Types of photography every creative business needs
Editorial photography for Polly Reid - The Buain Collection
What photography do you need to make sales and grow your audience as a creative business?
Good photography is the cornerstone of every successful creative business. It should inspire, inform and convert into bookings or sales.
Here I’ll give you the list of types of photography you will need to effectively market your products or services.
Key before commissioning any kind of photography is to ensure your chosen photographer aligns with your own style and ethos, and that they can create the type of imagery you specifically require, not just because they might be local or available or in your price bracket.
1. Product Imagery
Product imagery needs to take into account the platform that you are selling on, eg Not on the Highstreet and other 3rd party selling platforms or Marketplaces often have very strict rules regarding backgrounds and sizes.
However, for your own website this type of imagery should always reflect your brand’s personality and ethos. So, for example using your brand colours as background tones, using props in a way that doesn’t overshadow the product but rather supports and complements it.
If your business is service based then appropriate imagery that shows your service in an appropriate setting, eg for florists you will want imagery that showcases what you create, eg bouquets, table centrepieces and so on.
Product photography for Inkflower Press
2. Editorial/Lifestyle Imagery
This type of imagery is usually styled and may include models or certainly a higher degree of prop use to further explain or demonstrate what your product is or does. As a stylist as well as a photographer, these type of shoots take the longest time to plan and prepare, with mood boards, careful choice of setting, models (where necessary eg for clothing or jewellery), and whole looks. This is your opportunity to really tell the story of your product and brand and to directly reach your ideal clients with the perfectly aligned images they want to see.
This might be called a ‘Lookbook’ shoot, or an editorial – something that is intended to be published not only on your website to catch the eye of your customers and create that ‘want’ factor, but that might also be seen in magazines or on blogs and from which images could be used for advertorial content.
This is your opportunity to really create a whole world around your product or service, something that is aspirational and truly inspiring to your potential customers. These are usually done for each new collection you create, or perhaps on a seasonal basis. You may even want specific campaign imagery in this vein for things like Christmas.
Lookbook Shoot for Polly Reid - The Buain Collection coming soon…
3. Social Proof Imagery
This is imagery usually created by real clients or customers. Pictures that they have taken of your product or enjoying something you have created for them. This type of imagery is really helpful, especially on social media, to show your followers imagery that is relatable and also proof of your business being legitimate and enjoyed by others.
Of course getting this type of imagery is harder as it is not something that you can typically commission, although this is possible through Influencers or Brand Ambassadors. Choose these with the utmost care to ensure they are truly aligned with your business, and not just because they’re getting ‘free stuff’ from you. Larger followings don’t always = engaged audiences, so those with a smaller audience but highly engaged is better than millions of followers with only a handful of comments or likes.
4. Brand Imagery
Pictures of you are a must! If you are a creative business of one, your brand is inherently personal (unlike big brands which are often faceless). In order to connect with your audience, they want to see and hear you.
As a photographer myself this is some of my favourite imagery to shoot. I love capturing people at work, doing what they love most.
This is much more than just a ‘head shot’. This is your opportunity to show off your skills, talent and working environment. Hands, tools of your trade, your workshop and things that you use to inspire your work should all be captured and form part of a body of imagery that you can use to tell your own brand story. eg if you’re a landscape artist then images of you walking the countryside that informs your work would be ideal, or as a florist you working in your workshop with your ribbons, snips and buckets of flowers to hand would work beautifully.
Workshop Imagery for Floribunda Rose
Top Tips
1. Make sure you have a good variety of orientated imagery so you can supply them on request at a moment’s notice for any PR opportunities that arise. eg landscape, portrait and square images.
2. Make sure you have them correctly sized, eg versions at high resolution for print, or web sized for online.
3. Ensure they are labelled correctly with your brand name (and the photographer’s name as Copyright).
4. A good variety of seasonal imagery is always useful, so if one year you had a lot of spring/summer photography, try in your next commissions to get Autumn/Winter, so that you are always adding to a collection of useful imagery for your brand.