Technology has changed the way we take pictures. It has also changed who can take pictures, and what we can do with them.
It used to be that the only people who could take pictures were those who took photography classes, or had access to a professional who taught them the ropes.
Now, anyone can do it. It has never been easier to find answers to questions like the following:
- What’s an F-stop?
- What is aperture?
- What is ISO?
You don’t have to enroll in a community college. But if you want something a little more instructional than a Bing search, you have your pick of online courses that can break down the toughest concepts into digestible bits of information.
You also don’t have to worry about owning super expensive pieces of equipment. To be sure, expensive photography equipment is still a thing. But you can take excellent photos from whatever smartphone you carry.
These changes have made their way into business photography. Images are more important than ever to your business success. Here are a few things to keep in mind when taking pictures for your business:
Take the Kinds of Images Your Camera Is Good at
It is not helpful to think in terms of the best camera. Unless you buy a camera every minute, you will never have the best camera.
Besides, there is nothing wrong with the camera you have. It was new at one point, and excelled in at least one area which made it an attractive purchase. Older tech can still be quite useful.
Instead, take kinds of pictures your camera is good at taking. When you are posting photos for your business, you want to make sure they are of sufficient quality.
If your camera doesn’t have a zoom lens, don’t use pictures of things that are far away. If your camera is not good in low light, stick to well lit photos.
You can tell your business story in countless ways. So stick to the ways that play to your camera’s strengths. Once you know your camera’s limitations, it is easy to live within them.
Tell Product Stories
There is nothing wrong with taking static images of things and placing them on a website in a gallery. But you can get more out of your efforts by taking more dynamic photos that tell a story.
Don’t just show a picture of your widget for sale. Show a picture of someone using your widget to do something interesting.
Show it in a way that allows the viewer to imagine themselves using the widget to accomplish their own goals. Don’t just show a smartphone on a white background doing nothing. Show a smartphone being smart, and helping a person do something smart.
You will take a different picture for a website than you will for a print magazine. You will seldom post a full-quality image on a website. And you don’t need to.
If you plan to use the picture for print media, you need to take it again with a better camera. The flaws that are easily hidden on the web are not so easy to hide for print. Also, print demands higher resolution for larger forms of media.
Emphasize Products, Not Personalities
Business photography can be tricky because you don’t want to do anything that unnecessarily offends. If you include a lot of faces in your photography, you have to consider what kind of faces you are promoting, and what kind you are leaving out.
If you use celebrities, you might end up getting stuck with one that gets tangled up in scandal. To avoid that scandal, you will have to change all your images for that campaign.
Focus on the products and not the personalities, and you won’t have to worry so much about that.
Business photos are a lot like other photos. You just need to keep a few things in mind: Stick within your camera’s limits. Tell product stories. Consider how the prospective customer will consume the photo. And try to stay away from images that could end up in a scandal, or that might otherwise cause the attention to be taken away from the product or service you are promoting.
