20 Step Architectural Photography Planning Checklist for Design Firms

I've been shooting architecture long enough to know that most problems on a shoot started days earlier. Weeks earlier. Someone didn't share the shot list. Nobody called the guy who has keys to the building. The building wasn't actually finished. These aren't occasional disasters, they're Tuesday. The same handful of issues that come up over and over. To try to get in front of them, I use a checklist. This is a version of that checklist, but tailored for the client side. If you're a marketing director, project manager, or anyone coordinating a shoot on behalf of a design firm, this is the stuff I wish every client had dialed in before I showed up. Twenty steps, organized roughly in the order you'd encounter them, from initial setup through the days before the shoot.

Identify All Participants

We're starting with the assumption that you've got a photographer on board and you're moving forward. The next step is to contact the other firms involved in the project who might need photography. This could be the developer, general contractor, landscape architect, interior designer, furniture dealer, engineer, and so on. Including all parties in a shared licensing agreement from the outset lowers costs and ensures everyone gets what they need. I once shot a project where I thought the client had reached out to everyone. It turned out a close friend of mine was the marketing manager for one of these firms, but neither of us knew the other was on the project until after the fact. We didn't have useful shots for her.

Determine End Use

How the final images will be used? Marketing, awards, advertising, archives - each requires subtle differences in compositional approach. I personally care about knowing end uses because it helps me pre-visualize. If I know images are going on social media, I will shoot looser to allow for square cropping. If you're match shooting renderings at 16x9, I need to think about that aspect ratio and leave space accordingly. Industry-specific awards like landscape, lighting, or adaptive reuse have different emphasis areas. Advertising is a different animal. Way more expensive. It requires property and model releases and extended licensing, which can cost multiples of standard rates. Good to know that going in.

Licensing and Usage Rights

When you commission photography, you're buying a license to use the images in specific ways. Most photographers provide licenses that are non-transferrable and define who can use the images, where, and for how long. Other arrangements exist like work-for-hire or copyright buyouts, but those are less common. Advertising usage typically requires licensing beyond standard portfolio and marketing rights. Not necessarily the most enthralling subject, but the main thing is to get licensing terms in writing before the shoot so everyone's clear on what's included. The ASMP Paperwork Share contains many examples of licensing agreements to use as starting points.

Access, Insurance, and Clearances

Confirm whether the site requires a certificate of insurance (COI), special access codes, parking restrictions or street closures, drone authorization (LAANC), or has union requirements. I once lost a big hotel shoot because I couldn't produce a COI with high enough coverage in the short time frame required. Hotels don't mess around with this. Drone regulations are sneaky inconsistent. I've scrapped planned drone shots because of unforeseen manufacturer geofencing in areas I thought were clear. New York City has specific citywide drone restrictions that no other American city has. Union sites have their own particular rules. Don't go changing a lightbulb at McCormick Place. Ask the owner directly if the photographer needs to furnish a COI. Double-check drone regulations even when you think you know the answer.

Share Project Documentation

Provide renderings, floor plans, reference photos, and any other available project documentation. Without it, there's no way to align on the mission. The planning process involves marking up floor plans with shot locations and fields of view. These can be matched to renderings if they exist, so everyone knows which areas are being covered. If something important is missing or something unimportant is getting too much attention, it shows up on the tagged floor plan before the shoot. Not part of the process I would advise skipping.

In-Person Site Visit

Coordinate a pre-shoot site visit with the property owner, building manager, or whoever controls access to the site. Schedule a time that works for everyone involved. I was recently on one where construction in the lobby was still incomplete, two weeks before the shoot. Felt more like doing a punch walk. Landscape issues come up constantly, usually from lack of maintenance or plants being put in too early. There's always something. A site visit creates accountability and prevents post-shoot requests for angles nobody ever discussed. It also lets you create or refine the shot list based on in-person experience. The site visit and shot list are the two most important planning steps, and they inform each other.

