As one a South Florida Commercial Photographer I photograph a wide range of subjects. Skilled in Lifestyle, Food, Product, Fashion, Advertising and even headshots, I’m able to deliver creative images that will bring your vision to life.
The photographs above and below were taken for a electronic camera manufacturer here in South Florida. The company created a camera that is capable of providing home security using a wide range of features. For this project, I created images inside the factory, as well as on location. This picture HERE is one that was shot inside the factory. As a South Florida Commercial photographer, my images get used for point of sale, product packaging, promotional advertising, and website marketing. There is no limit for the many uses of a commercial lifestyle photograph. When I’m hired to shoot imagery for either a company and individual or for an event, such as a corporate event, or sales meeting, marketing meeting, I have some rules my photography must follow. This includes using the proper exposure, selecting a focus point, and composing so that the image fits the required usage. For example, sometimes a product manufacturer will require space for text, or for a box fold. Corporate imagery requires having a full understanding of final image use.
When you look at the image above, think about this, every element of this photo falls into a certain brightness level. The greenery looking out the window is the same brightness as the artsy wall. The camera sitting on the counter is perfectly lit. Even though the models shirt is out of focus, you can still see the wrinkles and the tonality of his shirt. This is what is required of commercial photography. Everything must fall within a certain visual spectrum, with nothing being too dark, or too light.
Above, shooting action shots and getting the perfect exposure every time requires years of experience. Considering I have been shooting action shots, news shots, sports related photos, such as, this linked, tennis event shot, means that, in the moment, I’ll get the photo as needed, every time. When choosing a commercial photographer, some people believe it’s best to hire a specialist. However, after years of creating awesome images, I have found that hiring a photographer with a wide range of skills, is the best decision that someone who is shopping for a photographer can make. If you are an art director, a photo editor, public relations professional, architect, real estate agent, law firm seeking court photos, manufacturing company looking for product photos, website designer, magazine editor, interior designer, or a chef who need food shots hiring a photographer with years of experience and a wide range of skills is the best decision. For example, when I photograph a wedding, I’m using a wide range of skills. Wedding coverage, requires beauty photography, action photography, product photography, and all types of other photographic skills. Shooting weddings in South Florida isn’t the only type of photography the requires a wide range of skills. Check out this blog post on corporate photography, here you will see that a corporate photographer is required to photograph, action, keynote speakers, headshot, decorated ballrooms, details, and even awards dinners. Can a South Florida corporate photographer shopper hire a separate, photographer for each skills set? Sure they can, if they want to spend countless hours shopping for a photographer with each skill.
As a corporate photographer, I believe that having the skills to shoot attractive headshots are a must. At a special event in Miami, a charity event in Palm Beach, for a corporate website, or for a South Florida real estate agent, headshots are always needed. Here is a link to an article I wrote on headshot photography. In this article you can easily see all the uses for headshot photographs. Headshot photography article
Using a special close up lens I was able to show the fine detail in these necklaces and pendent shots. The pictures in this shoot include both headshots and product shots. When switching from close up product photos, to headshot pictures, the lighting must change. Jewelry photography requires photographing shiny reflective products, photographing faces requires soft lighting that makes skin look less shiny. Shooting both together means a compromise must take place. While the jewelry may have both highlights and shadows, the faces should be free of shiny spots. Removing shine for faces could be accomplished with Photo shot retouching. Many photographers use filters to remove shine, while filters are the easiest way to cover up shine, using filters results in faces that look out of focus in some areas, some photo retouchers use a clone brush to remove shine. Using a clone brush is a much better method for shine removal. It’s more difficult but results in a much more natural look. The best method for removing shine is frequency separation. Frequency separation is by far the most difficult method for removing shine and retouching skin. The beauty of frequency separation has to do with the image being split into two layers. These layers sit one on top of each other. The top layer, is the texture layer, and the one below is the color layer. By retouching the color layer, the skin texture remains, retouching the texture layer leaves the skin tone, natural. There is no question that frequency separation is by far the best way to retouch faces.
