The product shot looks simple, and requires perfect control of lighting and considerable skills in editing to give the appearance of effortless perfection.  This perfection is meant to highlight the product by removing all distractions.  The only additions to the image, like reflections, shadows, etc… are meant to make the product more present and real to the consumer.  Usage for our clients has varied from Amazon and Home Depot, to usage on company websites and brochures.

Lifestyle images invoke a different feeling.  They are meant to draw the consumer in.  They invoke imagination, and encourage the consumer to imagine using the product for themselves, or to associate it with positive feelings and memories.  While a product shot removes the use of extra details, a lifestyle image thrives on them.  Lifestyle images can be a perfectly immaculate product in a stylized room, but it can also be a messy kitchen with the product in use.  The product and where it sold, make the decision of what the lifestyle images ought to be.

Food photography is combination of product and lifestyle photography.  This is in part because no item of food is ever completely perfect.  Making the slight irregularities balanced without making the food look artificial is part of the required skillset for food photography.  The other aspect of food photography is that, like lifestyle photography, food carries an emotional tone all on its own.  Food must be made inviting, details are highlighted and backgrounds softened.  Lifestyle photography for food can be even more tricky because the food requires a specific atmosphere to feel appropriate.  You do not want to photograph fine chocolates in the same setting as people eating tacos and getting a mess on their hands.

Portraiture as a commercial art differs from personal use.  Family and personal portraits are about capturing a moment and memory.  Commercial portraits are meant to accomplish a specific task.  This task can vary from projecting confidence and charisma for a business professional, all the way to projecting a strong woman who is confident and clearly enjoying herself.  It can be said the personal portraiture is about capturing what is candidly there, and professional portraiture is about amplifying a specific chosen aspect of a person for effect.  Some of those in the local area may recognize Allison from The Allison Show; we have been doing her calendar for a little while now.

Advertising is a combination of all these skills and more.  It can involve portraiture, products, lifestyle, models, and practically anything you can think of.  Advertising is about creating only a few or one perfect image.  Every element is thought through, every prop is inspected, colors are matched or clashed in a specific way.  Advertising is about a message.  It is usually about the product, but often only peripherally.  These images are as much about graphic design and posing as they are about the photography.  As an example, the phone in water image is not actually a single photo.  It is dozens of them carefully stitched together to create a single cohesive whole.  The image on the display of the phone was carefully taken in a different setting and transformed to go in place.  Every element is in place.  For this reason, advertising images are often the most time consuming.  The images look effortless, because of the sheer amount of effort that goes into it.

There will be a fee for travel to any location outside the Utah Valley area.  There is a setup fee for the images, which varies depending upon the complexity of the shoot, and will pay for the time of setup as well as any props required.  Then there will be either a per image price, or if extreme editing is likely (as in the case of advertising), a price per hour.  License fees will also apply based on the intended usage.

A number of our small business clients may not have run into licensing fees before.  They determine what and for how long you may use the image for.  Prices on licensing fees vary far more than any other item.  Obviously the fees on an image used solely on Amazon for a product would differ greatly from an image used in a million dollar marketing campaign.