Why is it that large companies are giving so little thought to presentation these days? Of course they give it some thought, "how do I do this given the short deadline and no budget". Large companies do not stay still for long these days, corporate take overs and mergers, transient employees on short contracts, fast replacing products with next generation updates - heads are spinning. The web browsing customers can be turned off by heavy slow loading graphics, picture intensive pages etc, and yet how come news is digested in pictures rather than in depth wordy articles.
The challenge is that Professional providers of creative images and media have to think laterally and surprise a client with new ideas. Attention seeking, captivating, ground breaking, brand enhancing.....and short lived. For whatever the product and manufacturer it will probably not be around in the same guise for very long. Ouch!
Friday, 6 June 2008
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
Light relief
It's all about us and often taken for granted by visually disinterested people.What am I referring to? Why the most important tool we have as photographers - light!
How strange then to find in daily commercial photographic work that customers justify their own self created shots by saying " it's only a quick shot" or "we just shoot it as we found it - we're in a hurry". Any photograph commissioned for commercial purposes is there to help sell a product or service, it costs money to create and a good return on this investment must surely be expected. A professional photographer can swing a mundane shot into an arresting image by the use of camera viewpoint,composition and importantly lighting.
Curiously many commercial companies believe that because they have bought themselves an expensive digital camera with built in flash "for internal use" it will be the panacea to their problems...after all anyone can take a photo can't they? Look no further.. I rise to a challenge.
"It's not the equipment it's the way you use it" - an often chanted mantra in defence of using a professional photographer...lets prove it. So these two test photographs below show how, firstly with available light a scene might look (typically of most self captured shots) and secondly by quickly placing 8, cheap (£4.00 each!) flash guns into the scene creating a radically different image.
The result is the difference between a passive approach and an attention grabbing alternative.
Best of all the lit scene took 15 minutes to setup and shoot.....hardly time consuming but worth the input and result.My 'test' photographic kit was a lot cheaper than many cameras used by my potential commercial clients...the trick is to persuade them to get on with their job and trust the creative professionalism of a bought in service!
How strange then to find in daily commercial photographic work that customers justify their own self created shots by saying " it's only a quick shot" or "we just shoot it as we found it - we're in a hurry". Any photograph commissioned for commercial purposes is there to help sell a product or service, it costs money to create and a good return on this investment must surely be expected. A professional photographer can swing a mundane shot into an arresting image by the use of camera viewpoint,composition and importantly lighting.
Curiously many commercial companies believe that because they have bought themselves an expensive digital camera with built in flash "for internal use" it will be the panacea to their problems...after all anyone can take a photo can't they? Look no further.. I rise to a challenge.
"It's not the equipment it's the way you use it" - an often chanted mantra in defence of using a professional photographer...lets prove it. So these two test photographs below show how, firstly with available light a scene might look (typically of most self captured shots) and secondly by quickly placing 8, cheap (£4.00 each!) flash guns into the scene creating a radically different image.
The result is the difference between a passive approach and an attention grabbing alternative.
Best of all the lit scene took 15 minutes to setup and shoot.....hardly time consuming but worth the input and result.My 'test' photographic kit was a lot cheaper than many cameras used by my potential commercial clients...the trick is to persuade them to get on with their job and trust the creative professionalism of a bought in service!
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