11 Commercial Photographers You Should Know

Before Instagram ads and fancy magazines, commercial photography started in the early 1900s for one basic reason: to help sell products. Companies needed pictures that did more than just show items - they had to convince, attract, and be memorable. As advertising became bigger, so did the need for business photographers who could turn products, places, and people into strong, eye-catching images.

As a photographer and retoucher at FixThePhoto, I frequently study the work of best commercial photographers in the world. I don’t just do this for inspiration - I want to learn how they tell powerful stories in a single image. Their skill isn’t just about perfect lighting or sharp focus.

What makes them different from regular shooters is that they think like marketers and visual storytellers. They understand how to express a brand’s identity, capture the right mood for a campaign, and turn creative ideas into reality, even with tight deadlines and client demands.

Over the years, I’ve noticed certain patterns that make commercial images stand out and sell. These traits go beyond style; they serve a purpose. By recognizing and applying them in my own shoots, I’ve learned how to tailor visuals to match a client’s message, target audience, and platform.

Through experience, I’ve picked up on key elements that make commercial photos effective, not just eye-catching, but truly persuasive. These aren’t just about looks; they have a clear job to do. By spotting and using these tricks in my own work, I became better at shaping images to fit a brand’s goal, appeal to the right customers, and work well wherever they’re displayed.

Lindsay Adler is a fashion photographer who doesn’t just take photos - she builds striking visual worlds. Her images amaze with bold contrasts, sharp precision, and dramatic, almost dreamlike style. What stands out is how she shapes light, colors, and shapes to create photos that look more like bold graphic art than typical portraits. Her work doesn’t just reach your eyes - it strikes your soul.

Her sharp, bold, and fearless style inspires me to take risks, play with shapes and shadows, and approach each photo like a painting. This commercial fashion photographer doesn’t copy trends; she creates entire visual universes. Need creative inspiration? Check Adler’s work for Adobe, Grey, and Canon, or try a posing class to get instant ideas.

While many famous photographers capture fleeting moments, Rob Grimm specializes in mastering light through glass. His work for Jack Daniel’s, Panera Bread, and Bacardi looks like movie scenes - with frozen liquid droplets, perfect reflections, and glossy surfaces that sparkle. His special talent is a deep understanding of how light interacts with glass and condensation, creating stunning images.

What’s amazing isn’t just his technical skill - it’s how he turns ordinary items into high-end images. Besides being a shooter, he’s also a committed teacher: he co-created PRO EDU, a top-tier training site for professional photographers. But what really inspires me is his comeback to commercial work after 2020, because that’s when his photos became even stronger, sharper, and more focused.

What’s amazing is that Benjamin Von Wong never went to school for photography. With an engineering background, he creates photos like an engineer builds things - carefully planned, perfectly made, and thinking big. He works for months on just one idea: gathering teams, finding materials, and setting up huge, dramatic shots that look like they’re from a Hollywood movie.

I’ve been lucky to work with him twice, which makes me respect his work even more. The first time, I translated his Spanish interview with a leather craftsman in Spain. Later, I helped on his Epic Pumpkin Destruction shoot in Montreal - a crazy Halloween project where we filmed exploding pumpkins with a super-fast camera (700 frames per second!).

Jessica Ebelhar creates modern, eye-catching photos that are both fun and elegant - a unique style in lifestyle, drink, and food photography. Her images show simple, bright setups where soft-colored backgrounds, carefully placed objects, and sharp lighting make ordinary items look special. She arranges each shot with perfect care, highlighting textures and colors to grab your attention.

What I love most is how this commercial food photographer mixes movement with frozen moments. Her special stop-motion GIFs, like liquids being poured or fruits falling for Humm Kombucha, add fun and life to what would normally be still photos. This mix gives her work exciting energy, like the scene isn’t completely still, but alive and happening right before your eyes.

