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Do catalogue photo photographers have the best job in the world? You look at the photographs in catalogues, fliers, brochures and on websites of gloriously cooked delicacies, mouth-watering nibbles and tantalizingly refreshing drinks, and you can't help but wonder what happens to it all after the camera's shutter has closed.
Catalogue photography is an area of advertising and marketing which can be under appreciated, and in a world where almost everyone can be a photographer, with multi mega pixel cameras built into almost every mobile phone, impressive digital cameras available in the high street, and a range of astounding looking software available which promises to transform your photographs, it is increasingly easy to believe that catalogue photography is easy.
The moment you start to think that catalogue photo photographers have an easy job, and that almost anyone could do it, and benefit from the use of products afterwards perhaps, your business could well be in jeopardy.
Because like any form of commercial photography, catalogue photography is a finely balanced combination of art and science, with the need for a combination of exceptional intuition and creativity coupled with years of hard experience working in the professional and commercial world of advertising photography.
Throw that into a state of the art digital photo studio and equip it with the best photographic equipment money can buy and you're still missing an essential ingredient: a contact list that makes your local telephone directory seem like a business card.
The professional commercial photographer will have a whole range of professional contacts providing everything from cooking services to props, lighting services to models, clothing and makeup services to sets, scenes and locations.
Clearly this is all a long way from a 10 megapixel camera picked up from the local computer store, a software package available off the shelf and a whimsical enthusiasm and admirable naivety regarding just how difficult the whole process really is.
For example, take something as simple as a diamond earring. It looks stunning, it's expensive and it seems to sparkle in any light. How easy it might be to take a photograph of it yourself. Just lay it on a white cloth, take a photograph and there you have it.
Catalogue photography isn't difficult you think as you bring up the result on your screen. That's when you realise that catalogue photo photographers might know something you don't, because the hugely expensive diamond earring you just photographed now looks like a cheap lump of glass, and it has virtually no shine. How do they do it?
All right, let's move on to the bottle of wine. You've seen them do this - a nicely chilled bottle of white wine, with drops of condensation making it look simply irresistible. You stand the bottle on the table and start spraying it with your plant mister. The photograph comes out making the bottle look flat, the wine more like cordial and as for the dappled condensation - it just looks as though you dropped it in the bath. Just how do catalogue photo photographers do it then?
Surely catalogue photography is just a point and click business, where you don't have to supply the goods, just pay for taking a few pictures of them. Let's try an easy one then, and we'll take a photograph of a tie. No need to worry about lighting or condensation.
Except that the photograph makes your very expensive silk tie look flat, slightly faded and hugely boring. How do catalogue photo photographers manage to make something as flat as a tie look interesting, leaping out of the page or the screen, shimmering and looking textured and luxurious?
It may be at this point that you realise that when it comes to catalogue photography, you need an edge. In fact, you need several, along with many years' experience and equipment and contacts which are simply second to none.
In each of these examples amateur photographers and in house marketing departments have tried, and failed, and in the world of catalogue photography, failure is losing sales. There just isn't any such thing as a near miss in catalogue photography, and experienced catalogue photo photographers know this, which is why they make sure every image is not just worth a thousand words, but a thousand sales. And you might even accept that they might sometimes earn the right to eat the food afterwards too!
Catalogue Photo Photographers | www.thepackshotpeople.co.uk | Catalogue Photography
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