How Professional Photography Can Boost Your Brand
We live in a constantly evolving digital age. One where images play a critical role in content and engagement. I challenge you to remember the last time you went a whole day without being influenced by images that appeared on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
Nearly every social network share that you click on leads to a news article, story, or blog post with a colorful, vivid, descriptive photo. More than likely it was a photo that got you to click through in the first place. Why is this? It’s simple and you’ve heard it a million times… “A picture is worth a thousand words”.
As the attention span of humans continues to dwindle, we must work even harder to captivate and engage. The average adult’s attention span is down to 8 seconds. This is less than a goldfish, which comes in one second ahead of us at 9 seconds. This statistic gives us remarkable insight. It proves that now, more than ever, we need to work harder to grab the attention of our audience in a dramatic way. Images are a remarkably powerful tool to achieve this goal.
On Instagram alone, an average of 58 million photos are uploaded daily. This may lead you to believe that in our modern times anyone with an iPhone can be a photographer. And that might even be true to some degree. But if you’re looking to position your brand professionally, it’s a good idea to hire a true professional. Here’s why:
1. They understand lighting.
We know it all too well: you’re scrolling through Facebook and someone decided to post a photo of their dinner. But the photo is so dark that you’re questioning what the heck it even is. A professional photographer understands the concept of light. After all, they are essentially “recording light” to create images. Having well-lit photos will make a huge impact on the final image and in turn, helps with your overall mission of communicating the message of your brand.
2. They can help you tell your story.
Having a photographer document your process helps tell your story. For example, if you create a product, documenting the creation process can be just as important as a money shot of the finished product. It’s a great way to teach people about what you do and what sets you apart.
These process photos can help convey what makes your product superior to your competition. Many times these points of differentiation are most effectively shown through photos. Having a professional photographer who can capture your process will help create a dialog for people to engage with your brand.
3. They will deliver hi-res, quality files.
Professional photographers shoot in RAW format. RAW is a file format that captures all image data recorded by the sensor. When shooting in a format like JPEG, image information is compressed and lost.
Since no information is compressed with RAW they’re able to produce higher quality images, as well as correct issues that would be unrecoverable if shot in the JPEG format. Bottom line, a professional photographer can deliver quality images to exceed or match your competition, setting you and your brand apart from the crowd.
4. They have post-processing and editing skills.
In a perfect world, you snap the shutter, capture the image, then print or share. Unfortunately, 9 times out of 10, that image isn’t quite print ready. An unwanted spot on a plate, the white balance is off, lens distortion causes lines to converge – the list could go on.
Lucky for you, you hired a professional who takes the RAW files and processes them. This is a very important and time-consuming part of a professional photo shoot and requires importing, sorting, and hours of editing. The post-production process is critical for making the most attractive and captivating images. This is the modern-day “dark room” where the images come to life.
Ready to hire a professional photographer to boost your brand?
Shout out to Nick Ulivieri Photography for supplying us with these wonderful before/after shots to help illustrate our point.