professional camera. It produces better quality pictures than those taken with a smartphone (no matter how good the camera is);
- Take care of lighting. You may have to use extra light fixtures. A picture won’t come out clearly without good lighting, even if you use a professional camera;
- Study the technical aspects. Even a basic knowledge of how to adjust the shutter speed, the focus and the depth of field will greatly improve your pictures;
● Use large images. They will help donors to see the details. If the image weighs too much to upload to the platform, compress the photo on special online services;
● Edit photos as little as possible and try to avoid filters. Such things often damage the photo quality and sometimes even distort the reality.
How many photos to take for the project
It is a huge mistake to publish just one photo. Project founders who post regular updates and inform users about the project’s progress usually raise more funds and also gain donor good will.
At the outset, it is best to post at least five images to enable the donors to get a clear idea of what you want to achieve. The same picture number should accompany the project’s each stage. And keep consistency in mind! People will follow your news more closely if they get used to check for updates at regular intervals. It is best to post photos on specific days of the week and at fixed intervals.
Photos should be posted in a chronological order to make it easier for donors to review them. This also applies to the project description illustrations: images from an earlier period should come first. The images should create your project’s logical and coherent story for potential donors.
The main rule for photographs and other images – try to make sure that they make the right impact on potential donors. If the donors want to gain benefits, show them that your project is trustworthy and that you will deliver on your commitments. If the project is a charitable one, it is a good idea to tell people how important their help is and what positive changes you can achieve together. Photographs and images are a great tool to make your story vivid and compelling. Don’t neglect them!