We are often asked for advice or further information on some of the topics that we post about, whether it’s marketing, web design or lighting techniques. We will always do our best to help – all we ask is that you ask us your questions either here, or on one of our specific blog posts, that way any of our readers can benefit from the answers we give. Equally if you have any suggestions about posts you’d like us to work on, please do let us know.
We reckon we’re pretty cool at Photography Firm (do cool people still use the term “cool”?….). We’ve shot for some pretty on-point clients like Virgin, Microsoft and Interrail. We’ve blagged ourselves and our cameras backstage at sold out gigs and hung out in green rooms with the likes of Russell Howard and The Prodigy. We’ve […]
Specialising as we do in product photography, at Photography Firm we sometimes get the chance to get a little bit… “meta”. We’re not talking selfies here (do you know how thick the selfie stick would have to be that could hold our camera/lens combos??!), but turning our viewfinders towards our close neighbours on Creativity Street: […]
As well as working our way through a constantly replenished slate of commissioned shoots, at Photography Firm we like to stay super-busy, so if we find ourselves with a little free time (there’s never much), we put ourselves back to work self-commissioning shoots intended for stock libraries (anything to avoid going to the gym!! – ahhhh, […]
Based not far from the Photography Firm studios in East Sussex, Hartley Quinn Wilson are a one stop shop for absolutely breathtaking home and business interiors. Experts in not just interior design and construction, but restoration and renovation of traditional buildings and living spaces, their eye for detail and quality craftsmanship saw them win at the 2015 Sussex Heritage […]
World Kitchen recently booked us to capture their glorious, non-stick cookware creations for Amazon and our last blog post gave a little insight into the lifestyle photography portion of the job. However, it just wouldn’t be “Amazon” without a whole lot of white, so today we’ll elaborate a little on the keys to cutout success. We’ve shown […]
We were recently commissioned by World Kitchen to capture their gorgeously crafted kitchenware in both lifestyle photography and white background cutout fashion. We’ll shine a light on the latter style in our next post, but today we’ll give a little insight into our lifestyle shoot and edit. If you read our blog, you’ll already know we’re […]
Beauty truly comes in all shapes and sizes. Our last post detailed our efforts shooting Corbeau’s big, bold racing-car seats, whilst today’s tiny, yet perfectly formed subject is one more likely to get lost down the back of the sofa. The Cufflink Store approached us to shoot their huuuuuuuge range of products and we recently set to task […]
We’ve got a decent amount of space at the Photography Firm studios but one of our more recent shoots truly tested our capacity for organisational storage. High-end racing seat manufacturer Corbeau commissioned us to shoot a large number of their eye-catching and innovative products, so we put pedal to the metal (well, lens to camera) and […]
Founded a decade ago by entrepreneurial award-winners Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish, notonthehighstreet.com has become the UK’s number one curated marketplace, hosting thousands of creative small businesses across a platform celebrating quirkiness, originality, and craft-design quality. We’ve written numerous blogs in the past with tips on how to make your photography appealing for NOTHS – notably here – so photography isn’t […]
Ok, so New Year’s Day swung around once again and with that hangover came the resolution to try harder to remain on the straight and narrow (if you make it to February, you’re doing ok…) Well Adobe have added a very handy feature to Lightroom to help you go straight….. at least as far as your […]
We were recently tasked with shooting some 360 degree spin product photography. It takes time and care, but the results speak for themselves if you get the science right. On this occasion there would be a little more science than usual. These weren’t our typical 360 spins of shoes, handbags or plastic models, but tiny, […]
We’re always busy at Photography Firm. On any given day, if we’re not shooting for a client, our poor cameras don’t get a lie-in unfortunately as we run them ragged on personal projects and shooting for stock. Check out any of our product photography blogs and you’ll probably see us banging on about how much we love […]
In an increasingly virtual world where Facebook LIKES and group invites might have replaced a good deal of one-on-one sentiment, it seems we’re still drawn to the gloriously tactile, especially personal experience afforded us by gorgeous stationery. Whether it’s scribbling our thoughts in a favourite bound diary or receiving an invitation on beautifully gilded card, there’s something inherently […]
Last week, we gave some tips on successful food and drink photography for NOTHS (Notonthehighstreet.com), an e commerce site which has absolutely thrived through its mission to bring creative, beautifully-designed, original and high-quality products to your doorstep at the click of a button. Unlike the signature white background approach favoured by online behemoth Amazon, NOTHS encourage […]
At Photography Firm we’re proud to say we’ve been at the snapping game for the best part of 30 years now. We remember back when cameras were as big as houses and you needed horses to operate them and they only shot in sepia, and, and… well maybe not, but we’ve been doing it a […]
As we plough forwards in an increasingly virtual and ever more saturated visual world, we’ve seen a real progression in the quality of online images in a few short years. Technological leaps in not just professional equipment, but consumer products such as camera-phones have forced members of the photographic industry to raise their game to stay competitive. […]
This is an area we’ve touched on before, but it’s continuously relevant since the conventions of the ever-more-popular e-commerce realm practically demand that if you can sell it, first you have to pose it, shoot it and cut it out. Whilst social media platforms such as Instagram are awash with flat lay and styled product photography […]
Having been asked to contribute to an article on Food Photography, our own Andrew Perris recently reflected on the field, so we thought we’d share his thoughts over two posts. If Tuesday’s blog was the starter, here’s the main course. Or if you prefer a dessert to a starter, Tuesday’s was the main and this […]
Photography Firm recently had its ego stroked when a well known Gastro mag asked for our lead photographer Andrew Perris’ input on an upcoming article about food photography. As a field we’ve become more and more enthusiastic about in recent years, it was nice to have our efforts recognised (…or maybe nobody else answered the phone!) Having already baked a […]
