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COURSE NAME: PHOTOGRAPHY AND AUDIO VISUAL PRODUCTION
(VOCATIONAL) FOR UNDER GRADUATE (FIRST YEAR)
PAPER TITLE: PHOTO APPRECIATION
UNIT - 7 : ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHY
TOPIC: ROLE OF PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE IN ADVERTISING
OBJECTIVES
By the end of the session, students will be able to;
1. Understand the role of photography in advertising,
2. Know the pre-production, production & post production basics of advertising photography,
3. Understand the use of storyboard, mock-ups for advertising photoshoot,
4. Know the use of software in image processing,
5. Describe experimental photography,
6. Understand the use of stock photography,
7. Differentiate the types of photography for advertising.
INTRODUCTION :
Advertising has been second most old profession in this world and since the time there has
been advertising there has been visual imagery. Although television is the medium which
communicate to further reach of audience as compared to print but since its Expensive we
come back to print advertising and Print advertising cannot happen without Photography,
and Photography is the key element of a Print ad because when we are communicating to a
wider reach of audiences across languages and barriers we rely on visual communication.
Which happens only and only through photography in advertising. In print advertising
photography is the most important element. The visual communication that we are trying to
make through an ad explains it to the audiences, how an ad will be perceived? Around the
world where ever there is print advertising happening there are photographers who are trying
to capture images, trying to communicate what the client wants them to.
In Advertising, Photography of a particular ad depends on the requirement of a client.
Whether you wants to communicate it in a hoardings, or on a print ad or may be on a web
banner. Whenever conceiving an ad with photography it all begins with brief. A brief which
will define whether the ad will go in a hording or in a web banner or in print. Whenever
conceiving an idea for a visual medium all begins with a brief, the brief is sent to an agency
where a group of creative team including art director and copy writers think of the idea after
the idea has been conceived it is illustrated by an illustrator and sent back to the client. This
visual illustration helps the client to understand how an idea will roughly look, once the client
approves the idea we send it back to the agency where the agency figures out the
photographer who do justice to the idea.
PRE-PRODUCTION:
Before understanding the importance of Photography in any advertising campaign we have to
first understand what constitute the form of an advertisement campaign? An advertising
campaign is primarily composed of two elements, One is WORDS like The Message and
Second is The PICTURE. Now when we talk about picture here comes photography in any
Advertising Campaign. Why photography is Important? Its basically a Photograph represent a
form, while illustration may not be able to Portray the real Flavor of your product or your
emotion or a Picture in an actual form, a photography represents in an Actual form. A
Various moods, emotions and product in real life and how it is looking in real life is captured
by photography which people can perceive it in actual sense. In Initial stage in advertising
campaign when we see vintage ads people used to draw illustrations by hand they composed
every element by their hand and actually draw it when photography was not there. Since
photography came into light a little late, people start using the actual pictures apart from the
illustrations. Illustrations are still common but they are used in certain context just to
showcase something in drawing. But majorly it is 90% it is photography in use today.
In video we still have the liberty of doing some mistakes while shooting for an ad but while
doing a print ad where just a single frame is involved every elements counts very importantly,
because if anything goes wrong any aspect beats focus the light, the toning of the ad the
whole ad can get entirely wrong so it is very important to know what do you want to shoot
and achieve it while making the ad. After the photos has been shot the most important stage
begins which is Image Processing. The image processing begins from an agency where a
group of art director work upon it and ends to image processing houses located in and out of
India where they are mastered and adapted in sizes that will be later printed or put on
hoardings.
ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHY-CLASSIFICATIONS:
There is no separate classification for Advertising photography, basically it is the
classification of photography that is used in advertising. Say if any product is shot and used
in advertising campaign that can be classified as Product Photography for advertising. So it is
always Photography for advertising may be a Product, Architectural, Food, Fashion, People,
Protraits, these are basic classification of Photography.
