All is Light is well known for how harmonious it feels to work with us, and our special sauce in commercial photography and corporate videos is the key. 

We often get feedback from customers and clients saying how easy the photoshoot was, or our favourite: “That wasn’t so bad, I actually enjoyed it”. (There is a lot of anxiousness for most people leading up to being on camera. Check out our blog Preparing yourself for a photoshoot.)

Harmony is something we think is very important, and it’s based on a foundational principle very dear to our hearts and crucial to the way that All is Light operates.

And that principle (and the special sauce) is this…

 

EVERYBODY IS EQUAL

When filming commercial photos, corporate videos, and on any other set, there is no person that is greater or lesser than anybody else involved in that project. Everyone has a part to play even if you’re actual involvement is minimal.

 

A key distinction to note is that although we are in essence all equal, the roles, responsibilities and skillsets do in fact differ. My role as a commercial photographer is different from that of a make-up artist, but it does not in any way make me greater or lesser than that person.

We live in a world where everybody looks different, and on the surface of things, it certainly appears this way. But if you look just under the surface and go a bit deeper, you’ll find that we are in fact all equal. Under our skin, we have the same organs, the same veins, the same blood and the same heart. Everything’s the same despite our outward appearances.

You can take this a step further by looking even deeper again. Religion, if that’s your persuasion, says we’re all made in the image of God. Science, if that’s more of your preference, tells us that we’re made of subatomic particles, created in distant stars billions of years ago. The fact that we look slightly different on the outside, or that we have different roles to play in life, masks the truth that deep down, at our core we are all equal.

So why does having Equality as a principle create harmony on a photo shoot? 

By holding people lesser than or greater than yourself, you are effectively bringing judgement to them. The principle of equality leaves no space for judgement.

By holding yourself to be greater than someone, you may start to consider yourself to be better than that person. Once we start judging in this way, it is a very slippery slope indeed and can allow all sorts of ill-treatment to creep in; the way we speak to people, how we treat them, how kind we are to them. A range of ill behaviours can ensue when we think we are better than someone else.

Similarly, if you hold yourself lesser than somebody you may start to feel you are worse than them. This can also lead to a range of behaviours where you diminish and treat yourself poorly in comparison to others.

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So how does this play out in practice on a photo set?

Photographers and filmmakers may misinterpret their important role and skills to be an indication of their superiority, leading to ego and pride. They might result in them seeing themselves as the all-important person on set, and therefore treat assistants, producers, make-up artists or even clients very poorly, i.e. anyone they feel is lesser than or below them.

Conversely, you may need to photograph a politician, a CEO, an actor or somebody that’s well known and famous. If you don’t see yourself as their equal, if you see them as better than you, this will not only lead to poor decisions on set, but you also rob them of being treated like a normal person. They’re probably in need of this more than most.

 

At All is Light we see the truth like this: everybody on set is equally important. Roles will differ, but by seeing everyone as equal we hold everybody in a quality that values them.

It’s this valuing of everyone that is the key to harmony and cohesion on set. This is what our clients can feel when they work with us and how we foster harmony when we work. We are all equally valuable and we all have roles to play to achieve the final result.

Now just imagine if we all applied this principle everywhere in our lives. What an amazing place the world would be.

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