Advertising photography
Commercial photography is an area of professional photography that creates images for promotional purposes . The clients are mostly advertising agencies . In addition to product photography, advertising photography often has to depict abstract objects such as safety , health , quality of life or joie de vivre . The images of advertising photography should encourage consumption and make products or services attractive.
Sub-areas
Commercial photography includes:
- Product photography , for example fashion photography and food photography or food photography
There is also an overlap with
- Portrait photography (advertising ambassadors, election posters, confidants)
- Nude photography (underwear, light products )
- Nature photography , landscape photography (ecology, travel, tourism)
- Sports photography ( nutritional supplements , chocolate bars )
- Architectural photography (architects, hotels, tourism, banks, insurance companies)
- Animal photography (animal feed)
classification
Advertising photography can in part also be understood as an art movement that takes up the painterly traditions of, for example, still life . Sales psychology techniques are also used ( see also manipulation , propaganda ).
Techniques of image manipulation , with which unwanted parts of the image are removed or several images are composed into a new one , are also common at all times . In the past, classic photo montage was used ; Since nowadays mostly only digital photography is used, graphic software is used for this. The products of advertising photography can then be found in the mass media , in print media , but also in public spaces ( posters , outdoor advertising ), and in Internet advertising .
history
Famous advertising photographers are or were Charles Wilp , Reinhart Wolf , Herb Ritts and Bert Stern .
Controversial were photographs in advertising campaigns such as that of Benetton by photographer Oliviero Toscani . B. showed dying AIDS patients or the blood-soaked shirt of a killed soldier, according to Benetton, to draw attention to their misery.
spectrum
The range of advertising photography is so high that professional photographers usually only cover a sub-area. Each of the sub-areas requires so much experience and knowledge on the part of the photographer, especially very different photographic equipment, so that specialization is absolutely common. Product groups that are very intensively advertised are lucrative areas of application for advertising photographers: These include fashion photography, cosmetics, luxury goods in general, high-quality services or technical goods, such as B. automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes or high-quality consumer goods. These fields of activity are often endowed with high budgets.
In certain product fields, for example fashion, cosmetics or automobiles, the works of advertising photography are often so highly stylized that images can hardly keep up with editorial photo reporting.
Working for services such as banks, insurance or tourism can be conceptually demanding. In these areas, hidden signals and symbols that have to be integrated photographically play a strong role.
education
The training takes the form of a photographic training at appropriate training centers and advertising photographers or by studying at an art college . Special courses are photo design , but graphic designers are also involved in the composition and post-processing of advertising photos.
Web links
- Description of the job of advertising photographer at the employment agency