What is commercial photography and what are its characteristics?

Commercial photography is a commercial activity. It serves the overall goal of business, is a means of information dissemination of image symbols, and provides business information in the form of graphics. Generally speaking, the creative process of commercial photography is like a screenwriter who obeys the requirements of a producer. First, we should design the concept according to the requirements put forward by customers. Establish the performance purpose, choose the shooting and production techniques, create the selected artistic effect, and finally satisfy the customers.

Commercial photography is the product of the cross-marriage of photography and advertising, and it is an interdisciplinary or marginal subject that depends on the development of branches. Therefore, commercial photography should meet the requirements of advertising and have the characteristics of photography. It follows the general law of photography, has a natural dependence on equipment in technology, requires certain aesthetic value, novelty, formal rules and ideological, artistic and commercial, conforms to the law of commodity marketing, and arouses people's desire to buy. Commercial photography is different from other photography categories. As commercial advertising photography itself, it also has the following characteristics:

First, commercial characteristics Commercial characteristics are the main characteristics that distinguish commercial photography from other photography categories.

Commodities set the theme for commercial photography. Therefore, commercial photography is subject to strict commercial restrictions, both in shooting ideas and content expression. Photographers should first follow the constraints of business strategy. Creativity and creation should reflect the personality and style of goods, show the characteristics and advantages of goods, and obey the needs of goods. Commercial photography, especially product photography, focuses on the product itself. Need to take care of the details of the goods and the artistic conception of the pictures. As far as commercial advertising is concerned, its direct purpose is to increase the market share of products and expand the sales volume of commodities. All photographers' efforts should point to this point: clearly let consumers find the biggest feature that distinguishes commodity photography from other kinds of photography.

Second, commercial photography with artistic characteristics is practical photography. However, good works never exclude artistic factors. Although the direct purpose of commercial photography is not artistic aesthetics, it does not exclude or lack artistry. On the contrary, in the process of shooting, photographers will make use of their artistic accomplishment and life experience, and use the artistic expression of photography to constantly pursue artistry. If possible, photographers will try their best to make photos more beautiful and artistic. * * * Generally speaking, the artistry of commercial photography shows the following particularity.

Clarity: the extreme clarity of the picture. Commercial photography emphasizes the accurate display of the details of the subject. The photographer selectively displays part or the whole of the subject, whether it is something that people turn a blind eye to or ignore, or details beyond the observation range of ordinary people, so that the audience can appreciate the details of each part and understand the characteristics of the subject in detail, thus achieving the purpose of selling goods.

Exaggeration: commercial photography emphasizes exaggeration more. In this era of excessive media, consumers' attention is cut and diluted, and attention becomes a scarce resource, and the primary function of advertising is to attract consumers' attention to the goods or ideas that should be spread. This is a very important difference between the artistic characteristics of commercial photography and other photography categories. For example, in many commercial advertisements and architectural photography advertisements, we can see the perspective effect that ordinary cameras can't shoot at all, which is both pleasing to the eye and novel and unique.

Fashion: If a commercial photo wants to attract people's attention, it must have the characteristics of fashion and the originality of photographic elements, which gives people a sense of freshness from picture composition to color design. Even if a commercial photographic work is artistic and skillful, if it lacks fashion after entering the consumer's field of vision, it will not stimulate the consumer's physical consumption desire into a clear enthusiasm for participation. Therefore, commercial photography must pay attention to the creativity of painting.

Persuasion: it is human nature to force freedom. More often, we don't accept what others impose on us, but are willing to discover it ourselves. From this point of view, commercial photography should emphasize persuasiveness. "Don't force you, but seduce you" shows the artistic play of commercial photography to some extent. In order to attract people's attention and "lure" people to accept the information to be conveyed by photography, commercial photography is not limited to shallow pure commodity display, but needs to show external beauty, penetrate deep beauty and make commercial photography works full of artistic meaning.

Third, technical characteristics In operation, the whole process of commercial photography is divided into two stages: conception and implementation.

In the conception stage, we should consider the ultimate goal: dry printing, inkjet printing or web browsing, indoor or outdoor? You must think carefully before you start shooting.

Commercial photography can only be successful if it meets the requirements of different media. There are technical requirements for the selection of image media, image background, lighting arrangement, shooting and post-processing. The details in each step will affect the final effect of the work.