Dive into the dynamic realm of commercial photography, where artistic skill meets business savvy across genres like advertising and fashion. Explore licensing nuances and discover the myriad opportunities this industry offers.
Today’s world is visual-driven with commercial photographs all around it. We need impressive photos for advertising, websites, social media, and other traditional or digital marketing campaigns. All these promotional activities heavily rely on commercial photography.
Business owners and marketing managers need a deep understanding of this topic to ensure they present captivating photos in front of the customers that make sales. In this blog post, I’ll try to give you a comprehensive guide on commercial photography, its definition, types, and examples.
What is the definition of commercial photography?
In simple words, commercial photography is the special branch of photography that involves capturing visually appealing photos to promote products, services, or concepts of a business. The ultimate objective of commercial photography is revenue growth by generating sales.
Examples of this type of photography service may include capturing product photos for e-commerce websites, shooting photos of a model for a billboard, photography shoots for print media, and so on.
Different types of commercial photography
E-commerce photography
E-commerce photos are taken to generate visually attractive images of the product for online channels such as websites, retail platforms, and social media. The purpose of e-commerce photography is to ensure a clear, accurate, and detailed presentation of the products so that the customers can make informed purchase decisions. Depending on the situation, e-commerce photos can be of different types, including flat lay, in-use, infographic, close-up, bundle, and packaging photos.
Product photography
The purpose of product photography is to generate or capture compelling images of the products of a business to highlight the product’s features and benefits. The ultimate goal is to draw the attention of the customers. Business owners can do professional photography of their products to present them both online and offline channels. There are a number of ways of capturing product photos, such as macro or detail, 360-degree, multiple products, and packaging photography.
Fashion photography
Fashion photos are a special genre of commercial photos that focuses on capturing high-quality images of clothing and lifestyle elements. The photographers keep their keen eye open to follow the fashion trend and try to reflect it while capturing the photos. Photos of fashion items are often used for advertising campaigns, e-commerce platforms, websites, billboards, and print media.
Lifestyle photography
Lifestyle photos capture the moments in people’s lives, their emotions, experiences, and natural interactions with a product or service. It emphasizes authenticity through a spontaneous and true depiction of the product in real-life situations. Examples of lifestyle photography include fashion photography, food and culinary, travel, family photography and newborn photography.
Food photography
Food photography involves capturing appealing images of food and beverages along with props, models, and lighting effects. The objective of capturing these photos is to create mouth-watering images of the food items and covey the taste and aroma of the food. Examples of food photography include food packaging, food prop and styling, cookbooks, restaurants, and food blog photography.
Real estate & architectural photography
Real estate and architectural photography focuses on capturing both residential and commercial properties. Architects, real estate agents, interior designers, and property developers often need to showcase their work to the potential buyer to generate attention and appeal. Example of this type of photography includes interior, exterior, aerial, industrial, construction process, and luxury real estate photos.
Commercial headshot
Commercial headshot is a special type of portrait that captures photos of individuals for corporate websites, social media, and marketing material. The purpose of these photos is to spread professionalism and personality to enhance the brand image. There are different ways of commercial headshot photography, such as team or group photos, LinkedIn or social media, actor or model photography, and so on.
Environmental portrait
Environmental portrait photography is a type of commercial photoshoot where the photographers capture photos of individuals while they are in a natural environment. The objective of this type of photo is to portray the daily life, work, and environment of an individual or organization. Environmental portrait photography includes workplace, outdoor, interior, travel, hobby, historical, educational, and community photography.
Traditional advertising photography
Traditional advertising photography involves capturing attractive photos for marketing campaigns in traditional media, including newspapers, billboards, magazines, brochures, and television. The objective of advertising photography is to present the product, brand, and organization persuasively to the mass audience to influence consumer behaviour.
Commercial photography tips & ideas
Know the photography objective.
Knowing your photography objective is the primary step before you take photos for any commercial project. You need to have a series of meetings with your client before the shooting. Know what the client wants from the photos and craft your photography plan accordingly.
Different types of commercial photography may require different approaches. For example, the objective of fashion photography is to promote brand image by highlighting the style and design of the clothing items. When planning the equipment and shooting set, know all these details first.
Gather all the necessary equipment.
Make a list of required equipment based on the photography objective, planning, and type of photography. A DSLR camera is mandatory and common equipment that you need for any professional photo shoot. For commercial purposes, you need a camera with a high megapixel count. It has to perform well in the low-light condition as well. Other specifications of a camera will vary based on the requirements of the photographer.
A camera lens is as important equipment as the camera itself. The lens has to be chosen based on the purpose. For example, to capture a distant subject, you need a telephoto lens. On the other hand, a wide-angle lens is preferred for capturing architectural shots.
Apart from camera and lens, you may need other items listed below-
- Tripod
- Lighting equipment – softbox, reflector, diffuser, etc.
