Corporate photographer in Toronto

About 25 years. That includes fifteen years with a daily newspaper, eight years stringing for a wire service and many years shooting editorial and commercial assignments such as calendars (powerboats, motorcycles, swimsuit models), video and record album covers, book covers, posters, retail ads, business portraits, public relations, new houses (interiors and exteriors) and many other projects.

I know that the photos we create must serve your business communications purpose first and foremost. You don't want just pretty pictures. You need photos that work to enhance your brand and add credibility to your business message.

Having photographed an emperor, a king, a queen, princes, princesses, a dalai lama, prime ministers, presidents, international diplomats and executives, I know how to conduct myself properly.

For better or worse, I sweat the small details in every picture so you never have to. I also know that a professional level of customer service must always be provided.

Many years of newspaper experience have taught me how to produce a good picture of anything, anytime, anywhere, and have that picture say something. I've also learned the secret of what makes a picture particularly eye-catching.

Great technique is important but nothing can beat human interest. I know how to find and, if necessary, create human interest in almost any situation. Real people doing real things is the number one attention-getter.

Quality photography is not just about making great pictures, it's also knowing how to edit properly. Good editing comes from a combination of understanding photography and knowing what the client needs. Successful pictures don't just happen by themselves.

On-location editorial and commercial photography for use as media handouts, press kits, public relations, company web sites and marketing materials.

Corporate photography for small to mid-size companies that understand the value of using quality photography to enhance the perceived value of their business.

Editorial skills are used to create effective commercial photography. Editorial photography is the secret to getting attention and building trust with the media and the public.

Editorial photography is for educational or journalistic purposes. It's used in newspapers, magazines and some types of books. Editorial photography is about information rather than sales. In some cases, editorial might include some corporate uses.

Commercial photography is used to sell or promote a product or service. This photography includes advertising, public relations, annual reports, marketing materials, product packaging, etc. This category includes both corporate and advertising photography.

Retail photography is purchased directly by the consumer and is for personal use. This is mostly family portraits, family events, school portraits and wedding photography.

The difference between these categories is not the photography but the use of that photography. For example:

• A newspaper hires a photographer to do a portrait of a company executive for a newspaper profile of that executive. This is an editorial use.
• A business hires a photographer to do a portrait of its executive for the company's annual report. This would be considered commercial photography.
• The executive hires a photographer to do a family portrait of herself and her kids. This is retail photography.

As with all intellectual property, in most cases, commercial use costs more than editorial use, which costs more than retail use.

A professional quality photo isn't created just by owning an expensive camera. It comes from a professional photographer's technical skill, creative talent and experience. This means the professional can be relied upon to always get the best pictures. It also means the photographer can usually anticipate a problem and then deal with it before it becomes a problem. Even if something unplanned should happen, a professional knows how to react and recover. All of this saves you time and money.

The right photographer is not the cheapest one. It's the photographer who fully understands what you need and then delivers as promised.

An amateur knows how to push the shutter button on a camera but a professional knows when to push that button. A professional has a lot at stake on every assignment, while an amateur has nothing to lose. Can your business afford to have an amateur practice photography at your expense?

Here's a 2010 study showing why a business should avoid cheap photography and low cost stock pictures.

People are visual, newspapers and magazines are visual, the Web is visual. Photos of your products and key employees are a must. These pictures give your customers a sense of what they're buying and with whom they're doing business. Stock pictures can't do this.

A photo can instantly answer a customer's many questions about your product or your company. A picture really can be worth a thousand words. Stock pictures can't do this.

The use of cheap stock pictures, or no pictures at all, can create questions or doubts about your business. This will leave your customers' wallets closed.

The photography a business uses reflects the quality and perceived value of that business. What does your photography say about your business?

Although I was hired to photograph two celebrity weddings, I don't shoot weddings. I can usually recommend a good wedding photographer in several other cities in Canada. Just ask.

No.

I specialize in location photography. It's usually easy to create studio lighting in many indoor locations. If really necessary, there are several rental studios in Toronto. I have over 15 years of studio lighting experience.

Yes, $2M commercial liability insurance.

Prior to any photo assignment, the photographer needs some information from the client. Other than the "where" and "when" of the assignment, the photographer may also need to know such things as:

• How will the images be used? (newspaper, magazine, web site, billboard, etc.)
• Where will the photos be used? (local, national, worldwide)
• How long will the pictures be used? (just once, a month, a year)
• Are there any concepts, features or other items you'd like to highlight in the pictures?
• Are portraits to be formal or informal?
• What's the purpose of the portraits?
• Should portraits be on a plain background or should the location serve as the background?
• Are there any cultural or social issues that need to be considered? (age, nationality, etc.)

The short answer is that the price depends on the exact details of the assignment and each assignment is different. I would need more information (see Question 12) and will send you an estimate in writing.

The long answer is that a photographer's fee is usually based on two things: photography (photography fee and expenses) and licensing. Some photographers will lump everything together into one number, while others will itemize everything.

Photography fees (also called "creative fees") compensate the photographer for their experience, talent, time, assignment logistics, etc. Expenses cover costs such as assistants, stylists, equipment rentals, consumables, travel, etc.

Licensing (also called "usage") compensates the photographer for the use or value of the pictures. This fee depends on where, how and how long the pictures are used. Licensing is the common standard for most intellectual property, including books, movies, music, software, artwork, etc.

