Product Placement

Product placement is all around us. The film 'I Robot' was on television a couple of nights ago and Will Smith does a lot of advertising for Audi, Converse and many other companies. Is product placement a problem? I have added the website address to my photograph of the cravate and the white rose and to me it looks quite good.

This photograph is blatant advertising. The problems occur when art is compromised by business interest. If I were the director of 'I Robot' I would not have a great problem taking pictures of Audi cars as they are fine looking cars, and if someone wanted to pay me a lot of money at the same time then I would be very grateful. At least this photograph tells you that words can be added to photographs. It isn't quite the same as a phrase that means something to the bride and groom.

I think of the vignette as a way of concentrating on the main subject of the photograph. I was looking at some watercolours yesterday and they had a similar effect in that the detail around the edges was not there. So a vignette can concentrate attention, it can give a Victorian feel to a photo, but it also gives it an artistic effect.

Happy snapping