Tips for pool and landscape businesses

by Sally Bouorm | April 1, 2013 2:21 pm

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By Gary van Eijk

Times are changing. As cliché as it sounds, it is a fact; however, this statement means something entirely different today than when it was first written. The reality is, times are not changing once and for all, but instead they are constantly changing. In many cases, especially where technology and advertising is concerned, what was new this morning is old by next year, next month, or even next week. This is a major concern for many with small- to medium-sized businesses in the swimming pool and landscaping industry that depend on the average consumer to succeed. What worked as a staple in advertising a few years ago may be a lessor priority in today’s web-induced world.

The average consumer is becoming more educated and savvy in their spending decisions yet is being bombarded with advertising and marketing from all sides, with much of it being disingenuous. With the plethora of information available, consumers today must have the required skill to be able to filter quickly between cheap ‘grabber’ marketing schemes and the more interesting ‘hold-em’ type advertisements. That being said, it has become more important for small business operators to continually upgrade their education in the ever-changing world of online marketing.

First, get schooled

It is understandable many get nervous when thinking about sitting in a class after everything they have been through with respect to operating their business. It might seem surprising, but there are many things to learn with respect to online advertising and using tools such as social media, webinars, and online portfolios.

There are many resources, some free, offering educational information on using these digital media platforms. On YouTube, for instance, one can find a variety of instructional videos on a vast selection of topics. Marketing as a small business is one; however, it is up to the viewer’s best judgment to determine the appropriate information. One way of filtering through the mass number of instructional videos is to look for those that have been endorsed by companies related to the industry, in addition to having a large number of positive reviews.

Free marketing and business-related information is also available via ‘Vimeo,’ a U.S.-based video-sharing website that is similar to YouTube, as well as magazine websites such as Pool & Spa Marketing, Inc., and Fast Company. Finally, paid-subscription sites, which allow visitors to preview videos to determine whether they will be helpful, are also available.

It is also a good idea to keep an eye on what is being offered at local cultural centres or colleges with respect to educational training classes on website design, as well as digital photography and software courses, such as Photoshop and/or Lightroom, to learn what is involved in creating online exposure. Workshops from local camera clubs may also provide ideas on how a business can promote itself online.

DO-IT-YOURSELF (DIY) PHOTOGRAPHY

[2]Swimming pool and landscape companies that do not necessarily have the budget to hire a professional photographer can improve their project photography for their digital portfolios using the following tips: 1. Use the best camera available with a wide-angle lens. 2. If a camera phone is the only option, try taking the pictures from a lower angle (e.g. around the knee or hip). Gardens and yards tend to look wider from a lower angle. 3. The sun should be at the photographer’s back and watch out for sun reflection and glare. Sun glare is always worse when captured through the camera lens. 4. Use a simple program to edit photos (e.g. iPhoto or an online service such as Picnik). Experiment with the different options, tools, and presets as most programs are different. 5. Never alter the original image. Make any edits or adjustments to a duplicate image and store the original photo as a backup. 6. Take photos early or later in the day, or on slightly cloudy day with diffused light. 7. Take the time to capture good images. Great photos are used more often than ones; therefore, it is important not to rush and to always plan ahead. 8. Keep an address list of the company’s best projects and return to these clients to take pictures after a year or two. By this time, all of the landscaping and improvements will be done and the plant material will look better after it has grown in. 9. Make a note of which day the maintenance is scheduled and plan to take pictures of the project just after the lawn has been freshly cut and raked, and the planting beds cleaned and mulched. 10. If the project might be featured in a magazine advertisement or feature article, let the client know. Having a client’s home featured in a magazine can be the greatest form of flattery and sometimes the client will assist in having the site cleaned and even partially staged if they are notified ahead of time.

Always have a digital portfolio ready

All swimming pool and landscape businesses, small or large, should have a website. Those without one should promote their work by having sample photos of recent projects readily available for e-mailing to prospective clients.

It is not hard to create a digital portfolio. Most well-known image software programs, such as ‘iPhoto,’ offer short how-to videos on creating slideshows or photo books that can be saved as a digital file containing multiple photos. There are also several photo upload sites online (e.g. Flicker.com, SmugMug.com), which offer many of the same features.

