What Makes Brochure Photography Different From Any Other Kind Of Image?

By: William Penworthy

Brochure photography is not as simple as many businesses have fooled themselves into thinking. In a world of technology which enables almost anyone to use off-the-shelf software to create desktop published documentation or create websites with ease it is easy to see visual marketing as something needing little more than a trip to the local computer store and an afternoon tinkering with a digital camera and a keyboard. For some people this solution is perfectly adequate, especially those private individuals selling the odd item on Ebay or creating a newsletter for a small social group or charity.

However, when it comes to business, brochure photography must be far more demanding, and far more carefully considered. There is a good reason for this, and when compared to web based marketing material, this reason becomes even more significant.

Images displayed on screen will need to be reduced in quality, either because of the space available on the screen, or the file size of the picture. Even though many people have broadband, it is unwise for businesses to assume, or even require, that this is so. Therefore images must be compressed to ensure that a web page is downloaded quickly. Slow loading web pages will usually try the patience of most visitors, and people will simply click off and try another website.

However, there are no limits as far as file size and resolution are concerned when considering brochure photography. People don't tend to look at websites with much expectation as far as visual clarity and resolution is concerned, at least, not yet. But when printed material is made available, expectations shift, and visual images gain status very rapidly. People expect printed material to be of a higher quality than on the screen, and so it is given more attention.

In a recent survey it was discovered through analysing the movement of people's eyes that over 85% of people look at a visual picture on a brochure before looking at anything else. The title or business name ranked second, with headlines, special offers and text gaining only a small proportion of people's initial attention. This is a hugely important fact, because this means that for the overwhelming majority of potential customers, your ability to create a first impression is almost entirely through the visual images and brochure photography you choose to include.

If you have used the services of qualified and experienced brochure photo photographers then you will almost certainly find that people's first impression of your company, business or organisation is not merely favourable, but impressive. Brochure photography is not just about filling up empty space with pretty pictures; it is about communicating values, principles, and generating a favourable impression.

A photo of your shop front, your warehouse, one of your products or a smiling manager sitting at a desk holding a pen over a blank piece of paper is likely to communicate only one thing - that you have very little to say, and so need to fill up a spare bit of the brochure.

Brochure photo photographers understand what it means to communicate through images, and by getting to know and understand your business aims, principles and values, they can help you to communicate a clear message successfully through an image alone.

Using professional photographers your brochure photography won't simply be a way of using up space; in fact, your brochure photography will be so successful that the text will be of almost secondary importance, merely confirming the messages contained within the main picture and providing the detailed information necessary.

The old adage suggests that a picture can paint a thousand words, and it is almost certainly true that through the clever use of digital manipulation and the advantages of using a state of the art photographic studio, brochure photo photographers can create an image which says even more than a thousand words' worth. When you bear in mind that most brochures don't even run to more than a few hundred words, this provides you with a hugely important opportunity.

What will your brochure photography images say about your business in those thousand words? That you didn't want to run to the expense of a professional photography service, that you were looking to cut corners, that you ran out of things to say and so just crammed a stock photo of your business premises in the corner to make the brochure page look less sparse?

Or will you use professional brochure photo photographers to ensure that your brochure photography messages communicate values, principles and benefits to the reader in a split second which help convert them from simply a casual reader to an actively engaged potential customer?