Professional Product Photography
| 17 April 2012
In this perilous economic climate, many businesses are struggling to keep afloat and may be looking for ways to cut costs. Just because high-quality cameras are available and less expensive than in years past, doesn’t mean that just anyone has the abilities or the equipment to take professional quality photographs. I frequently hear of businesses that are considering the possibility of shooting everything in-house to save costs, with people who have no training in photography taking product shots. These are the images that sell your products, and your customers have expectations to see professional quality photography in your marketing pieces and on your website.
If you present your buyers with sub-par images of your products, they will subconsciously think that the products are lower quality items and are not worth as much, and they are less likely to purchase your products when other options are presented in more appealing manner. Professional product photos will increase the perceived value of your products and earn you more money in the long run than what you would have saved by cutting corners.
Some of the main benefits of having your products photographed professionally include:
- Color Consistency/Accuracy
- High Resolution, Detail, Sharpness
- Clarity, Proper Exposure, Overall Look
- Consistent Product Angles
- Avoid Reflections or Color Casts
- Pure White Backgrounds or Clipping Paths
- Increased Perceived Value
Don't shoot yourself in the foot by using low-quality images of your products... ignoring the expectations of your customers will only come at your own peril.
Stock Photography: Pros and Cons
| 30 September 2010
Like most things in life, there are benefits and liabilities to using stock photography in your marketing materials. Think of stock photography and contract photography as two different tools in your toolbox... and know the appropriate times to use them.
Just because you have a saw, it doesn't mean you won't ever need a screwdriver again for instance. Depending on the project, one tool may be more utilized or appropriate than the other, but both serve a very specific purpose and do not negate the need for the other. In many cases, both stock photography and custom contract photography can be used together within the same project. But you wouldn't use a screwdriver to cut a board, and you wouldn't use a saw to tighten the screws on your doorknob. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each tool and when one should be used over the other is key.
Some of the main benefits of stock photography are that it can be quite inexpensive, immediately available, and there is an increasing selection of images to choose from. Most people are already aware of those benefits, but what many people overlook or aren't even aware of is that a stock image can be licensed hundreds or even thousands of times to different companies. You do NOT have exclusive rights to any stock image that you "purchase". Twice this week alone, people I know have been reminded of that fact. You will probably find that exact same image you used in your brochure being used on another company's website, and on a billboard for a completely different company, and on and on. Who knows, it could potentially end up in your competitor's marketing materials.
That is just one of several tradeoffs to using st
Another commonly overlooked drawback to stock photography is that most agencies require the photographers remove every single logo from every image, even tiny little logos on buttons and zippers. That might not sound like a big deal, but if you own a bike shop that sells Specialized, Giant, Cannondale, Pivot, and Dimondback mountain bikes, you WANT the logos on the bikes. You may also want well-known riders on local trails that are recognizable to your clients.
In my experience of buying hundreds and hundreds of stock photographs over more than 15 years, I have seldom found an image that is exactly what the client needed. There is almost always something that I wish I could change about the image... the age or ethnicity of one or more of the models, the clothing worn, the hair style or overall look of the model, the facial expressions, the angle of view, etc. When you hire a photographer to create your own images, you control all of that. You select the models, you pick the clothing, and you direct the shoot so that you get exactly what you had envisioned. Yes, it will take longer and cost more to create the images, but you will not have to compromise, and it will give you exclusive rights to those images so that you control 100% how they are used. Keep those things in mind when making a decision on whether to hire a photographer or buy stock photography in your next project.
Davis Conference Center Website
| 03 September 2010
The new Davis Conference Center website is now live!
Several months ago, the marketing manger and general manager of the Davis Conference Center contacted me with the dilemma that although their existing website was visually impressive and very professional looking, managing the content of the site was very difficult and expensive... so much so that they rarely ever added or edited content on the site. They had to contact their advertising agency each time they wanted to make a change and then they would receive a bill for the service. There was no way for them to manage the content on their own site. This is a very common problem, one our own clients have had in the past to be honest.
Historically, there has not been a way to build dynamic websites that have user admin access without paying tens of thousands of dollars and months of design and implementation to build a custom website from the ground up. But earlier this year, after a lot of research to try and find a better solution for our clients, we discovered a state-of-the-art technology that would allow us to develop dynamic websites for our clients that would be fully editable by the client and include very powerful functionality, way beyond any website we've developed in the past.
It is basically a open-source content management system that allows you to build the structure and content of the site, plug in different modules such as an event calendar or a photo gallery, define how all the different parts interact with each other, and wrap it with a customized look and feel. Of course, like most things in life, there are pros and cons to this way of building websites, but in the case of the Davis Conference Center and many other companies I imagine, the plethora of benefits far outweigh the few limitations it has.
Some of the new features of the all new Davis Conference Center's website include:
- User Administrator Access — varying levels of access to edit content, create/edit blog posts, upload images for photo galleries, etc.
- Event Calendar — robust calendar with month view, list view, item detail view, search, multiple calendar types, etc.
- Business Partners and Staff Directory Sections
- Photo Galleries — with the ability to very easily upload new photos and have them automatically appear in a slideshow
- Password Protected File Download Area — to download photos, logos, forms, etc.
- Request for Proposal Form — collects data from users and stores it in a database (as opposed to just emailing it to the appropriate person)
- Press Releases, News, and Promotions pages — delivers current information and news that is updated frequently
- Interactive Map and Directions — allows the user to enter their location and gives them customized directions
- Search Feature — find specific information as more and more content is generated over time
- SEO-friendly site design — optimized for search engine web crawlers ie: Google, Yahoo, etc.
That is a pretty comprehensive list of features. One of the main drawbacks to this system of developing websites is the ability of the administrator to populate the site with poor content: low quality snapshots instead of professional photos, bad spelling and grammar, inconsistent formatting of text, etc. Also, the ability to customize the look-and-feel of the site to match your existing branding exactly is somewhat limited. There is somewhat of a learning curve for the administrator to learn how to use the backend, but it is pretty straight forward and incredibly enabling. So look around the Davis Conference Center's new website and see for yourself. And if you think this solution will be a great match for your needs, please contact us to discuss your particular situation.