For Customers

Cheap photographer strikes again

No Comments

Today I received an e-mail from someone who runs a small clothing store. The subject title of the e-mail was, “I was mislead by a photographer.”

This person had hired a photographer to shoot some advertising pictures for their store which sells children’s clothing and accessories.

It appears that the photographer didn’t deliver any usable images or even the promised number of pictures. The photographer also didn’t deliver the promised, model-released pictures of children wearing the store’s clothing. So at this point, the business has nothing it can use.
Continue reading →

Corporate photos are like sports announcers

No Comments

When it comes to producing effective photography for corporate marketing, there are two general types of images: those with story appeal and those that demonstrate something. The former is used to convey an idea or emotion and the latter is used to deliver a fact. The two types can overlap.

Pictures with story appeal are said to have human interest. These pictures, which are usually editorial in nature, will attract attention because editorial photography is the most interesting to, and the most trusted by, the public. Conveying a message through human interest is always persuasive because such photography creates an emotional response in the viewer.
Continue reading →

Is your company a laughing stock?

No Comments

If your company still uses cheap stock pictures and you enjoy irony then keep reading.

Last month, McSweeney’s published “This is a Generic Brand Video”, a satirical piece by Kendra Eash about the generic branding used by some companies.

Many businesses today use meaningless, generic stock photos and stock video. These companies may think they’re sending a strong message to their customers and building a unique corporate image but they’re fooling only themselves. Everyone sees stock images for what they really are: just a quick way to cut corners and save a few bucks.

Now the irony.
Continue reading →

Corporate photography for first-time customers

No Comments

When a company decides to dip its business toes into corporate photography, the first photo project is usually either business portraits or pictures of the office. This is all well and good but it may help to have an overall plan for the photography well before a camera shutter button is clicked. Corporate photography should do more than just fill empty spaces on a page.

Sure, the easy marketing plan is, “we want more customers to buy more stuff.” But that’s too vague to be of any help. If you work things backward and break it down to specific steps, you can get it to work:

How do you get more customers to buy more stuff?
Continue reading →

Photo Editing Skills

No Comments

Customers know which pictures they like to look at but they may not understand why. Very few people understand the art and craft of photo editing.

Few publications today have a real photo editor. It would be surprising if any non-media business has a photo editor. Instead, photographers are left to edit their own work and then someone at the client-end selects the pictures they like to look at.
Continue reading →

Close Enough

No Comments

If you made products for digital cameras, what kind of camera would you show on your web site to help market your products?

If you’re Eye-Fi, which makes WiFi-enabled memory cards, you would use an old film camera from last century. [Sorry, the link has gone dead. Screengrab below]. And to make it worse, you would state “The power of WiFi for the camera you love.”


Continue reading →

Types of business headshots

No Comments

When a company needs a number of business portraits, is it better for those headshots to have a uniform look or a uniform style?

Uniform Look

A uniform look means all the portraits have the same, or very similar, lighting, background and pose. This shows consistency and a strong brand.

Having a uniform look in business headshots is common at law firms, insurance companies, banks and any other company that wants, or needs, to create a feeling of stability, consistency and comfort.

A business that has many locations may want a uniform look to imply that the company is the same no matter which location you visit.

A consistent appearance creates a consistent message which helps build customer trust.
Continue reading →

css.php