Making it big in advertising photography

Make it big.  As an advertising photographer in Los Angeles, I learn long ago clients love to see their product large in the photograph.  Although creatively, in the past, this might not have served the purpose well, now it could be the best advice for much of how photography and video is seen.  As more and more photography and video is seen on smaller and smaller screens the only way to really see it is to make the subject big.

My Secrets of Video for Photographers seminars and workshops take me across the nation.  As I flew to Unique Photo in New Jersey to do my events, I had a chance to watch the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Just a month before this I was in Kauai where they filmed much of the movie.  While watching the movie on the tiny screen in the aircraft I could barely recognize the locations I was just at.  If I had seen the movie on a 40 foot theater screen the impact of the locations might have been greater.  As it was, I had to wait for the medium close-ups to close-ups to visually follow the story.  I attribute my less than enthusiastic reaction to the movie to this size issue.

The reverse of this is true when I am watch the Wild China series by the BBC on my iphone.  Most of the action is set in the close-ups with wide vistas used for presenting the overall environment.  Admittedly, Wild China was produced to be seen on TV where Pirates was for the “big” screen which brings me back to thinking about where your images, be them photographs or video, are going to end up.  When you are deciding how to shoot each shot consider how your shots are going to be seen, on a forty foot screen or a four inch screen.

Two Faced