Modern technology has made taking photos as ubiquitous as mobile phones¬. But professional photography is still incredibly important for a variety of reasons. Just as you wouldn’t entrust your sports car with Uncle Jimbo, you shouldn’t entrust your brand photography to just anyone.
So, let’s start with the main question on everyone’s mind: cost. And no, we don’t mean the cost of hiring a professional photographer. We mean the cost of all of that equipment. Camera bodies, lenses, flashes, stands and tripods, SD cards, that giant back-up battery. The list is endless, but the price tag certainly isn’t. While a professional commercial photographer might seem like a big expense, wait until you see what it costs for one of those fancy DSLRs.
Even if you do decide to invest in your own photography gear, there’s the experience required to effectively operate the equipment. Let’s skip over the fundamentals of proper lighting and framing (a topic unto itself); good cameras have a multitude of settings that fundamentally change the impact of your photos. At this point, you may be thinking about pulling out that mobile device. But as good as phone cameras might be these days, that really flat piece of high tech that sits in your pocket simply does not come equipped with the same “bells and whistles” that a professional grade camera provides.
Beyond a working knowledge of the equipment, a professional photographer also has the background and training to know what works. Whether that be framing, lighting, background, angle, composition, points, lines, shapes, texture, color or tone, she or he will ensure your photo achieves all that it can be. A commercial photographer is also able to help create a consistent look and polish to your brand imaging. After all, you should ask yourself, “What is the value of my brand?” It may also be good to ask yourself, “What is the value of my time?”
So, now that you’ve snapped a decent photo, you should be good to go, right? Wrong! Taking a photo is only part of the required expertise. Professional photographers are experts at more than handling equipment and setting up a shot. Professional grade photography requires good input and output. By output we mean photo editing. A photographer’s eye when editing a photo often matters as much as, if not more, than taking the photo. Their ability to tweak and adjust photos “after the fact” are what bring the extra “spit and shine” to the end result. But then again, even the best photo editors can only do so much with a poorly staged photo or a low-quality image—so, once again we’re back to square one.
At the end of the day, a professional photographer is more than “someone who takes photos.” They are a front-line diplomat of your brand, helping you to represent your business, people, products and services in the best way possible—and all resulting in increased sales. Are increased revenue and profits a corner that you really want to cut? Of course not! So, the next time you need a photo taken, reach out to FORTHGEAR.
After all, we’ve been creating great photography since 1995. (Oh, and we also do some pretty amazing video work, too).