Software such as Microsoft Word, which most businesses typically have, can also be used to create documents that include photos and descriptions. PDF (portable document format) files, a format used to exchange documents in a manner that is independent of application soft/hardware, and operating system, is another popular method for exchanging digital portfolios as the program that reads these files (Adobe Reader) is free to download.

Have professional photos prepared

Most can tell the difference between a photo taken by a professional and one taken via cell phone or pocket camera. Why do some photos not look like the glamour shots everyone sees in the magazines? What is the difference? Was it the camera, angle, content, light, and/or colour? The answer is all of the above. Most advertisement photography found in magazines that a pool/landscape business portfolio is competing against is taken with many notable differences, including:

Focal length

Most landscape and interior photos included in magazines are taken with a professional-grade wide-angle lens, typically 16-24 mm or wider. Further, most professional architectural images are taken with a specialty tilt-shift lens, which does not distort the straight/architectural lines or become manipulated in software programs such as Photoshop.

Most camera phones have a focal length equivalent to approximately 35 mm or more, (the higher the number in focal length, the more ‘telephoto’ the image will appear). In terms of landscape and swimming pool photography, these lenses may be considered too narrow as they do not provide a wide, relaxing view of the landscape. When this happens, photos look confined and too tight.

Keep in mind, however, should a higher-end camera with a wide-angle or zoom lens be used, or the photographer zooms out for a wider perspective, distortion/bending at the edges may still occur as the lens ‘pushes’ images wide at the edges, compromising the image quality.

Lighting

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Most believe the best time of day to photograph a swimming pool, landscape and/or garden is at noon on a sunny day. However, professional photographers who understand the properties of light will take these photos either early in the morning or just before the sun goes down.

In some cases, the best time to take an interesting photo is in fact during a slightly cloudy or foggy day with diffused light. Further, some pools look better at night when they are illuminated by strategically placed landscape lighting.

A tripod is required when taking these types of photos as they are captured using slower shutter speeds. In some cases, extra lights (or reflectors) are needed to add brightness where it is not normally found to ensure the lighting in the image is balanced.

Composition

There are several image composition rules professional photographers employ when taking pictures; however, they are too comprehensive to explore in detail in this article.

[4]Suffice to say, the photo should be balanced in its content, use of texture, structure, and perspective. These are trained and practiced skills that take time to develop. They are not photographer tricks but more so a balance of training, understanding of light, and skill of using photographic equipment on a given site at a given time of day.

Looking good

Staging a photo shoot can be time consuming. For instance, depending on when the swimming pool and/or landscaping were completed, the photographer may have to deal with everything from scattered pool toys to dated patio furniture—all of the things that are around when the pool is actually used and not seen in magazine photos. Even though these items can be removed using a photo-editing program, it takes as much time moving them while on site as it does on a computer.

Post processing

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The best magazine photos are taken with digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras, which allow the setting to be captured in manageable, high-resolution digital files. The improvements the average photo usually requires are those that are seldom noticed. However, any touching up, ‘Photoshopping,’ or air brushing of the image is usually referred to as post processing. This is the act of manipulating a photo, usually by computer, to enhance or improve the image quality.

Other manners of digitally manipulating an image are to have undesirable elements removed and/or desirable ones added.

Software programs that enable these types of enhancements are not inexpensive. Many professional photographers have also invested their time and money into these programs to make the final image worthy of a company’s portfolio.

The RGB effect

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When digitally enhancing photos on the computer, or hiring a professional to do it, one will notice the colours that originally come out of the camera may seem to be washed out or bland. In these cases, some advertising agencies will make adjustments to emphasize and balance the colours that make the project look its best.

The colours most are naturally drawn to in landscape photos are red, green, and blue (RGB). Most of these can be emphasized using the colour tones that are present in the average backyard swimming pool/landscape image with a few adjustments via staging or post processing. Making sure all of these colours are present and in balance can greatly improve the attention the photos will receive.