If we go into detail we first talk about Product Photography in advertising. So whenever we
are using or showing a Product in photography there comes Table Top Photography which is
usually done in a Studio. Just like we are shooting Photograph of a Soap, Mineral water bottle
or anything that is small and can be shown in Advertising campaign as a product, some of the
very common examples where Product Photography is used are Cosmetic Products, Edible
Products or Mobile Phones and FMCG Products. Another Important kind of Photography is
Fashion Photography which majorly is used to promote Apparel Brands, Clothing and
Jewellery Brands, wherein a model is used and a Product is used to showcase their product in
a very Glamorous form.
When communicating serious message through photography for example, Public Service
Advertisement as such we really need to maintain the feel in such a way that the person who
is looking at that ad gets emotional about it and that is where the lighting and toning of the ad
plays a very important role. Because if a person doesn’t get emotional by looking at that ad,
that ad has not served its objective and hence has failed so while doing photography for
public service ads we need to keep in mind the feel the emotion that ad is trying to
communicate because if that feel goes wrong, the communication can entirely go wrong and
it can on the other hand it can become lively and communicating if feel goes right.
PRODUCTION
Once the photographer has been finalized, we look for locations and models, through model
coordinator who are then arranged for the specific day of shoot. On the day of shoot we have
the client present with us to approve or disapprove the kind of look we are trying to achieve
in an ad. While shooting for a print ad or hording it is very important to exactly know what is
the kind of medium these ads or these photos will be using. If it’s a hording they have to be
higher images which are shot in complete details, if it is a banner we look for lowers images
and if it’s a normal shoot which would go in to a print ad, they are usually kept at normal
stage. This is a normal process of photography which happens when everything that is been
shot is present in the frame at the location. but that is not the case with all the ads there are
ads which require 3D animation element which are added later to the visual that we are trying
to communicate. so in that case what happens is, that the photographer shoots the model
against a green background which is called a chroma screen also and later that Image is
Composited with a 3D animation or props with which the model is trying to Communicate.
Before reaching to the final hands of the advertising agency, a photograph after the shoot
goes through many quality checks before the final delivery. These are Primarily one image
sorting the selection of the right image, second the right quality of image, quality can be
further classified into whether the image is taken from the right angle or not, whether the
image is clean no unwanted objects, the correct colors of the image while shooting are
coming or not, third before delivery the color mode has to be checked in what color mode the
agency require the photographs to be used in the ad campaign, fourth is sizing of the image,
before shooting any photograph for the campaign the purpose of the photograph has to be
very clear, which is usually judged from the storyboard the agency is providing, second what
kind of tone the photograph is demanding whether it is black and white, colored or a sepia
tone, third is the usage of the photograph whether the photograph is going to be used in news
print campaign or a hording. Size and camera is decided as per the requirement of the
photograph in the campaign.
POST PRODUCTION
After the photos has been shot the most important stage begins which is Image Processing.
The image processing begins from an agency where a group of art director work upon it and
ends to image processing houses located in and out of India where they are mastered and
adapted in sizes that will be later printed or put on hoardings. the picture that has been shot
are processed by group of Art Director who work on software's like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe
Photoshop to give that image the final shape required art director sit and process the image in
the way required. These images when processed are then sent to the client to get the feel
approved, once the feel is approved they comes back to the art director who then tries
different fonts on it to place the copy and then give it the exact feel in which it will be
communicated to the target group. Once the ad has been finalized it is again sent back to the
client who at times researches on it in target group or shares it with his group of peers in the
office and approves or disapproves the ad which is then send back to the agency. If the ad has
been approved it goes for mastering. This mastering happens at agencies outside India usually
because in India we don’t have that kind of skilled people who can give it the shape we
require. These kind of agencies are based in Singapore, Thailand, Bangkok where people are
far more technical in terms of executing it than us. These images are then mastered there and
that mastered image comes back to us and then it is all set for being adapted to a hording or
web banner or print advertisement.
USE OF SOFTWARES
Software is integral part of post production of any kind of photography, whether it is
commercial photography or any other photography used for advertising campaigns. Right
from sorting the photographs to the final delivery software plays an important role in various
aspects . one the software is capable of doing the color correction, cleaning is done on the
software, special effects are applied on software whether it is Black and white, sepia or any
other color effects like giving the photograph a retro feel can be applied only on software's.
