Food photography IGA Festive Season
We were enlisted by long time collaborators March One to work with them on the 2018 Christmas campaign for IGA. Food photography is my personal favourite. The multi-layered brief required us to cover stills while the TVC was being shot, as well as a stand alone 3 day shoot to cover images for the website, social media, and catalogue.
Within the brief for social media and website content, we had to create animations and short instructional videos. For the 3 day shoot we hired a house in Bronte. It provided a kitchen to suit the work and also allow us different areas to shoot in.
Kai, worked hard on the styling for the food photography making sure everything was ready at the right time. One of the ice-cream cakes wanted to melt very quickly and caused us some issues, for example, but also showed us we needed to do the 2nd one in a different way.
For the stills content, Christmas decorations in the styling were to be kept to a minimum as it was to be used over the whole summer holiday season, not just in the run to Christmas. We used pieces from the “how to” videos we were making to style and decorate the final food products and show in a real way how they can be used. Things like chocolate cups to build the banofie pie in, or how to glaze and carve a ham.
Kai & clients pondering cheese placement
The shoot went fairly smooth all in all, with 3 of us from the studio on hand, we didn’t run into any real problems.
Kai’s cutlery collection
TVC stills were shot around Taren Point and surrounding areas. We captured behind the scenes shots of the whole shoot, building a library of stills that could be used in various ways to support the TVC. Between shots, we needed to get some options of stills for a catalogue cover using the talent that was booked for the TVC so it all tied together.
One of the biggest challenges on the day was to work around the very busy film crew (Ideas of Dean) who had to cram lots of scenes into one long shooting day, so there was no time to stop or for us to hold them up at all. Add to this how many people were actually involved on the TVC part of the shoot and it made for an interesting long day. In the end we got the shots for the cover that were needed as well as a huge range of other stills that can be used to support the TVC and give the whole campaign a consistent look and feel.
Awesome to work with this guy, so professional.
Cheers, Andrew.
Jeans for Genes ad campaign
Sydney agency March One commissioned us to photograph the loveliest group of kids for the “Jeans for Genes” campaign. Each child that appears in the print ads has a genuine genetic disease, some of them life threatening.
We always enjoy shooting alongside the film crew from Ideas of Dean who were filming the ad for TV/cinema/web. The separate crews took it in turns working with each child to and try and capture their wonderful personalities.
We came away from the day feeling privileged to have met these great kids and their families. It was a reminder not to take little things for granted, which these kids can’t. We loved seeing their gorgeous faces on the finished banners lining the streets of the city. Jeans for Genes Day is coming up on Friday 3rd August (tomorrow!!), please give generously if you can – Jason.
Do you need some advertising photography for your business? Contact us now
CEO Photography
Photographing CEO’s and Executives is a Studio Commercial specialty.
A typical photo-brief for CEO photography, often runs something like this:
“Capture a range of eye-catching environmental portraits that are both flattering and creative. They should suitable for use across multiple formats and applications such as press releases, websites, and annual reports. Oh, and by the way, our subject only has half an hour available in their schedule!”.
Clearly, the more time we have, the more options we can explore. But given the trend of underlying urgency, we have developed methods that allow us to maximise whatever we have available. Years of experience have allowed us to arrive at a location and choose the best spots and bring together creativity, communication, and technical skills.
Often, commissioning a photographer can be a daunting task for the person who’s job it is to do so, especially if they’re new to the role. We’d love to be involved in your project so you can breath easy, safe in the knowledge that you are in the best possible hands.
Here’s a selection of CEO images we’ve recently captured, hope you enjoy 🙂
Feature your people and stand out in the crowd! Contact us today.
Ferrero Rocher "Unwrap Magic"
It’s been a while since our last Blog Post as the team at the Studio Commercial have been all consumed with the trials of renovating our new premises and the logistics of moving an entire studio (more on that later)
In any case for the Christmas period, we photographed a series of promotional pieces in our studio for Ferrero Rocher.
I say “we” as these type of shoots are very much a team effort with assistants, art directors, stylists etc.
This was a very enjoyable and rewarding shoot, and as you can imagine there were certain perks to the assignment, especially for those in the team like myself who are addicted to chocolate 🙂
Refreshingly in today’s age of of digital magic, the two “unwrap magic” shots (destined for print) were captured in one set and in one shot (almost).
The “Countdown to Christmas” imagery, (which was destined for online and TV use with some animation) was photographed in stages so that various image elements could be moved easily in post production.
Client: The Kinetic Agency.
KONE Elevators
KONE Elevators are on the up… (yes we’re not fond of newspaper style headlines either but there you have it). An interesting shoot none the less for Kone Australia brochures.
