Photography is our most powerful tool
It brings experience to life across our brand.
Our approach is immersive, has an intentional point of view, and is stylized bringing forward the expressive heart of our brand.
Our photography should provide an authentic look into real moments between individuals and their surroundings across university life: portraits, campus life, academic, experience, and research.
Immersive
There’s a deeply engaging quality to Northeastern photos, allowing you to experience a distinct moment. Plan for images that can illustrate a concept or that show something unique to the subject or Northeastern.
Intentional point of view
Our bold photos draw you in, offering opportunities to interact with other brand elements. To tell the story clearly, use images with a strong focal point. An image can draw the viewer’s eye and evoke a feeling or idea.
Stylized
When possible, images should be bold with exaggerated color, have artful detail, or unexpected extremes of scale.
Follow these guidelines to help create the strongest brand photos in any setting.
Best practices
Event documentation
While events can vary drastically in terms of lighting, content, and mood, there are a few core brand tenets that can be applied to any environment.
The right moment
Northeastern photography is about capturing a moment in time—show the spirit of the event, rather than exhaustively documenting every facet of it.
An environment of creativity
Show the details that make this event unique and will immerse the viewer in the experience. Find exaggerated color, areas of high contrast, and look at things in a new way—try an unexpected angle, or add depth by framing your subject with other elements. There are inherently many different points of views at events—try to show a few.
Focus
What stands out from the crowd, perhaps literally? A focal point or main character implies a narrative and draws a viewer in quickly. Expand upon the concept of contrast and show a single person or experience against the backdrop of the event; make it specific, not general.
Lectures and speaking events
Give a sense of place and tell a story about what’s happening-the accomplished scholars, artists, partners and alumni who are present.
We must have permission to use images taken in lecture settings unless this part of an event where sigange is posted. See Contracts and Consent for more information.
Portraits
Use colorful, saturated images of students, faculty, and staff in action. Use environments as shorthand, showing the viewer what work this person does and the experiential nature of our brand. Labs, classrooms, or offices put the subject in context, and add appealing details to the background.
Candid
- If possible, capture candid interactions with colleagues, peers, or the environment around them.
- Embrace candid, expressive facial expressions.
- Keep an eye out for solid, plain backgrounds to eliminate distractions.
Posed
Mimic the spirit of a candid photo and engage the subject in conversation to produce a natural, relaxed expression.
For more structured, posed shoots, look for a background with color or interesting details. Hold a gel filter over part of the lens to add color to a portion of the image.
Using stock imagery
When needed, stock imagery can be sourced Adobe Stock. Look for photos that feature wide-angle perspectives, high contrast, and saturated color to match our brand style. Ideally, they should feel graphic and slightly stylized.
Some stock photography inherently feels like stock. Try to avoid these images and choose others that are more unique.
Access photos by our staff photographers
Use credentials to access photos on the Digital Repository Service. Use photo credits when featuring these images in your content.
Policies
Digital Repository Service
The Digital Repository Service is a comprehensive database of Northeastern photos accessible only to full-time Northeastern staff and faculty. Log in with your myNortheastern credentials then start your image search.
Click on the image thumbnail or the image title to view more details, including caption information, photographer credit, and usage restrictions. You can download images at Small (600px wide), Large (1400px wide), or Master (full-resolution) sizes. You can also check the box next to the desired size and add the image to a download queue. All images in your download queue can be saved as a compressed ZIP file.
Please direct questions about the repository to Sarah Sweeney, head of digital production services.
Contracts and Consent to Photograph or Record
Members of the news media and external organizations are prohibited from taking photos, audio, video, or other recordings on our main campus or global locations without first receiving approval from Unviersity Communications. Please call 617.373.5471 or email [email protected].
In addition, media or external organizations that plan to photograph, film, or otherwise record members of the Northeastern community must first ask the subject(s) to sign a consent form. Download the consent form here.
Contracts
Departments and colleges that hire freelance photographers or videographers must coordinate with the Office of the General Counsel and complete a contract. The contract includes the language “work for hire,” which stipulates that Northeastern University is the owner of all material.
Consent
Before taking photos or videos of specific or identifiable individuals, photo/video professionals must obtain the subject’s permission to capture and use the image. Individuals can provide a broad scope of permission using this consent form.
According to the Office of the General Counsel, photo/video professionals must obtain signed consent forms to take photos, audio, or video in private settings, such as classrooms and other areas not open to the public. If the event is a gathering of many people, the photographer or videographer can post “Photographer/Videographer/Audio Recording in Area” signs at entrances in lieu of consent forms. Consent forms are not required for images captured outdoors or in other public spaces. However, please ask permission when possible.
Photo Credits
All photos, including those by freelancers and provided by The Associated Press, Getty, iStock, and other stock houses, require a photo credit alongside the image, at the end of a caption, or in the case of print the publication’s masthead. For example:
Photo/Associated Press
Photo/Getty
All photos by Northeastern photographers must have the following photo credit:
Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University
Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
Technical Guidelines
High-quality photography conveys professionalism, polish, and the power of Northeastern’s brand.
Resolution requirements
For print: 300dpi (JPG, TIFF, CMYK mode)
For web: 72dpi (JPG, RGB mode)
For video: recommended minimum of 150 dpi