As we scroll through social media for businesses or websites for businesses, we are seeing more and more video content. In some cases, these videos are explainer videos, video sales letters, how-to-videos, or the typical promotional video. That does not mean Photography has gone to the wayside. However, Photography is still a very big part of every business's content marketing strategy.
Hiring a Photographer has been something that fewer and fewer businesses are taking advantage of. In short, the mobile device, cell phone, and tablets have become some of the most used devices with filters to take images for our social media pages and websites.
The challenge with utilizing mobile devices, cell phones and tablets come in the form of dynamic range. Dynamic Range is the contrast between the darkest color tones, and the brightest color tones. Most mobile devices on the market today take great photos for purposes of sharing to social media, however, due to lack of Dynamic Range you tend to have to choose between maximizing your highlighted color tones, or underexposing your darker color tones in the photo. A high quality camera used by business photographers or brand photographers are great to help you capture the most of both color tones and give you the best of both worlds to give you the best, more colorful, and sharpest images for your social media pages or web pages.
Let’s take a look at the most popular photography trends for 2023 and beyond.
1. Drone Photography: Drone photography is very popular in the Real Estate industry, whereas properties can show the full property, terrain, amenities, landscaping, and layout. Other areas include Construction sites to display the progress with a macroview. Renewable energy and wind farms also utilize drone photography to help market their services by displaying their wind farms, or solar projects. Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) or Tourism Organizations love utilizing drone photography to maximize the essence of their destinations. Typically, this includes images of lakefront views, trails, lakes, downtown mainstreets, or full shots of the city.
2. 360 Photography Trend: Again, Real Estate Agencies love utilizing the 360 Photography trend to ensure they’re giving potential buyers a clean look of the interior, the rooms, the layout, and the overall atmosphere of the home without stepping foot onto the property. The 360 photo is essentially a spherical panoramic image with interactivity. Another business type that became increasingly popular during Covid times, included museums and historical societies. The virtual tours included 360 degree panoramic images that allowed visitors to tour the various collections, pieces, and read descriptions.
3. Macrophotography: Macrophotography is an extreme close-up of a product, ingredients, tools, utensils or anything that a business uses as a pillar of their operation. If you’re a pizza restaurant, a close up for your finished product is a great way to display your mouth-watering pizza, with buttery crust, and fresh ingredients. Another great use of macrophotography is the use of electronics, jewelry or luxury consumer goods. Another usage of macrophotography has included farmers markets, micromarkets and whole food markets to increase the color and imagery of their produce. A close up of lettuce, tomatoes and avocados to tell the story of freshly picked produced on the shelves at your local whole food market can paint the picture of quality produce.
4. Surrealism Photography: Surrealism is layering more than one high-quality photo, and edited with software to include real and surreal backgrounds or blending or multiple images. This can come in the form of pop out photos, fantasy photography or compositing photos with the usage of Photoshop or comparable software. Some examples include multiple exposures, levitating images, changing perspective of the images or through the use of reflections - to name a few. Motion blur is another trend utilized in photography for business which includes a clear and clear background with a motion blur character or item. Surrealism Photography is a tool that you can use to help tell your story and create interesting images for your social media platforms or website.
5. High Dynamic Range Nature Photos: Multiple businesses have started using high dynamic range nature photos in their marketing. Real Estate has found its way into utilizing HDR photos to sell their homes and generate interest in properties. Furniture stores, jewelry stores, auto dealerships, and other high ticket luxury goods are moving towards HDR photography to help convey the quality of their inventory. Other industries include tourism bureaus. Whether it is local landmarks, lakes, streams, main streets, or historical sites, tourism bureaus are doing their part by utilizing professional photographers to sell their tourism destinations.
Conclusion
Depending on the goals of your business, there are multiple trends for your business you can use in 2023 and beyond. Regardless of your goals, high quality images and videos are increasing conversions for websites and social media platforms to turn interested prospects into eager buyers. According to PhotoUp, 83% of buyers indicate that pictures are a motivating factor in making a purchasing decision. Businesses that use professional photography sell 200% more than competitors that do not use professional photography. Just 15% of surveyed businesses report using professional photography for selling their goods or services. Buyers report spending 60% of their time viewing images of products or services, compared to just 20% that focus on reading descriptions.
The data is indicative of professional photography playing a large part in converting interest prospects into eager buyers. Look through the Top 5 Photograph Trends for Business in 2023, and come up with a couple of ways to integrate them into your content marketing strategy.
Comments