Decision-Makers and Contact Info

Identify the person representing ownership who can authorize site access. They need to provide confirmation that includes shoot dates, times, and approved access areas. Share contact information for both the decision-maker and anyone who will be on-site facilitating access. A common issue is on-site contacts not being fully briefed about what they're there to do. I've been on a dawn shoot where we needed the building's interior lights on for the hero shot, but the on-site contact didn't show up. We had to call around mid-shoot trying to find someone to let us in so we could turn on the interior lights. Barely got it done in time. 

Delivery Expectations and Timeline

Agree on deliverables and timeline before the shoot. The standard file format is high-resolution JPEG. Unless you're printing billboards, you don't need TIFFs. If you are, say so. This will vary between photographers, but my typical turnaround is one week for proofs, client approval, then two weeks for final retouched images. If there's a hard deadline like an award submission, flag it early. Speedy turnarounds may not be possible, or they may come with rush fees. These are the kind of administrative details that start misunderstandings and sour an otherwise good working relationship. Settle it up front and move on.

Contract and Deposit

Get a signed contract and deposit in place before work begins. The contract covers scope, deliverables, usage rights, payment terms, cancellation policy, and timeline. None of this is news, but it's the kind of thing that's easy to keep pushing off while the more interesting planning work moves forward. Preliminary conversations happen, the shot list starts taking shape, dates are suggested. Suddenly everyone's working on a handshake. Lock down the paperwork so both sides can focus on the creative work without unresolved legalities hanging over it. A deposit is standard practice, typically a percentage of the total estimate, applied to the final bill.

Time of Year

Timing matters more than people think. The angle of the sun changes dramatically across seasons, and a north-facing building might only get full illumination for four or five months of the year. In dense urban environments there's often a Stonehenge effect. Direct light hits certain facades only during narrow windows that slide through the seasons. Landscape can shift coverage too. Fully grown trees can completely obscure a facade or key view in summer that would be wide open in early winter. I'm working on a project that is a north-facing building where the landscape has been maturing for three years. The plan is to shoot it in full during the summer and again in fall to show planting seasonality. That kind of coordination takes lead time. Not always to that extreme, but it's good to have a conversation about timing and factor in what the light and landscape are actually doing, not just what's convenient on the calendar.

Shot List

There needs to be a shot list, and both the photographer and client need to have a hand in creating it. If you have specific angles or details you need, write it down, discuss it. I've flown back to out of town projects because the client had an internal shot list they never shared with me. Nobody was happy. So make a list and organize it by priority. There are the must-have shots, the nice-to-haves, and discretionary extras. If you need 35 specific views, provide that level of detail. The clearer you are about priorities, the less likely you'll be looking at proofs going "where's the vertical vignette of the junior executive suite?"

Personnel and Models

Decide whether or not people will appear in the images, and if so, how many and who. They could be members of participating firms, employees, students, or passers-by. Do you want to show scale, utility, circulation? Or concentrate on form with minimal human presence? If people are part of the plan, you need to coordinate and schedule them. Their time needs to be respected, so have them lined up before the shoot day. The approach to people in images has an outsized effect on final output, so make this decision early and be clear about it.

Traffic and Parking

Assess whether street traffic or parked cars will be visible in exterior shots, and if so, whether that's acceptable or needs to be managed. Options include coordinating with security or police for temporary restrictions, requesting no-parking permits, arriving early to place cones, or adjusting the schedule to minimize traffic. Removing cars in post-production is a last resort and more costly than planning around the issue.

Magic Hour

If you're going to shoot at magic hour, around dawn or dusk, arrange building access and interior lighting control in advance. The photographer has 30, maybe 40 minutes to work with, and the light changes fast. I usually plan for three or four variations of a similar idea, or camp out on one composition and get it perfect. Either way, there needs to be a game plan. I've been on a dusk shoot where we needed a sign to illuminate but nobody knew if it was on a timer. Last minute scramble. On a smoother shoot, I coordinated with a building superintendent over the phone while he cycled through lighting presets. Three sequences in thirty minutes. Tight, but it worked because we talked in detail beforehand. Make sure all interior lights can be turned on, parking areas are clear, and everyone knows the plan before the window starts.

