The Elysian team — How we build the perfect crew of artists for your photo shoot
Behind every photo shoot is a handpicked crew of creatives who bring their own spark to the vision. It’s a process built on trust, chemistry, and shared ambition. My name is Connor, I’m the owner of Elysian Studios, and here is an inside look at how we build our teams for our projects.
It’s 2025, marketing budgets are being slashed, and brands are spending less on photo shoots than ever before. So it comes as no surprise whenever a client asks me how I can afford to run a commercial photo studio with a team of people behind me. If it were just me, that would be one thing, but I strive to offer my clients more: a diverse team of creatives that deliver in ways I couldn’t do alone.
On face value, it makes no sense how that business model can be viable in the modern content-production industry. Our clients know that our pricing beats any other comparable studio, so how do we do it?
Well, the short explanation is nothing new: We have a diverse team of Elysian-trained freelancers ready to step in when called on. Lots of studios do this, but it requires careful coordination and team-building to do it right. So here’s the longer explanation:
First, why build a team for jobs I could do alone?
When I started this studio in 2020, I was the sole photographer, stylist, editor, designer, and more. There are definitely benefits to running solo and touching every step of the photoshoot process. Since then, however, I chose to let Elysian grow, and I brought other creatives into the process, but why?
Diversity facilitates better content
I’ve overseen and been a part of countless photo shoots, but I’m still just one guy, with one life experience, one perspective on the world, and one creative style. I could ask all my clients to subscribe to that (me), or I could team up with other talented artists with their own unique styles to offer my clients limitless options. I still oversee every project, but without other creatives behind me, Elysian wouldn’t be what it is today.
We can complete larger projects and commit to more
It’s rewarding to complete every aspect of a project or campaign yourself, but it’s slow, can lead to burnout, and you’re limited on the size of the projects you can tackle. The hard truth is that to reach a certain threshold of quality for large brands with high standards, one person can’t do it alone. By working with a team and delegating pieces of each project to artists, they can own their piece and execute better than one person trying to do it all (I’ll expand on this later). The final result is a larger, more cohesive, and more efficient project, allowing us to tackle even more.
Free time never hurts!
When done right, every person added to a team should alleviate work for everyone else. Editing, retouching, infographic design, concepting, styling, and marketing are each unique skillsets that require tons of work to do right, so delegating them lightens the workload for everyone and frees me up to spend more time with clients.
So how do we build a team?
As I said above, the way we operate our studio is by having a diverse team of Elysian-trained freelancers ready to step in when called on when a new project comes through our doors. By “Elysian-trained,” I mean trained in expectations, workflow, and certain tools, like our CRM.
When a project is received and we complete our discovery and pre-planning phase, we will work within the client’s budget to begin assembling a team to execute the project. I’ll estimate all the labor needed and skills required, and begin identifying ideal options for freelancers to collaborate with. This is all done internally; our clients trust us to bring it all together to meet their expectations.
Every selected artist working on a shoot is then briefed on the project. Some are briefed more than others. A stylist, for example, might be involved every step of the way because of their intimate and client-facing involvement in the shoot. A retoucher, on the other hand, might just need a quick conversation to expertly deliver their end of the job.
My role is the art director, overseeing every project that comes through our doors, ensuring I’m still delivering on Elysian’s original promise.
Here are some of the roles we outsource for our diverse range of photo shoots:
Photographers - I still act as the primary photographer for most of our shoots because it’s what I love most. But for our high-volume e-commerce photography (most common), as well as large lifestyle shoots where different styles are needed, we call upon photographers to step in on shoot day.
Stylists - Hiring a stylist for a shoot is extremely common. We are always hiring stylists for makeup, hair, wardrobe, and set styling. This is the most impactful teammate decision for the project, as the choice of a stylist will significantly affect the look and vibe of the production. We are always extremely intentional with the stylists we choose.
Production Assistants - There are many times we just need extra hands on set; transporting gear to a shoot location, setting up, tearing down, prepping product, and an extra set of eyes and ears for catching things that the rest of the team doesn’t.
Editors & Retouchers - Retouchers are, by far, the most common role we delegate to. Every project requires editing/retouching of some kind, and it also tends to take the most time. So bringing in an expert artist to own that entire phase of the project is easily the biggest efficiency in the photo shoot process.
Concepters - It’s rarer that a shoot needs a concept artist, but when a client needs some extra creative brainpower for concepting a vision for their campaign, they are who we call on.
Graphic Designers - The primary role of our graphic designers is to create our product infographics and internal branded content. The expectations for graphic design can vary dramatically from client to client, so having someone who specializes in it is a big help.
VFX & 3D Artists - We are often asked to create product renderings, animations, or virtual sets, and that’s when we call up our 3D artists. We are actually partnered up with a 3D studio that works with us on all of our CGI projects, so there’s an entire team behind the scenes collaborating on your 3D requests.
Website Designers - As Elysian grows to become a more well-rounded marketing agency, we have been tackling some simple web-development projects. For larger websites or advanced coding, we call on help from our web designer.
Digital Marketing Specialists - Elysian has received help throughout the years from external marketing specialists, but more importantly, we strive to offer more marketing solutions to future clients. So having an established network in the marketing industry is invaluable to us.
Every photo shoot we execute is comprised of some combination of those roles listed above. Seeing these projects come together is my favorite part of this job, and the more people involved, the better. Nothing beats a diverse range of styles coming together to create something new.
We hire people better than ourselves.
“It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” - Steve Jobs
What that means to me is to hire people smarter than you. Here’s an example.
I’m a photographer by trade; it’s what I’ve been doing most of my life. When it comes to photography, I consider myself a subject matter expert.
But do you want to know what I’m not an expert in? I’m not a stylist, or a graphic designer, or a web developer, or a 3D artist. I know quite about about those, and through my line of work I’ve learned how to do them, some more than others. But I would never call myself an expert in any of those fields.
But if I surround myself with people who are experts, people who have devoted their lives to their crafts as I’ve devoted mine to photography, that’s when we can really go places. This is my core belief when it comes to outsourcing or delegating jobs for our photo shoots.
When I speak about strength through diversity, this is what I mean. Hiring people who can do things better than I could have ever done is what changed everything for Elysian.
And, of course, how do we afford it?
I saved this part for the end because perhaps to some it’s going too far into the weeds. But it’s important to me to explain how money is transferred when a team is involved, because the biggest question of the transaction is always: Was everyone paid fairly?
It sucks we have to ask that question, but, unfortunately, countless artists are taken advantage of by studios trying to cut corners, and I never want to be a contributor to that. I’d also love for every person I hire to be passionate about just the art, not the money, but the reality is that fair pay is a huge part of an artist’s contributions to a project, and that’s cool with me.
So I handle it very simply: I brief the artist on the project, I ask them what they want to be paid for it, and I pay them exactly that.
The cost is passed directly to the client without an upcharge, and this is transparent to everyone from the beginning. Hiring talent directly correlates to quality and speed, and I make sure our clients know what they’re getting from the added expense of teaming up.
The client gets a high-quality production, and the team gets paid fairly. Win-win.
And I, the studio, simply view the team cost as a NET 0 loss, except it’s more of a gain since I get to witness something awesome get pieced together by a bunch of amazing artists.
Win-win-win.
