Photos for trade shows

(click on the image to see it larger)

High quality photos at your trade show booth attract exactly those buyers you're trying to reach. If you plan your photographs well, you'll have images that you can use for brochures and the web as well as for trade shows and office decor. One test of the quality of an image is "how good does it look when it's big?". It's my experience that bad photos look worse and good photos look better the bigger you make them.

This photograph was created for a corporation based near Philadelphia that makes containers for the pharmaceutical industry. They needed an image that was attention grabbing, showed that they made products in a wide range of sizes and communicated quality and purity. Credit for the wonderful idea of the "swoosh" goes to Curtis Hoover, the art director. It's my understanding that it will be used several ways including a trade show display. 

Strategically planned and well executed images enhance your brand. They cut through the noise to magnetically attract buyers to your booth.  They create the perception of quality and perception is everything.

It's a big expense to exhibit at a trade show. However, your booth, space, travel, hotel and everything else costs the same whether you generate business or not. High quality images are a tiny fraction of that cost and give you an edge over your competitors. 

In the end, the best pictures always win. It's only a question of who has them.

Cut costs or increase your income?

Many businesses foolishly focus on reducing expenses. Now, it's true that you need to be wise, but how much can you cut and still stay in business? Probably the most you can add to the bottom line this way and still keep your doors open is 10 or 20%. 

If you want to substantially increase your profit, you've got to increase your income, and you do that with marketing. Marketing is not an expense, it's an investment. Paper towels are an expense.

Properly done, marketing returns much more in profits than it costs. If you were at a slot machine that continually paid back $200 for every $100 dollars that you spent would you consider putting in another $100 an expense or an investment?  As long as your slot machine called marketing is paying off, you should be putting more money into it, not less. If it's not paying off then you need to fix your marketing or fix what you're selling.

By investing in marketing the potential increase in your profits is limitless.

Quote of the day

"When products appear the same and proliferate to the point where no one can remember their names, marketing becomes a matter of life and death."

William H. Davidow

We think in pictures.

And so do buyers. 

Think about your day, you got out of bed, showered, had breakfast, probably drove to work. When you think of those things, is it in words or pictures? 

Think of your living room or someone in your family. Using just words, can you accurately describe what they look like? Can you know that what you've written is what a reader pictures in their mind? 

Photos can communicate all of these things in a few seconds, and they profoundly influence buyers perceptions of what you offer. However they shouldn't be stock photos. They just make you look like everybody else.

Quote of the day

"A good photograph will make an uncommonly good image of common subjects."

Anonymous

Why stock photos undermine trust.

Many people foolishly believe that photos of their staff or their facilities are either unnecessary or wouldn't work as effectively as a stock photo in their sales literature or website. They don't show either their facility or their staff. They just paste in some meaningless clip art in the form of stock photos. Photos that show a friendly looking person taking a customer service call, a multicultural group of models having a meeting in a conference room or something else just as generic. A wonderful opportunity to convey some real information - wasted.

Really people - is this the best you can do?

It's really all a big lie and EVERYBODY can see through it. It makes you look like a poser. It really betrays trust at the most fundamental level, and trust is the key to selling. I think you're probably better off with a bad photo than a stock photo (although that's far from ideal too).

Imagine that you booked a vacation at a resort. You flew 1000 miles to get there only to find out:

The beach in the photo wasn't their beach.

The pool in the photo wasn't theirs.

The rooms in the photos were from another resort.

How would you react? What would you tell your friends? How many people would you tell? Would you go back? Would you ever trust them again?

Now, for some images, stock is fine: A close up of a putt being made, a car key, a bouquet of roses. The problem arises when they're used for more than the trivial.

When I see stock photos being used where the images are important, (and most people find stock photos VERY easy to spot), I immediately think:

Who are they kidding? What are they hiding?

Are they really such a rinky-dink operation that they can't afford professional photos?

Why should I trust them?

Quote of the day

"The most powerful element in advertising is the truth."

William Bernbach

What is digitally enhanced photography?

Digitally enhanced photos are images that have been specifically altered for the purpose of making the subject of the photo and the photo itself look better than the camera and lighting by itself was able to capture. Sometimes this is done to compensate for imperfections in the subject and sometimes to compensate for things that are beyond the photographer's control at the time of the shoot.

