Key Aspects

Portraits (if the interview is with two people please make sure to have portraits with both of them in it) , details, interiors, overviews, architecture, surroundings (street, area, out of window, balcony, rooftop, garden, etc.), mobility (how do they get around their city, do they have a cool car/bike/motorcycle?). Editor and FvF take care of guests and set up the meeting date.

Once on location, the editor conducts the interview and “distracts” the guest. Take pictures while they are talking. Walk around and get a feel for  the location. Focus on visuals that you believe are worth capturing. Find design items like chairs, mirrors, cupboards etc.

Technical Details

LowRes Images:

Landscape: 2242 x 1496 px as jpg in 72 dpi (saved and optimized for web); Portrait: 998 x 1496 px as jpg in 72 dpi. Filenaming: Freunde-von-Freunden-guestfirstname-lastname-runningnumber.jpg. Colorprofile: sRGB, not Adobe.

HighRes

Landscape & Portrait: 6141 x 4095 px as tiff in 300 dpi. Freunde-von-Freunden-guestfirstname-lastname-runningnumber.tif Colorprofile: sRGB, not Adobe.
Please keep the running numbers from the camera, EG IMG_5215.jpg, become – Freunde-von-Freunden-Max-Mustermann-5215.jpg

Also, do not include special characters in the naming convention – “Jan Rösler” or “Kasper Løftgaard”.  Instead, please use the expanded versions “Jan Roesler” / “Kasper Loftgaard”. The list of acceptable standard characters is: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789-._

Optional Postproduction in-house available. No retouching of skin or removing of jacks necessary. Keep in mind to back up and archive the originals. A lot of magazines are asking for hi-res pictures and we are planning to publish print too. If you send us the hi-res files along with the jpgs, we will archive the files for you.

Please send us a selection of 100-150 pictures. Rather take more than less pictures! We encourage you to choose landscape format due to our layout, but we like to have  a good selection of vertical shots as well (especially for portraits). Send your photo files via dropbox public link or other big file sending services to [email protected] and [email protected].

Natural Light

No studio lights.  Everything should look natural and authentic. Work with available light. Just use flash if it’s really necessary. Rather push your ISO.

We are not big fans of flash. But if you want to use it go ahead, just do it clean.

Interiors

Find a balance between rooms and details, try different angles. Try to get some room overviews and only use a wide angle lens for room shots if absolutely needed. Shoot as much personal stuff as possible, it‘s easier to cut afterwards. When guests show the team or editor around, please follow and capture the “story”.

Also look for “connecting shots”. They will make it easier to get a dimensional imagination of the apartment.

Portraits

FvF captures the people in their personal surrounding in order to create an authentic and lively portrait of each guest.

We don’t stage our guests, but it’s ok to give them some direction. Focus also on: small gestures and looks while talking to you; pointing at things; making a coffee. Anything that shows real life. Just let it happen. Different shots at different places for the portraits are important as well as various close ups, details and full person shots. Please make sure that you have a good mix of vertical and horizontal portraits.

Details and Close Ups

Apart from portrait and interior shots, we always try to find items that relate to the guest‘s style and taste. This can be clothing, record collections, magazines, books, shoes, anything on shelves or cupboards, furniture, devices, etc.

Neighborhood and Context

Besides the apartment, please get some shots out of the window, of the houses exterior, the neighborhood and surroundings. It’s great if you can take a little walk with the guest and let him/her show you significant spots, so the reader gets a better picture of the city and habitat. If the guest has a cool car, it’s also great to do a little tour of the town with them in the car. Try to find that one picture that describes the whole spread.

Social Media

Social Media is an important part of our approach here at Freunde von Freunden. We post a daily selection on Facebook and Instagram and therefore need strong images, which speak for themselves and have the ability to communicate the whole story. These images might be portraits, interior shots in a visually interesting surrounding or close-up of an interesting detail.

Thanks!