Author Archives: Tim Bilsborough

Impersonal stock shot...

Many photographers face competition from clients who want to use stock images rather than commission bespoke shots. It’s easy to see why this option can be seen as a cheaper and quicker alternative to a commission. The downside is that this is a very impersonal approach to take.

I want to step away from this issue briefly, to think about marketing.

Many photography commissions are to provide images for a clients marketing campaign. Much of today’s marketing campaigns are directed into social media channels; facebook, twitter, google+ and so on. In all of these channels, best practice places a huge emphasis on expressing personality – the human side and face of organizations, because this how these marketing succeeds and drive business – they engage with potential buyers.

Another key to marketing success is for businesses to differentiate their offer; marketers need to demonstrate innovation and uniqueness.

But how can we use this analogy to make a stronger case for commissioned images?

These days it is easy to evaluate the effectiveness and sales generated by marketing channels. And there is a tendency for clients to dismiss things they don’t understand or can’t measure. Many clients will not be able to directly measure the impact of an image, so will decide that a stock image, or a poor quality image will be good enough. Reducing the cost of photography then becomes an easy way to save money.

As photographers, we have to accept it is difficult to measure the effect of images, but we can make a case to apply the broader marketing principles (personality & uniqueness to engage customers) to justify our costs.

Remember that social media and other marketing inevitably lead potential buyers to a website. If the customer sees stock photography here, there is a risk that that genuine personality that has been created in other channels will evaporate.

We have to remember that marketers make decisions based on their customers. Customers are very astute and stock photography is obvious thanks to its lack of personality and sterility. Sites that use it heavily feel fake. As customers become increasingly demanding with the growth in the choices they have when making a purchase. They need to know and trust brands before they transact with them, and fakeness isn’t going to build trust.

Marketers who settle for stock images are missing a huge opportunity to commission something unique, personal and exclusive. Something that will resonate with their customers, tells them a story about their business, and ultimately creates an environment in which they are happy to part with their hard earned cash.

The New Year is always a time for both reflection and planning ahead. As business owners, we are highly sensitive to negative news about the economy and consumer confidence. We regularly work with people who are commissioning photography for retail businesses, so we wanted to ask photographers what was on their mind going into 2012. We’ve had a great response with some big issues highlighted. Here is a selection of the comments and the issues that were shared:

‘Photographers are our own greatest challenge when it comes to giving or wholesaling images on CD. What is the value of the Copyright if you give your clients the image? Most of us have perfected Digital Imaging, but have not looked at how we do business in the digital age.’

Many photographers have experience where the value of their photography is just not recognized by other commercial organizations; with examples of approaches being made by businesses that want permission to use images, but don’t want to pay for them.

‘The challenge of not being replaced by the amateur.’

Everyone has a camera, and with Photoshop being so straightforward, people are taking a more casual approach to photography and the understanding and appreciation of the skills of professionals is being lost. Professionals are having to work hard to offer products which underline their skills, such as offering post production services that are not provided by the big retail labs and stores. Free or cheap photography is always going to be attractive to the buyer, but some people are coming back to the professionals trying to get them to fix things when the amateurs have got them wrong – like weddings.

But, ‘that moment in time is lost forever…clients don’t realize they are paying for expertise and experience not a CD.’

Another issue is that customers often don’t know how to tell a good image from a bad image, so they can’t tell when they are getting good value for their money.

‘Keep the momentum, keep creative. Try not to fall for ridiculous prices or number of pictures a day.’

Appreciation and popularity of photography in the art world has grown in the past few years and there is hope that this will have an impact on the appreciation of photography in the commercial sense too.

‘Getting new clients depends on getting in front of people through real, face-to-face networking.’

We’re keen to keep the debate going. Understanding the issues is critical, but we want to balance this with ways that we can address these problems and educate the buyers of commercial and professional photographic services. If you have anything that you want to add, we’d be delighted to hear from you.

We all know that first impressions count, and that those first impressions often come from visual experiences. Your customers are highly receptive to images, and they form strong opinions about your brand, website or catalogue from its overall ‘look’.

A picture tells a thousand words.

In any online or catalogue based shopping experience, you want your customers to buy products from you, products that they are buying from it’s photographic image.

Your images say many things about your brand - quality, price, professionalism, experience and expertise. They tell a detailed story about each product they sell; its size, form, propotions quality, texture and colour. Consistent photography across a large product range make it easier for people to browse and select the right product to buy, and make the shopping experience much more enjoyable.

Great photography doesn’t need to come with a huge price tag. Even for high volume product photography projects. But you will have to plan in advance to reap the benefits, and save time in the long run. A strong brief will need to be provided to create a style that fits your brand, and you’ll need to decide on the most appropriate techniques. Careful logistics planning before and during the shoot will make sure that shot rates are high and that quality is maintained. You’ll see the difference, but more importantly, so will your customers.

There are many businesses with high volume photography and video needs, which prefer the option of handling this in house rather than outsourcing to independent studios. It is an option that often makes perfect cost and control sense for them. However, from my experience in dealing with many of these businesses, there are some common pitfalls. In-house studios generally run very efficiently and do work very well. But sometimes the department just needs an objective heath check…

So, have a good look at your in-house studio today. If you get it right you’ll reap the rewards, with a hardworking, flexible and productive team; who understand your brand, its ambitions and the customer, and who will give you consistently great results. And it doesn’t get any better than that.