Advertising is the act of calling public attention to a product, service, need etc. especially by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio and television, billboards etc.^ It is the best way to attract a customers attention and communicate with them, and is done using various media types, with different techniques and methods most suited. Advertising is for everybody including children, teenagers, adults and the elderly. It is an extremely important topic to study in today's society because it is featured all around in everyone's day to day life. When do you find yourself watching TV, listening to the radio or scrolling through Facebook for example without seeing or hearing about an advertisement? A buyer is needed for products, food, holidays and clothes etc. that's being advertised, so without advertisements, customers would be unaware of a product that has the potential to be their favourite shampoo, CD, activity, food, book, or pair of shoes for example. It is also important for any physical advertisements on billboards, social media, TV and in magazines to have an eye catching appearance. The photography aspect of advertising needs to be creative and wacky, with complimentary colours and bold slogans in order to grasp the attention of a customer.
A photograph of a simple bottle of lavender scented shampoo in front of a bathtub is unlikely to get the same amount of attention as a photograph of a shampoo bottle surrounded by lilac flowers, bubbles and perhaps a Photoshop edited explosion of flowers bursting from the cap in front of a white background, or a bath filled with lilac and pink flowers with several bottles of the shampoo resting on top. A photograph needs to be fun and interesting when advertising beauty products like this, which is why this subject plays an effective role when it comes to attracting a customer to purchase a certain product. I have included an example below comparing the different appearance between an ordinary picture of shampoo and an attractive piece of advertisement photography.
"If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative" - David Ogilvy.
Not only can advertising inform people of new products, but it can also educate them. Social issues that advertising deals with include smoking, child labour, homeless animals, starving children, education, helplines etc. thus, advertising plays an extremely necessary and important role in today's society. Adverts like these are very common on TV, and from personal experience, you see at least one of them on your TV everyday.
Brief history
Advertising and commercial photography started during the 1850's but was restricted due to the technology at the time. Text prints of the products were handed out to customers as a means of advertising, as demonstrated below.
In the 1920's photographers used black and white photographs until the 1950s when colour reproduction became dominant (John Child). A black and white photographer of the 1920's was Walker Evans who photographed local shops and huts to advertise and attract more customers.
In 1920 fewer than 15% of illustrated advertisements in mass-cultured magazines employed photographs; by 1930, almost 80% did.
Edwards Steichen (1879-1973) was very influential in the progression on advertising photography. He was one of the first photographers to land commercial contracts within advertising photography, and was the most dominant photographer in New York during the 1920's. From 1923 to 1938, Steichen was a photographer for the Conde Nast magazines Vogue and Vanity Fair while also working for many advertising agencies including J. Walter Thompson^^.
Colour photography was introduced in the 1930's. The American Agfa-Ansco company produced Colorol, which was a roll-film tripack for snapshot cameras. The images were lacking in sharpness and the colour range (gamut) was limited, however they were genuine "natural colour snapshots". In 1935, American Eastman Kodak introduced the first modern "integral tripack" colour film and called it Kodachrome, where you had to be very precise with the exposure to create a successful picture. In 1942, colour negative film was discovered which was easier than slide film with Kodachrome. By the 1960's, anyone could, and did, shoot colour. The colour Polaroid came out in 1965.
Digital technology in '85 has completely changed photography. Now, advertising is mainly a digital image, stored into a computer and manipulated, used, and created into advertising pieces. It has made advertising much more ambiguous and offers the designer more options for creative and different methods of portraying something to a consumer. Since photos were produced digitally, the photographer could instantly review the photos without the wait for them to get developed. Below is a before and after example of how the combination of photography and digital editing has the possibility of creating more ambiguous images.
As a consequence to this evolution, image manipulation software packages were created such as Photoshop. This also resulted in the more extensive use of the "green screen". This was to facilitate an easier isolation of products digitally, and create complex composting.
A more modern photographer would be Jonathan Knowles. This below photograph has been displayed on billboards. It features the use of saturated colour, a symmetrical pattern and tonal contrast which has resulted in an engaging image. The majority of this piece has been manipulated in Photoshop, which is a modern editing software that allowed this photographer to create such a bold advertisement, in comparison to the lack of tools he'd have had if he wanted to capture something like this years before editing software existed. The image was constructed by shooting the sliced fruit on top of a light box to illuminate it's details, and shooting the Cider bottle separately. The bottle would have then been cut out on Photoshop and pasted on top of the fruit image, along with alterations being made to the density of the bottle and precise outline. This photograph has the connotations of it being a succulent beverage, exaggerated by the juicy looking fruit.
