Don’t draw the line at professional photography
Including quality photos in advertising materials is a fantastic tactic that has the potential to enhance and support good written messaging and other visual content it appears with. This is an approach that has great potential to backfire when non professional quality photos are used or when photography is thrown in without purpose. Businesses drawing the line at professional photography due to expense will devalue the entire material, essentially throwing away the money invested in other aspects of quality advertising products.
A poor quality photo is not better than no photo at all. A photograph is a form of visual communication and using a poor quality photo translates to poor communication with the viewer. Poor quality photography has the effect of overpowering all other efforts, and even the most professional and well crafted advertising tools will be significantly devalued merely by the use of photography of a less professional level. In marketing especially, research shows that audiences make judgements inside of just a few seconds, and when speaking about marketing tools that include photography, it is common for audiences to draw conclusions from the quality of photos alone, as they are one of the easiest visual elements to absorb quickly.
Quality Cameras vs Professional Photography
In a world with advancing photographic technology, the art and true benefits of a professional photographer are slowly disappearing due to the common public misconception that more pixels or a better quality camera translates to a professional level image. Filters and auto settings have greatly improved the quality of snapshots and photo albums, however, professional commercial photography centers around principles beyond base level quality requirements. Images must be technically accurate with purposefully selected shutter speeds and depth of field to properly capture the subjects as envisioned.
The context an image will be shown in becomes extremely important when photos and lighting are used to draw the eye to other messaging or visual content outside of the photograph itself to enhance the visual flow of a piece. Photographers must work in concert with designers and other marketing professionals so that all elements, including photography, cohesively support the desired psychological response of the target audience. The professional element of photography is not in the camera but in the art of observation, in taking a photo with purpose, and applying the understanding of specific aesthetics associated with each human response. Having a good eye for photography is not enough when isolated from the marketing principles that transform images from art pieces to powerful messaging tools.
Product Photography
Beautiful and well made products, when photographed with commercial art principles, do much of the advertising on their own. While artistic or abstract photos can be fun and unique, commercial photography emphasizes quality representation of the subject. Product photography is not intended to sway the audience to feel something abstract. Professionals combine their knowledge of art and form with psychology and research to emphasize a specific idea through known aesthetic options. Professionals then refine these choices by working with marketing campaigns to identify target audience and context to create an ideal image to match and support messaging and other content.
Each photo should have a specific purpose: adding a sense of place or atmosphere, depicting a product or service, even suggesting what kinds of customers are being targeted. Photos that don’t add value to a marketing tool are taking away precious space from more helpful information, and have a negative consequence for the efficacy of the design.
Non Commercial Photography
With commercial art, the photographer attempts to suggest and guide the audience in their visual experience, however, even outside of marketing these same visual cues and associations can be used to create a highly impactful piece of art with predictable reactions by the audience.
A Study on Photographic Impact
Bootstrap photographs NYC actor to overcome typecasting
Despite a diverse show reel, NYC actor Joe Harris was facing type casting issues, when he approached Bootstrap for a unique solution. Bootstrap envisioned a photo series capturing him in the midst of a variety of character studies to display his abilities in a range of roles.
Bootstrap photographers spent time studying Joe as an actor, noting strengths in expression and habitual movements and patterns to best capture moments he embodied each character best. This was combined with known psychological and emotional human associations in order to create nine scenes that evoked entirely different responses from the audience.
To support the nine personas Joe hoped to feature, nine unique sets were designed and built with matching wardrobe, props, and lighting schema. Post processing played a large role in creating nine unique but cohesive distinct settings to match the characters played by Joe in each scene.
The final product was a custom website Bootstrap designed and developed that featured this digital gallery of Joe’s personas as well as relevant info for casting directors, resume, and contact form. Below is a selection of photographs from each of the 9 characters in this study.
Joe is no longer having issues with type casting.