Let’s say you’re planning to have live music at your business conference or other corporate event. You might hire a soloist, a duo, a trio, a quartet or maybe even a symphony orchestra.
The music from each type of ensemble will sound different depending on the amount of musicians and instruments available. A soloist will never sound like a quartet, a duo will never sound like a symphony. It goes without saying that the bigger the production, the higher the price.
The exact same thing applies to photography.
Let’s say you’re planning to have commercial or corporate photography produced for your business marketing. You could hire a photographer with a camera, a photographer with many cameras and a case of lights, or maybe a photographer with a full symphony of equipment, crew and producers.
The photography from each type of ensemble will look different depending on the amount of people and equipment available. Pictures from a photographer-with-camera will never look like those from a full-scale, Hollywood-style production. It goes without saying that the bigger the production, the higher the price.
Production value is not about professionalism or quality. It’s about the options available to produce your pictures.
For example: do you use two lights, ten lights or no extra lights? What about using a makeup artist or a clothing stylist? Should you use professional models or just your employees? Do you want to create a high-end, polished “studio look” or a casual “newspaper look”?
Just like you can’t hire a symphony orchestra for the same price as a quartet, you can’t get a large-scale photography production for the same price as a photographer-with-camera production.
Since there are many different ways to produce a picture, you have to first decide what look you want and how much you want to spend. If you only have the budget for a trio, don’t expect to hear a symphony orchestra. But then, a trio might work very well for your needs.
