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.
Combining the proven healing benefits of responsibly-sourced pure Nile Crocodile Oil with other high-performing ingredients, Repcilllin’s versatile product range offers skincare solutions to various deramtological issues and conditions, restoring the skin’s elasticity, and counteracting the effect of wrinkles and laughter-lines. Eschewing the synthetic, petroleum-based approach of many large cosmetic houses, they’re very proud of their natural products and tasked Photography Firm with […]
St. George’s are a collective of some 15 green-fingered condiment lovers spread across our local Sussex countryside and neighbouring Kent. Between them, they produce and distribute fine artisan food products, ranging from chutneys and jams to salad dressings and dessert sauces. They recently asked us to capture the love and attention they bring to each of […]
Progenomics are a Japanese-based firm who’ve developed a unique nano-technology fabric which both blocks and absorbs body perspiration. We’re no strangers to photographing boundary-pushing scientific marvels (ahem, Jurassic Towel Origami anyone?…) so when they asked us to shoot some of their products, we said “No sweat”…. we didn’t, because you never think of these things […]
We were recently approached by Pharamacare and tasked with providing packshot photography on a quick turnaround time. Founded 25 years ago in Sydney’s Northern beaches, Pharmacare has steaadily grown, now providing a huge range of health and fitness products to customers in more than 40 countries. Their core focus is in “improving lives” and their […]
We’ve worked with British designer Joseph Kigonya on several occassions, photographing his beautiful, premium quality men’s shoes. Providing some pointers and reference, he’s nevertheless allowed us a little creativity, entrusting us to showcase his products in a suitably eye-catching light. We love being able to test different backdrops and surfaces with product photography, and usually have […]
Joseph Kigonya designs and sells beautifully crafted men’s shoes and we’ve been lucky enough to shoot his collections with a relatively open brief, allowing us to flex a little creative muscle in the studio. Test shots and client feedback give us our framework, but it’s great to have the opportunity to try a few different things and […]
Whilst light-meters, digital cameras and face-saving image-editing software may have allowed us to get lazier with our exposures, at Photography Firm we think any professional photographer or amateur enthusiast should really understand the relationship between aperture and shutter speed to get the most out of their shots. The fundamental cornerstones to all creative photography are […]
A sometimes overlooked but vital part of you workflow should be sharpening your images – unless you’re an absolute photo ninja with the best glass around and a flawless focusing system, it’s likely your shots could benefit from a small amount of tightening up. Extra detail may be revealed to the viewer’s eye and a little […]
Every month we offer a couple of new businesses or young enterprises a start-up discount on our services to help them get under way. We know from experience how expensive it can be creating a fitting showcase for your business (this snazzy website didn’t come cheap), but as photographers, we obviously want to advocate the advantages of doing […]
Internship at Photography Firm Introduction When I started at Photography Firm, my aim was to learn as much as possible in my six week internship. I wanted to get more experience in working in a studio environment and the process of editing and working with clients, which is exactly what I did! I started off enhancing […]
With the relative saturation of imagery online, some clients want to stand out by encouraging their customers to engage in a more immersive relationship with their products. 360 views allow companies to better showcase their wares and online customers to quite literally take their products for a spin before (hopefully) heading for the checkout. We’ve been […]
In our studio we have the luxury of all the softboxes, umbrellas, snoots and light modifiers you could shake a stick at (NO shaking sticks around our equipment please!), but on location you don’t always have these tools of the trade, either by choice or design. However, learn to use your speedlite effectively and you’ll find […]
When producing professional, commercial work, one of the most useful weapons in a Photographer’s arsenal is the Liquify tool in Photoshop. Like many powerful tools, it can be wielded for good or subverted for great evil, and whether or not the general image-consuming public are aware, a large proportion of the images we aspire to have been “liquified”. Liquify […]
In this post we’ll show you a quick and easy method of getting your whites WHITE, without the need for Shane Richie to turn up on your doorstep with a box of Daz… in 1995. This trick predominantly comes in handy for product photography, but its applications are widespread. Adjusting your backdrops to be pure white may facilitate […]
Founded by Yasmin Sewell, Jemma Dyas and Kyle Robinson, regular client Être Cécile make high-end, chic, eye catching female fashion items. It’s Photography Firm’s job to shoot their latest designs. They favour the invisible mannequin approach and are very particular about the styling of their garments so we’ve worked alongside them to develop a shooting and editing […]
Arts and crafts have been on a meteoric rise in recent years, with online marketplaces such as Etsy and notonthehighstreet.com reporting exponential growth as more and more individuals and businesses get creative. Seen as a more personal counterpoint to the mass-produced, standardized wares we interact with on a daily basis, handmade items offer us a stab […]
Not far from our Sussex photography studios is a great little company called Chisel & Mouse. Brothers Robert and Gavin Paisley are architecture nuts and produce visually arresting, detailed plaster sculptures of iconic buildings and even whole cityscapes, combining traditional sculpting, moulding and casting with CAD and 3D printing. They’ve produced a huge array of recognisable artworks and bespoke pieces for private collectors, businesses […]
Thankfully, it’s not all 3D glasses, cybersex and hashtags galore these days – there’s been a remarkable resurgence over the last few years in traditional arts and crafts, textiles and needlework. In an increasingly disposable, virtually-skewed world, there’s obviously something satisfyingly therapeutic about sitting down and creating tangible and lasting objects, and we’ve been inundated with work of […]
We recently shot a large number of shoes for a client on a tight schedule. Whenever you’re shooting a big batch of items, it’s important to find a good all-around lighting solution, not just to present consistency across your edit, but to save yourself time and headaches in the studio. Our client wanted white backdrops and small, […]