When hiring a corporate or commercial photographer there are many things a client should consider. One is equipment. While smartphones and their built in cameras have become much better over the past decade, they still are no match when compared to the high quality of a professional camera. Camera phones don’t have to high quality image sensor that a professional full frame camera offers. There is no way the quality from a phone will come close to a pro camera. In addition having years of experience working at a corporate photographer is a huge factor. There are so many specialized methods for lighting, and shooting that can be used during a photoshoot. It takes years of trial and error and many photoshoots before a professional photographer can learn with technique will work best in a given situation. A experienced pro needs to know how to balance flash with ambient light, how to use the correct lens and exposure combination. For example, is it better to stand back and zoom in, or is it better to get in close and shoot wide. The answer is, depends on what is being photographed.
Photographing food and fine cuisine is one of my favorite types of commercial photography. To photograph food effectively a photographer needs to utilize a special technique which created what is known as appetite appeal. What is appetite appeal? It’s a special method of lighting that creates highlights and shadows which when done correctly stimulates a human hunger response. YES, by lighting on food could make a viewer hungry. Many South Florida commercial photographer can arrange a nice looking food shot. However, shooting food and fine cuisine that intentionally makes to viewer hungry is a great skill to have. Think I’m kidding? Here are some article that cover the topic of appetite appeal: lighting for appetite appeal here is another, The science of appetite appeal. So if you check out these links you will see that this is a real thing. I have written other blog posts on food photography, you can check them out here: Cuisine of El Agave Azul If you love authentic Mexican food a visit to this joint is a must. Because traveling is one of my passions, I often find myself photographing food and cuisine all over the world. If you also love to travel, you many want to check out this post on Vacation Cuisine
ABOVE: This food photograph was created, styled and photographed for Bistro MD I say created, styles and photographed, because this photo was created in the sense that all the food did indeed come from a Bistro Md meal. However, in creating this plate of food my stylist used several different packages of the same meal. By going through several meals, we were able to find the perfect pieces of carrot, the perfect mushroom and the perfect chicken breast. So while all the find on this plate came from the actual meal, it took several different meals to make the best looking chicken breast with carrots, rice and mushrooms. Also, check out that appetite lighting, The way the light bounces around the carrots, combined with the highlights on the rice and chicken triggers that hunger response.
If you found this blog post by searching for South Florida food photographer, I’m glad you found me. I have been photographing food and fine cuisine for many years. Check out some of these food photos from other commercial food photos. Strawberry Short Cake at The Breakers. This shot was taken during a wedding reception at The Breakers. Sometimes when I’ve been hired to photograph food I have lots of time to do the lighting, change up composition and be critical about the arraignment of the food. However, shooting food at a wedding doesn’t allow for much time. Food photography at a wedding needs to be shot quickly. Check out this next shot Food photo taken at The Breakers in Palm Beach. This baked apple cup was a unique treat thought up and created by The Breakers. Yummy pear cuisine taken the Turnberry Resort.
Having the ability to shoot and edit both photography and videography has been a huge benefit to my South Florida commercial clients.
BELOW: In addition to being a South Florida photographer, I’m also a videographer. The video below is from a campaign that Bollore Logistics ran during the month of October which is breast cancer awareness month. Bollore hired me to shoot both video and stills of a mobile mammography test center. Once the photograph and videography were complete they had me edit this small promotional video. Being able to shoot both photography and video has been instrumental in many of my commercial photo assignments. By offering both, my clients don’t need to search for a separate person to shoot a project. The assignment was done by me (Jeff) entirely. I started off shooting still pictures, then switched to video. Going back and forth I was able to capture both in such a way that both mediums would work together in one project.
Today, effective marketing will greatly benefit from both photography and videography. The final result for this job consisted in delivering a collection of great, imagery and separate video clips. The client was able to use this edited video for Facebook and Linkedin marketing. In addition the Bollore, had the still images which could be used for marketing platforms that only required pictures.
By owning the best digital photography and videography equipment I’m able to cover a wide range of unique projects. The inside of the mobile test unit was very noisy. The trailer, required the use of a gas generator, and the high tech imaging equipment also made noise. In order to capture high quality audio I used a small professional sound recorder. The picture below was taken for the same company, but at a different day and for a different assignment.
