Catalogue Photo Advice - When To Switch From In House To Studio

At what point in the growth of a small business is it advisable to consider taking your average catalogue photo to the next level by taking advantage of a professional packshot photographer? Clearly large corporations and big, successful businesses have a brand image to uphold and the money to spend on professional photography studios. But for the smaller business, when is the right time to move from in house photography to the professional catalogue photo?

It's a very important question to ask, and by just asking the question you're already on your way to taking the next important step in the success of your business. Clearly professional businesses with a reputation and a brand image to protect are going to spend whatever it takes to get the best packshot photographer to take the product images for use in catalogues, online and in printed promotional material. But for small businesses it can be impossible to begin with this sort of investment.

This is why most small businesses will begin by either carrying out the photography in house or by using images taken by the manufacturers. There are problems with both of these solutions however, and they're important ones to appreciate. First of all, using the standard pack photographs taken by manufacturers in no way enables your business to stand out. Just a quick glance at listings of popular products on websites such as Ebay demonstrates how often this happens. Many businesses use these stock photos, but by doing so they fail to stand out from the crowd. If you want to melt into the crowd and be hard to find, then by all means use standard manufacturer issues images, but if you want to stand out and sell, you clearly have to do more.

This is why many small businesses turn to carrying out their own in house photography. Taking a catalogue photo of a reasonably good standard is a lot easier today than it used to be. With high quality digital cameras now more affordable than ever, and with a range of off the shelf graphics packages enabling you to easily manipulate the images, taking a catalogue photo is reasonably affordable and achievable.

However, there is a danger in relying on this for too long. Because today it isn't just the businesses which are able to benefit from the wide availability of digital cameras and graphics editors. Anyone can walk into a computer store and pick up this sort of equipment, and with digital cameras now specifically aimed at children, it's no longer the preserve of businesses - if indeed it ever was.

This means that customers can now identify at a glance a catalogue photo that was taken in house, and distinguish it from a catalogue photo taken by a professional photographer. Just as you wouldn't pick up an easel and palette and paint your own portrait for a gallery, instead using a professional artist, so you should consider using a professional photographer for even the most basic of catalogue photos.

Customers are more critical and more cynical than ever, and any business, no matter how small, using home equipment to cut corners and cut costs is going to unwittingly give customers the impression that they are on a cost saving mission. Whilst in principle this may be a noble aspiration, perhaps passing the savings on to customers, customers won't see it this way unfortunately. Customers who see in house photography will generally assume the business is an amateur affair, and perhaps not geared to providing a reliable service.

So when asking the question, when is it a good idea to switch from in house photographer to using a professional packshot photographer to take each and every catalogue photo, the answerer is 'yesterday!' If you want to stand out, to sell and to be successful then there's no reason to wait, because you could be waiting for ever. By investing in professional imagery you'll find yourself standing out for that reason alone. We live in a picture driven marketing world, and there's never been a more important time to invest in photographic marketing than now. The good news is that it needn't be as expensive as you might at first imagine - at least, not as expensive as the cost of all the sales you'll be losing by trying to save money on catalogue photography.

To find out just how affordable having a professional catalogue photo can be, or to find out more about how you can benefit from hiring an affordable packshot photographer, visit The Packshot People.