Commercial Lifestyle Photography, Breaking It Down.

Commercial lifestyle photography is revolutionising product marketing

It is a conundrum that probably every marketeer or art director has faced at some point.
How can I efficiently covey my brand narrative to my customers? Storytelling, especially through commercial lifestyle photography has emerged as a popular answer to this question.
It is definitely among the best ways to connect with an audience. However, that does not mean it is an easy craft, not by any stretch of the imagination.
Quite the contrary, stitching-together all the intricate parts that create a truly captivating, image-oriented marketing campaign, is a hard nut to crack.
But you are sure to go a long way if you have at least the photography part of the puzzle figured out.
This is where the role of a professional lifestyle photographer becomes important. 

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A commercial lifestyle photographer brings a lot to the table 

Whether you are an aspiring art director or a savvy marketeer, what you likely have in common is the desire to attract more eye-balls towards your product.
Crafting a creative and artistically ingenious campaign that is both eye-catching as well as cost-effective, could be tricky.

A talented commercial lifestyle photographer can help you a great deal in accomplishing that feat.
In a nutshell, commercial lifestyle photography is the art of capturing compelling visual imagery that conveys your brand narrative in a relatable way and inspires viewers to recognise, interact, and trust your brand identity. This trust then gets translated into sales. 

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Alignment of the content with the direction of the campaign

A commercial lifestyle photographer makes sure that the production style of the images complements your branding strategy.
This makes the produced images quite effective. Such professionally shot images can successfully engage the target demographic of the products and services. The level of skills and expertise that a professional lifestyle photographer adds to your campaign, can play an instrumental role in articulating certain qualities that drive people towards certain products or services.

The crux of commercial lifestyle photography

Lifestyle photography in and of itself is a fairly diverse field of professional photography, that encompasses several aspects. But if one has to limit it in a  more concrete and cohesive definition, it primarily focuses on capturing the beauty and aesthetics of everyday life and seemingly small or ordinary moments that characterise living.

The deep focus of lifestyle portraits on the way we go about our day-to-day lives is what makes them particularly apt for advertising. In our daily lives, we use many products and services, quite frequently, which is why lifestyle photos are one of the easiest ways to promote such products and services. 

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Diver Lifestyle Portrait

Customisation of commercial photography

You can ask commercial lifestyle photographers to tailor the content according to your needs and requirements. Content captured and communicated through commercial photography can open doors for singularly original and artistically admirable marketing campaigns. It is primarily due to the immense leeway, in terms of scope, that art directors/buyers or marketeers enjoy in the domain of commercial photography.

Everything is possible.

You get to choose from a wide variety of options, on the kind of lifestyle photos that would fit your brand identity.
For instance, in fashion photography, earlier the emphasis was primarily on the aesthetics, to engage female consumers.
However, now the cultural discussion has become more fixated on environment protection, which is why commercial campaigns are also focusing chiefly on conveying their pro-environment-friendly stance to their target audience.
Photo retouching has also a big part to play in any commercial photography.
In the right hands, high-end retouching can allow much more creativity and flexibility in today’s work not to mention overcome otherwise near-impossible problems.

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Planning Mark Up For Compositing Models

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Final Composited Image

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Different kinds of commercial photography 

Rather than constraining yourself in a box or a category, that limits the potential of your campaign, you can endlessly morph and re-design the content of your marketing images.
So be it fashion design, interior design, tourism photography, or a combination of all of those, you can hire the specialised services of a professional lifestyle photographer for each of one of these domains. A professionally-trained and highly-skilled lifestyle photographer, whether commercial or not, can venture into various kinds of artistic domains with equal flair and panache.

Pictures speak a thousand words

You can create a more multi-faceted marketing approach with the help of lifestyle photography. Commercial lifestyle photography allows you to capitalise on the benefits of treading on familiar ground.
People respond well to messaging that revolves around stuff they already know or recognise.
Hence, a commercial lifestyle photographer focuses on capturing, not just the environment, background, objects, and the general atmosphere, to transport the viewer, but also induces them with a specific feeling, mood, or nostalgia.

The potent ability of images to not just grab the attention of a viewer, scrolling down the timeline, but to completely transport them into an alternate reality, is mighty impressive. However, this inherent quality can be enhanced, maximised, and utilised to its fullest, by putting a bit of effort and planning into the production.

Everything from an outdoor shooting, to working with real people instead of models, and improvisation can help a lot.
However, nothing can be more productive than hiring someone with a real skill-set to shoot those candid images.

Mimecast Corporate Business Photography Woman At Desk

Mimecast Corporate Business Photography

Commercial photography perfectly blends art with commerce

Even though categorically speaking, commercial photography is at the end of the day commercial, it is unfair to characterise it as just that.
There is a whole lot of artistic talent and creative skills that go into the creation of a stellar lifestyle portrait.
Also, it is not easy to sell stuff to people, especially, in this day and age.
The attention span of people is getting shorter and shorter. Therefore, to be able to engage them and create a genuine connection that motivates them to spend requires a great deal of effort and expertise.
Brands that thrive on their image campaigns are the ones that are great at striking the right balance between ingenuity and commercial value. 

Brand continuity is the ultimate aim

Brand continuity is the chief reason why it is better to hire a professional team for commercial lifestyle photography, instead of just doing it on your own, on an iPhone.
The concept of brand continuity requires you to evoke the same kind of experience for your customers, throughout your points of interactions with them.
This includes creating a sense of relatability that is needed to increase visibility, recognition, and reliability.
All of which are required by any business that strives to stand head and shoulders above its competitors.
Hiring a commercial lifestyle photographer for personalised work can help you create a distinct footprint for your brand in the market, which will ultimately ensure brand continuity for your enterprise.

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In the current digital scenario, we are losing sight of the fact that photography is an art.
It is not a tool that can be yielded by just about anyone. Or at least its a huge mistake to assume that no matter who helms the camera, the result would end up being the same, cause it will not.

The skills of a professional lifestyle photographer, apart from the technical knowledge of light and lenses, lies in his/her capacity to capture emotion.
You can distinguish between a professionally done commercial photoshoot from that of an amateur, just by assessing the approachable nature or relatability of the image.
Images with evident empathy always leave superficial or trendy images biting the dust.
It is easy to get enamoured by eye-candy, however, only true art can evoke a feeling of genuine connection.

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Mature Couple Embracing On Cruise Ship

Simon Plant Lifestyle Photographer