Red

Everyone is naturally attracted to red. In landscape, red represents warmth and comfort with the presence of cooler tones such as grey, black, and blue. Red does not necessarily need to be present as long as warm tones are existent in orange floral blooms, brown wood, terracotta brick, or coloured fabric. One tip is to have red pillows on hand to place on furniture in the absence of other sources of red tones.

Green

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Green is often registered as an indication of freshness. At the end of winter, many are eager to see masses of green in the trees and lawn. While searching through books and magazines the eyes are dominated by masses of white pages and black type, while green tones are found to be instantly relaxing against blue tones. Therefore, a green lawn in the background or foreground of a landscape can emphasize the cooling tones of blue.

Blue

People are seeking the relaxing and cooling effect of water when looking through landscape photos. This might seem obvious, but it is often overlooked in many photos as numerous pools appear grey or white in portfolio and/or advertising photographs.

Used to balance the warm tones of reds in a swimming pool/landscape image, the blue shade of the sky can often be reflected on the water surface to provide a cooling effect. However, try to avoid the reflecting sun or too many washed-out grey tones from cloud reflections in the pool.

Remember, when altering photos on the computer, it is difficult to improve the realistic effect without making them seem over manipulated. When photos look unrealistic, clients may become naturally suspicious and may not trust what they see or the company advertising the photos.

Creating a digital portfolio

Now, with the project photos in hand and looking great, the following should be considered before putting together a digital portfolio:

Legal use

When considering the idea of posting images for the company’s portfolio on any website, read and become familiar with the policies with respect to the terms and conditions these sites impose on the content being uploaded. Keep in mind, the free use of these sites and agreement to their policies in some cases allows them to use and distribute any uploaded images without notice or credit.

Copyright

Upload the company’s images only. Few things are worse than having hard work stolen and improperly credited. One way to avoid this is to label the company’s ownership of the images using watermarks. Some software applications provide this as an option to users, while the metadata contained in the image file itself can also protect a company’s copyright and ownership.

File size and type

The file size of the images being uploaded can also prevent others from simply copying them. For instance, if the image size is too large, others may be able to copy the photo with all of the detail intact. Should the image size be too small, the file will look grainy or ‘pixelated’ and display very little detail, making the photo almost unrecognizable. Therefore, using a file size between 350 to 500 KB, or fitting the image within a 1024 x 1024 pixel frame in JPEG format is typically safe.

Social media

With reference to the legalities of using photography online, social media websites such as Facebook can also be a great tool for promoting the company’s work, as well as a way to create a loyal fan base that can refer the company’s work to others. However, nothing comes without work. Daily or weekly posts of photos and descriptive, intriguing content is what keeps people coming back to the profile to see what is new. Therefore, plan the content to be relevant to trends in the industry and offer titbits of information to generate leads.

Websites

When creating or redesigning the company’s website, look to see what others are doing and gauge the effect their website would have on a potential client. If it is felt the client would not hire them, do not refer to their habits.

Further, many websites are available that allow companies to post images freely (e.g. Pinterest.com and Houzz.com); however, sole use of these websites can be detrimental if a company does not have its own website where potential clients can find more information about the company and what products and services it offers. Trust is the ultimate buy in.

Even in this web-induced era, the goal of small- to medium-sized business owners remains the same: retaining business and gaining new clientele. The methods of gaining loyal, repeat customers via the Internet takes a bold understanding of the new ways everyone is learning to communicate online. The use of photography and graphic communication has never been as prevalent as it is today.

Fortunately, for those in the swimming pool and landscape design/build industry, the best way to intrigue prospective clients is to take advantage of this trend and show them a digital portfolio of the company’s work. When published correctly, pictures are truly worth a thousand words—especially when used online in the most professional manner.

 

 

Gary van Eijk is a Ryerson graduate of landscape architectural technology. He owns and is the principal designer at Uncommon Ground Design Group Inc., in Mississauga, Ont. Van Eijk has been working with homeowners, contractors, builders, and architects in the GTA since 1996, and has been designing residential landscape projects in Toronto, Mississauga, Oakville, Ancaster, Muskoka, and Collingwood. He can be reached via e-mail at gary@uncommonground.ca[8].

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