In a 1989 interview, Steve Jobs was asked, “Where do great products come from?”
His response included:
I think really great products come from melding two points of view – the technology point of view and the customer point of view. You need both. You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them.
(…)
It sounds logical to ask customers what they want and then give it to them. But they rarely wind up getting what they really want that way.
Commercial and corporate photographers need to think the same way. Successful business photography comes from knowing what the client really needs and then building a good photo from there.
A photographer shouldn’t just shoot pretty pictures and hope the client likes them, nor should a photographer shoot a literal translation of what the client says they want. Few clients think photographically or even visually.
For example, let’s say a client asks for a picture of their new factory. What’s a photographer to do?
(a) Shoot a real estate picture of the building and be done with it.
(b) Produce a portfolio-worthy, artistic image of the building: at dusk to show the last moments of the glowing sunlight, a slow shutter speed to make the clouds seem more ethereal, vignette the corners to add mystery and shoot from a low angle to make the building seem majestic.
(c) Ask the client what message they’re trying to convey. The client may really be trying to showcase the factory’s environmental features; maybe they’re trying to signal to their investors that business is good; or perhaps they’re trying to build trust with their customers. In any case, the photographer can design a photo to suit this need (which may or may not be a picture of the factory building).
If a photographer wants to be the apple in their client’s eye, the photographer must first know exactly where the client is looking.