Looking through Yaroslav Danylchenko’s photos is like entering another world - one where normal products float, melt, break apart, or seem to ignore gravity completely. What really catches your eye is how he fearlessly combines images: burgers hovering mid-air, bottles bursting into glittering pieces, or ingredients frozen mid-slice as if time stopped.

What I love is how he mixes polished product shots with clever surprises, showing that advertising photos can be smart and creative. His work challenges normal product photography limits and proves that organized chaos actually works. Just look at his McDonald’s and PepsiCo shoots, they’re the perfect reminder that bold ideas help brands stand out.

Megan Bayley photographs interiors and products like someone who knows a space deeply. As a skilled photojournalist who specializes in lifestyle product photography, she creates images that are both refined and inviting. Her photos tell quiet stories through thoughtful details: sunlight pouring through glass, a chair left at an angle, curtains frozen in motion.

Megan grew up in Singapore and now works in California’s Bay Area. She brings an artistic flavour to her commercial photography while still meeting client needs. What I love most is how her photos feel truly lived-in. Whether it’s her love of yoga, the ocean, or plants, her work has a natural, inviting quality. Her images don’t just display spaces - they make you feel welcome in them.

Gabby Ruddick doesn’t just take beauty photos, but reframe them. Shooting for top brands like Dior and Huda Beauty in cities like London, Paris, and New York, her fashion and product images are both perfect for magazines and thought-provoking. She combines dreamy, romantic styles with bright colors and playful pop-culture references, making work that’s both artistic and full of feeling.

What I love most is how she surprises you. Instead of typical beauty shots, this talented commercial food photographer uses unexpected props, creative angles, or strange but cool contrasts between her subjects and backgrounds. Her photos aren’t just pretty, they make you look at them twice. There’s always something clever that makes you rethink what “beautiful” can mean.

Dana Hursey is special because he can shoot anything, like products, travel photos, lifestyle shots, or creative ad campaigns, and make each look like his specialty. Working from Los Angeles for over 20 years, he’s created advertising work for big companies in many fields, including medicine, banking, food, technology, and travel.

The secret to Dana’s success is that he tells clear visual stories full of optimism - whether capturing a doctor in action or a refreshing drink in sunlight. What stands out is how he merges artistic skill with brand goals. His photos aren’t just beautiful, they’re strategic. Each one feels custom-made to solve a marketing need, making him a popular commercial headshot photographer in Los Angeles.

David LaChapelle’s style is bold and vibrant. While most ad photographers try to satisfy clients, LaChapelle shocks and dazzles instead. His photos burst with crazy colors, wild sets, and chaotic energy that scream his name. This isn’t regular photography, it’s pop art at its most intense.

His photos are everywhere Madonna and Elton John album covers, wild advertisements, and big magazines like Vogue and Rolling Stone. Even with so much work, his style is always unique and easy to recognize. What’s amazing is how he uses flashy, over-the-top images to share deeper ideas about celebrity culture, shopping, beauty standards, and who we are.

He works in Bahrain and has over 20 years of experience creating ads for big clients of Gulf region like phone companies, banks, sports programs, and fashion magazines. What makes him special? He can handle any project like important government jobs or creative brand photos, while keeping his work stylish and meaningful to local culture.

What I like most is how he mixes natural, everyday feeling with professional polish. His photos look real, not fake, even though they’re perfectly done. This balance is hard to achieve in advertising work, but it’s why his campaigns connect so well. Alriffai doesn’t just take pictures, he creates photos that feel alive.

Erik Almas didn’t start as a photographer; he found his way into it by chance. But when he did, he created his own unique style: large-scale, movie-like images with a touch of magic. Originally from Norway, he moved to the U.S. on a whim and went on to become one of the most respected advertising photographers in the world.

His photos blend real and dreamlike scenes - vast landscapes, dramatic skies, and perfectly arranged subjects that resemble art. The magic lies in how naturally he merges shooting and editing. The results never feel artificial, as he tells a quiet, beautiful story.