What Does Your Business Need From A Commercial Photographer?
A commercial photographer can help small businesses, corporations, and everyone in between by creating marketing content for various mediums. Of course today’s world is dominated by social media, so a lot of those created images are typically used in that way, but still in demand are images for print, magazines, catalogs, and much more. Have you ever opened one of those magazines on an airplane and looked at all the ads with beautiful product imagery? Those are the work of commercial photographers! There are a ton of things a business owner or marketing agency might use a photographer for, which might leave you wondering; do you need one?
How They Work
It’s best to first understand how commercial photographers work and how they can help your marketing efforts. Commercial photographers usually work with the businesses marketing department. For small businesses that might be the owner or maybe just an employee who works on marketing material, while larger businesses may have a whole department dedicated to marketing. Additionally, some businesses (large and small) outsource their needs to marketing agencies, which work a lot with commercial photographers too! The best commercial photographers are specialized in this type of photography and typically work business-to-business rather than business-to-consumer (like wedding, portrait, event photographers). What makes a great commercial photographer stand out are ones that work with clients to keep images on brand and focus on the story behind the images
What Your Business Might Want
We touched on the different mediums a commercial photographer can help with. This world is so image heavy and businesses have so many uses for professional photography. So the first thing to do is figure out how you could use the services of a commercial photographer. Do you need new images for your website? Do you need an image of your product for a catalog? Do you need some image work done to place on your packaging? Do you need a picture of the business owner and/or products for a feature in a magazine? Maybe you would like a photo of the team or new product for some banners at the office? The possibilities are endless and the images you use for your business are important to how your audience and customers perceive your business!
What Commercial Photographers Can Offer
Marketing comes in all shapes and sizes. As big as social media is today, marketing still is much more than that, and many types of marketing are image centric. Commercial photography can offer services for:
Magazine editorials
Catalog images
E-commerce photos
Website imagery
Storefront/real estate
Portraits of teams and individuals
Images for billboards, large banners, etc
Pamphlet, flyer, brochure photos
Photos for packaging
Photos for food/drink menus
Social media
Lifestyle shoots
Of course marketing is a huge bucket, but these are just some of the ways photography comes into play. Good commercial photographers can work to take your ideas and make them reality all while staying focused on your brand and what it represents.
Images For Your Products And Services
As you may have noticed, commercial photographers can help your business in a variety of ways. As we discussed, all these focus on what you sell as a business, whether that is products or services. The images you use for your business, in many ways, are your customers first impression, whether it’s on a billboard, Instagram or Google Maps. So wouldn’t you want to put your best foot forward with those images? Stock photography can be an option, but it lacks originality and can leave a generic tone to consumers. I’m sure every small business started by taking branding photos themselves, but at some point the images need the attention of a specialist and your business needs your attention on it’s operations, not it’s images. That is where commercial photographers come in. They can use their knowledge and have the equipment and skills to highlight your products (or services, like lifestyle images) in a way that will leave a positive impression on potential customers.
Great commercial photographers will do a lot of work upfront to understand you, your company and your brand. This takes place with pre-production meetings and phone calls. Once the ideas are generated and the scene is set for the shoot, commercial photographers can execute on those ideas and produce stunning images for your company to use! The best photographers can do all this while working on your timeline for the project. Sometimes the projects are small and you just need something simple, other times it involves teams of people to execute the shot, either way commercial photographers exist to make your dreams easier to achieve!
Commercial Photographer in Ohio
Jake Stepec Studio offers specialized photography to help your business shine and grow to new levels. I am a commercial photographer operating out of both Findlay, Ohio and Cleveland, Ohio. I use my unique combination of photography and project management skills to create content for clients worldwide. Give me a visit at my website or give me a call at (216) 800-6599 to get started on your photography projects today!
