The Major Purpose of Advertising is to arouse the consumers desire to own any given product. Advertising photography is used to stimulate these desires to an act and purchase. The advertising photographer must illustrate, explain, excite, and help create this desire for any given advertised product. The consumer and/or reader will be exposed to these images in a varied media formats: magazines, newspapers, television, billboards and now even the Internet.

Today’s advertising photographer must go beyond being just a camera technician. There is not a single professional photographer in this field who has not spent long hours and hard work in perfecting his or her technique, both in handling the camera and in the quality of the finished product, the photograph. To command the respect of his clients, and to have his or her work consistently in demand, the advertising photographer must have, in addition to this technical ability, creative vision, imagination, and an ability to capture unique descriptive images on film.

An advertising photographer rarely works alone, for their talents must synchronize with those of the other part of the team, the art director. Together they must communicate ideas and work together on the final ‘look’ or ‘feeling’ of the illustration. The art director, however, works on other aspects of the advertisement such as the copy, the over-all layout, typography, and the space and media in which the final ad will be placed and seen. The photographer, therefore, must work in harmony with the total plans of the art director, who is responsible for the complete visual appearance of the advertisement.

Every serious photographer who is thinking of entering the advertising field should understand what is involved. The advertising agency, in handling an account, has invested time and money before any project is assigned to the photographer. There have been copy meetings, media conferences, idea discussions, which result in the accepted layout given to the photographer.

Crude and rough as these visuals often are, the experienced and discerning photographer respects them, works from them, and transforms them into pictures with eye-catching impact. Not all art directors use visual layouts some will direct the photographer without the help of any sketches. Each has his or her own favorite method of working, but every art director works toward one common end: the creation of an ad that will have sales appeal. Every art director assigns a participle photographer to a participle assignment because they feel that the selected photographer will contribute their own unique talent in creating a photographic image. They also assume that the photographer will respect the confidential information with regards to the assignment. To show, repeat, or quote any part of an advertising campaign is an unforgivable breach of professional ethics.