Toronto editorial and portrait photographer

Corporate Photos Are Like Sports Announcers

March 29, 2014 No Comments

Effective photography for corporate marketing has 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 images are usually editorial because editorial photography is considered by the public to be more interesting and trustworthy. Conveying a message through human interest is always persuasive because this photography creates an emotional response in the viewer.
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Photo Editing Skills

March 25, 2014 No Comments

People know which pictures they like but they may not understand why. Few people understand the art and craft of photo editing.

There are few publications today that still have a 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.
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Public Relations and Publicity Photography

February 13, 2014 No Comments

Celebrities (and wannabe celebrities) depend on this. Politicians depend on this. All professional sports depend on this. The entertainment industry depends on this.

Publicity and public relations photography are exceptional marketing tools because photography is the number one way to get attention. The public loves looking at photos and they trust photography. News editors love free hand-out pictures not only because it’s free content but also because photos can increase readership.

One of today’s catchy buzzwords is “content marketing” but many folks will remember when it was called “public relations.”
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Using Editorial Photography for Marketing

January 31, 2014 No Comments

Here’s a fantastic example of a company using editorial content on its corporate site. Alfred Dunhill, a British company that sells menswear worldwide has a number of very compelling videos on its web site. Some of these videos are related to its products and some seem to have no connection whatsoever.

Does editorial content help sell product?
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Memorable (part 2)

December 16, 2013 No Comments

In his 2011 book, Moonwalking with Einstein, science writer Joshua Foer describes how someone can increase their memory. He learned of a technique while covering a national memory competition. The following year, Foer won that same competition using this very technique.

To improve one’s memory, Foer learned that one has to associate an image with the information that needs to be remembered. The more memorable that image, the better the chance of remembering. It’s possible that Allan Paivio’s Dual Coding Theory (visual explanation here ;-) ) might help explain this.

Alexandra Horowitz, a PhD in cognitive science who teaches psychology at Barnard College in the US, wrote, “… a simple fact of human cognition: we naturally remember visual images. … The less banal, the better. Quotidian scenes are forgettable. What snags the cells of our brains are disgusting, bizarre and novel images.”
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Who Pays What

March 20, 2013 No Comments

Who Pays Photographers? is a fairly new blog with a spreadsheet listing rates received by photographers for, mostly, editorial assignments. It’s based on anonymous submissions but looking at a few entries, the numbers do seem accurate.

Keep in mind that better rates can sometimes be had. Don’t be afraid to ask for more. In many cases, I’ve been able to get 50% to 100% more than what was initially offered by a daily newspaper or magazine. In cases where I couldn’t, the solution was to say “no thanks.”

A similar site for writers: Who pays writers?

Lines of Sight

editorial photography