Advertising Photography

by Bill Hall | More from this Blogger

11 Aug 2006 10:23 AM

In recent posts, I started to explore different areas of photography, such as press photography. Now, let's discuss one of the most lucrative but competitive fields of photography. I'm talking about the field of advertising and design photography.

You can earn more in advertising photography than in any other phase of photographic work, which means that the field is also highly competitive. But if you have the talent and persistence that is required, the rewards can be enormous.

Advertising agencies use a huge amount of photographs in their advertising campaigns, and have lots of money in their photography budgets. Demand for photos continues to grow for use in newspaper and magazine advertisements.

Some advertising photographs are still lifes, some are "planned" situations, and others are small actions with the product center stage. Whatever the type of photo, they call for the skill and intelligence of the photographer to relay the message of the advertiser to the viewing public.

Photo illustrations used in advertising must not only be technically excellent, but they must sell the product. That is, they must create an urge to buy in the viewer. (This is not hard to do if you are trying to sell me some chocolate, as a picture of a candy bar is enough for me).

The objective of a good photo illustration is to make the viewer think "I want that car", or "I want to see that movie", not just to buy a car or go see a movie.

For advertising photography, since the image has to be very clear and perfect, a medium format camera is typically used. Today, there are digital backs for many medium format cameras, and those can be used to produce sharp images that can be used immediately.

Large studios that handle big product photography may use an 8 x 10 view camera. This equipment is very expensive, but is required for high quality advertising photography. Regardless of the equipment used, the photographer is normally called in after an art director has developed the layout and the picture idea.

For more information on advertising photography, and a free introductory course, visit Photo- Seminars.com. There is also a page of FREE seminars that you might want to check out.

Learn more about Bill Hall

Bill is a professional freelance photographer and web designer, who lives with his wife of 17 years and their 12 year-old daughter in Arizona. He also lives with three dogs and two parakeets.

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