BUILDING A TEAM | Team Members

DEFINITIONS

Creative collaborations can inspire and transform your work. Cultivate relationships with people you admire—and whose work resonates with you—that you can add to your team.

Subject, talent, or model(s). These are the muses that inspire and inject life and story into a given piece. They must look right for the story you are trying to tell. It’s important that, either through direction or on their own, they are able to move and pose in ways that are natural and expressive, with engaging facial expressions. Discovering and/or casting the right talent for a shoot is an art form all its own, whether it’s documenting someone’s life; making a portrait; creating a character for a constructed narrative; re-creating a lifestyle scenario; or shooting a fashion, beauty, or glamour image, an advertisement, or a fine art study.

Art director. This team member is responsible for the visual style of the image(s). The art director creates the overall design, concept, or idea, and provides direction to the photographer to develop the photograph.

Producer. This team member is responsible for all the logistics and organization of a production shoot from start to finish: the pre-production, planning, casting, crew hires, equipment rentals, scheduling, travel, permits/access/permissions, paperwork, contracts, budget, management and problem solving on set, and coordination with post-production.

Fixer. This person is local to an area and well-connected in the community. S/he makes introductions and provides access for photographers. A fixer is typically a member of a team for documentary and journalistic work.

Assistant. This team member is responsible for all the photographic equipment, lighting gear, setup, settings, and breakdown. If you have a few crew members, this job may expand to other areas where assistance is needed in digital tech, set building, prop styling, etc.

Digital tech. This team member is responsible for all the digital aspects of the shoot—running the computer system tethered to the camera; confirming the viability of files (checking for sharpness, exposure, color correcting, and other issues); importing, naming, organizing, and backing up all digital files; and retouching and making adjustments to present files for review with the photographer and/or clients.

Location scout. This person finds and secures an appropriate location for a shoot. The scout typically has a database of potential locations and relationships with the managers of those locations. The scout may travel in advance to a destination to “scout” possible locations for the photo shoot to take place.

H&M (hair and makeup) artists. These people are responsible for hair and makeup of the talent—at times, this is the same person, especially if the budget is low. You can also have manicurists on set, especially for shoots where the talent’s hands or feet are featured.

Wardrobe stylist. This is the person who is responsible for selecting/pulling the clothing and accessories for the shoot, styling the complete looks, and dressing the talent. The stylist should also ensure that the clothing has no issues while being photographed, such as wrinkles or straps showing. If necessary, the stylist also provides all the details of the clothing for credits.

Set stylist/set designer/set dresser/set builder. This team member is responsible for sourcing or building and arranging the set pieces on location or in a studio that make up the background of the photograph. This team member can be the same person as the prop stylist.

Prop stylist. This team member is responsible for sourcing or building and arranging the props used in a photo shoot.

Retoucher. This person digitally enhances or alters photographs to outlined specifications, typically in Adobe Photoshop or another photo-editing software.

You have a few ways to research and find team members. You can learn about them through word-of-mouth recommendations from others in the industry and from portfolio websites or social media profiles, agencies, and directories such as LinkedIn, Model Mayhem, or Behance (sites vary in the quality of work and talent). You can also look through the credits of editorials you admire in order to learn the names of the team members, and then contact them through their websites or agents.

Be a good judge of character when selecting people to work with. Don’t undervalue the importance of good set etiquette and professionalism among your team. Technical and creative talent are, of course, valuable, but people need to work well with others—with so much going on, the last thing you want is your work to be compromised when personality clashes materialize on set.