Fundamentals of Operating a Camera: Introduction
Why is it important for marketing professionals to know how to take photos like a professional photographer?
There are times when architecture firms, law firms, construction companies, and others involved in professional services may need to have their staff take pictures rather than hire a professional photographer like me (a Minnesota commercial photographer). Here are some reasons why:
Budgets are always tight and under a lot of scrutiny. Most people acknowledge that a top notch professional photographer will cost money. If a firm tries to “cheap it out” and hire a novice or wanna-be to shoot for them, they will often pay for it in average or poorly executed headshots or architecture photos.
Some photo projects just don’t warrant hiring a professional due to issues of scale. Perhaps only one or two shots need to be taken. A new hire needs a quick headshot for the firm’s web site and there is no time or budget to schedule with the firm’s photographer.
Candid and fun photos showing the firm’s culture and spirit are needed at the spur of the moment.
In progress photos can be taken during architecture firm tours of ongoing construction projects.
Accounting firm, law firm, and engineering firm branch offices that are located at a distance and might be quite small will make it hard to justify sending a professional photographer to in order to shoot business portraits.
Newly hired marketing people often inherit camera equipment that a previous staff person talked the firm into purchasing. Without knowing the first thing about how to operate it, people often struggle to make decent looking photos without investing time and effort in learning how to use it.
Creating good architectural photos, staff portraits, or shooting events involves the interest in learning more about how to operate a camera.
As a Minneapolis commercial photographer, I’ve been shooting professionally most of the time since I got out of college, operating a camera is intuitive to me. I really don’t think about what I’m doing. Once I sat down and made a list of every decision I make before I take one architectural photo or business headshot. The total list was more than 50 decisions.
The posts that follow will help you learn about many of these so that you can shoot photos like a professional.
More Fundamentals of Operating a Camera:
Part 2: The P Mode
Part 3: The Creative Modes
Part 4: Aperture
Part 5: Shutter Speed
More articles about photography: click here
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Steve Silverman
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