In conversation with... Cathy Bennett and Morgan Silk

What is the the impact of connected technology on photography? If it isn't the ability to access millions of images at once and to access quality self-published work through Flickr, it's the total change in process and the relationship between brand, client, and the photographer themselves. How does all of this affect the professional photographer, and the role of the photography agency?

We asked two members of photography agency Vue - photographer Morgan Silk, and founder Cathy Bennett - for their views on how professional photography is changing through this multiplicity of impacts.

During your career, how has the role of the portfolio changed?

MS: Over the years the portfolio format has changed, but I think it's role is still essentially the same. When I left college in 1992, my folio was presented as individual large format transparencies, each hand-mounted and requiring a lightbox to view them properly. Print portfolios then became important, as I needed multiple copies for agents to show and send around the world. With Photoshop and affordable inkjet technology, I had lots of fun experimenting with the print process to make my portfolios my own.

Since then, the web has become the most accessible platform for photographic portfolios and has taken over. Instead of physical books, PDFs and weblinks are now sent out much of the time as the first port of call. As digital technology moves forward, we find ourselves increasingly reliant on it, so much so that many people are now questioning the need for print portfolios at all. I still love print, but must admit that I have fewer books than I used to have. I know that there are art buyers out there who still prefer to see print portfolios, and that's fine by me.

CB: When it comes to our line of business – advertising and editorial - the role of the portfolio is, and always has been, to introduce the photographer's style to those working on the campaign, and to keep art buyers and creatives bang up to date with the latest and best work done by the photographers.

But, the way we show a portfolio of work has changed and developed over the past few years, as advances in technology have opened up new opportunities.

In recent years, the most common way to pull together a folio has been in print. Print folios, when done right, look amazing, but they do take time. The Internet, the iPad and apps have now really started to change this.

With these new platforms, you can customise each folio specifically for the client you are going to see. It also means that you can easily keep the body of work up to date so that it showcases the most recent work by the photographer. What's more, the speed at which you can now have an up to date, customised portfolio is incredible, which means that you can take advantage of those last-minute job opportunities in a much more effective and impactful way.

However, there's still something to be said for showing a photograph in print as on screen you can sometimes lose the impact of a striking image. There isn't an accepted norm across the industry; some people like to see only print, while others are happy looking online, so you have to have all bases covered. Maybe it's a cultural thing, as at the moment the US seems to have embraced the iPad and apps as a way of showing folios, but my personal opinion is that people in the UK - especially the ad agencies and art buyers - still prefer to see a traditional portfolio.

Who knows what will happen in the future. The key is to stay up-to-speed with all the new options for presenting images and to find the ones that work best for your work and for the clients you are targeting.

What has been the impact of digital photography on your own work, and (from your experience) in print advertising in general?

CB: On one side, it has opened up so many opportunities for photographers to push their creativity and to introduce new and exciting visual elements to their style and their work. For those working with forward-thinking clients, the possibilities these days really are endless – anything is possible.

On the flipside, there is a perceived view that photography has become easier to get right; that there is somehow less talent needed to take a great photograph. The reality is that while digital has made photography more accessible to more people, simply being able to use the technology is no replacement for true talent.

MS: The breakthroughs in digital technology have given photographers more options, more improved tools and more creative opportunities than ever before, as well as access to a wider audience in a world that seems to be getting smaller and smaller. But, it feels that for every benefit there is also a downside when it comes to digital.

As a photographer, I am constantly on the lookout for better ways of capturing, storing, editing, presenting and delivering images. No sooner have I found a workflow that I feel is right for me, than I discover another new way which I then want to learn and perfect. I feel compelled to compete and the speed at which everything is developing is exciting but at the same time has a crushing effect on the creative psyche. I feel empowered and pressurised at the same time. It's quite a time to be a photographer!

One of the huge advantages is the positive impact that digital has had on the aesthetics and quality within the photography business. The quality of digital capture now is astounding. I still feel blown away every time I see a file from my Hasselblad at 100% on my screen. My clients always comment on the quality and detail we now take for granted, quality that a few years ago was only experienced by a handful of scientists working for NASA.

We now have digital capture that far out-resolves film, and we're still moving forward. I shoot 50 megapixels as standard and am able to do so much more with an image than I was able to do five years ago. This is what I love about digital. It enables me to do things I couldn't before, but at a cost, and the cost is time. We spend more time at our desks instead of behind the camera and this is undoubtedly one of the great downsides of digital.

