“I’m looking forward to visiting Pure London again this February. It’s always exiting to see the new trends and talk to people about their brand. I’m curious to see how the international brands present themselves versus the UK-based ones.

I’m always looking for new ways to help my clients to put themselves in front of the competition. Great photography that’s tailored to suit the brand goes a long way in doing that.

It makes me sad when I see great brands that may have good fashion and lifestyle photography done, but then have product shots that are not as good. But I understand that buying product photography is not easy at the moment when the industry is flooded with such varied quality. Digital has made photography seem easy, but the fact is that product shoots are technically demanding and require a lot of experience to get right.

Below is and example of boots I shoot for Muks (link opens in new window)
- black and fur are the nightmare for most photographers but I’m used to bringing out the details no matter what the materials are.

If you’re visiting or exhibiting at Pure London and would like to meet up there, just drop me a line or call me directly on 07910 162 967″

1) you should be aware of image banks – you don’t always have to commission a photographer to do unique photography for you because there are millions of images already out there that you can buy a licence to use. And best of all the licence to use a low resolution web version can be as low as a pound or two. The only catch is that others may also buy a licence to use the same image. To buy exclusive rights to that image can be so expensive though that you might as well have your own done. It’s a number’s game – the photographer gets paid either by hundreds of people or by one. As long as you’re aware of this it’s a good way of keeping your costs down.

2) if you need to have images of something that would not be in an image bank for example products, places or specific people, then you need to commission a professional photographer. How to find a good one I hear you ask? Well that’s tough to be honest, and as in everything you generally get what you pay for. Things to watch out for are: Do they have their T&C’s on their website? Can you see a portfolio on their website (and it should be their own, not on flikr or similar) and have they done very similar work to what you had in mind? Good photographers find their niche and don’t take on a broad variety of work. A product photographer should not be advertising for event photography and vice versa. There is generally a divide in those who do work b2b and those who deal with the public.

Back to finding a photographer: When you google you should be very specific about the type of photography you need, especially if you’re looking in London. ie if you need an “interior photographer in London” that’s what you search for, not just “photographer” or “photographer in London”. There are also some good listing sites for only photographers, the sign of a good site is that it has hundreds of photographers listed and at least a mini gallery.

Please ask me if you have any questions?
(only relevant questions to this specific topic may be answered, spam is deleted immediately and will not appear on the blog)

This post was recently also posted on startups.co.uk

-Tiina

Our new client Capulet had their snake-print iPad clutch case featured in The Observer Magazine on 1st May 2011 as a competition prize. We created this still-life image for them in an interesting style to make sure the promotional article got the maximum attention and pleased the editorial team. We are exited and looking forward to working with Capulet in the future!

Read more about it on her website here

“The whole shoot was just so easy, mainly because Faiza was just so confident and at ease in front of the camera. Her apartment is absolutely amazing so it was easy to find great spots to work with. A big thank you to the whole dream-team: Editor: James Ollerenshaw, Hair: Oscar Pera for Radio, Fashion: Machiko Abe, Make-up: Amanda Rudkin.”

Epicurean Life Magazine, January-March 2011

Cake designed by Cynthia Akinsanya www.delightsbycynthia.com and photographed by Tiina Erameri

Tiina recently gave cake designer Marcia a lesson in Do-It-Yourself cake photography. Marcia has a business doing wonderful custom designed cakes for parties and occasions. She needs to photograph the cakes just before they are delivered because each cake she makes is unique. So the only real option for her is to take the images herself and she had been doing it without any instruction before, and she realised that improvement on the quality of the images was needed to reflect the quality of her cakes. One hour lesson with Tiina at her studio is £100 and you get to keep the images. Here’s what Marcia said after the lesson:

As a cake decorater/designer I need to make sure I take good pictures of the end product for my portfolio and website.

After a training session with Tiina, I understood how important it is to ensure you have a beautiful picture showing every detail of the finished product.

Tiina showed me how to set my studio professionally, she made sure I knew how to set up and take down the equipment, Tiina educated my on how to use my camera, how to position the lighting, how to position the product to get the best picture possible. Overall I truly appreciated the content and the delivery of the training.

Tiina even gave information of how to purchase equipment with minium cost to encourage setting up your home studio.

I recommend her to all cake designers and florist who need to take better pictures of their creations before sending them off -  Get professional training! Your pictures will look so much better! A massive thank you to Tiina, I really feel excited that I will now be able to take professional photos of my cakes!

Marcia Brown

www.designerartcakes.co.uk

Marcia's cake photography before lesson

Marcia's own cake photography after the lesson