I always welcome new photography and videography enquiries from businesses – even if they turn out to be something that I can’t or don’t choose to undertake. Recently I received one from a company who were looking for some new staff profile shots. What became clear when I spoke with them was that they were accustomed to photographers working in a particular kind of way – namely, coming in, taking lots of shots, sticking them all on a memory stick and handing it over.

That got me thinking about how I work – and equally, how I don’t. You see, there’s so much more to being a commercial photographer than pointing the camera and taking a decent picture. Don’t get me wrong, having those specialist technical skills is fundamental to our craft – but there are other often over-looked elements to the profession.

The first is having strong inter-personal skills, most crucially when you’re with the client on the day of the shoot. You need to be able to put people at ease and to communicate clearly – and you’ve got to do that while simultaneously working your camera and utilising your gear. It’s like the two hemispheres of your brain running independently – but in the same direction! This is something I always try to impress upon university and college graduates and those new to commercial photography; you can have all of the technical tools, but photography has a strong collaborative element, and you have to learn how to work in harmony with people.

The second element, and one that is pertinent to that enquiry I had, is the processing work. When you undertake a commercial photography commission, you know that those images are going to mean everything to that business. They need to represent their brand and be perfect for them. And that’s why a good photographer edits the photos he’s taken. Whether it’s finessing the lighting, adjusting colour levels or finding that perfect crop, it’s rare that you cannot refine and improve upon a raw image in some way. The devil is in the detail, as they say, and taking the time to scrutinise your work is also a great way to improve it, seeing where your strengths lie and where you have room to develop.

So that’s why you’ll never see me dropping unprocessed shots to a memory stick and then handing it over to the client. Businesses deserve so much better than point, shoot, dump and run.