Digital has also opened new doors for photographers with opportunities in interactive media and moving image becoming a new and exciting possibility. Digital billboards and animated 6 sheets have given rise to a whole new sphere of motion graphics and animated stills. As yet, however, the quality of these have some way to go before they live up to that of the high end photographic capture that digital enables.

How does digital change the perception of "craft" in photography? We no longer have the dark room, so how to we preserve the role of craft in a digital process?

MS: There will always be craft, but it is perceived differently now by a lot of people, because of the huge accessibility gained through digital technology. The alchemy and dark arts that were prevalent in the film photography days are now just not there.

Today, we can all learn the tricks online and buy fairly inexpensive cameras such as the Canon 5DII and clever software which gives us instant gratification. At the same time, it makes it look so easy that some photographers are sadly now seen by outsiders as mere technicians rather than artists or craftspeople. But, we are craftspeople; when it comes to image making, it is about so much more than just using technology. It is about our innate understanding of all things visual and of how to produce a great image.

In order to preserve the role of craft in the digital process, we have to retain the principles we learned from film. We have to aim to get things right first time and not over rely on technology to get us out of jail for free. We have to be nimble, and use our creativity to find new ways of exploiting these wondrous technological advances rather than relying on them. This is what will set us apart.

CB: The skills in commercial photography have changed beyond recognition – software such as Photoshop has become the new darkroom - and continue to do so thanks to the fast paced changes in technology, but the craft remains the same.

The craft of photography lies in having vision and having a deep understanding of the visual world. In commercial photography, this more often than not means having the ability to interpret the client's ideas and capture them all in a single image that looks amazing and that strikes a chord with those viewing it. It is about understanding composition, lighting, perspective and angles as well as being able to evoke an emotional reaction through imagery.

Yes, with digital you can take lots of photographs, and even see the end result immediately. You can retouch most mistakes. But, if the vision is wrong from the start, no amount of technology will help you.

If brands are increasingly turning to customers to submit and participate in content, does this change the role of professional photography within the creative process? If so, how?

CB: The advent of the Internet and the explosion of social media has meant that more and more companies want their customers to create content for their campaigns. But, customer content tends to be only one element of a wider campaign that covers TV, radio and print as well, so it is just an additional channel, playing its specific role in an integrated campaign.

Interactive media is an interesting proposition for photographers because this quite often occupies space traditionally dominated by print media, such as bus shelters, and print ads in digital publishing (think of magazines on the iPad), as well as online. As a result, more and more photographers are looking into moving imagery that can be used for interactive campaigns. Although filmmaking involves other disciplines that aren't necessarily part of a photographer's natural skillset, ultimately they understand the visual side of things, so they can adapt.

From a client point of view, consistency is crucial. So, if they've bought into a photographer's style then it makes sense that they would like this to continue across their interactive marketing and online film elements as well.

Please tell us more about your portfolio app and how it specifically meets the needs of professional photographers.

MS: It is a self-contained portfolio app that is available to download for free from the app store. I teamed up with app developers Teleportfolio and after eight months we launched in the Summer. Although it wasn't the first portfolio app on the app store, it was the first pro photographer folio app using Teleportfolio's development, design and code, which is where the difference lies. They designed and built a "chassis" that means that the app is bought as an off-the-peg product but that can be easily customised to reflect brand and style, giving it the feel of a bespoke product but at the fraction of the cost.

Having your own app makes the work accessible offline. It's portable, update-able, and presents the work beautifully. I now have another platform to share and promote my work that is new and feels to me on the way up.

It has also made me think differently about how I present my images. If I want to show a portrait or landscape print portfolio, I can now take my iPad app as well to show alongside it, which adds a great deal to the presentation. I see it as supplementing my existing portfolios rather than replacing them at the moment, though I'm sure the bias will shift over time as things develop. I see portfolio apps becoming commonplace, maybe overtaking websites, while the print portfolio becomes even more rare.

Given the increasing technical quality of consumer cameras and the rise of citizen journalism, how can professional photographers continue to differentiate themselves when everyone (theoretically!) is a photographer?

MS: A lot of the mystique of photography has gone, and this is quite a difficult thing to deal with as a photographer. In this world of YouTube, Flickr and Facebook, it is becoming almost abnormal to want any level of privacy. Before the web, up and coming photographers would rarely get to see their peers' portfolios as they were locked away in agents' offices. Some photographers were even rumored to charge a fee to art buyers wanting to view them!

Now everyone can see your portfolio instantly online and those that want to emulate your style can do so fairly easily, to a degree. The 'magic sauce' recipe can still be kept secret, but it's increasingly easy for anyone to create a pastiche using digital technology, although there's more to it than just technique.

