Marketing Photography, Part I: A Quantity of QualityPosted by drfl on July 13th, 2010

When I was a young college student I thumbed through the works of Cartier-Bresson, Adams, and the like and assumed that once one became “good enough” at photography, the recognition and the money would follow.  I guess it’s the same motivation that causes high-schoolers to go “practice” for their eventual rock stardom in their parent’s garage banging on drums.  It is the belief that financial success is directly tied to artistic success. 

As with most photographers, I quickly found that this belief only served to propel me toward an eventual downfall for two reasons.  First, most of us do not realize until later we should not be the ones determining when we are “good enough”, and I was no exception.  Most of the time, in our minds during the formative years we imagine ourselves as stronger artists than we are in reality.  Given enough time and experience, however, we can come to recognize and honestly critique our true ability.  It is then that we can affect the appropriate change.  Some do not make it this realization.

Second, and more importantly, the world just doesn’t work that way.  As a parent, I realize why my parents gave me the various sage advice day after day as I matured a grew.  “Pack an extra set of clothes”, “always have $5 and be 5 minutes early”, and of course, the most popular, “the world isn’t fair”.  That’s right, for some people financial success is joined inexplicable to artistic success.  For those, the composition is strong and the lines lead the path that they must take.  Then there’s the rest of us.

When speaking of most commodities and goods, traditional marketing literature tell us that there are two basic production paths, quantity (i.e. McDonald’s - Billions of hamburgers served), and quality (i.e. Lotus – Seen a handful in my life).  The world of photography was traditionally no different.  There have been and continue to be stock photographers dedicated solely to the pursuit of quantity.  There is a set procedure, a list of subjects, a description of settings, and then the capture and processing.  Mechanical, efficient, and historically cheaper.  Then there were the singular experience quality photographers, waiting years for the correct celestial events, the perfect weather conditions, and spending countless hours setting up and finding the strongest composition, all to elicit the desired mood or story - historically more expensive.

That was the photography world of yesterday.  Today, digital cameras and the Internet has changed everything.  The issue of quantity is no more.  With the tens of thousands of individuals taking photographs and posting results on the web, almost any type of image becomes imaginable.  Even non-professionals can capture extraordinary images whether by choice or by chance.  Communication between photographers, writers, advertiser, publishers has become instantaneous.  Ideas and visions collide and mutate and then spawn new ideas and visions. 

How does a photographer who wishes to “make it” really do “make it”?  Through building a Quantity of Quality.  Not only must this work be consistently high-caliber, but it must also be improved upon indefinitely.

So what does that really mean and how does one consistently produce and thus improve upon this quality?

To answer this question, I am going to use an example that has been traditionally cited outside of the photography world.  W. Edwards Deming was an American professor who consulted with various Japanese companies after World World II.  He was primarily a statistician who showed businesses within the country how to improve design, quality assurance, and sales through the application of statistical methods.  He demonstrated to post-war Japan how to build quality products more efficiently and effectively.  Tolerances were made smaller, parts were machined more precisely, and equipment was tuned more finely.  Deming taught that when people focus primarily on quality then costs decline, however, if one focuses primarily on costs than quality declines.  Unfortunately, this model has proven itself all too true with the recent developments regarding Toyota.  An adopter of Deming’s original mantras, Toyota rose to prominence by building quality cars effectively.  As time continued, the executives began to believe that they needed to compete even more variciously in the global marketplace.  To reach that end, they changed their processes and attempted to directly lower costs.  By lowering costs, they lowered quality and suffered major consequences in both human life and public relations.  They lost sight of the fact that quality is the ultimate path to reducing costs.

Deming was the main proponent of the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle as a way to ultimately ensure quality into every aspect of management and production:

• Plan – Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver the necessary results.
• Do – Implement new processes – preferably, on a small scale.
• Study- Measure the processes and compare against the expected results to see any differentiation.
• Act – Analyze any differences to determine the cause.  Determine where to apply change and affect that change.  Begin the cycle anew.

Through his analysis he was able to demonstrate that the actual production causes only 15% of the issues with quality, but the system developed by management is the ultimate cause of the remaining 85%.  The Plan-Do -Study-Act cycle serves to illuminate these inefficiencies within the system to create the ultimate in quality of product or process.

How does this information apply to marketing photography?  Bringing it back to basics, in today’s Internet culture and economy, one must build quality into every process, into every technique, and subsequently into every photograph.  By instilling the a version of the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle into one’s photographic endeavors from the creation of the image, to the processing, through the actual end product, we can consistently ensure a quality product and subsequently move to an even higher level of quality while lowering costs.  As an example, below is an application of the cycle to the simple capture of a photograph:

• Plan – Establish solid image objectives, define the tools, techniques, and training necessary to produce the imagined image.
• Do – Execute on the plan to capture the image.
• Study – Study the resultant photograph and compare against what was expected.
• Act – Analyze the differences and determine the cause.  Determine what needs to be changed – either tools, techniques, or training.  Begin the cycle anew.

So, am I saying that each photograph needs to be cycled again and again until perfection?  Well, yes and no.  Most successful photographers follow this cycle unconsciously.  They create goals and assignments for themselves (Plan).  They take the photo (Do).  They study the photograph for any shortcomings or perceived failings (Study).  They note what they would do differently the next time a similar situation were to arise (Act).  They do this again and again and again.  Some call it “Passion”, other’s “Artistic Development”, the Japanese call it “Kaizen”. 

It’s Quantity of Quality and it’s a necessary step in becoming successful artistically, in business, and as a result, financially.  By submitting yourself to continuous improvement, you can strive to consistent high-quality output.  Once this consistent output is realized by purchasers, publishers, editors, and printers then they will begin to rely on your expertise for upcoming material.  You will grow a base from which you can continually expand all the while your customers will know that your artistic work will only improve. 

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 135 f/2l, f/2.5, 1/125 sec.
Eureka Springs, Arkansas