Do we still need use the services of a professional photographer ?
That's the big question a professional photographer is often asked. These days, who doesn't have a high-performance digital camera? Or a smartphone, a super-photo-phone 😉 ?
The digital age we live in today proves that everyone takes photos, and everyone needs photos for a variety of reasons:
Why deprive yourself of family heirlooms ? To share these moments on social networks, etc.? The aim here is to immortalise the fleeting moment in time... For a professional, a company, when you have a message to get across, a photo is the most effective and quickest way of creating an impact. In the hectic world we live in, we no longer have the opportunity to take the time to read. So the solution is images.
There is a second major question that needs to be asked:
Why use a professional photographer?
Is it only the quality of the equipment that makes a good photo? We'll see how complex this can be.
Let's take a closer look at the subject
The impact of the internet in the professional world means that it is essential to exist on the web. When you learn that good photos can increase customer contact by up to 40%It makes you think! So don't miss this opportunity !
This is usually when a professional photographer is called in. The photographer must create one or more photos tailored to the customer's needs. The image must catch the eye of the "searching" web user, and must transmit one or more messages as quickly as possible. The "potential" customer looking for a service needs to get an idea almost immediately.
The professional photographer is the keystone of this communication, the technical and artistic interface between the service provider's message and its future client.
Example of development / retouching, rustic style :
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Professional photographers must master the visual language
- By mastering your digital camera and other equipment (flashes, etc.) perfectly
- By mastering shooting techniques (lighting, composition, dynamics, etc.)
- Mastering colorimetry, which needs to be calibrated from your digital camera and screens right through to printing if necessary. (respecting and monitoring colours)
- I'm not talking here about transforming or editing photos (although why not), but rather about sublimating the photo through professional retouching that will be the photographer's interpretation (one of many).
This can be done by adjusting the colour balance, the brightness, by playing with the shadows, filters, etc. - in short, by creating a particular atmosphere that matches the photographer's style. at the customer's request.
If necessary, the professional photographer needs to know how to prepare for printing. Preparing the image according to the type of printer, print size, type of paper, colour profile, etc.
Example of a simple and basic development : (inside a rorbu)
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This communication can take several forms:
Emotional : by the colours, the artistic effect, the composition, the light... all in order to make the reader feel a particular atmosphere, to awaken a feeling that the customer is looking for. In the culinary field, for example, it's all about making the viewer imagine the taste, and in terms of comfort and quality of service for a hotel, etc...
Direct by an action, a movement, a scene in the photo describing the message to be conveyed.
Or a graphic composition, a short set of photos a report telling a story. (diptych, triptic...) It's all this that the potential client "in search" must grasp without thinking, immediately at the sight of a so-called "professional" photo.
When all is said and done, the use of a professional photographer needs to be carefully considered, depending on the photographer's style and specialism, for whom all this is second nature, and much less obvious for the amateur/neophyte.
I hope that this article will help answer your questions and give you a clearer picture. In the same spirit, I invite you to read a selection of articles on photography in general.
See you soon,
David
