Diy photoshoot by Alex and Tom
After many false dawns I finally invested in a set of light boxes and a half decent camera and got to work on our own DIY photoshoot. A few years ago we bought a lighting kit but after a few attempts that ended in abject failure they went up to the attic and were never seen again!
After tormenting Paddy Barker of Barker photographic Studios I settled on a three way lighting set up and a white paper roll background. The initial stage of setting up the light boxes mechanically was the most difficult. After that came the arduous task of managing the output from the lights themselves.
After a full day of experimentation we found a way of lighting the mannequins efffectively. We tested the shots on our website and we were delighted with the results. Shooting products that are of a high enough standard to go the web is no easy task.Until recently we have been using suppliers images which tend to be shot from one angle only.Our customers had been asking for shots from behind and sideways to get a better view when they were browsing from the comfort of their own home.
The biggest challenge on the day was trying to keep the lights off in our home made studio as customers were in and out. Thankfully they understood and we got about 20 different combinations done. Fair play to Alex who was tremenduosly patient and proved to be an excellent cameraman!
One of the big advantages of doing it this way is that we will no longer need to haul significant amounts of suits to a photographic studio. In the long run it should save us lots of time and money hopefully!Also it should allow us to showcase a lot more of our products online.Only thing I am not looking forward to in next week’s shoot is lugging all the light boxes and equipment down from the attic!
