The photographer Veikko Somerpuro works as an entrepreneur. He receives his assignments by email or telephone. Sometimes the client has very specific instructions on when and how the shoot will take place, and at other times Somerpuro has to take care of everything himself, including the visual idea for the photograph.

– After the shoot I go to my office and transfer the photographs from the camera to the Lightroom photo processing application. I go through the photos a couple times and save the best ones. At least 90 percent of the photos I take are headed for the recycle bin. Going through the photos and processing them usually takes more time than actually taking them.

Somerpuro says that he only adds slight finishing touches to the photos: colour contrasts and sharpness are the most important. The client gets the photos through Dropbox and the job ends with Somerpuro sending a bill for his work.

– With the advent of the digital age, you can take an enormous number of photographs, but that always means it is going to take more work to process them. When taking photographs, I try to take the conditions into account so they turn out well right from the start.

The people being photographed almost always ask Somerpuro to edit or “photoshop” the pictures to make them look better.

– I have a standard reply to these requests: the circumstances determine how a person will look in a photograph—the background, lighting and the colours are the most vital aspects. No photo processing software can save a technically poor photograph.

If Somerpuro ends up processing photos, it is because of his own mistakes with the lighting.

– If the light source is from above, the bags under the person’s eyes are usually highlighted. You can of course diminish that effect with processing software. The wrong kind of lighting is my mistake, not the bags under someone’s eyes.

Somerpuro is constantly improving himself by looking through foreign publications he knows contain excellent professional photography.

– I try to leaf through the bad pictures as quickly as possible. They tend to have a negative effect on me. I look for great photographs and use them for inspiration for my own shoots. National Geographic in particular has excellent photographs.

In his day, Somerpuro has taught plenty of photography at the student photography association Ylioppilaskamerat and at adult education institutes. Nowadays there is no time for teaching, and in any case Somerpuro would rather take photographs than teach. If someone is interested in photography, Somerpuro suggests they sign up for a photography course or try to see if they know someone who is familiar with the field and can teach them the basics.

– There are plenty of different kinds of courses on photography these days. I learned photography myself by reading related literature. Now you can find information online to your heart’s content.

A significant part of the creative process of photography is mastering camera techniques. That is also a true measure of a photographer’s professionalism.

– You have to know what you can do with your camera and what kind of effects depth of field and different lenses have on the photo. It is the same thing when a painter knows how different colours will mix or what kind of trace a brush will leave.

Somerpuro is satisfied with his current professional situation, although the heyday of photojournalism seems to have passed.

– Perhaps the prevailing economic situation has cut down the number of gigs somewhat, but it is nothing radical. Nor has the mobile phone culture done away with the demand for professional photographers and quality photos. If someone wants to have competitive content for their website or magazine, then good writing has to be supplemented with professional photography.”