Documenting the design process — photography for designers

Johan Heikensten
Nov 7 · 9 min read

After multiple workshops and talks for designers, on how to improve the photography skills in design studios, I decided to write an article with useful tips and tricks for design research, workshops and culture documentation.

  1. Light, how to use it to your advantage
  2. Compositions, 5 simple ways to make your photos look better
  3. In the field, what to think about before and during your sessions
  4. A simple portrait, quick guide to a nice portrait

The light — It’s everywhere, just start looking

Photography is all about light. No light — no photo. Try to start noticing the light around you. How it falls on the person across from you, the way it reflects off the water … These are things that can either help or ruin your picture.

Light has different temperatures

Do you have a lamp near by? If so, it probably casts a yellow light, but if you look outside it’s a more of a blue light. Most light has different temperature, this can both be your friend and your enemy.

Having a lot of different coloured light in a picture usually means a lot of extra post-work. If the natural light is ok, turn off all the other lights.

The picture above looks normal, but it’s been worked on a lot in post. bellow you can see the four different types of light that exists in the picture.

Once you start seeing the differences in temperature you can start using it to your advantage and create effects with it.

If you place a person in a warm room with a window behind them you get a blue light effect (or in this case a yellow light from the phone)

The sun and the golden hour.

The sun is not your friend. In general direct sunlight makes for very hard-contrast, rough pictures. If you have to take pictures outside, try to do it in the shade, or if you can plan, do it around the golden hour (those hours of soft light after dawn and before dusk). This will make for a way nicer softer light.

The absent of light can focus your picture

There is usually light around even if you don’t think so. Don’t always rely on the flash, use the existing light instead. You might be surprised by the nice effect it can create.

Even small light-sources like a cell-phone or the moon light from a window can be used.

Compositions — Your friend Fibonacci

I’m going to go through 6 simple composition rules. There are plenty of other ones, but if you follow these, there’s a big chance that your picture will look a little bit nicer. (Unfortunately there won’t be that many work pictures because of the NDA:s)

1. Rule of thirds

This is one the most classic composition rules. The idea here is to divide the image into thirds, then you place the important element(s) on one or multiple of these lines. This is a very well used method because the human eye is automatically drawn these points.

If you feel like you need help with this, most cameras even have a rule of third setting to help guide the users. This could be helpful in the beginning, but once you’ve taken a couple of pictures you will do it automatically.

Photo: Mary F Calvert, unknown, Marek Levák, Bench Accounting & me

2. Symmetry

Symmetrical photos stand out because humans are drawn to visually harmonious photos. To make this work you want to create an almost perfectly symmetrical picture. This will make the viewer want o look at the picture longer, trying to understand the patterns of it.

You can use symmetry by placing your elements in a symmetrical environment or place your element in the middle and work your way out.

Photo: Gabriel Beaudry, Adam Ferguson, me, Olive Cole & me

3. Framing

Framing is when you use the environment to frame the important element(s) of the picture. This can be obvious frames, like windows and arches, or it can be elements that are less obvious like branches and people.

There will be plenty of opportunities to use framing. For workshops you can use all the people and in interviews and testing session doors and windows are easy targets.

Photo: me, Diksha Kajaria, Rainier Ridao, me & Hiva Arvizu

4. Leading lines

Here you use lines that catch the viewer’s eyes and help guide them to the important element(s) of the picture. This can be physical lines or any elements that naturally draws your eye.

It’s hard to give very tangible examples of leading lines in the settings you will be working in since it’s such an environment dependent composition. Just look around when you work and you will find things that you can use.

Photo: Craig Golding, me, Warren Wong, Daniel Berehulak & Tyler Nix

5. Depth

Photographs are 2D by nature, using elements at different depths in your image will help it feel more alive.

In a work setting, this can be used to show multiple groups working at different workshop stations or to show the the size of your studio with people working in different places. But you can also use the technique by putting an interviewer in the foreground to show that it’s an interviewing session.

Photo: Paul Hansen, Linkedin, me, Edan Cohen & Arturo Rodríguez

6. Isolate

To create focus you isolate the element(s) with a shallow depth of field. The blurry background helps the viewer find the focus point. Another way to create the effect is to use space around the element(s)

This is a particularly useful technique for shooting portraits, but can also be used, to show that important elements in your session, like post-it or to highlight an interaction in a user testing. I tend to use this for close-ups in cases where your subject has to be anonymous.

Nik McMillan, me, Milkovi, Erik Lucateri, & me

In the field — what to think about

The most common mistake most designers and design-researchers do when taking picture, is to not prepare. They don’t get familiarised with the camera or don’t create a check-list for what pictures they need.

Learn how the camera works and prepare what photos you need!

1. A dynamic camera-roll

I don’t know how many times I’ve put together client presentation, realising that all the pictures from the workshop or the user-testing session looks exactly the same. When you do a job you need to be sure that you come back with a variety of images. Try to create a story with your photos. Have a look at World Press Photo, you can find some amazing stories there that might inspire you.

Checklist (for dynamic camera-roll):

  1. Portrait, dare to get close
  2. Interaction with people, capture emotions
  3. Interaction with object, what is happening
  4. Interiors, how does the place feel like
  5. Close-ups, what are the details you see
  6. Environments, zoom out, where was it
Just an example of how you can quickly capture the feeling of a studio in a couple of min.

That’s a basic checklist, but I’m going to add two more potential points:

7. The spacer image. I always try to take pictures that have a lot of empty space in them for presentations, so you can put text on the image

8. Play around. Once you have covered the check-list play around with the camera. The world (or maybe the workshop in this case) is your playground. Have fun!

Play with the shutter speed, use reflections or try to find a new angle.

2. Always have a designated photographer

It’s easy to decide that everyone should take pictures during your workshop. This will, 9 times out of 10, lead to a bad selection of photos. Have one person in charge, to keep the check-list (above) in mind.

3. Get the people to trust you

Colleagues tell me they don’t want to get close to people because of the risk of disturbing them in an interview or workshop setting. Most people you would take pictures of in a work setting aren’t used to having a camera in their face. My tip; do it like if you were training a police dog to loud noises.

  1. Take many pictures, they’ll get bored of the camera after a while.
  2. Work your way outwards and in.
  3. Make sure, to make a point, that you take pictures of other things than the subject. That way they get used to the sound of the camera
  4. Explain that you’re documenting a process and most pictures won’t be used.

An simple way to take a nice portrait

Testimonial portraits are quite common in the industry, but a lot of the time they don’t look that great. And it’s understandable. The art of mastering portraits can take forever, but if you’re in a crunch time, there’s a simple way you can get a pretty nice picture in just three steps.

  1. Use the natural light from a window and place the person in a 45 degree angle to the window. That way you will get close to a model light without weird shadows.
  2. Set the camera on widest aperture. Using a high aperture puts all the focus on the person.
  3. Last, but not least. Make sure that the focus is on the eye!
The image on the left I took just now, to prove the point. It literally took me seconds to take a decent portrait with my phone.

That’s it!

Hope it can help to make you just a little bit more efficient next time you need to take some pictures in a crunch time.

Johan Heikensten

Written by

Freelancing Design and strategy consultant. Previously at companies like frog, Spark, Acne and Saatchi Saatchi.

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