Despite Amazon’s best efforts to copyright such a universal concept, the majority of the time, product photography involves shooting onto white backgrounds. Clients generally want their products to be presented cleanly, crisply and free of any potentially distracting elements. Frequently they’ll require cut-outs so their photographed wares can easily be combined or inserted into other images. Symmetry also tends to […]
We shoot a lot of invisible mannequin work here at Photography Firm and we’ve learned it’s best to cover your butt in the studio to save you and your client time and stress down the line. By “cover your butt” we mean ensure you get all the shots you might later need, although we also subscribe […]
Product photography is about presenting your subject in a flattering, commercially viable, occasionally hyper-real light. Garments need to be the right shape, products need to stand up or float in mid-air without the aid of a grubby set of digits clasping them. Whether you’re shooting 200 dresses on an invisible mannequin or one hero shot […]
Product and packshot photography is a necessity for anyone wishing to market their goods, whether online, in printed material or for advertising. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to capturing product images, but here we’ll give you ten tips that will help you on your way to better product photography, no matter your […]
Flat lay has been all the rage on social media for some time now. You only need to search #flatlay on pinterest or instagram to yield tens of thousands of images. So, just what is a flat lay photography and why is it so popular? In simple terms it describes any photograph taken from above with objects […]
Like any profession, photography can ocassionally be a little stressful, but we love what we do, so if you hear about us checking for greys, it’s more likely to do with white balance than the hairs on our heads. Where fine art photography might allow various interpretations of a scene or aesthetic freedom on the […]
There’s no denying we’re mavericks at Photography Firm – Sometimes we pour the milk in while the teabag’s still in, sometimes we don’t even use a teabag! To balance all that anarchy, occasionally we crave a little order in our photography and that’s where the rule of thirds rides in on its big, shiny tricycle to save the […]
Have you ever sat at your computer for days editing or resizing hundreds of photographs manually? If you’re looking for a way to save time and energy while achieving the same result, then look no further than the actions panel in Photoshop, which will help you keep your free time and your sanity. For any repetitive […]
Another one of those tools of the trade you don’t know how you ever got by without are layer masks. Different photographers have different approaches and photoshop usually lets you take several roads to the same destination, but layer masks are unquestionably one of the best options for maipulating images. Their logic is fundamental and straightforward, but […]
We’ve all been there. It’s 2am, it’s been a long day and you’re nearly done. You edit a final photo for contrast, colour balance and saturation and save it…. The next morning you re-open it and realise you’d obviously drunk a bit too much coffee last night. Your subject definitely wasn’t glowing orangey-green when you shot […]
Whilst this post might not blow the skirts up any seasoned photographers, you’ll probably know that working with a variety of people, not everyone understands the fundamental differences between the various file formats. By having a clear understanding of them, you can best advise your clients and save yourself time and work. A client may automatically ask […]
Much as we enjoy working with models – the professionals can make even the most garish garment seem strangely appealing – a lot of our commissions involve shooting high quantities of clothing items on mannequins for simple, cut-out catalogue shots. Mannequins are generally well behaved, staying where you put them and rarely throwing tantrums at […]
Modern digital cameras offer a range of AF points scattered across the frame and intuitive Auto-focus functionality, but most photographers prefer not to leave to chance where the tight focus of the shot appears. This is especially relevant shooting portraiture or in low light, where wide apertures mean shallow depth of field and a decreased […]
No, a Histogram’s not some berk who rings your doorbell then recounts the rise and fall of Rome to you in song, but a feature on your digital camera or image-editing software, useful in attaining correct exposures. The dictionary definition of a histogram is more than a little confusing, but essentially, it’s a graphical representation of the pixels exposed in […]
Day Two: Place Farmhouse, Firle Conditions are virtually the same as the day before when we meet at the stunning Place Farmhouse for day two of the shoot – it may just be a degree or two cooler. We have less exterior shots today, but after a quick scout of the house we realise that […]
Day One: Firle Place, Firle It’s a cold, grey, dark February morning when we meet at the gates of Firle Place in Sussex to start a two day catalogue shoot for gentleman’s outfitters Peter Christian. One look at the sky tells us it’s set in for the day. We’re shooting for spring – bright […]
Photographing artwork for reproduction is an important part of our business. Whether it is for use on websites, catalogues or other printed material, getting an accurate representation of the work is vitally important. Here at Photography Firm we have spent many years perfecting our technique and in this time have photographed many hundreds of paintings, […]
The mere mention of photographing glass tends to bring a groan or two to anyone who’s ever tried. It’s up there with photographing shiny chrome taps or lighting, at least in terms of technical challenges. Not only is it transparent – it’s reflective and not, of course, in any direction that is useful. It lacks any […]
When selling your handmade crafts and creations on websites like Etsy and Not-on-the-Highstreet, high quality photographs will make you stand head and shoulders above the rest. Since customers can’t see or touch your items in person, your photos need to illustrate their beauty and quality in order to make sales. Great photography will also increase […]
When you are commissioning a photographer for your project, you may not immediately think of writing a brief. Although for larger projects it’s now a pretty common practice, working on a smaller shoot you may be tempted to question why you’ll need this. It might not always seem necessary, especially if you are working on a small […]
A great portrait is more difficult to create than you might first think and involves more than being technically experienced or having expensive equipment – It takes a few key factors to bring together a captivating image, and if one or more of these isn’t quite right, the end result can be pretty uninspiring. The […]
