Photography is a vital element of the way businesses and media outlets present themselves, the products, and stories that they are trying to sell. Yet the assumption that all photography is the same is an illusion that many have bought in to. The truth is that there are distinct and different types of photography which focus on different areas. Two of the most commonly mixed up are commercial and editorial photography. To help you understand the difference between these two similar but different styles of photography we thought we’d break them down into their component parts.
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What is Commercial Photography?
The best place to start to understand the difference between commercial and editorial photography is to understand what commercial photography is.Â
At its core, commercial photography is focused on promoting a product, service, or brand. Often commissioned directly from a business, the purpose of commercial photography is to advertise products to a target audience and generate sales through attractive and persuasive imagery. It will be used throughout
Cocktail Bar Commercial Photography Emma Milestone 2024
marketing campaigns, on websites, on social media, and on billboards. Whenever you see a photo advertising a product, that is commercial photography.
Commercial Photography covers a wide range of genres such as product photography, food photography and architectural photography (as well as a wide variety of other types). Each of these are focused on capturing a very specific set of elements that influence the target audience to buy the product. For example, food photography involves a number of tricks and techniques to present food in enticing ways that will leave the viewers mouth-watering, whilst a company trying to sell their cars would focus on a delivering a different visual experience (maybe focused on power, the sexiness of the car etc). As different businesses have different objectives and different emotions they are trying to evoke, commercial photography is one of the most varied forms of photography around and can be some of the most challenging work a photographer can do.Â
What is Editorial Photography?
In contrast to commercial photography, editorial photography is focused on telling a story through images. Used by publications like newspapers and magazines, editorial photography is used to illustrate news stories, and opinion pieces, with the aim of helping the reader become informed, educated, and in some instances, entertained. The focus on generating sales through photographs is absent, and instead the focus is purely on story telling.
Like Commercial photography there are multiple types of editorial journalism around, including, but not limited to, photojournalism, documentary photography, sports photography, and portraiture. In photojournalism, the focus is on capturing newsworthy events in a way that informs the reader about the event’s context and significance. Documentary photography is used to tell a story about a particular subject, such as a social issue, a cultural practice, or a historical event. Sports photography is used to capture the action, emotion, and drama of sporting events. Portraiture is used to capture the personality, character, and mood of a person. What all of them have in common though is that they are focused on delivering imagery that reflects the situation as it truly is. This is perhaps the biggest difference between commercial and editorial photographers. For while commercial photographers are focused on delivering the set objectives of their clients, which can vary, editorial photographers are always focused on generating a compelling narrative through presenting images as they are. They can’t manipulate the images that are being taken in the same way that a commercial photographer can, as they need to focus on telling the story as is, and not what they want it to be.
In summary, the key difference between commercial and editorial photography is their purpose and context. Commercial photography is focused on promoting a product, service, or brand, while editorial photography is focused on telling a story. Commercial photography is commonly used in marketing campaigns, websites, and social media, while editorial photography is used in newspapers, magazines, and online publications to illustrate news stories, features, and opinion pieces. Commercial photographers work closely with their clients to understand their marketing goals and target audience, while editorial photographers must have strong storytelling skills and the ability to capture compelling images that convey a narrative.
