AN ERA OF ENRICHED VISUALS

The vivid world of printed photographs can be transformatively made more enchanting with the creative use of augmented reality — allowing photographers an opportunity to make their products more engaging and enjoyable

- SAIKAT MAITY

It is obvious that the AR/VR market is increasingly and quickly becoming a mass market, attracting interest from consumers and professionals from many areas — from industry to architecture, and from marketing to publishing. By 2020, the AR/VR market is expected to reach almost USD 19 billion in sales, including hardware and software. The opportunity that augmented reality presents to content producers is to give viewers a fun way of exploring traditional media, by making it live rather than just still.

This is particularly true for photographers, who employ several technological and digital tools but ultimately produce static content in the form of printed or digital images. We examined a number of use cases connected to their job in an effort to figure out what they could do to provide more dynamic and engaging products, assisting them in understanding how they may surprise their customers and set themselves apart from the competition.

As photographers and videographers produce a lot of information, it is easy for them to develop augmented reality products and services based on the material they currently have. To compile all the images from a particular event, such as a trip, wedding, birthday, or other memorable occasion, photographers produce photo albums. Their photo albums are printed items with a conventional method of use — individuals flip through them to view the images.