Commercial Photography

Essential Questions to Ask Prior to Commissioning Your Commercial Photographer

1.	Is the person you are thinking of commissioning a full time professional photographer (i.e. do they have another job and work as a photographer at the weekend)? If they are not a full time professional photographer can they dedicate the time required to provide you with the service and quality that you need?
2.	Is he or she qualified? If so what level of qualification do they hold?
3.	Do they work from their studio or do they work from home?
4.	Do they shoot their images in RAW format? This will give you a good indication as to the experience and the quality of the photographer. If they only capture their images in JPEG format be aware they do not have the same quality control.
5.	Ask what type of cameras they use. If they use digital cameras a minimum requirement wants to be 12 Million Pixels (12MP) capturing in RAW format (see point 4). This is to ensure that the photographs have the detail and quality that you would expect from a professional photographer. As a general rule the more pixels a camera has the more detail it will record. If they still use film cameras ask if they use 35mm or Medium format. Medium format is by far the preferred choice of the two having a larger film area to record the image and therefore recording more detail.
6.	How long have they been in business? This will indicate experience if nothing else.
7.	Are they insured? Do they have public liability cover?