It can take on hundreds of forms including altering the tones, hue or saturation of all or parts of an image, removing unwanted detail and flaws, increasing detail in areas where that's desired, and combining several photos to create a final image that appears to be a conventional photo.

Before computers, this work used to be done at a less sophisticated level by photographers in the darkroom or by retouching.

These sort of things have been done for hundreds of years by artists. 

Study the paintings of the grand masters. They were hired by the rich and powerful to paint their portraits and often their possessions. They painted to please their employers. Their skin and hair appears flawless. All at a time when people bathed infrequently and lacked skin and hair care products. Do you really believe they looked that good? Never a zit. Every hair in place. 

Cameras don't capture an image the same way we see and especially the way we remember. They can't record detail in shadows and bright areas that we see easily, but they do capture every pore on a face, every piece of dust or tiny scratch on a product and every tiny piece of dirt or trash in a scene. The trouble is, this isn't what we notice or remember. These flaws weaken communication by being distractions.

That's why the best photos are almost always digitally enhanced. By eliminating flaws and unwanted detail and enhancing detail where desired, it's possible to create compelling images that actually appear more realistic than those that aren't enhanced. When done properly, it's all invisible.

See some before and after samples of digitally enhanced photos by Photoshop expert Richard Quindry.

Learn more about how digitally enhanced photos are made: Photoshop Expert Techniques

Quote of the day

"Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony."

Albert Einstein

Photography of interiors

(click on the image to see it larger)

before lighting and enhancement

You can compare the images more easily here.

Interior decorators have a problem. To get new work they need to show potential clients what they've done, but driving them around to past jobs isn't desirable or practical. Their own photos will fail to impress. They need images that are inviting and can capture a buyers imagination.

This interior is from my most recent shoot for a Philadelphia based interior decorator. She uses my images on her website, for direct mail and in her portfolio.

She does beautiful work, but capturing interiors well is always a challenge. They're extremely contrasty, especially during the day, and snapshots won't record them properly. This one was especially challenging because of the combination of the bright window and the black piano.

In addition to the specialized equipment required; viewpoint, staging, lighting and digital enhancement in post-production are all crucial components of high quality interior photography.

When choosing a photographer to do interiors, make sure that you use a photographer with a lot of experience doing architectural photography. Their photos will increase your sales and can pay for themselves very quickly.

In the end, the best pictures always win. It's only a question of who has them.

Quote of the day

"It's no longer good enough to be good enough."

Seth Godin

You can't afford to look like everyone else.

When the economy's tight and everyone's looking for more business, you've got to make sure that you're seen as being different than your competitors. 

If your marketing makes you appear just like every other _______ (fill in the blank) then you've got way too much competition for too little business. The only reason to buy from you is if you're the cheapest. Remember though - any fool can offer a lower price; especially one that will soon be going out of business. 

Make sure your website and brochures show what makes you distinctive. Explain how you're different and why they should care. How they benefit from that. You're unique - use that to your advantage. If you can show images that make you appear to be the best choice USE THEM, perception is everything.

If you're using copy that a competitor could use just by changing the name of the company or product, change it. It's meaningless. Same with your photos.

Quote of the day

"In good times people want to advertise, in bad times, they have to."

Bruce Barton

Making products look beautiful

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The products

This beauty shot of acrylic pieces was created last week for a multi-national chemical company. Barbara Craig, the art director, gave excellent direction and contributed a great deal to the shoot.

The product was very challenging as it was just a few clear pieces of plastic. This particular product is very strong and has applications in architecture, so this image was designed to appeal to architects.

The goal was to come up with an image that would communicate beauty and quality while creating curiosity to get the viewer to read the sales copy. 

When choosing a photographer for your business needs, make sure to use someone who brings more to the table than just an ability to operate a camera. 

Quote of the day

"In the end, better pictures always win. 

It's only a question of who has them."

Anonymous

What's YOUR weakest link?

The strength of a chain is only that of it's weakest link. It's the same with the results you get from your marketing.

Your results aren't determined by what's best about your marketing. Your results are determined by the weakest link in your marketing.

Consider your website and brochures and what goes into them. Design, copy, distribution, and the images. 

You can buy more distribution through pay-per-click, advertising or direct mail, but if you don't fix your weakest links you're wasting your money.

Work on fixing your weak links. You'll get greater results from doing that than anything else you can do.

Quote of the day

"If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten."

Tony Robbins