My wife Kris brought up an interesting subject this morning at breakfast.

It’s about photography, but very relevant to copywriting and marketing.

I’m an amateur photographer who’s sold a few photos and won several contests. I love the creative aspect of producing a photo that wows people, but I also like the cool technology. I’m a guy, sue me.

Kris was paging through my most recent issue of Popular Photography magazine and had stopped at a column called, “The Fix.” This column critiques photos sent in by readers and offers suggestions and examples of how to improve or “fix” them.

All of the improvements involve using Adobe Photoshop or a similar photo editor.

Kris is an illustrator, so she has a great sense of composition and color. Naturally, she was studying the columnists’ recommendations.

“Take a look at this,” she said to me, handing over the open magazine.

I looked at the page. The photo under scrutiny was an early evening beach scene with lifeguard station and several groups of people. A couple at the right of the photo sat in beach chairs looking out on the ocean, while another group was walking toward the camera, as if packed up and heading home. The people walking home had their legs cut off at the knees by a low foreground dune.

Overall, the photo was somewhat muddy and dull. Contrast was poor and it didn’t pop.

But it had potential.

Here’s what the experts suggested:

1. Crop the photo to drop the horizon from the center to the bottom third of the photo. Composing by thirds is a classic composition technique and makes perfect sense. Cropping is a basic strategy that can instantly improve many photos. It’s been around since the invention of photography.
2. Increase the brightness and contrast to make the photo pop, eliminating the bland dullness. Again, a solid suggestion, and one that was used even in the days of film.
3. Redden the sky for drama. The photo definitely looks better. Before digital photography, you needed to use a filter on the camera when you took the shot, or you needed to do some advanced darkroom work to achieve this effect.
4. Remove the extra people from the scene, leaving only the couple in the beach chairs. Now we’ve entered the realm of digital editing. In the old days, you needed to airbrush unwanted subjects from a photo, a time-consuming and costly process. Today, it’s a few minutes with the clone tool in Photoshop.

Before digital imaging, most photographers relied on their technical and artistic skill, patience, and even luck to capture the perfect photo. Cost and technology limitations made modification of photos a far less common event. For this reason, some people feel that film-based photography is more “honest.”

The second photo in the column was of a young horse with its mother. The experts digitally removed the mother and a distracting fence post from the photo.

My wife asked, “Is this right? After all these changes, is it really the same photo?”

Good question.

As a photographer, I don’t have an easy answer.

Have I edited and “improved” photos using my digital arsenal of tools?

Yes.

Here’s a photo of a Luna moth caterpillar on a tomato leaf I shot a few summers ago. I “improved” it with Photoshop.

The photo on the left is the original, as it came from the camera. Notice the small tear on the tomato leaf. To improve this photo, I healed the leaf tear in Photoshop, slightly adjusted the brightness, added a little yellow to “warm” the photo, and sharpened it.

The resulting image took first place in a local contest.

The question is: Was I being dishonest by altering my photo?

Most photographers today would say “no.” The changes I made were only minor improvements.

But there’s one other aspect to this photo I haven’t mentioned.

I posed the caterpillar.

I picked it off a different part of the plant and set on a leaf that had the background I wanted, at an angle with ideal natural sunlight.

So, from a purist perspective, I created the photo from the very start.

And I’m not alone.

There’s a famous photo of a leopard reclining on a tree branch on the African savannah. Shot decades ago, this photo is truly an amazing shot.

What you probably didn’t know is that the leopard was not a wild cat, caught surreptitiously lounging in a tree, sleeping off its latest meal.

Nope, this cat was a ringer, a trained leopard brought in and posed for the photo. It was even wearing a leash and collar. The collar was hidden by the angle of the cat’s head, while the leash was concealed behind the cat’s body and the branch.

The result: An inspiring photo loved by thousands of people. It graced the covers of magazine and books.

Did the photographer “lie” by staging his photo?

It all depends.

If he tried to pass off his photo as a genuine shot of a wild leopard, then yes, he lied.

But if his goal was to create a beautiful image that captured the grace of a magnificent animal against an imposing landscape, then he and his photo are honest.

For most photographers, their ultimate goal is the emotional response of the audience. It’s not about what’s in the photo, but what it does to you.

So how the heck does this relate to marketing and copywriting?

When you sell a product or service, whether yours or a client’s, you must position it in the best light and in a way that appeals to your customer.

Sometimes this means getting “creative” with how you present the offering.

Draw out the benefits most appealing to your target market. Brighten them, make them pop in your customer’s eyes. You’re goal is to create desire for the offering, make your customers crave what you have to sell.

And you can’t do that with a bare-bones, just-the-facts approach.

To stay with our metaphor of photography, let’s look at selling a digital camera.

If a manufacturer like Canon (the system I shoot) tries to sell a new $3000 digital SLR as a “camera that takes really good pictures,” do you think anyone will buy it?

Now, what if they target their audience?

Canon’s not focusing on the customer who wants a camera for family snapshots at Disney World. There are plenty of compact point-and-shoot pocket cameras that will do a great job for less than $300.

Canon knows that serious amateur photographers take pride in having the latest and best digital camera equipment they can afford. Ego is tied up with camera ownership. Having the newest and best camera gives you bragging rights among fellow photographers.

Watch and listen when the next time two photographers get together. They usually don’t start by showing photos. They compare equipment. For guys, it’s very much a case of, “mine’s bigger than yours.”

I’ve been there myself. A typical conversation would go like this:

“Hey John, it that the new 5D?”

John holds up his $3000 Canon digital SLR, beaming like a proud papa. “Yep, picked it up last week.”

“Sweet! How do you like it?”

“It’s awesome,” John says, caressing his camera. He’s not about to hand it over to me. “I’ve taken about 200 shots so far. Blows away my old 20D. The resolution is amazing. And it’s FAST! Great autofocus. Doesn’t hunt in low light like the 20D.”

“Very nice. I was thinking of getting one, but I’m good with my 30D for now. I want to see what Canon comes out with this fall. But you have to see this new 100mm macro lens I picked up. f-2.8, and it’s tack sharp!”

And so it goes.

Yes, you better believe that photography enthusiasts suffer from “camera envy.”

That means frequent camera upgrades, something camera manufacturers count on.

So, instead of an ad touting their new camera as “taking really good pictures,” Canon might run ads that describe how this camera gives you all the features and capabilities of their $8000 model used by the world’s top professional photographers—the model that serious amateurs drool over. Then the ad would list the top, most desirable features and specs.

Now, before you yell at me for talking about features over benefits, keep in mind the market.

In some markets, plenty of advanced features ARE benefits. Advanced photography is one of those markets.

The implication, conveyed in the copy, is that all these advanced features will allow you to take mind-boggling, impressive, professional photos.

But smart marketing will also tease you with the promise of having the best camera on the market, so your fellow photographers will be envious of you.

To tie it together, you need to understand your market and present them with your product or service in a way that’s most appealing. And like a good photo, your offer must trigger the desired emotional response from your customer.

You never lie, but you offer the version of “reality” that drives your customers to buy.

As long as you don’t misrepresent your product or service, you can and should adjust and tweak your ads to present exactly the picture your customer needs and wants to see.

As a marketer, that’s your job.

Till next time.

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