Along with Jonathan Knowles, Andrew Scrivani is also a photographer who explores advertising in his work, focused mainly on food.
Two current photographers
Andrew Scrivani:
Scrivani is a cook, a food stylist and primarily a food photographer. His work revolves around meals, snacks, and sweet treats all captured in an extremely attractive style.
This is a photograph that was no doubt featured in one of Andrew's cookbooks. He has made what could have been a simplistic picture of cookies look presentable and tasty through adding a couple of the ingredients into the frame. This is not a photograph that has been taken by chance; Scrivani deliberately presented the cookies in a diagonal orientation. The placement of the cracked egg and sprinkled flour around the bowl of cookie dough suggests the process whereby the cookies are made when mixed together. He has also purposely presented everything on a dark wooden table to blend with the brown tones of the cookies; these analogous, muted colours finish off the overall piece effectively and make them look like a delicious treat to create.
This photograph of Scrivani's is a lot more simplistic than the one above, because it features just the finished products instead of the ingredients and outcome. A stack of waffles with a nob of butter on top have been photographed in a way that all of the focus is on this breakfast food so that the viewer knows this is the outcome of a recipe featured in one of Scrivani's cookbooks rather than the maple syrup in the background; the syrup is clearly just an additive used to increase the appearance of the sweet tasty dish. Food and still life photographs often use shallow depth of field to guide the viewer's attention towards the advertised object, in this case colour and tone is also used strongly on the waffles to make it a focal point - the dark shades contrast effectively with the white dish. Scrivani has most certainly influenced me to think about the colours featured in my photographs first before capturing them.
Jonahthan Knowles:
Knowles is an award-winning London based advertising photographer, who captures still life, liquid, beer, beauty and people.
Knowles captured 4 pictures of the Schweppes bottle in a different style/with a different coloured background. This specific photograph is visually engaging and connotes the sensation of lemon zest and carbonated refreshments. It is evident that Photoshop has been used in order to create the bursts of fizz rising from the top of the Schweppes label. The light blue, lime green and lemon yellow colours are what creates the majority of this piece, which are all vibrant colours. These colours have the connotation of naturalness as Schweppes has refreshing characteristics, such as the thirst quenching water, which is blue, and the natural colours of fruit. These colours have been grouped together in a way that the viewer will look at this advertisement in a magazine or on TV and get a taste for how refreshing this bitter lemon beverage is; just through the use of one formal element. The pale blue background pairs effectively with the blue label on the bottle, which has a white glow surrounding it to avoid the packaging from blending in with its surroundings. It's the Photoshop technique that is the most appealing feature in this photograph because it's eccentric and interesting and would most certainly also be something that attracts a customer to buying this product because it conveys the drink as looking tasty and interesting. This Photoshop technique has evolved immensely, because somebody who had this type of idea wouldn't have been able to create an image like the one above 30+ years ago, as Photoshop is a technological advance in computers and software, which has enabled inventive food compositions to be created. Photoshop is part of the updated digital technology that is around currently, and was brought out in 1988.
Knowles doesn't just photograph beverages when exploring advertising photography, he also takes photographs of beauty products. In this case, this picture of orange lipstick matched with gold and glittery nail varnish is an example of two products being advertised in one piece. The lips are the only segment of this image in which colour has been injected in order to make them the main attraction of this piece. The lighting is extremely effective when used in this photograph because it gives the subject's lips a touch of shine along with the nails. The model's skin is evidently flawless and immaculate (airbrushed) and contributes to the perception of perfection in advertising imagery. The purpose of advertising is to attract customers to a product and therefore the presentation of alluring make-up encourages women to buy the product on impulse. Advertisements of this nature may work subliminally creating ideas that the buyer can look as glamorous as the advert. The photograph is flattering and appealing which are two necessary key features when photographing feminine products, as the audience need to engage with the product in order to feel the urge to purchase it.
How my work fits into this
I have so far embraced the topic advertising in Photography effectively, collecting an assortment of images that I am pleased with. So far, my work fits into this because I have been creative with my shoots and thought about them instead of jumping straight into them with no idea what I'm doing. Advertising needs creativity in order to attract an audience, and I only intend on being more creative as I go.
