Great pictures can make or break a campaign — or at least the mail creative. But there are so many variables that factor into getting the right shot.
With that in mind, C&E asked Illinois-based candidate photographer Doug McGoldrick for his best advice for before, during and after shoot day:
C&E: What’s your best advice for having a shoot day go well?
McGoldrick: Have your locations set up [in advance]. That’s something I’ve seen go wrong on shoots. Someone says, ‘Oh, I think I know the guy at this coffee shop, they’ll probably let us shoot there,’ and then they don’t. That wastes a lot of time on the campaign, which is, you know, valuable.
C&E: Is there a candidate fashion trend that you’ve noticed?
McGoldrick: A few years ago, you definitely would’ve had [the candidate] with a tie and the whole sport coat or [a female candidate with] a nice blouse. Very formal looking kind of stuff. Now, hardly anybody is putting on a tie these days. I think people want to look like they’re one of the people. Even the official portrait with the flag, the whole studio lighting set up, that’s really become a thing [for post-election]. You don’t really see that used much in campaign literature now.
C&E: What’s another creative trend you are noticing in campaign photography?
McGoldrick: Women’s rights issues — even if it’s a male candidate, [we’re] really surrounding them with women to show … that they’re supporting women’s rights and that kind of thing.
C&E: Are you finding AI tools are helpful for editing?
McGoldrick: I use [AI] mainly for removing distractions from images. [Adobe] Photoshop has an AI tool now where I could circle a stop sign that’s in the back of a photo and just click generate fill and it’ll remove it. And it looks generally really nice. Every once a while you get like a surprise, like it’ll put a face there or something, but for the most part, it’s a lot quicker than going in with like a cloning tool or a healing brush and trying to get it [cleaned] up by myself.
C&E: How important is it that campaigns build up an image library of the candidate?
McGoldrick: It’s super valuable for candidates. They can have stuff that they can draw on, like a picture [of the candidate at a] kitchen table with, like, a senior couple. I think the biggest thing with any kind of photo shoot day with candidates is really getting their volunteers lined up. I’ve been on a lot of photo shoots where we get to the cafe, or the small business and the volunteers aren’t there, and then we’re scrambling to figure out what to do. So having volunteers lined up, I would say, is almost the most important thing of the whole day.
