Shooting for Product Advertising

The advertising field is very competitive, yet the potential for increased income is great. Photographers who are doing advertising work tend to specialize depending on the area they live in. For example, someone living in a small city may need to have several specialties. On the other hand, someone in New York could specialize in one thing, ie: children's fashions or motorcycles. An advertising photographer will, most of the time, be working with an art director from a design or advertising firm. Clients rarely hire photographers directly unless they have established a rapport with them. It is generally the AD (art director) working on the job that will hire for the client.

Ask yourself this question: What is the one thing that I like and feel comfortable with? Your answer is the area you should be specializing in. In reality, most people go through life and their likes and dislikes change. A photographer sometimes follows a specialty. For instance, someone who assisted a commercial photographer shooting children's clothes and liked it, decided to pursue that field. The ideal situation is to make a living doing what you really like.

The lessons in this section assume you have a good working knowledge of camera tools, visual basics and lighting. If not, go back to these sections and learn these things first. Also some of the studio setups can be built. Those designs are described in "Building a Studio."

The lessons in this section go into extensive details showing you where to position your lights and reflectors, etc. in order to achieve a certain look and feel in an image. They include descriptive diagrams for you to duplicate.

Don't forget with each lesson the
button allows you to get help. This feature alone is worth 10 times the value you are paying for the lessons.