Trade-only previews before a public launch

A trade preview is an early look. Buyers, partners, distributors or selected press see the product before the public does. The photographs from that session are useful, and sensitive, because they come from a moment when the product was not yet public.

This guide belongs to our overview of launch and press-event photography. For launches with unreleased items more generally, see launch events involving unreleased products.

What makes a preview different

A preview has three differences from a public launch. The audience is limited and known. The product may be shown in a form that will change. And the images are restricted for a stated period.

These differences affect everything: who is photographed, what appears in frame and who sees the files. They are best settled in writing before the event.

Define the audience

List who is invited: buyers, distributors, partners, selected media. Decide whether guests are named in captions and whether any prefer not to appear.

Our guide to photographing attendees whose names should not accompany their images covers a related case. Tell guests in the invitation that photography takes place, and let them say if they prefer not to be included.

Decide what product detail is cleared

Trade previews often show near-final versions. Some features, finishes or pricing may still be under review.

Create a list of cleared and not-cleared details. The three-category approach in launch events involving unreleased products works well here. Where price lists, order forms or sales sheets are displayed, ask whether they can appear in photographs at all.

Set the restriction period

A preview has an end to its restriction: the public launch, a press release or a particular date. Until then, images are for approved internal or trade use only.

Write the date and the conditions. Our guide to embargoes and photographs restricted from publication explains how to record them. If the date moves, tell us. We hold files according to the latest written instruction.

Keep preview and launch material apart

It is easy to mix images from two events. A preview image might end up in a public gallery by mistake, or a launch image might be labelled as preview.

We name and sort files by event and date. Our guide to file names, folders and corrected photo versions explains the approach. Our guide to organising delivered photographs by session, activity or participant group is useful when several sessions are delivered together.

Sensitive commercial information

Trade events show information that is valuable to competitors: pricing, volumes, launch dates, partner names. A photograph of a screen or a table can reveal it.

Tell us what to avoid. Our guide to event photographs that show confidential business information lists common risks. For slides and screens, see photography around projected slides and confidential screens.

Linking the preview to the launch

Some brands want a consistent look from preview to public launch. Others want a clear contrast.

If you plan both events, discuss it with us early. Our multi-event photography commission organiser helps you plan the sequence, and our photography brief handover tracker helps pass decisions from one event to the next.

A hypothetical example

Imagine a furniture brand holding a preview for twenty retail buyers, a week before the public launch. Pieces are shown in a showroom, and pricing sheets are on a side table. The brand marks the pricing sheets as not cleared and sets the restriction to end on launch day.

We would photograph the showroom and the presentation, avoid the sheets and deliver to one named person with files marked as restricted until the stated date. This illustrates how a clear restriction protects the launch.

What we confirm

We confirm date, venue, crew, deliverables and quotation in writing, together with the audience, the cleared details and the restriction period. Ask us whether coverage of the public launch can be planned alongside the preview for your dates.