Coming up with photos for a business can be tricky, and in many cases it is best to hire a professional photographer. That being said if your budget doesn’t allow for it there’s no reason why you can’t do it yourself – so long as you’re willing to learn.
If you’re going to be producing your own business photos, there are a few common mistakes that you should be aware of – and try to avoid:
- Taking photos from eye-level
While there is nothing ‘wrong’ with taking photos from eye-level, you should always try to vary the perspectives that you use when snapping business photos. The vast majority of photos are snapped from eye-level and head-on – so using other perspectives is a good way to set your photos apart.
Be creative about the perspectives that you use when snapping your business photos and try to frame it in unique ways.
- Opting for quantity as opposed to quality
New photographers often make the mistake of thinking that the more photos they snap, the better their chances of capturing at least one photo that is good. Unfortunately that rarely ever works, and instead you’re better off taking your time and carefully thinking about each and every shot that you snap.
In short you should always opt for quality over quantity. Try to not be trigger-happy with your shutter button, and instead frame each photo carefully while taking into account every factor that will play a part in how it turns out.
- Not exploring the camera settings
Although snapping photos with your camera on Auto is easier and definitely more beginner-friendly – if you want to have more control over your business photos you need to shift to manual. Manually adjusting the exposure settings will give you greater control over how your photos turn out, and let you take far better photos.
At very least you should start to explore your camera settings and experiment with them. If you do you should get the experience that you require in time.
- Over-editing the photos
Editing your business photos is good, but over-editing them is not. It can be a fine line between improving a photo and making it look great, to over-editing it and making it look unnatural.
To make sure you don’t over-edit your photos, you should always try to ensure that you don’t edit it to the point where the photo is no longer an accurate depiction of the subject. Try to use your editor solely to touch up your photos in small ways, and for example you could use Movavi Photo Editor for Mac (https://www.movavi.com/mac-photo-editor/) for color correction and other minor alterations.
- Snapping photos with busy backgrounds
In many types of business photos, the subject should be the sole focus – and there should be few other distractions. Snapping photos with busy backgrounds will make that difficult to pull off.
It is normally best to adopt a more minimal approach to your business photography – unless there is a specific reason why you want the background to be busy. Limit the number of elements in your shots, and your subject will be able to be the sole focus of attention.
If you avoid each of the mistakes listed above, you should be able to produce far more impressive business photos that are more effective at fulfilling their goals. Granted it will still take time for you to acquire more experience, but at very least you should be on the right path.
Always remember that your business photos are a reflection of your business itself – so you don’t want to compromise too much on their quality.