Analytics

Photo Services Market: Past and Future

The most important event of recent decades, which completely turned the world of photos, was the appearance of digital cameras. The first models were not very convenient, differed in low resolution, they did not have displays for viewing shots, but had high speed and a huge resource, which no longer depended on the presence of film.

Now it seems like something ordinary, but in those years such a technique seemed like real fiction, which every photographer dreamed of.

It was no longer necessary to mess with the development of film, to depend from improperly exposed exposition, to shoot on a long shutter speed and to worry about each frame. Digital technology has greatly simplified the work, although film fans, of course, still cherish it.

The form of transmission of snapshots has also changed. With the advent of technology, photographers stopped printing photos in dark rooms and began to transfer them on flash drives and discs, and now everything is transferred through mail and file exchanges.

Our photo project, by the way, went even further. We create a personal account for every client on the website, where all his photos are stored, redeemable and downloadable at any time. This is convenient because the client decides for himself how many photos he is ready to pay: all or only some photos. Thus, we allow customers to save money and stimulate photographers take more good pictures.

Another stage in the development of the photo business was the appearance of highly sensitive matrices and modern lenses that allowed to take high-quality pictures at low lighting. At the same time, the cameras and lenses themselves became smaller every year, and matrices became larger.

Now photographic equipment has become so compact and universal that the photographer no longer has to carry a whole backpack of accessories with him. Small camera and a pair of interchangeable lenses will be enough to complete any task, and for some tasks even a smartphone will have enough shots.

As for smartphones — in recent years, top models in some cases have begun to provide better output than mirroring cameras. High quality is achieved due to good built-in optics, exposure control and instant picture processing. Smartphones are already filming not only weddings, but also documentaries, and even feature films.

Professional cameras, of course, still have a higher resolution, but you will notice the difference only when printing large-format pictures. On the phone or laptop screen it is almost impossible to notice the difference. Moreover, in recent years, Lo-Fi became the order of the day, when even professional shots are specially reduced in quality and interference is added to fit them to Instagram trends.

Instagram, by the way, was another milestone in the development of photography. When it arose people faced a need to create a lot of visual content, which led to an increase in number of photographers and increased shooting skills of the population. If previously few people understood in the exposition, composition and color palette, today every teenager knows how to take cool pictures, and has intuitive understanding of the correct camera settings and of frame building rules.

At the same time, photographers had the need to offer thematic photo shoots to customers in different locations. If before people asked just to shoot on the street or in the studio, now many customers have a need to take thematic photo shoots dedicated to special days: family, business, Baroque style, in watercolor, etc. In addition, there are bloggers who work in certain topics and need a permanent generation of thematic content.

For such clients, for example, we plan thematic photo days for a month ahead. Photo days calendar is published on the site, and everyone can choose and book a photo day. Photo days take place daily, so if you want, you can participate in filming every day and receive photos from a variety of locations: roofs, lofts, aqualocations, village haywalls, children’s bedrooms, spaceship decks, etc. The shooting is carried out conditionally free, and you only need to pay for those snapshots you like.

Yes, social networks, of course, popularized the photo, but they, unfortunately, depreciated it. There are so many images around us that they have ceased to be something interesting. If 15–20 years ago, people went to exhibitions of photographers to admire interesting pictures, now, in order to really interest a person in photography, you need to make a lot of effort.

This is not only about digital processing of pictures, although the appearance of photoshop and lightrum should be considered a separate milestone in the development of the photo business, since with their help photographers learned to create real masterpieces and batch process hundreds of photos at once. We are talking about interesting stories. People are tired of computer- embellished, but soulless images. Perhaps this is why there is a trend on Lo-Fi and a craving for live interesting stories, told through photos.

The photographic services market is constantly changing. This is a living organism in which something is outdated, something becomes a trend, and something needs to be changed. We monitor trends and develop a new ecosystem that will change the digital photo services market, making it more convenient. In our ecosystem people, for example, will be able to call a photographer at any minute through the application, like a taxi, and participate in any photo shoots for free, paying only those photos they like through a personal account on the site.

This is how we see the future of the market. Now our project has implemented 70–80% of our road map. Estimated full launch date is end of 2021 — beginning of 2022. Now you can use all the services in beta testing mode.

Author: Vladimir Khramtsov, marketer of the Wase photo project

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