…and the jars and stuff…. err, ok, sorry about that. (Classic film though! AND there was a bee scene in it so, you know, relevant…) Anyway, we realised we had a pretty sweet deal on our hands when Real Health asked us to shoot their 100% Pure Australian Manuka Honey for advertising in Boots’ glossy Health & […]
When you specialise in product photography, you expect your subjects to come in all shapes and sizes and you take the rough with the smooth when it comes to prepping your shoot. A diamond ring might take the merest buff from a clean cloth to look its best, whilst a truckload of fashionable clobber means we’re […]
This blog relates to a simple trick which many shooters arrive at through experience (or other people’s blogs!!) but if you’ve not discovered it, chances are you’re leaving some of your photographic results to, well, chance…. or at least to the whims of your camera’s auto-focus system. Whilst this may not be particularly relevant for those hardcore, […]
In product photography terms, some jewellery photography inhabits the same rarefied space it does on the shelves of the types of shops you have to be buzzed into. When your subject costs more per square inch than the car you drove to the studio in, you need to bring your A-game and produce flawless results. Last week, we […]
We love shooting product photography and we particularly enjoy the challenges of jewellery. Packing more bling per square inch than almost any other photographic subject, professional jewellery photography requires a near-flawless result and that’s what we aim to provide each of our clients. Using a combination of studio technique, post-production magic and 30-odd years of experience, we […]
We were recently commissioned to shoot various beautiful items of jewellery for a client, including some flagship designs, so we thought this would be a good opportunity to share with you how we strive for flawless results when called upon to really deliver….. needless to say the majority of product photography is not point-and-shoot ready (particularly when dealing […]
With the proliferation of products we shoot on white backgrounds for e-commerce sites such as Amazon and Notonthehighstreet, we love it when we get to exercise a little more creativity and flex our composition muscles. More and more clients are realising that style product photography can get you noticed in what can be a pretty […]
It’s pretty established in Product Photography that a clean white background puts the sole focus of an image on the item itself and, with some popular e-commerce sites such as Amazon actually requiring sellers present their goods in this fashion, we thought we’d share a quick and easy method for getting great results when shooting […]
Yaaaaay, another “Top 10 this or that….” blog post!! Ok, so the internet might be littered with them (Don’t get us started on our Top Ten “Top Ten” blog posts….), but that doesn’t mean they’re not occasionally useful and, since Product Photography would definitely be our specialist subject were there to be a nerdy photography version […]
A true success story of the e-commerce scene, notonthehighstreet.com was founded in 2006 from a kitchen table by award-winning entrepreneurs Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish, and now employs hundreds to run an online marketplace for thousands of small creative businesses. It’s a hotbed of originality, quirkiness, craft and design and the UK’s number one curated marketplace. They carefully […]
Whilst some e-commerce sites place restrictions on the backgrounds of product photos – those guys at Amazon sure do love a nice white cutout !! – potential customers are more likely to be engaged in your business if they respond positively to the images, so sometimes it’s necessary to work a little harder at making […]
Amazon and similar e-commerce sites are fantastic resources for both vendors and consumers and their meteoric rise in popularity over the last decade or so is testament to their efficacy in providing what the masses are after. With the shift away from the high street for that shopping buzz (or mere convenience), it’s become […]
Nowadays we tend to carry a light meter on every assignment. It provides an accurate measure of a scene’s exposure and even impresses the odd client who’s never seen one! (“What dark sorcery is this?”) Digital cameras now have their own in-built light meters (although not generally as accurate or nuanced as a dedicated hand-held version) […]
Health and fitness product giants Pharamacare recently asked us to shoot a range of products in their extensive portfolio. Bioglan have been a serious provider of quality vitamins, minerals and supplements for over 25 years and has established a strong reputation for unique formulations and first to market innovations. We’ve been in the photography racket for about the […]
We’ve been commissioned by our studio’s neighbouring business, Hartley Quinn Wilson on several occassions. They’ve asked us to shoot some of their stunningly crafted kitchens, bathrooms and bespoke joinery and we’ve been more than happy to oblige, spending several hours shooting in some beautiful homes in the local area and usually being provided with tea and biscuits by the […]
At Photography Firm we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to make a living doing the thing we love, but like any job, some bits are more fun than others. Some days it’s great to work on location with models, make-up artists or art directors and share that creative energy and other days (possibly after shooting a […]
We’d like to wish all of our friends, family, clients and readers a very merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. If next year’s half as productive as 2015, we’ll be happy! In the last 12 months our photographers have worked on all kinds of projects, from product to fashion, editorial, portrait and everything in between. […]
When Aspects Beauty commisioned us to shoot their high-end hamper collections, we jumped at the chance. Collaborating as they do with brands such as Versace, Moschino, Salvatore Ferragano and D’orsay, we knew we had a challenge on our hands doing justice to some of the beautiful bottles and packaging they sent through. Opting for eye-catching, geometric arrangements which inferred the […]
You think the shops are busy around Christmas? The online marketplace is far more crowded year-round! Nevertheless, the advantages of buying and selling via the internet are numerous. Consumers and producers alike have had a few years now to get to grips with the medium and alongside all the pre-requisite tat, the web is awash with […]
We receive a number of enquiries about shooting translucent and transparent materials at Photography Firm and new clients often express dissatisfaction at the way their items have been represented in the past. With the explosion of the online marketplace for fashion, it’s imperative customers can clearly see what they’re ordering before it arrives on the doorstep, […]
There are three levels of detail that you can go into when shooting jewellery. The first and quickest is a basic ‘one shot’ approach. You light the item to best represent an overall detail – one that shows the metals, stones and shine. As items are small, you will have a shallow depth of field, […]