- White background
- Product staging props
- Remote shutter release ( optional)
- Photo editing software
- Drone for aerial shots ( for architectural photoshoot)
Capture the details
It is important to convey the uniqueness, value, and quality of the subject when you are in a commercial photoshoot. To capture the details of the subject it is important to set the camera functions, such as aperture, accordingly. Controlling the light and using diffusers and reflectors can also help. You may experiment with various techniques and angles to find a perfect blend of shadow and highlights.
Work hard on post-processing
You can not always get the desired output in the photoshoot no matter how much effort you give. Therefore, it is mandatory to rectify the photos in post-production. You need professional photo editing software, Adobe Photoshop, for example, to edit your photo. Always shoot in RAW format, which provides the most flexibility in the post-processing.
Take a backup of the files before handing them over to the photo editor. In the post-product, the editor may apply different techniques such as cropping, color correction, image enhancement and retouching, exposure and tone adjustment, sharpening, and noise reduction. The image editors may also apply some destructive methods to make an image composition and blend all the elements seamlessly.
Contract and compensation
There should be a written contract between the photographer and the client to protect the rights of both parties. Mention the scope of work, duration of the project, fees, and expenses in a precise manner. Usage rights and licenses are important terms in the contract where it should be mentioned how long the images should be used and how the copyright will be granted to the client. Additionally, you may also include editing and revision, confidentiality, and any other relevant terms if needed.
Commercial photography jobs
A good range of job opportunities are available for commercial photographers. For example, product photography is in high demand nowadays. You can work as a freelance product photographer or work for an agency to capture e-commerce product photos for websites, catalogs, and advertisements.
There are also opportunities to work in real estate, automobile, fashion, and travel industries. You can help create promotional content by capturing attractive photos. Apart from these, if you have interest in other industries such as sports, healthcare, or fine arts, then you have plenty of work opportunities where you can help create materials for journals, magazines, textbooks, and other online and print media.
FAQ
Is wedding photography commercial photography?
Wedding or any other event photography is a genre of commercial photography. In events like weddings, photographers usually take photos of the couple and the family members, create albums, and sometimes print them. They use professional cameras, light, and other equipment to capture the most beautiful moments of the event. It is a paid work and the photographers and their team are compensated for their service.
Who is a commercial photographer?
A commercial photographer is a person who captures photos for commercial use. He can be either a freelancer or can work in an agency. The photos taken by commercial photographers are often used for creating promotional and advertising material for different online and offline media.
A commercial photographer is usually skilled in camera, lighting, composition, and post-production. Apart from these, they have a deep understanding of basic marketing and branding knowledge. He is often seen working with an art director and graphic designer to produce visually compelling photos that boost the image of the brand.
What’s the salary of a commercial photographer?
The annual salary of a commercial photographer can range from $30000 to $100,000 depending on the photography industry she’s working in, geography, and work experience. Apart from these, the pay of a photographer may also vary based on the type of assignment, freelance vs studio employment, and profile of the client.
What’s the difference between editorial and commercial photography?
Editorial and commercial photography are two distinct branches of photography. Editorial photos are commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and blogs where the purpose of the photos is to support the story of the main content. They present a visual representation of the written content. There is no direct commercial intent in editorial photography. On the other hand, the objective of commercial photography is to produce marketing material for advertisement campaigns. They are used to showcase products or brands to communicate with a specific targeted audience.
What is non commercial photography?
If there is no commercial intent for a photographic event, we call it non-commercial photography. For example, people may capture photos for personal use, artistic purposes or hobbies. These kinds of photoshoots do not have any commercial value. People often post these photos on social media to share them with friends and families. Landscape, wildlife, event, and travel photography are some common examples of non-commercial photography.
What should be the ideal studio setup for commercial photography?
The studio for commercial photography should be versatile so that it can meet the needs of various demands of different kinds of photographic projects. An ideal studio for commercial photography should have a number of mandatory equipment including lights and lighting accessories, backdrop, camera and lens, tripod and support, props and accessories.
The camera has to be a high-quality DSLR or mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses. The studio should have multiple lenses for different photographic events such as macro, portrait, and wide-angle photography.
Additionally, the lighting equipment of a commercial studio should include studio strobes, continuous lights, diffusers, reflectors, modifiers, and softboxes. Apart from these, the photography studio should have a color management system to change the shooting environment for products like fashion items.
Last but not least, a commercial studio should have a separate workstation for post-processing. Even though big studios will do the post-production jobs by offshore image editing companies, they should have an in-house setup to meet the urgent demands of the clients if any.
Conclusion
I hope the article helped both the commercial photographers and the business owners. In this competitive world, knowing about the job you are doing is vital. As a photographer, you need to know the aspects and scopes of your work very well. Similarly, business owners should also know this to try their marketing campaigns differently to find new business opportunities. Both parties need to know the types, studio setup, required accessories, payment and salaries, and work opportunities of commercial photography so that they can get the most out of it.
