Picture perfect
Memory forming moments.
For our imagery to capture the kind of moments that make up our unique P&O Cruises holiday experience, these aren’t just generic holiday shots, but moments that stay with you forever. Every image is an opportunity to capture these moments, both big and small, which together capture the eclectic, life-changing nature of a cruise holiday.
Through a warm, premium reportage style, our imagery will capture a myriad of P&O Cruises holiday moments in an aspirational way. Moments of charm and wit help give an authentic feel to our visual world to help emotionally connect with the viewer, whilst avoiding the category conventions of more polished travel photography. Where possible, we should push for these human touches, even if we’re showing food.
How our images should look
Images should be natural, immersive scenes drawing you into the moment with the focus on people and their interactions with each other and/or P&O Cruises crew.
Lighting should be natural but also enhance the scene. Avoid harsh strobes and artificial lighting – imagine a more cinematic style that brings the moment to life.
Avoid over-enhancing or exaggerating colours as this looks fake and misleading. Warm, welcoming tones convey joy and fulfillment. People should be actively engaged with one another, whether through activity, conversation or just feeling the moment.
Capturing an unexpected moment
Sharing a laugh
Creating moments that matter
Meticulously prepared food
Just being together
Crafting the perfect cocktail
Indulging in what you love
Perfect details
Perfect service
Discovering something new
Making new friendships
Waving goodbye to the stresses of daily life
Capturing our crew
Our photography focuses on the care and attention the P&O Cruises crew take and the passion they have for creating an unforgettable holiday for our guests. When photographing our crew, we want to paint us as sociable hosts, warm and friendly, and delivering exceptional service.
Selfie style images
Our imagery should capture moments and feel authentic. Avoid imagery that looks directly at the camera as we don’t want it to feel staged or posed. The only caveat to that is the selfie – our guests love sharing selfies on social media and so this is also an important part of our photography approach. Again, it must feel natural, authentic and be about the moment.
As a general rule for using selfie-style images, they should be immersive, convey adventure and/or capture a stunning background/landmark.
How we do it
The quality of our photography plays an important role in ensuring our comms remain consistent and on-brand. Use the examples opposite to help you decide what makes a worthy image.
Not every image will work successfully across all channels and range of formats. Some images that work well in a large environment (e.g. in travel agent posters or press ads), may not work well in smaller spaces (e.g. digital display).
Careful consideration should be given to selecting and using photography in these small digital spaces.
On brand
Natural expressions
Trying new things
Crafting great food
Sharing an intimate moment
What to avoid
Seen it before
Lifeless, no story
Posed
Disconnected, posed
How we choose destination shots
Images should be natural, immersive scenes that capture a rich sense of discovery – experiencing new places, people and cultural elements. Lighting should be natural but also enhance the scene – imagine a more cinematic style that brings the destination to life.
Look for images with natural tones and a realistic appearance. We want our guests to feel as though they are right there in the moment. Colour grading should be minimal and only applied to give the image a more premium feel. Warm tones are preferred as they convey joy and fulfillment.
Avoid over-enhancing or exaggerating colours and clichés – this looks fake and like we might be trying to pull the wool over our guests’ eyes. For location specific images, find a unique or new viewpoint for well-known places to offer a fresh perspective and differentiate ourselves from the competition. Don’t use images of locations we don’t travel to. Look for authentic moments of discovery and cultural aspects of the countries on our itineraries.
Interesting location features
Iconic landmarks
Alluring shopping details
Dramatic scenes
Authentic people and culture
Different viewpoints in a city
Local nature and wildlife
Cultural and architectural details
Tantalising food details
Style details
Scenic views that capture the location
Entertainment details that convey the culture
Showing our British heritage
As Britain’s favourite cruise line, we’re proud to design holidays for our British guests. We use ship photography where you can see the ship’s livery and the union jack colours to nod to our British heritage. There will always be a time and place for destination imagery or ship imagery and the job our creative needs to do.
