10 Tips for Picture Perfect Marketing
26 Apr, 2007 By: Jamie J. Gooch LDB SolutionsYour projects could sell themselves if your photo portfolio could do them justice. Pictures of your projects can be used to market your services in brochures, your Web site and during sales calls. Plus, high-quality photos can better illustrate your entries in industry design contests, such as the Professional Landcare Network’s 38th Annual Environmental Improvement Awards Program, which is now accepting entries.
 Ian Adams took this photo of stone chairs at the Montreal Botanical Garden in Quebec, Canada. |
Ian Adams, an environmental photographer, and author of The Art of Garden Photography, has worked with many landscape contractors to present their projects in the best light. Hiring a professional photographer is always an option, but for contractors who prefer to take their own photos, Adams offers these tips:
1. Try to use a tripod whenever practical. "It's not critical, but you can get higher quality images from any camera by using a tripod," he says.
2. Know your camera. Adams recommends a digital single-lense reflex camera with a 6 megapixel or higher sensor. But whatever the camera, you should invest time into learning its features. "Otherwise, it's like driving a car without knowing what the pedals dom" Adams says.
3. Understand the two technical aspects under your control: exposure and sharpness. Adams says the camera's built-in meter set to auto will usually do a good job unless your subject is very light or dark. Light subjects need more exposure, while dark subjects require lowing the meter. The F-stop settings control the depth of field and sharpness. "Use a small F-stop to get sharper pictures and focus part way through the scene rather than what’s close or far away," Adams recommends.
4. Use a polarizing filter to intensify colors and reduce glare. "Software can replicate most other filters, but it still doesn't do a great job replicating the effects of a polarizing filter," Adams says.
5. "Avoid what I call the sunny kiss of death," Adams says. "The weatherman may call a cloudless, sunny day 'picture perfect,' but the worst light imaginable for landscape photography is high noon on a clear, sunny day." Adams prefers to shoot landscpes on partly cloudy days to diminish shadows, or very early or late on partly sunny days.
6. Use the same basic principles of design you use to create landscapes to compose your photos.
7. Try to eliminate "white skies," those skies filled with clouds. "Blue skies are attractive and if there are some clouds in the blue it adds interest, but plain white skies tend to be wasted space in photographs," Adams says.
8. Use wide-angle lenses to create dramatic depth. "This typically reuires selecting an important object in the foreground and putting that close to viewer, and then letting a wide-angle lense get everything from the foreground through the end of the landscape in sharp focus."
9. Use the slowest ISO setting on your digital camera to get the best results.
10. Set the white balance to automatic, and if you don't like the result, fix it on a computer rather than trying to fix it in the camera.
Adams heartily recommends digital images, assuming any design contests you may be interested in entering don't forbid them. There are some ethical dilemmas because digital photos can be doctored so well that it's almost impossible to tell they were manipulated by software. But, Adams says, most contests are now accepting digital submissions.
Whether you invest the time and money on the equipment and software to take your own photographs, or hire a photographer to take them for you, every landscape designer should visually record his/her work. Afterall, a picture is worth a thousand words about how great your prospective client's landscape will be.
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