Top 10 Tips for Buying Commercial Photography Services

Professional commercial photography services have changed significantly in terms of image quality over the past 10 years along with the way in which professional images are created, processed and distributed.

As a buyer of commercial photography, changes in technology with modern digital bodies and backs mean that you can acquire images for your business that equal the resolution of the best quality film formats.  As long as you insist upon a minimum of 22Megapixel that will produce 64MB TIFF files and 28MB JPG's you will have digital originals of your products or projects that will be capable of being enlarged to exhibition size dimensions.

Customers remark that the commercial and architectural photography market is highly variable.  Variability occurs in both image consistency and quality and just as importantly in these credit crunch times on pricing.

Photography is an industry that doesn't do itself any favours at times with transparency of what buyers should expect to receive or what they should be paying for.  There seems to be a hang over from the film days that a fee was charged for time eg. a daily rate and then other additional fees were added on top - see item 4 below.  We can't see how this approach developed - other than from photographers who wanted to lose customers quickly.  In todays competitive markets service delivery and pricing needs to be completely transparent.  Forward thinking photographers have a commercial approach which matches the expectations of their customers.

This guide aims to provide a number of tips and pointers on what to ask your shortlisted photographers before making that all important first commission.  We recently won a client who had used nine different photographers in a twelve month period.  This situation created a lack of consistency in image style and quality that could have been avoided if the buyer had agreed some groundrules before proceeding with commissioning.

The ten tips below are written as an introduction to various less well known areas of the photography industry - topics that most people know of but perhaps not fine detail.  Response from the blog will prompt further papers that will drill into individual topics and provide greater transparency.

Understanding your Requirements

Perhaps the most important consideration - even beyond cost - is the attitude that the the photographer applies when discussing your requirements.  Your first impressions count.  You need to get the feeling that the photographer is genuinely interested in you, your company and your project.  The photographer should pummel you with questions to gain a good feel for your requirements and also be interested in whether your new photography is a departure from existing house style or a continuation of what you have already.  A new brand or product launch will require a thorough understanding of where you are taking the company, product or solution whereas a well established and successful marketing 'look & feel' will need to be recreated by whoever you select. 

Flexibility

Responding to your requirements is a key element for you to identify in your commercial photographer shortlist.  Every commercial photographer specialises in an area of the industry.  You may have a purely studio requirement or an entirely location commercial photography project in mind or a mixture of both.  Check the area that photographers specialise in.  You may want to attend all shoots to get a feel for the development of the project or you may want to provide the commercial photographer with a listing of postcodes and a verbal brief.  You may want the photographer to attend your premises to conduct the shoot so that you can prepare products or your people to minimise disruption.  You need a photographer who enjoys this fluid approach and is focused upon the requirements of your business.   If the fit is right then a photographer will behave as though they are part of your team.  Social skills are clearly important in this area.  You will produce a much better set of board portrait images if the commercial photographer is skilled at creating a rapport with your management group!

Terms of Business. 

It's worth requesting a copy of the photographers Terms of Business.  It's helpful to have something in writing that sets out the photographers policies on a variety of situations from copyright to cancellation (more about both of these topics below).  Terms of Business give a good indication of how commercial and flexible the photographer is and how straightforward the relationship is likely to be.  In short you need something in writing as a form of contract as a buyer.

All inclusive service. 

Care should be taken when comparing prices from Photographers.  Traditionally travel time to and from location, burning images to DVD, supplying high resolution files, providing hard copy thumbnail contact sheets and most importantly assigning copyright for images created, were charged as extra costs.   Copyright is a much misunderstood area for customers.  Most customers understandably believe that all images resulting from their shoot should be their property including copyright.  This is generally not the case. See section 5 for more advice on photographic copyright.  Make sure to ask what elements are charged as additional cost items when discussing a commission. We provide an all inclusive service that ensures that you receive invoices with costs as originally quoted. 

Copyright and Photography.

Photographers have historically retained the copyright for all images that they create meaning that they own the images and 'loan' them to their clients for use in agreed activities for an agreed period.  Typically this period was for two years and then renegotiated if the image was still in use.  The intensity of use and form had a direct bearing on the fees charged eg. prominent use on your website homepage would have a higher negotiated fee than a low circulation and therefore less viewed newsletter.  This approach strikes most people who commission photography as something from a bygone era and not at all how they operate when acquiring other creative services - therefore all of these elements are included in our service and you receive bespoke images that are 'copyright free'. 

Does the photographer shoot in RAW format or just JPG? 

This is a key indicator of the expertise that the photographer has developed in the business.  RAW format is used by all top grade photographers.  RAW format files are images files which are exactly as the photographer captured the image without any camera software making any adjustments to the data.  RAW files allow the photographer to have complete control of your images after the shoot when post shoot processing is conducted (see section 7 below).  If the photographer just shoots straight to JPG (which is often legitimately done for sports photography) then move on.

Format of Images

Are RAW images processed into high res. 64MB TIFF files (this may seem excessive until that popular image from the front of your brochure is needed for the new exhibition graphics), 28MB JPG and smaller 2MB JPG files for proofing.  Beware of Terms of Business that don't make it clear that you will be supplied with these formats and size of files.

We have won customers who tell us that their former photographer supplied them with low resolution images from which they were asked to select favourite shots before they would be supplied with TIFF files for an additional fee!

We believe that all images created during your shoot should be supplied to you in all of the above formats and sizes COPYRIGHT FREE as part of our daily fee.

Liaison with Location

Many clients are running either a business, practice or a Marketing function and don't have time to organise fine detail of when the commercial photographer will attend location.  Our approach is one of taking this hassle off your hands and we often work from a postcode and contact details when arranging these details.

Supplying images for print - CMYK or RGB

We can ensure that your images are supplied to printers or publishers in the required format.  Traditional offset Litho printing used for four or five colour print process required CMYK images (stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key or Black).   Publishers of magazines may also require images supplied in CMYK format rather than RGB (Red, Green, Blue).  We will liaise with your publisher or printer and ensure that we supply the format required.  Most client organisations require images in RGB format.

Proofing images via FTP

Projects will vary in urgency.  Some clients rarely need proofs more urgently than as glossy, colour hard copy 255gm contact sheets delivered by recorded delivery next day.  However there are always situations where that print or publishing deadline is tight and you need to see proofs same day or within the hour.  FTP transfers can be made within minutes of capturing images so that we can discuss adjustments as the shoot progresses.