Commercial photoshoot for Cornelia James in Brighton
As a photographer, I’m always being asked questions about what’s the difference between an editorial shoot and a commercial shoot?
Editorials are creative images you can see in for example magazines and blogs. They are styled photoshoots that are a chance for photographers, makeup artists, hair stylists and clothing stylists to get together and have some fun and to create something different. Because editorial photoshoots don’t have a lot of rules and you have very much freedom to do what you want these images to tend to be very inspirational and creative.
Most of the time there is a very little budget in editorial shoots. So why do we produce them if we’re not being paid? Because we love them, because they add to our portfolio’s, because they’re a chance for everyone to try something new, and further their techniques!
Commercial photoshoots are organized by a brand who are in need of new images to show off their service/product. These images are most often used as advertising, or for their social media and website.
The difference is that for a commercial shoot, there is always a budget. This means that the brand has set aside money to pay for the images and the team involved in their photoshoot.
While editorial photography tends to tell a story as a whole, commercial photography tells the story of the brand. As a photographer, organize you often get a shoot list to follow on a commercial job and the company organizes the models, location and the props for the photoshoot.
Commercial shoots are still very creative for a photographers, you maybe don’t plan the shoot like on an editoral but you still need to be very creative to create amazing images of what you have to work with.
xx Moa