First foray into commercial photography

[o hey tyler]

My Girlfriend approached me about making an image for the redesign of her web production company's website. She was in charge of designing it (as she's the designer/front end programmer), so she had a clear idea of what she wanted in mind.

The company specializes in crafting museum websites. They adhere to all the web standards, all sites are coded to be read with a screen reader (for blind people), and they all work on any mobile device. I believe they still browser test back to IE 6.

I was originally going to set up the photo in a local art gallery/restaurant downtown. I had the arrangements, but the earliest date they would allow me to shoot (for a whole 30 minutes in total, setup included) was Monday. The company wanted the website to go live this weekend, so I worked with what I had in my snowed in home today.

The main objectives with the photograph that I wanted to achieve were to give the feeling that the person is in a gallery/museum environment, but not strongly depict any works of art in the scene. I just wanted to hint at it through use of selective focus.

I used 3 lights in the photograph. An AB800 through an umbrella to light the paintings, and two speelights, one on each side of the room to light the subject. It was tough negotiating glare, as I did not have a CPL for the lens I was using... But I think I did a decent job minimizing it.

I intentionally shot a bit wide, knowing it was going to have a slender crop.

Here's the site that just launched 1/16/12: http://www.pleinairinteractive.com/

Here's the full shot:

Here's where I had one speedlight strategically placed on a pillow.

Here's the photo on the site:

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Unless you meant you got paid for the photo, this is more editorial than commercial.

That said, the photo is technically fine except I would want to see what she is looking at better since that is where the focus is. At the same time, making it clearer may not help the understanding of the photo. As it is, I find it confusing that what she is looking at doesn't seem to have anything to do with where she's at...

Of course, since they are using it, I guess that means they liked it. So anything I say really doesn't matter.

 

[Derrel]

You were able to overcome all challenges,both logistical and technical, that stood in your way, and you made the shot, and got the sale. Sweet!

 

[Helen B]

I think you did an excellent job. Can I make one suggestion? Was the text overlay planned before you took the photo or after? We usually work with sketched-out page designs that show us where inset images, text overlays etc will appear and so we design the image arrangement and composition accordingly. It does look like the overlay was an afterthought because of the nature of the blurred painting behind it. Just a small comment on an excellent job.

Good luck,
Helen

 

[o hey tyler]

Unless you meant you got paid for the photo, this is more editorial than commercial.

That said, the photo is technically fine except I would want to see what she is looking at better since that is where the focus is. At the same time, making it clearer may not help the understanding of the photo. As it is, I find it confusing that what she is looking at doesn't seem to have anything to do with where she's at...

Of course, since they are using it, I guess that means they liked it. So anything I say really doesn't matter.

Thanks, I guess I saw it more as "commercial" than "editorial" as it was being used for a commercial venture. I didn't ask for compensation since it was mostly to help out my girlfriend (and not so much the company). It was hard brainstorming to figure out exactly what I could use for props. I know it doesn't necessarily scream "museum" right when you see it, mostly due to the fact that it's more art gallery-esque. There's always an opportunity for a re-shoot. They just wanted something reasonably cohesive for the site launch, rather than a stock photo of a stream from Anywhere, USA (which is what they had before)

You were able to overcome all challenges,both logistical and technical, that stood in your way, and you made the shot, and got the sale. Sweet!

Thanks Derrel. Working with in the 4 hour time frame, and with the limitations was a challenge. Especially the space limitations which were the hardest to work around. I wanted to have the background light much higher to give the impression of downward lighting on the paintings, similar to what you'd see in a gallery. But there was really no way to do that unfortunately.

I think you did an excellent job. Can I make one suggestion? Was the text overlay planned before you took the photo or after? We usually work with sketched-out page designs that show us where inset images, text overlays etc will appear and so we design the image arrangement and composition accordingly. It does look like the overlay was an afterthought because of the nature of the blurred painting behind it. Just a small comment on an excellent job.

Good luck,
Helen

Thanks Helen. Yes, the text was planned prior to the shoot. I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to tackle it. You're entirely right, I should have storyboarded this out and bounced ideas off of my girlfriend. I told her initially how things were going to probably work out (in my head), and I told her that there will probably be an image on the right hand side of the frame, so she could overlay a white or other color gradient to make the text pop a little bit. Would you have done away with the painting on the right altogether? I had debated that, but I felt like some of the gallery/museum feeling might be lost with the reduction in elements.

Thanks everyone for the input! Definitely some things to store in my noggin for next time!

 

[o hey tyler]

Also, if anyone has any thoughts about the quality of the on screen image of the iPad, I'd be interested in thoughts on that as well. We talked about superimposing the image, but I negotiated an ISO/shutter speed that allowed me to expose for the screen fairly well... Or at least I thought.

 

[Crollo]

I think you should have superimposed it. It looks perfectly acceptable as-is but the glare can be distracting once you actually notice it, and you definitely want to present the cleanest image possible.

Other then the glare it looks fine.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

I think you should have superimposed it.

Agreed. I think that it is never the actual image. Rather they always drop in another photo. Mind you, I've never had to think about it for the kind of work I do but it usually looks too clean

 

[c.cloudwalker]

I know it doesn't necessarily scream "museum" right when you see it, mostly due to the fact that it's more art gallery-esque.

What is the difference between a gallery and a museum? One sells, the other doesn't, kind of thing. No, that's not what I find confusing. Rather, it is that the museum she is in is not the same one that she is looking up on her "device."

 

[Robin Usagani]

Nice dude.

 

[o hey tyler]

I know it doesn't necessarily scream "museum" right when you see it, mostly due to the fact that it's more art gallery-esque.

What is the difference between a gallery and a museum? One sells, the other doesn't, kind of thing. No, that's not what I find confusing. Rather, it is that the museum she is in is not the same one that she is looking up on her "device."

Art galleries generally have art in them, whereas museums have both art and artifacts in display cases. That's the thing that jumps out in my mind. I couldn't really get down to Massachusetts (where the museum in question is located) by the time the site launched, and I am not sure if they'd permit flash photography in an actual museum. But I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask around.

 

[o hey tyler]

Updated OP with link to the newly launched site.