JT Spunk | Photography

Employing Commercial Photography

So you’ve received delivery of your latest product or the contractors have finally finished your contemporary retail store refit, what next?  New company literature, an eye catching press release, a glossy magazine advertisement or even a funky new webpage?  All of these tried and tested marketing strategies will without question help elevate your company profile and eventually drive new sales, more than ever important in our latest economic downturn.  So do you dig out your new digital camera and plug in the angle-poise lamp or do you call one of those costly Pros with all that expensive equipment?

No one can argue that modern digital cameras combined with easily available imaging software will aid even the most crude amateur achieve fairly reasonable results, but do you want ‘reasonable’? Is it enough just to accept the average when your competition demands the very best?  Just think how great your sales could be if you just stood out from the crowd? The clout a professionally shot photo has on a clients industry is far healthier than that of a swiftly grabbed shot from a digital camera. Commercial photography will promote your product or your company, second-rate photography will only lower it.  So stand out from your competition and call up the pro!

Not every single commercial photographer can competently do each and every style of photography. A photographer who shoots family portraits and weddings won’t be the one to shoot a picture of your new product range.  Do a yahoo search, flip through your local directory or even ask your fellow business associates who they‚Äôd highly recommend, research comprehensively now and evade any expensive mistakes later.

Usage.  What’s the project to be required for (packaging, press, website, etc), the territory in which the job is to be used (UK, Europe, International) and the time span the project is to be used by you(one year, two years. etc). All these elements will assist the photographer to present you a realistic quotation.

Copyright issues and intellectual property. So you’ve paid out a small fortune on a set of photographs and now they are yours to do with what you wish, right?  Wrong, the photographer always maintains copyright of the pictures and instead grants you a licence to use the photos for the agreed usage (see above). Photographers will supplygive you a licence based on your prerequisites and this will commonly be included in their fee, but future usage outside of these terms may attract a further negotiable fee.  Be sure to ask your chosen photographer about these issues and if in doubt read further material that goes into copyright in more detail.

Make contact.  Get in contact with prospective photographers, discuss your requirements in as much detail as possible and if possible make sure to meet them.  Meeting in person will provide a great chance to really  state  what it is you need, browse through their printed portfolio and see if you actually warm to them!

Ask for a quote. Nearly all photographers will charge a day rate, half day or hourly with costs (travel, digital file processing, retouching etc) additional.  A few however will propose all inclusive quotations for some kinds of shoots, such as  pack shot photography.  Be as exact as possible when describing what you need so that the quote can be as precise as possible, do not forget to negotiate usage.

Organize the shoot.  If you get time and if you haven’t already done so, meet up with the photographer prior to the shoot.  This provides you the chance to present the product(s), give a guided tour of the location and generally assess your particular needs.

Make arrangements.  Based upon on the kind of shoot be sure everything is on hand for the photographer e.g. the product(s) are readily available and spotlessly clean, the location is in first-class condition etc.  The details really make a difference!

The big day.  Unless of course you are 100 percent convinced that the photographer totally understands your brief try to be available throughout the day to add direction, help with problems and just make sure you really get what you require.  If you can’t make it to the shoot ask your photographer to email over some test shots and at the very least be readily available to take a call.  However limited the brief is most photographers worth their salt will be able to add their input to a shoot, typically these unplanned shots are the award winners so don’t censor their creative juices too much!

After the shoot.  Thanks to advances in digital cameras most photographers will happily preview your images on a lap top or even via an online proofing gallery which is a great way to amend your shoot off the cuff.  The skilled and time consuming process of processing your raw files, along side any special retouching will normally be carried out later on in the studio.

Hand over of the photographs.  Photographers will in most cases provide you or your designer with the completed images on disk or transfer via email/ftp, in a choice of file formats to match your repro requirements.

About the Author

Andy Nickerson is an expert in professional photography in Northamptonshire. Visit http://www.bramptonvalleyphotography.co.uk/about.htm for more details.

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