Previously it was done in the laboratories but now since the digital age has come, the post
production is completely done in the software. Apart from color correction and cleaning a
software is also used to provide special effects to the photographs. For example HDR Effects,
Retro Effects and Sepia Effects are the effects which are being used by Photographer very
Commonly. Not just Special Effects but Multiple Photograph Merging is also very common
these days to develop a Panoramic shot a Photographer shoots 5 or 10 or 15 multiple
photographs and stitch them together and to give 180 degree view to a photograph this is also
done in these software's. Some of the commonly used software's for editing Photograph are
Adobe Photoshop, Coral Photopaint, Aperture and Lightroom.
When the picture has been processed by the art director at the agency it is then sent for
mastering, this mastering happens outside India at image processing houses which work on
the minute detail of this ad and give it the required shape. This mastering is required because
adaption that takes place for an ad are innumerable. From print ad can have 8 to 10 different
sizes, web banner can have 2-3 options and hording can also have similar different options.
So in all these houses different adoptions are made again and again. Sometimes while taking
picture we don’t get the required assets just by photography so these effects are also then
enhanced by these image processing houses. For example if there is a picture where there is
model standing in Forfront and we need dark clouds in background and we are not getting
them in the shoots. So all these mastering is then done by the image processing houses which
makes the cloud as real as the person standing under them.
While shooting Exterior Locales like picnic parks, theme parks and resorts, we need
panoramic perspective. These perspective shows a very wide angle of the location and
includes as many beautiful elements as possible. By this the viewer who is watching this ad
understands how this location will look like and gives them a feel of it being around you.
While shooting interior locations it is very important to define whole location in the frame
you are trying to capture, for example: if there is a model in forefront and a door or wall in
background they should merge in other so beautifully that the person who is watching the ad
shouldn’t feel as if it was shot gives them the exact feel he would look at if he would look at
original location.
EXPERIMENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY:
In experimental photography there are different angles and different perspective explored by
the photographer breaking all the previous rules of imaginary lines and angles. These
experimental pictures when put up on hording and ads instantaneously attract the viewer
because of their un natural look. Experimental photography is not just a result of single
picture a lot of times, sometimes a photographer takes more than 10 shots and then compose
all those 10 shots into one to get that one perfect image require by that client. This image that
is finally produced after taking those ten shots is then further composite in its tone and color
to give the shape that will make it look effective. When all these images whenever they come
out look entirely different from any image anyone has ever seen because of the fact it has ten
combined perspectives in it which is not possible to be viewed by the naked human eye.
STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY IN ADVERTISING
Using stock photographs is now become a common practice now days because of following
advantages of stock photography. One it saves a lot of time and energy, Second it is very cost
effective, third if the purpose is not very specific, for example if you need a photograph of a
tennis ball it is available on stock photography. So for generic kind of images stock
photography is the fastest solution. Stock photograph is great resource for background,
texture, object images, conceptual images, special purpose images like a festival or any
particular occasion. One more advantage of stock photography is that it comes in various
sizes and various angles.
CONCLUSION:
Since the time photography has evolved from just film to digital format photography has
been much easier for advertisers. Now when we are at shoot you are not depended on a roll
which gives us 32 images. We can now scroll 1000 of images and then finalize the image we
need to shoot, which gives us much better pictures in much better format and in much better
tones then the previous ones. Photography in advertising is just not advertising any more , it's
become an art there are people there are photographers who have awards to establish
themselves as brand name in this industry and they are trying to explore this medium as much
as possible giving us newer images with newer looks and newer ads and as long as there is
advertising there is photography and they both will be integrated in each other in such a way
that anyone who ever watches them will go to buy a product or will be moved by the ad we
are trying to make.
If a Picture Speaks a thousand words, it has to be perfect. Any picture used in advertising
campaign used a certain kind of emotion or convey a particular message. For every
photograph the plan or the objective has to be defined properly. No photograph is complete if
it is unplanned. Once the objective is defined the photograph has to be perfect. Pre
Production, Production and post production plays an important role in achieving the same
result. But ultimately it is the concept which is very important.