Preserving the craft now has to come from innovation, the development of ideas and most of all by nurturing a unique way of seeing. It comes from within - some of the best photographs ever taken were captured in an instant without even a thought. That's what sets the great photographers apart from the rest of the world of camera users.

As professional photographers, the way we see and shoot images, and the way we present our ideas will always help create the difference. We have to stay one step ahead. In order to preserve the craft we love and have strived to perfect, we have to take on the biggest challenges. It's not easy - and those who think it is just aren't doing it right.

CB: There is undoubtedly a growing demand for the 'on-the-ground' realism of citizen journalism, which is very of-the-moment. However, you cannot depend on getting the shot you need from this - the best ones are taken by chance, that's the whole point of them. That is why there will always be a need for professional photographers, but they have to work hard to demonstrate their worth. What's more, being a photographer is not just about knowing how to use the equipment and the software; it is about understanding the visual world and having a unique view of it, that translates into your own distinct style. And it is this that will always differentiate professional photographers from amateurs.

When it comes to advertising campaigns, which is our area of expertise, the most important skill of the photographer is having the ability to understand and interpret people's ideas and make them a reality. This is not an easy thing to do and is not something that just anyone can successfully achieve.

Understanding what's possible and what isn't for the budget and time allocated, is also crucial and can be where inexperienced people come very unstuck. Quite often these days people want the world for a song, so it is about managing expectations effectively.

How are advertising agencies (as clients of photographers) responding to the changing nature of their clients? Do they want more/better/more quickly? Is professional photography becoming commoditised?

CB: Everyone wants more for less – whether you're a mum in the supermarket or a marketing director managing a big new ad campaign. It's the way things are these days. And, in all cases, it is about selling value. By that I don't mean 'cheap'. It's not just about value for money; it is about conveying the value of skill and experience on a complicated production, the value of a talented photographer to quickly and easily interpret the ideas, the value of a great image.

It's about being creative with production, working with your suppliers and coming up with a creative solution to a complicated puzzle - not just thinking "Oh well, they haven't got enough money" but more "How can we achieve this?". Don't get me wrong - we do sometimes get to a stage where we feel the client has pushed things too far and we can't agree to their demands - but we will always try very hard to work it out.

MS: I think photography was commoditised many moons ago. Creative Directors were once all-powerful. They called the shots, and the client listened. Those days are gone and unfortunately today, money talks. Now their clients have donned the crown and have put the squeeze on the agencies to perform. They want more research, more proof, more statistics and they want to see more sales. Agencies always wanted more, better, more quickly, but now they want it cheaper as well. I guess this is why image libraries became such a big thing and royalty-free became a dirty word in our industry. It's obviously much cheaper to buy library images and Photoshop them in-house than to pay a photographer his worth to produce quality work. But the adage of "You get what you pay for" still stands - a great image can have a profound effect on people, and isn't that what advertising is all about? If you take that away, what are you left with?

How should photographers differentiate themselves in a world full of content?

MS: Following your instinct is a big part of being a photographer. You get a sense for what is right. I think it's about staying true and learning what to discard, as much as what to retain when it comes to information. Taking on too much information will only slow you down. It's all sounding a bit Zen but it gets me through!

CB: Photographers have to work harder to get noticed. They need more skills and strings to their bow if they're going to stand out from a crowd. While they need to be adaptable for different clients, they need to have a recognisable style that is immediately identifiable as theirs.

They also need to create a clear brand for themselves. A distinctive style and approach to photography, but also their own visual identity. All presentations of their work should be consistent and should reflect their approach. They need to experiment as well with new technology, new media, new collaborations – to constantly push themselves, if they are to stay ahead of the game.

Gone are the days when it was just about the photographer being an artist. They also need to be a business person too; able to be eloquent and confident in a meeting, and have excellent time management and multi tasking skills.

How are tools such as Flickr and Facebook, as well as the offering of content in new models such as Creative Commons, offering new opportunities for photographers and their agents in terms of their own work and to build reach / awareness?

CB: These days, there are so many different platforms and websites where a photographer can showcase work and everyone has different favourites. To reach the widest possible audience, it's essential to research the sites that are at the top of the list for relevant clients and get work on them.

The sites have to be approached in the right way and have to be treated professionally. They should be seen as an extension of the photographer's website and portfolio. It is essential that they keep on top of what they have where and update regularly with new work.

This is not something that should be done lightly or half-heartedly. If they don't put in the effort, people will notice and it will negate all the hard work they have put in elsewhere.

Cathy Bennett is the founder of photography agency Vue; Morgan Silk is a commercial photographer represented by Vue.