advertising Archives - Sleeklens - Tools and Training for Photographers

Know Your Style

Before you get into commercial photography, it is important to know what your style is going to be. We all have different styles when it comes to photography, and understanding your style will help you know the campaigns to work for. With any art form, it is vital to know your style so that you can create something that is true to you, not to someone else.

Shooting your style will bring you grater success when you are working in advertising photography. It will resonate with you, and that will make you good at it. The better you are at it, the better you will do in the career.

Market Differently

Your whole job is finding new ways to sell a marketing message through photography. You have to think in a dynamic and interesting way. If that is the case, why would you go about things the typical way to market yourself? You have to think differently so you can market yourself differently. You can take pictures, build your portfolio and market yourself that way but this is just going to be a huge waste of your resources.

Instead, you focus on getting that one really amazing picture and start marketing that picture, rather than a portfolio of pictures. That will get you noticed and it will save you years of time.

There are several other things to consider when it comes to marketing yourself as a professional photographer so you can start making money, including:

Know the marketing process and be familiar with how marketing works. Use what you learn to teach yourself to market yourself, and be a better advertising photographer.

Know what clients you want and then begin to reach them. You can do this through actually setting up meetings, or through emailing them with your work. Either way, don’t be afraid to approach them and get them to see your amazing work.

Don’t spend years building your portfolio, as we already said. Send your one amazing picture right now and get noticed now. Why wait for years when you could be getting advertising work right now, at this very moment?

Be An Artist

You are a photographer right? Wrong, you are an artist and it is important you start seeing yourself that way. You need to start thinking of yourself as an artist so that you can start pushing the boundaries of what you can do. You want to push the limits of reality, and you want to choose what to render in the photo. Go down into your imagination and discover what it is that really makes you an artist and what will make the photograph pop as an advertising message.

It is the creative process of an artist that really makes a photograph something more. Don’t be afraid to experiment with what you can do, to make an image that changes how people see a product or service, through your photography.

When you are working in commercial advertising, there are going to be new challenges and opportunities for you to deal with. They will be rewarding and difficult, but it will allow you to explore yourself as a photographer and how you see the world. In many ways, being a commercial photographer can change how you see everything around you. It is an amazing career to be in.

Advertising photography is a field that many photographers want to get in to. It has the allure of working with big name companies who can provide regular work and good pay. You may also find yourself working with well-known people on both sides of the camera, and potentially working in a variety of exotic locations.

Getting to this stage isn’t an easy task at all though, as marketing is a complex and demanding business that will only consider the very best of workers at its top levels. If you really are determined to do it, you’re going to need a lot of drive and hard work. With that said, let’s look at some tips that could help you on your way to achieving this dream position.

1. Build a Strong Portfolio

Decide what type of area you want to get into and start by building a large, high quality portfolio of work centered around that area. It can be tempting to go wide in your early days and try to cover all types of subjects. This isn’t a bad idea for gaining experience and of course to keep work coming in.

Keep in mind though, it’s a lot harder to become a general advertising photographer than it is to become a specialized one. This is why you should build a portfolio based around one type of work and try to get into that first. From there it’s easier to expand to other areas if the opportunity arises.

2. Put in the Extra Work

You also need to make your work stand out from that of other photographers, so put in the extra time and effort that’s required to make your work better than that of the competition. This can involve getting to locations early to scout the best spots and decide how to integrate the location best into your shots, or putting in extra work on your own time to experiment with different settings, equipment and styles, finding those that work best for your chosen product or location.

3. Study the Best

Study those who are already highly successful in the fields you want to enter and see what they do well and how they add their own individuality to their work. This can act as a framework for you to learn from, and trying to emulate their work can give you a better understanding of how they achieve the quality they do.

Don’t just look at their work either, try to find interviews and articles explaining their methods and thought process so you can emulate it when you create your own. Sometimes these people may even be willing to give you some tips personally if you reach out to them, so don’t be afraid to try!

4. Research Your Products & Target Audiences

All products are different and they target different markets. This information can be useful to you when you understand what makes a product unique and also what people are looking for in it, as well as why they buy it. Knowing these facts can help you understand what you need to highlight when you’re shooting and adjust your style accordingly.

An example would be using edgier angles and filters for items marketed to teenagers, especially those into alternative culture, while perhaps trying more minimalist styles for those items aimed at an older, more sophisticated crowd.

5. Expand Your Marketing Knowledge

Marketing is a very large industry where photography is only one small area. Increasing your knowledge of this industry as a whole can help you to land work and become a more integral part of marketing efforts.

There’s a big difference between a photographer who can understand an overall marketing vision and add to it, and a photographer who simply supplies pictures they think are good.

Understanding the angles and techniques that will be used in all areas and being able to show this to a company can land you more work and make you more sought after by marketing teams.

6. Increase Your Professional Profile

It isn’t always the best photographer that gets the job; instead it’s often the one that sells themselves best or who is considered ‘hot’. Apply what you learn about marketing to yourself, treat yourself as a company/product that needs to be ‘sold’ to your clients. Market yourself well to clients and be highly professional at all times.

Being easy to work with, friendly and going the extra mile can make a huge difference and could lead to big referrals down the line. Often a company will take the chance with a less experienced and proven photographer if they’ve heard a lot of good feedback and been told how easy you are to work with. Use this to your advantage and you can leapfrog more experienced workers.

Tag: advertising

Getting Started in Commercial Advertising Photography

Know Your Style

Market Differently

Be An Artist

6 Tips to Become an Advertising Photographer