Tips to Improve Your Professional Commercial Photography Skills

Commercial photography, also known as product photography is the kind of photography that involves taking photos of different types of products such as buildings, merchandise, artifacts, landscapes, etc. for commercial use. These photos are used in advertisement, catalogs, menus, leaflets, and other similar promo materials.

Basically, Professional Commercial Photography is made use of for promoting or selling a product or service and, is therefore, different from advertising photography.

To explain further:

1. Product photography helps in Selling a Product
While advertising photography concentrates on a concept or theme and many things at the same time, commercial photography focuses only on the product, and tries to show either the design or features of the product. It aims to make that product the main focus and to tempt customers to purchase it.

2. Professional product photography helps in Promoting a Business
In this case the business is taken as a single product and focused in the photo. A few aspects of the business also can be highlighted in this kind of photography. For eg., capturing the office building of the company.

3. Professional commercial photography includes Food Photography
In businesses such as restaurants or in culinary sections in magazines, food photography plays an important part. The focus in these shots is either on the food, menu or the venue.

4. Professional commercial photography includes Fashion Photography
One of the most famous types of Commercial Photography, Fashion photography is utilized in both advertisements and editorials in magazines. An example is catalog photographs which show the close detail of clothing.

5. Professional product photography includes Portrait Photography
This type includes individual and family portraits, wedding photos, etc. aimed to focus on an individual or group of people. And though it’s not so easy to count this category as part of commercial photography, it’s very popular and is a service offered by many individuals and photography outlets.

Tips to Improve Your Professional Commercial Photography Skills

Product photography gives a lot of stress to skill and accuracy, and so, needs to be done such that it looks professional and not casual.

The below mentioned suggestions can help:

1. Appropriate Lighting
As is true in other kinds of photography, the correct type of lighting is very important to an effective commercial photography. It is important so as to highlight the best of the product, and improper light can create bad effects like shadows and reflections that can mar the photograph.

You might want to consider making use of strobe lighting or handle the camera shutter to make use of the lighting.

2. Create Great Setup
A good commercial photographer knows the importance of generating the perfect ambience for the object in focus depending upon the surrounding conditions. For eg., at times minimalist shot is the best option while at other times a more dramatic shot having bold light and background can be more desirable. And so, setting up the correct mood can create a great photo.

3. Utilizing The Angles
If you’d like to ditch the boring front angles, it is advisable to go for multiple angle shots of the product. This can create a fresh take on conventional objects while giving rise to an exciting final product using professional commercial photography.