I have captured images relating to food products, where I shot this packet of Skittles with its contents scattered in a pattern in the top half of the frame. I employed the formal elements colour and pattern in this piece, which is what I have found to be common elements used in food/drink photography. Depth is also an evident key feature of this image, because the further the sweets are in the distance of the frame the less focused they are, in comparison to the sharp appearance of the packet in the foreground of the frame. The focal point of this picture is the packet, however as I have situated the sweets in a reoccurring pattern, this is also an eye-catching segment - making the overall photograph successful as a whole. Sweets are filled with sugar, which provides the consumer with an energy boost, therefore colour needs to represent this. The colours green, yellow, orange, pink and purple therefore have the connotation of positive energy, as they are highly saturated and bold, which are visually uplifting. This wouldn't create the same effect if the sweets were brown, black and grey, as these are negative colours. In Jonathan Knowles Bulmers photograph, he employed the formal elements colour and pattern - and attained a successful outcome.
When taking inspiration from the photographer Andrew Scrivani, I have captured here a recipe spread out on a chopping board. The finished product is located in the bottom left hand side of the frame with parts of the recipe laid out around the glass. I pieced this image together in order to create an effective composition, making sure to fill the frame to the best of its ability. I also left parts of the ingredients/utensils out of the frame, such as the carton of almond milk and the measuring spoons. This is what Scrivani did, therefore I wanted to experiment with this style of framing, and I was pleased with the outcome as I didn't need to squash everything into the frame in order for the audience to know what ingredients to use. In order to make sure people who saw this image were fully informed of the recipe, I added text into the top left hand corner of the frame. Depth of field is also a formal element that I have employed into this image, through setting my camera to manual focus and focusing the lens onto the glass of smoothie. Everything else in the rest of the frame has a slight blur smothered over it, which adds to the effect of the smoothie emerging from the rest of the objects in the composition. Furthermore, having the smoothie focused allows it to act as a focal point for the audience, just like Scrivani did in his waffle photograph.
Lastly, this picture above is more of a beauty styled piece of photography because I have captured two feminine products, these being perfume. The high key lighting within this image was constructed for a feminine consumer through the use of gel lighting which created a pastel pink background. Using a snoot in this shoot allowed a beam of light to shine down from behind the bottles and create a soft shadow, making the piece appear a lot more dramatic. I wanted to experiment with this type of photography because you are able to accomplish extremely pretty looking pictures, through the use of bright lighting making the bottles sparkle and glow. In Knowles photograph of the lips, there is a large shine added to her mouth, which exaggerates the femininity of the image. Lighting, I have found, is therefore an important element to focus on in beauty photography as it needs to add a sheen and glow to products. Advertising photography also includes text, so that there's more than just one element reaching out to the audience - visual and text. In Jonathan Knowles Bulmers photograph is where text was featured - "New Zesty Blood Orange" - influencing me to caption mine below with "New perfume range this Christmas".
Bearing in mind the technological development, I see this aspect of photography developing immensely in the future. Advertising is already powerful, not only by portraying products to people, but also social issues and important messages. BoredPanda.com consists of a post displaying some of the most powerful social advertisements in the world^^^. Future developments with regards to advertising are possibly in the realm of CGI and the use of 3D glasses/virtual reality head sets which are now starting to be introduced on the market. There would be many benefits of these options for viewing adverts in 3D that you can interact with. With the help of Photoshop and editing software, photographers are able to capture and create powerful messages to an audience - which will only develop more so over the years through the pairing up of a great idea and great editing software (one being Photoshop).
When it comes to advertising products, there is a chance that 3D advertisements could become a thing on city billboards, as the development of technology is continuously growing. Having an advertisement in 3D would add an extra dimension to the way it reaches an audience, as it wouldn't just be the formal elements in the piece that help it attract an audience, it would be emerging from a screen - something that would instantly attract anyone walking by. Google glasses could also become a method of advertising at some point in the future, as the world of the internet is continuously evolving, meaning that adverts could be reached through the use of glasses, rather than only having the option to browse your smart phone or watch the TV.
Conclusion
Ultimately, advertising as a whole is a powerful platform of photography allowing messages to be sent, products to be promoted and charities to be campaigned etc. Advertising is something that could never die out because there is always something needing to be sold and portrayed to an audience. After looking at a broad variety of photographers who explore advertising, it is clear how versatile this topic is. All 5 of the photographers that I've researched, Jonathan Knowles, Andrew Scrivani, Josh Caudwell, David Gilliver and Kimberly Davis have already, and will continue to influence my style of work, as I enjoy the surreal, feminine, food, snacks and drinks style of advertising. Social campaigns and lifestyle issues are also something that I am fascinated by, however not something that I am extremely passionate about creating myself.
Bibliography
http://mostfamousphotographers.com/famous-advertising-photographers/
http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/edward-steichen-2
