The first permanent photograph was produced in the 1820’s. Since that time photography has had an increasingly profound effect on our society. At first, beginning in the early 1840’s, photography was primarily used for portraiture. The relatively low cost and ease of producing Daguerreotypes made it possible for nearly everyone to have photographs made of themselves and their loved ones. In 1884 the Eastman Kodak company developed a dry gel “film” process that replaced the cumbersome glass plates then used and made it possible for anyone to create photographs. The slogan used for the Kodak camera that went of the market in 1888 was ‘You press the button, we do the rest”. They further popularized photography for the masses in 1901 with the introduction of their legendary Bownie Box camera.

While photography was very popular with the public throughout the last half of the nineteenth century, the limitations of the mass printing processes used at the time meant it couldn’t be employed for advertising purposes. It wasn’t until the 1890’s that the first halftone photographs began appearing in newspapers and magazines, and it would take another decade before their use was widespread. The first photographs used in advertising were, not surprisingly, those used in ads for cameras. By the 1920’s photography was well established in the advertising and marketing world, and has been ever since.

Photography makes or breaks a design project like nothing else. Unprofessional photography kills the look, and therefore the effectiveness, of any ad or marketing piece. In most cases the smartest budgetary decision is to make sure first and foremost that great photography is produced.

The difference is subtle. It’s about the quality of light, it’s about formatting, it’s about framing. It’s about attention to detail. It’s about subject matter. It’s about style. It’s about the art of looking sideways. It’s all of these things and none of them exclusively. And that’s were the experience and creativity of the professional photographer pays off.