Blog

Images Curtesy of James Meigh and his tilt shift lens...

Thursday saw the arrival of our new Studio flash setup.
We say goodbye to inconstant imagery and hello to crisp images with little to no fluctuation in flash power, BLiSS.

This week we embarked for a second time on a mini campaign shoot involving the Superdry branded Morgan.

For this shoot I was collaborating with our new photographer Ivan Merrell who has joined us from Next. This was initially strange for us shooting together but it ended up being a great way of bouncing ideas about lighting and poses of each other.

Our in house stylist Natalie Dale gave us some on point styling accompanied by beautiful and natural make up by our in house MUA Natasha Buchanan. The models were looking great so we just had to create a light setup to match.

Using a hard key light creating strong shadow and a California sunbounce to fill the shadows we were able to create a high key high contrast image that also allowed us to dial down the car in the background and make the model and the cloths the main focus.

See some rough shots below of our setup and watch this space and Superdry.com for the final images.

Blog post

A while ago I came across the Profoto Globe. This is a flash diffuser that basically resembles a massive frosted 60W light bulb. The image that was created was an Audi S5 power sliding on a frozen lake. An awesome image, and the globe was, among others, the key light. The result of the reflection is a soft but crisp light that allows almost direct lighting of a shiny surface with minimal harsh flare.


Images courtesy of Bernhard Spoettel and Profoto blog


It was fortuitous that we were lent some Hassleblad Broncolor lights, a Scoro generator, some flash heads and light shapers. One being a globe, or Balloon as they call it.
We also took receipt of the Superdry branded Morgan three wheeler and couldn't resist rolling it into the curve and snapping a few shots. The results were great.


©Mark Brown

The Broncolor Balloon

As we were walking through a car park in town this morning we happened on a beautiful old red ford, A Galaxie 500, American style wide as you like motor. I thought that this would make a beautiful addition to my Light Graffiti Cars collection.

Today my colleague Alex and I had a whole day testing our new catwalk.

We spent the day moving sots around and hanging Kino Flo lamps (our daylight balance strip lights). My idea was to angle the spots down the wall giving texture to the brick work, this would have worked beautifully if the spot they had installed had been colour balanced they same as our strip lights. Anyway we have some new bulbs arriving for those which should cure the problem.

Watch this space for the new catwalk on superdry.com

I have added a tear sheets section to the site. Here you can view published work that should be as current as possible.

TEAR SHEETS

Having been away from work on a lovely holiday in a log cabin in a wood, drinking champagne in our own personal hot tub, I have missed a lot of progress.

During this last week our build has really come together. Carpets and a ceiling really make it feel like a a working space. Brick walls have gone up alongside the curve, surrounding the catwalk and in the creative room along with a wall of oak. Desks will be dotted around the space with different work stations, makeup area, video, styling rails shoot Macs for the curve and light table sections.

Today was the first time out whole existing team have visited the space and although some of us were apprehensive as to the workings of the space I think it will all come together.

I'm looking forward to working in a creative environment with space, texture and new equipment. Roll on our desks and new lighting...

When I arrived in the studio at Superdry we were shooting with a Nikon D300s. A nice little camera but with a crop sensor it lacked the depth and sharpness that we really needed. We would shoot directly to a bottom of the range iMac that was really past it's best.

Recently we upgraded to shooting with a D3x. A quality professional camera with a full frame. The snag is that we were still shooting to the old iMac which was just not man enough meaning we could not get into a flow with the model an had to stop every 5 shots for the computer to catch up.

I pushed for a brand new iMac with a top spec, a work horse, and thank god I did because, as it turns out, we have now purchased Nikon's new D800E for the studio which churns out 45mb files. The quality is outstanding and the new machine handles them like a dream. It's now a pleasure to shoot again.

Check out our new portrait packages at marriedimage.co.uk

Take a look and book now...

The studio is starting to take shape. Installation of the curve has gone very well and has really taken its place in the room. Walls for the catwalk have gone up and the basic shape has revealed itself. We have a lot more floor space than I originally thought, which is great as we still have to fit a lot of gear and people in.




