Commercial photography handbook

Commercial photography handbook: Business techniques for professional digital photographers | title
Kirk Tuck | author
Amherst Media, 2009 | publisher
978-1584282600 | isbn
Paperback, 128 | # of pages

Recommended | rating
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As the prices of photographic equipment decrease, the number of people who seek to establish themselves as professional photographers increases. Books to help new photographers improve the quality of their work abound, but it is hard to find information regarding the business aspect of professional photography (which is at least as important as good photographs to succeed). This book aims to fill this gap by offering both general overviews of the market and business strategies as well as small scale routine procedures.

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Presentation

Amherst books personally remind me more of magazines rather than books. They are large, relatively thin, and the layout seems to try not to leave any empty space on the pages, usually cluttering them with a lot of text, pictures and boxes. Print quality is above average. The text has an informal tone and is mostly direct and well structured. There are a lot of pictures, including examples of marketing tools such as websites, postcards and other usages, but sometimes they are not really relevant for the topic being presented on the text.

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Content

The book is divided in 8 chapters. The first one gives a few fundamental guidelines that are better explained in the rest of the book. The second brings an overview of the main fields of commercial photography, the equipment and personal traits that suit them, and brief tips on how to start a career. It also presents two photographers and their works in their respective fields. On the third chapter the different options for learning the specific photographic skills are presented, most of it dedicated to the relationship between assistants and photographers, including useful insights on what one should and should not do in both positions. The fourth chapter is dedicated to marketing, and even though it is one of the longest it still is quite superficial in comparison to the others. It does, however, present a lot of operational procedures with examples and what to expect from each of them. Ethics earns its own, very short chapter, with guidelines that should not surprise anyone, but unfortunately might. The sixth chapter deals with the basic legal procedures and insurance. Pricing is covered in the seventh chapter, including basic finances for those who have no experience in the area and considerations about how to calculate costs, set prices and deal with problems that happen in real-world situations, such as unexpected costs, negotiating and not getting paid. The last chapter approaches three different financial scenarios that can ruin a business even when everything seems to be working well on a small-scale.

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Target audience

This book is better suited for those who have photographic skills but no idea of how to run a business. It does not teach photography itself. Those who have some experience in entrepreneurship might find it too superficial, but can still gather plenty of useful information from the specific examples and everyday procedures. The reason I rate it recommended (instead of highly recommended) is because even though the content is useful, it still feels incomplete, delving deep into some topics while leaving others barely unscathed.

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Verdict

Recommended

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