The saying goes ‘a picture is worth 1000 words’, and this has never been truer than it is today. Video and photography are now an integral part of modern life and are crucial to the marketing of your products and services. Tony de Simone elaborates…

TO start off my column, I’ll introduce a few common stats:

• 90% of the information processed by the brain is visual
• It takes only 13 milliseconds for the human brain to process an image
• The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text

When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later

Four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it
People are 85% more likely to buy a product after viewing a product video.

Whether it’s an advert, website, article, or case study, adding an image means it’s more likely to land than solely writing about it. At the minimum an interesting image can attract enough attention to get consumers to stay and read for a while. If it’s done properly, it can tell your potential clients everything about you.

Will any image do the job? In short… no! The image will reflect your brand so there are several things that must be thought about before, while and after taking a picture.

The scene
This is an important aspect and something the lockdown has highlighted in a huge way. Think about the number of times you’ve Zoom’d and seen piles of washing or an unmade bed in the background. Sometimes it’s not a conscious thought, but it leaves an impression in our minds.

The same happens with a picture or video showing your products and services. Look at the scene and every detail in it. Is there anything distracting in it? The focal point is the main subject of your picture, and nothing should draw the eye away from it, often less is more.

Does it look tidy and professional? The scene needs to be something your clients (or potential clients) can relate to or aspire to, make it perfect.

The composition
There are 10 rules of composition, I’ll cover a few of the most important ones:

Rule of thirds
Our instinct is to centre the subject in the shot treating it as a bullseye, but the rule says to divide the image into thirds horizontally and vertically. Our eyes are drawn to the four intersecting points and the four dividing lines. Placing the subject along these lines or at these points makes for a more pleasing image. Most phones have an option to turn on the rule of thirds guide.

Depth of field (DoF)
Or blurry background as we all know it as. Some shots benefit from having the subject in focus and background blurry, some shots work better with everything in focus. DoF is controlled with the aperture, wider aperture means a narrower depth of field (how much in front and behind your subject is in focus) and a smaller aperture means more in focus.

Leading lines
Horizontal lines are often found in nature and landscapes, often used with wider angle lenses to accentuate the width of the image. Vertical lines often depict authority and strength, used a lot in street and fashion photography.

Diagonal and converging lines usually draw the eye from foreground to background and help create a sense of depth. It can also help direct the viewer to another part of the image.

Cropping
If you have a high enough resolution camera it’s always best to leave a bit extra room around each side to crop into. It gives a bit of wiggle room to ensure the subject is exactly where you want it to maximise its presence.

Equipment
At a basic level we all have a phone in our pocket and modern ones do contain reasonable cameras. There’s a lot of processing (computational photography) that automatically happens once the pic is taken that only holds up to scrutiny in near perfect conditions.

The sensor on a phone is very small. Resolutions are a big area of development for manufacturers, they sell us more megapixels with each phone they release, but it means each pixel is getting smaller and smaller, on an already small sensor.

The smaller the pixel, less light gathering ability it has and less quality to that pixel. It’s clear to see if a picture is taken in a low light situation; the pixel size and lens quality really shows the limitations.
Prosumer and professional setups such as DSLR and mirrorless cameras have much larger sensors and can capture more light (phones capture about 22x less light at a set exposure time). This shows itself in the detail of the end image.

High quality lenses ensure the light hitting the sensor is as perfect as it can be. Pro equipment has interchangeable lenses that can vary in quality and price. Photographers usually see the camera body as upgradable and the lenses as investments. Phone camera lenses usually don’t have the clarity and quality, especially after living in pockets and bags for a few months.

Lighting
This is one of the most difficult aspects of photography with a huge learning curve and can make or break a picture. When shooting indoors additional lighting is usually needed to enhance the scene. Type, colour, distance, and position work together and are decided based on several factors.

There are two main types for additional lighting. Flashes (or professionally called strobes) are the first choice for photographers when shooting still pictures, but they’re obviously no good for video where constant lighting is used (usually LED).

Strobes are much brighter and have a consistent light colour output. All light colour is measured in Kelvin (K). We can see examples of this when buying LED bulbs: warm white is 2700K, neutral white 4000K and cool light 5700K. Strobes are very close to 5000k which is comparable to daylight.

When used in combination with natural light, strobes can compete and even overpower the ambient light, handing the control to the photographer.

Constant lighting has a lot less power but is the only solution for video. Some of the more professional LED panels have adjustable colour temperatures, ranging from warm to cool, allowing it to be balanced with the ambient light, creating an even colour across the scene.

Knowing where to position the distance of the lighting comes with experience and changes owing to numerous factors which are too varied to detail in anything less than War & Peace.

Both strobes and constant lighting benefit from being modified, whether by soft boxes, umbrellas, diffusers or even by bouncing it. The larger the source of light the less harsh and softer the shadows. There are very few situations in which a photographer wouldn’t need to modify a light source.

Natural lighting is always preferred, but brighter isn’t always better. Bright midday sun can cause areas to be bleached white and completely black, with little or no detail in either. A bright day with slight cloud covering to diffuse the light would be preferable (clouds acting as a light modifier on a strobe).

Most photographers usually plan to shoot during the golden hour, which is the period of daytime shortly after sunrise or before sunset, during which daylight is redder and softer. It is rarely an hour long, depending on the time of year and where you happen to be on Earth. It lasts for as long as it takes for the sun to travel from 6deg below the horizon to 6deg above the horizon. On the equator it could happen quickly; near the poles at certain times of the year it could last all day.

Because the contrast is less during the golden hour, shadows are less dark, and highlights are less likely to be overexposed. The image will have a much warmer feel, but this mainly applies to outdoor shoots and has a limited effect when shooting indoors.

Post-processing
The aim for every photographer is to expose the image as close to perfect as possible in camera; post-processing adds enhancements to the finished picture that would be impossible to capture. It’s a digital darkroom we can all use. There are numerous applications, free and paid for, that come with different degrees of complexity.

Post-processing can help create a ‘look’ to your pics, helping with brand recognition and consistency.

Video
As a growing area I can’t go without mentioning video. All the above-mentioned rules and guidance still apply but an added plan for the narrative needs to be in place. A presenter, voiceover, graphics, and stills can all be added to support the video.

Tripods, gimbals, boom mics, pre-amps, wireless lavs… the equipment lists start to grow. Crucially, studies show video attracts far more engagement than pictures on social media.

Should you use a professional creative?
All this info is brushing the surface of what needs to be thought about when capturing an image, and to an experienced photographer/videographer it will be instinctual. Equipment investments can be considerable, and the learning curve is steep. Most pros I know turn up to a shoot with +£10k of equipment and have 10-plus years of experience.

Along with that equipment and knowledge, come the following techniques: HDR, focus stacking, timelapse, pano-stitching, long exposures, tilt shift, first and second curtain flash and, arguably the most importance one – when it’s ok to break the rules! These can all be used to create more interesting content, catch the eye, and get you more engagement.

So, is a picture still worth 1000 words? If it’s done properly, yes, it is. But in today’s age, a video done properly is worth way more.
www.desimone.co.uk