Next week the brick walls will be laid and white washed.

At Superdry HQ our studio has started to take shape.

The walls of the catwalk have their skeleton up and the backing for the studio curve has its place.

Check out these panoramas, photosynth app of you're interested.

I came across some incredible work the other day in the profoto advantage. The Lighting by David Bicho in these model shots is massively inspiring and I though that I should share it. Your text to link here...




There are many setups in this little booklet, definitely worth a look.

Profoto Page Turner

Work has started on our photo curve today.

Teething issues are always part an parcel of this sort of build. Finding that the curve now has an unexpected 600mm gap behind it. It's not all bad as we will be able to store colourama rolls and backdrops behind it.

Progress below......

Last week I visited a photo agency dealing with mass fashion imagery.

The biglight studio is an old piano factory in old Kentish town. The photography section is housed in the roof which has amazing natural light.
I had been invited to check out a new flat styling table in styleshoots. This clever piece of kit uses a automated piece of software that exposes a shot of the product against black and then white allowing the software to cut the image out. Control controlled by an iPad it utilises live view so visibility for styling is great.

A very smart piece of kit although it uses a continuous light that is fixed which means that you don't get the crispness of the flash and the depth of shadow remains
the same.

The idea is that the user doesn't need specific photographic knowledge, but this does mean that things are missed such as ambient light spill onto the scene that would not be picked up by an untrained eye.

To conclude I found it technology over quality and it will definitely not be replacing a skilled photographer any time soon.

For more info search style shoots and/or biglight

So finally we are expanding into a new space at Superdry.

For a long time the space that we have produced all of our imagery for our online e-commerce websites has been small, cramped and not fit for purpose. Under these conditions we have still managed to create some decent imagery. Our creative space had been a flooded shed that you need waders to shoot anything. The main studio has been a small area with a lastolite photo curve. Here we shoot all the model imagery along with video. Creating video and stills in he same space has long been a challenge causing shadows with lighting setups getting in the way of each other.

Ever since I joined the studio team a new studio space has been on the cards. Many designs have been etched, locations mentioned and dates pushed back as with all these projects.

This week work has begun in our bespoke and custom designed work space. A brand new white curve will run along the side of our new building to the left flanked by a video cat walk with an antique oak floor and white washed brick walls. Towards the front of the space will be our retouchers and a styling/hair and MUA area. A dividing wall runs along the back of the building separating our light tables for accessories and flat styling. The walls of this space will consist of many textured background oak, brick, jet black etc. allowing more creative banner and email promotion images.

I will keep up to date with the progress of work and look forward to the new work and ideas that the space will inspire.

(Image of old studio space courtesy of Superdry social media)

Last week I visited a photo agency dealing with mass fashion imagery.

The biglight studio is an old piano factory in old Kentish town. The photography section is housed in the roof which has amazing natural light.
I had been invited to check out a new flat styling table in styleshoots. This clever piece of kit uses a automated piece of software that exposes a shot of the product against black and then white allowing the software to cut the image out. Control controlled by an iPad it utilises live view so visibility for styling is great.

A very smart piece of kit although it uses a continuous light that is fixed which means that you don't get the crispness of the flash and the depth of shadow remains
the same.

The idea is that the user doesn't need specific photographic knowledge, but this does mean that things are missed such as ambient light spill onto the scene that would not be picked up by an untrained eye.

To conclude I found it technology over quality and it will definitely not be replacing a skilled photographer any time soon.

For more info search style shoots and/or biglight

Today we embarked on a nice project filming beauty tutorials for the launch of superdry's new beauty range.
This will take place over a number of short films for social media and the Superdry blog.

MarriedImage.co.uk is a new website where you will be able to view my wedding and portrait imagery.
The new site is currently under construction and will be ready very soon.


www.marriedimage.co.uk

There is a possible light graffiti exhibition in the pipe line, in conjunction with Fotorater's Marc Cameron and a large sponsor. Watch this space. This London based show will include the Light Graffiti Cars project along side other international Light Graffiti artists.