Service photography – avoiding the clichés

You don’t need to be a Lancashire commercial photographer to know that there’s a certain type of corporate photography that crops up again and again.

It’s the sort of imagery you’ll typically find on the websites of businesses whose output is intangible. You can’t shoot the process of doing a tax return. You can’t shoot the process of completing legal documents (well, you can but it won’t be particularly thrilling). And you can’t shoot the nuts and bolts of a telephone call with your car insurance company.

So the accountancy, legal and insurance sectors (amongst numerous others) frequently opt for stock imagery. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that in principle – it’s just that when you see the same stock imagery on several business’ websites, you realise it isn’t giving you the real picture. Instead, it’s giving you a rather clichéd one.

Same old, same old?
The ‘suits’ stood around the tablet smiling. The perfectly coiffured man and woman staring wistfully into the distance. The telephonist with the beaming smile and headset who you know doesn’t really work for that company.

This sort of stock corporate photography may be cheap, but it adds not a shred of authenticity, credibility or reassurance to your website. Worse still, if it’s the sort of imagery that crops up again and again, it could be enough to put doubt in the mind of the viewer. Are you really who you say you are?

Avoiding the clichés of service photography starts with one very simple step: commission your own commercial photography. Because even if the composition and subject matter is identical to the stock imagery already out there, at least the people will be authentic and unique to you.

But of course, you don’t hire a professional Lancashire commercial photographer to capture what’s already out there. You hire them to show how you’re different.

Showing the difference
It’s about setting yourself apart. The ingredients may be roughly the same – the office environment, the people, the suits – but there’s a different energy, different relationships, a different drive about your team compared to anyone else’s.

A professional corporate photographer can bring that out, so instead of clichéd imagery on the screen, you get something that’s honest, authentic and far more compelling.

Let’s talk about your Lancashire commercial photography.

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