Recently, a high end contractor was proudly showing me his work in pictures he'd done himself with his "good camera". Here he is, a professional insisting on the best of everything for his clients, top of the line work and finish products such as cabinets, crown mouldings, appliances, faucets, you name it. Then, he decides to save money on the marketing of his services to attract new clients. He knows it's not professional, but says it's "good enough". There is DEFINITELY something wrong with this picture! I didn't confront him and make him feel bad about his pictures, but it made me realize that I needed to have something that would show what he, and others like him, are missing. I went to an office location where I used my "really good point and shoot zoom camera" - (TWELVE megapixels, wow!!!) readily available and frequently purchased by the average consumer, and let it do its thing on "auto", much as a non-professional would do. Then, I set up several professional architectural lighting units on stands, placing them in the best positions around the room to draw the eye around the image as I wanted it to go, metered the output of each light separately and made sure the existing lighting fixtures would register also, white balanced so the colors of the walls would be accurate, manually set the settings on my camera with interchangeable lenses, which allowed me to use the correct architectural lens, positioned myself correctly so the walls didn't tilt, and took the picture. Now, all these details might be boring to you and not necessarily something you wish to learn, but, does reading about this and seeing the difference in the photos illustrate why not using a professional photographer can actually COST someone money, lost sales by those using their own snapshots to try to get new clients? I don't try to draft architectural plans or build buildings, thinking they might save me lots of money and be good enough anyway, and it's much the same with deciding to hire a professional photographer. We do this for a living, and we KNOW how to make the client's marketing images look, not good enough, but GREAT.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
When is "good enough", NOT good enough?
Recently, a high end contractor was proudly showing me his work in pictures he'd done himself with his "good camera". Here he is, a professional insisting on the best of everything for his clients, top of the line work and finish products such as cabinets, crown mouldings, appliances, faucets, you name it. Then, he decides to save money on the marketing of his services to attract new clients. He knows it's not professional, but says it's "good enough". There is DEFINITELY something wrong with this picture! I didn't confront him and make him feel bad about his pictures, but it made me realize that I needed to have something that would show what he, and others like him, are missing. I went to an office location where I used my "really good point and shoot zoom camera" - (TWELVE megapixels, wow!!!) readily available and frequently purchased by the average consumer, and let it do its thing on "auto", much as a non-professional would do. Then, I set up several professional architectural lighting units on stands, placing them in the best positions around the room to draw the eye around the image as I wanted it to go, metered the output of each light separately and made sure the existing lighting fixtures would register also, white balanced so the colors of the walls would be accurate, manually set the settings on my camera with interchangeable lenses, which allowed me to use the correct architectural lens, positioned myself correctly so the walls didn't tilt, and took the picture. Now, all these details might be boring to you and not necessarily something you wish to learn, but, does reading about this and seeing the difference in the photos illustrate why not using a professional photographer can actually COST someone money, lost sales by those using their own snapshots to try to get new clients? I don't try to draft architectural plans or build buildings, thinking they might save me lots of money and be good enough anyway, and it's much the same with deciding to hire a professional photographer. We do this for a living, and we KNOW how to make the client's marketing images look, not good enough, but GREAT.
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