Two everyday examples of licensing:

• It costs one price to license one copy of software. But if everyone in your office needs to use the same software, then the licensing fee goes up. More usage = higher fee.
• Downloading music for personal use is inexpensive. But if you want to use that music in a TV show, then the price goes up. Commercial use = higher fee.

Charging by the hour means:

• It's to my benefit to work slowly. (Client loses).
• Jobs that require complex lighting or long equipment set-up times would cost more. (Client loses).
• A picture that's used only on a business card would cost the same as a picture that runs in full-page magazine ads. (Client loses).
• Clients tend to rush the photography. (Client loses).
• Clients become fixated on hourly rates and shop only price. (Client loses).
• All pictures are the same and the value of photography is measured by time.
• Some clients expect the photo fee to be prorated down to the minute. Sometimes, right down to the time actually spent pushing the shutter button. (Photographer loses).

The above issues might be avoided if a photographer uses variable hourly rates, but that would defeat the purpose of having hourly rates. Pricing based on photography and usage, not time spent, means the client pays only for what they need.

Department and grocery stores that do portraits do so at a loss. Cheap portraits are a loss-leader to get you into the store to buy groceries, shoes, gardening supplies or whatever else. It's all about volume, not one-to-one customer service.

Do the math. Low price needs high volume. High volume demands minimum customer service and minimum product care.

As a photography specialist, I produce custom photographs at your convenience, at your location, at your specifications, at your deadline, to suit your needs. Why risk your business image to a minimum wage, department store part-timer?

Absolutely yes, provided each person is photographed with the same/similar lighting setup in the same location on the same day.

For example, rather than having me come to your office six times in a month to photograph one person each time, you could save about a thousand dollars by having all six people photographed on the same day.

In the old days, film was sent to a lab for developing or processing into usable negatives or transparencies, and maybe also proofs or contact sheets. All of this cost extra. Similarly, today, all digital files need to be processed into usable "digital negatives". Post-processing is not retouching.

Think of it like this: a raw file is a movie script. A post-processed image is the movie.

Basic post-processing includes turning a raw format image into a starting workable file, usually psd or tiff format. This file is then corrected for crop, colour balance, contrast, brightness, saturation, perspective, sharpness and lens aberrations; minor defects and blemishes are removed; minor local adjustments for colour, highlight and shadow; full IPTC information is added; proper conversion to black and white, if required.

If you require special keywording or captioning to suit your business needs or archiving system, let us know and we will do it for you.

Digital files direct from camera might be "good enough". But spending a small amount of time polishing the images means the photos you receive will be the best possible.

Pushing a camera shutter button only starts the picture, it doesn't finish it.

Unfortunately, credit lines can't pay for camera equipment, updated software, a new car, groceries or anything else.

While some may think that a credit line has promotional value to a photographer, that's not often the case. Of course, this is not to say that photo credits can be left out. Remember that credit lines are the law in Canada.

If you can show that your office space is donated free, your computers were donated free, your utilities are provided for free, other suppliers work for free, and that you and other employees also work for free, then I'll gladly consider it.

No. I'm an independent contractor not an employee. Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requires me to have all receipts to verify the expenses listed on tax form T2125. The CRA does not require any client to have any of these receipts. Yes, some of the expenses are marked up. Yes, this is a standard practice of all businesses, including yours.

Like all other creators of intellectual property, such as architects, designers, illustrators, writers, musicians, painters, performers, sculptors, filmmakers and software engineers, a photographer can (and must) control the use of their work. This is called “copyright”.

If a photographer loses the copyright to their images, they lose not only the use of those pictures but also all future income from them. Loss of future income equals loss of business success.

Maintaining copyright is not about artistic ego. It's about business survival and, hopefully, profitability, for which all businesses strive. Simply put, a photographer who doesn't care about their copyright is not a professional.

All individuals and businesses, including your business, can benefit from copyright and other intellectual property rights.

Physical ownership doesn't equal copyright ownership. As you probably already know: if you download software, you own the digital file but not the copyrights to that software; when you buy a movie DVD, you own the plastic disc but not the movie copyrights; when you buy a book, you own the paper but not the rights to the book. Photography is the same.

There's a reason why a farmer keeps the cow and sells only the milk. Unless otherwise agreed, we retain full copyright ownership in everything we create, and license usage rights to the client. Licensing is the common practice for all intellectual property.

Note that Canadian copyright law currently states that the person who hires a photographer is the copyright owner unless otherwise agreed. However, all professional photographers change this in their contracts, as is legally permitted. The Canadian government has acknowledged that the current law is wrong since it discriminates against photographers. The government is planning to change the law so that photographers are the default copyright owners of their work.

Absolutely and it's easy to do. If you later decide that you'd like to use a photo in some other way or for a longer period of time than in the original license, just let us know and we'd be happy to negotiate a change to your existing license.

This is always very expensive, as “all rights” include at least 50 years of such things as: editorial rights in all countries; advertising use in all media in all countries; worldwide TV and movie rights; book publishing rights in all languages; product rights for such things as calendars, posters, coffee mugs, mouse pads and T-shirts; resale and sub-licensing rights.

Also, if professional models were used in the photos, their fees may also have to be increased to compensate for the increased photo usage.

Buying “all rights” is like purchasing a hotel when you just need a room for a week. Why buy a car when you really need only a weekend rental? Very rarely, if ever, would a client need to own all copyrights to any image.

Generally, medium to darker tones, ideally solid colours, with no bold patterns. If no jacket is being worn, wear a long-sleeved shirt. Here's my blog post with more information on business portraits.