Rain Date and Cancellation

Establish a rain date, particularly for exterior photography. Baseball games are delayed in the rain, and so are exterior shoots. Typically, the photographer makes the decision to postpone because of weather. Interior shoots can proceed in light rain or overcast conditions, but severe, unsafe weather requires a full postponement. Weather-related delays don't typically affect budget, though rescheduling out-of-town shoots may result in additional costs. That said, some inclement weather can be beneficial. A corporate campus in pure driven snow can make for a great image, but that requires planning, luck, and a lot of waiting.

Construction Status

Construction needs to be done before the shoot. Not mostly done, actually done. Check the site a week or a few days out to confirm. I've shown up to projects with dumpsters and debris still scattered outside and construction materials piled up inside. One time, I had to track down a building manager mid-shoot to get someone to haul materials out of rooms while I rearranged the day's schedule. Any trailers, dumpsters, scaffolding, fencing, and temporary signage should be gone. If they're not when you check, reschedule. Cleaning up in Photoshop is possible to an extent, but it shouldn't be Plan A.

Interior Readiness

Work with management, tenants, or housekeeping to ensure all interior spaces are clean and fully furnished before the shoot. Artwork installed, furniture delivered and in place, surfaces cleaned. Windows washed, shades working, monitors with appropriate graphics loaded if needed. Temporary signage removed, books on shelves, clutter cleared. The photographer refines staging on-site, but all desired elements need to be present. I've had to just sit there and wait while workers prepared an entire deck mid-shoot, which of course killed the schedule. If the space isn't ready beforehand, it will be made ready during. At that point you're paying me and my assistant to move clutter and clean surfaces, or even sit around, for hundreds of dollars an hour. Save the money and trouble by providing building staff with a clear task list beforehand. Over the course of a day or two, unnecessary small fixes add up to wasted hours.

Exterior Readiness

Same idea as interior readiness, but outside. Confirm that landscaping is complete and in good condition. Lawn mowed, beds maintained, no dead plants, no equipment or debris on the grounds. Make sure no maintenance is scheduled during the shoot. Once, I arrived to find window washers working the facade the same day. I had to rework my schedule around theirs. If certain areas aren't in good enough shape, those areas can be avoided, or deferred.

Lighting

Lighting is a critical part of architectural design. If it doesn't work or nobody can control it, some shots become impossible. I've scrapped dusk shots of a skyscraper because only half the floors had working lights. In another situation, a ground spotlight was positioned where it ruined a key shot and nobody knew how to turn it off. Luckily I had some duvetyn in the car to drape over it. Better to verify beforehand that all lighting is functioning and controllable. Determine who manages the systems, how timers operate, and whether automated controls can be overridden if necessary.

Disruptions and Conclusion

Check for scheduled disruptions like parades, street fairs, or building maintenance that could interfere with the shoot. But even with thorough planning, things can go wrong. They will go wrong. You've read my examples. Double booked window washers, construction in the lobby two weeks out, nobody knowing how to turn off a spotlight. The difference between a derailed shoot and a manageable inconvenience is how much groundwork was laid before it happened. Most of the problems I've described in this checklist got solved because there was a plan, a contact, or enough flexibility built into the day to absorb the hit. And maybe some luck. Do the planning, it pays off in the long run.

That should bring you right up to the day of the shoot. The unexpected will happen, but when the preparation work is done, you've minimized the decisions that need to be made on the fly. Instead of doing triage, you can focus on solving what actually needs attention. I've created a downloadable PDF version of this checklist if you'd like a reference sheet for your next project. Same twenty steps, simplified descriptions, in a format you can print or share with your team.