Sometimes the pragmatic choice is to pack a load of equipment in the car and take a studio to the client; well we hadn’t planned anything else for the bank holiday.
It’s been a while since I photographed items for Chilcotts of Honiton so it was great to visit the new premises and see my shots on the walls.
Fantastic too to be tasked with photographing the ceramics of Lawson Rudge, part of an up-coming special auction, and on this occasion it made sense to shoot at the client’s site. And as we walked through the door I spotted a large robust table that was to be the day’s base.
As well as lighting, stands and diffusion I’d taken tome large acrylic sheets as well as acres of white and black cloth. Originally I’d planned a white background look but after a couple of test shots the items didn’t ‘pop’ so the black acrylic was overlaid. Shooting tethered the client was able to see the shots as they emerged and I think it’s fair to say Liz was really excited to see the items as they appeared on screen.
The images of the pieces were primarily for upcoming magazine pieces about this auction so they needed some ‘wow’ but they were also intended to be used as part of the sale communication, so it was important that the items themselves weren’t retouched or altered. As such the retouching such as it was involved the base acrylic rather than the ceramics.
The lighting was very simple, I’d taken some of my large Translum scrims and the powerful Bowens strobes with small grid reflectors made for small pools of soft lighting.