Do you think of commercial photography as an art, or as a science? Or do you consider commercial photography to be simply a business matter?
If you ask a professional and successful creative commercial photographer then the answer is likely to be a very effective combination of all three, since it requires a firm grasp of the science and technology of photography coupled with a sound appreciation of the way businesses need to sell themselves, with a generous helping of creativity and artistic inspiration stirred in for good measure.
If you think that commercial photography is easy, or that anyone could do it, then this is certainly barking so far up the wrong tree that you're in real danger of falling an awfully long way. In terms of business there's only a single letter between fall and fail, and when you're thinking about the impact your assumptions have and your personal approach to the success of the business it's well worth remembering that the letter which makes a difference is 'I'.
But this hasn't stopped a good many businesses from experimenting with taking their own commercial photography images and having a go at marketing their services and products by using in house photographic solutions.
Any successful creative commercial photographer worth his or her salt is hardly likely to be carrying around a digital camera that was bought off the shelf at the local computer store, nor using an old bed sheet, a couple of desk lamps and a wobbly table.
Commercial photography needs to embrace the revolutionary developments in photographic equipment and understanding, as well as a real understanding of how commercial photography works in representing a business, its values, ideals, principles and relevance.
Because it's too easy to assume that a photograph is just a photograph, and that an image of a product is just that. To assume that customers just want a rough idea of what the product looks like is to seriously underestimate and misunderstand the whole business of commercial photography.
Customers today are bombarded with commercial information, adverts, promotions, banners, leaflets, emails, texts, radio and television commercials and messages from businesses on every street corner. Most of this is ignored, which means that a huge amount of advertising revenue is missing the target.
Commercial photography is a field in which missing the target is easy if you don't have a firm understanding of how the business works, and how images can be used effectively to cut through all this noise and engage with a customer. How long do you think the average person spends looking at a commercial photograph of a product, service or business?
If you think it's anything over a few seconds you're very much in the land of wishful thinking, because in most cases its significantly less than one second. That means you have less than one second to get the attention of a potential customer, engage with them, communicate about your company, its values, its quality, and its relevance and provide a good reason for the customer to spend time looking at other related information you have provided such as product descriptions, prices or information about the company.
A creative commercial photographer knows how to achieve all this - do you? Because even if you create a striking image that gets attention, once you have people's attention the next, and perhaps hardest process is ensuring that they receive plenty of positive, relevant information from the image to encourage them to look into your business further.
Any picture will communicate to a customer if they choose to look at it, but what the picture says may not always be what you expect. Perhaps your product is really high quality, well built, well designed and affordable, but if your commercial photography images have been taken in house, the images may only be suggesting to customers that you have limited imagination, that you go for simple approaches, that you cut corners and cut spending wherever possible and that your business is not entirely serious or professional.
However, by enlisting the services of a creative commercial photographer you can lift your images up several levels, not just through sheer quality, but in other touches such as sets, locations, props, models, lighting and digital image manipulation, all of which will ensure that the image paints more than a thousand words, and that every word is another reason for the customer to take you and your business seriously. Commercial photography s about communicating and about getting sales - not just about taking pretty pictures.
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