The ENGLISH
We’ve known Zak at Skunkworks Bikes for quite a few years and we always look forward to shooting his special creations (normally over a cool beverage after hours). Having said that, Zak specialises in high end, light and fast bike and wheel builds using high quality parts with meticulous attention to detail, so all of his customers bikes are indeed special creations. This English is Zak’s personal bike and gets used daily, the steel & carbon frame and saddle were custom made for his measurements and all parts hand picked to be a truly one off build. If you crave beauty such as this (and who doesn’t!), get in contact with Zak. @skunkworks_bikes
Professional Planner Magazine
We photographed Alex Malley on location at the CPA Australia Office for the cover and inside spread of the September issue of Professional Planner magazine.
Photographically, the CPA office offered some interesting backdrops which was great, especially as we only had a small window of time to capture the range of shots required. Alex was also a consummate professional and comfortable in front of the camera which only added to the smooth running and success of the shoot.
“Professional Planner is the leading voice for financial planners where they can learn about industry standards, get news, information, debate and develop new ideas.”
Diving Australia - Rio 2016 Australian Olympic Diving Team
I felt quite privileged having the opportunity to photograph the Australian Rio 2016 Olympic Dive Team! Currently representing us in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Melissa Wu, Anabelle Smith, Brittany Broben, Esther Qin, Domonic Bedggood, Kevin Chavez and by no means last Grant Nel were all in studio for an energetic photo session.
With Diving Australia’s CEO, David Bell as art director our aim was to capture strong emotive portraits of the team. The key here was selecting the right lighting that would accentuate the defined muscle tone that these elite athletes have. Here are a bunch of the resulting images, Cheers Dave 🙂
Melissa Wu
Anabelle Smith
Brittany Broben
Esther Qin
Domonic Bedggood
Kevin Chavez
Grant Nel
The Ladies
The Gents
The Team
and a photo of me getting it done 😀
Surf Life Saving
We got more than our feet wet when we shot for the 2016 Surf Life Saving Foundation direct mail campaign. This assignment was quite literally a refreshing change from a studio shoot.
Our photo brief called for POV shots of a swimmer in trouble. So we donned the wetsuit, grabbed an underwater housing and jumped on into the surf.
Funnily enough, although the conditions were ideal for a regular day out at the beach, being fine and sunny, this didn’t quite match the original concept look and feel. As this called for a sense of fear and foreboding, a post production colour treatment brought the images in line with the concept from the March One agency.
Happy Mardi Gras!
An alcohol shoot with a different bent!
As this post goes live, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is underway. With the main event of the parade itself taking place on the 5th of March.
We shot this “Celebrate Diversity” promotional campaign in conjunction with Dynamix agency and certainly think it captured the fun and flamboyant atmosphere of the party. As sponsors of the event, Finlandia Vodka and Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Fire make the perfect couple and are sure to spice things up.
NIBA's IRP magazine
We’ve started doing creative portraits for the new “People Q&A” section in NIBA‘s Insurance & Risk Professional magazine. Published by Mahlab Media, Graphic Designer Jack Pike wanted a “Time Magazine” feel for the portraits. We get about an hour with the subject and have lots of fun exploring different poses, techniques and styles to achieve images that reflect the subject and the theme of the story.
The Beer Kettle
The Beer Kettle is a point of sale promotion that we photographed and retouched for Momentum Worldwide Australia agency.
Another shot that is surprisingly complicated in it’s simplicity and involved quite a few hours of post production.
We’ve also made up an unofficial alternate version without the chalk text.
enjoy (responsibly).
Brewster Murray Architects
We were recently commissioned by our good friends at Rifle Media to execute the photography for the website re-design of Brewster Murray Architects. The individual portraits and group shot were done in our Sydney Liverpool Street studios, whilst the staff working shots were done at BMA’s offices. A very cost effective and enjoyable half day photoshoot produced an abundance & variety of great images to choose from for us to complete the final retouching.
Grand Designs - season 4
Jason: It was great to catch up again with Peter Maddison, the Grand Designs Australia host, we’ve been shooting Peter since series 1 and I’ve always found him to be a genuinely nice guy, we always have a lot of fun on the GDA shoots. The photoshoot was in our studio this time around, working with March One advertising agency, we were given several background images to combine into a single background plate and then shoot Peter to match the lighting and perspective. A relatively straight forward studio shoot, the challenge was for Cameron to make it all come together in retouching.
Cam: I had a lot of fun with the post production on this project and was very pleased with how the image came together. Following Art direction given by March One agency we created the promo image by combining Jason’s shots of Peter with a number of supplied stock elements. Matching colours and perspectives was the key here to achieving a dramatic but realistic feel to the imaginary Australian outback dream house.
March One Promax Advert
Working with our friends at March One Advertising agency on their advertisement for Promax. This years music video look was dreamt up by art director Samantha Buckley. All props and styling were sourced by March One. Hair and make up by Rafal Gaweda. Shot in our space here at Studio Commercial.
Balmain Private
Balmain Private‘s business is providing online investments in stand-alone first mortgages. For their website, they wanted to show a range of every day clients “virtually” choosing their online investments. We provided full service for the client from finding models to hair & make-up to the photoshoot and retouching, a very fun shoot!
Annual Report time!!!
Annual report photography is one one of our specialties, we love doing it!
Here are just a few of our favourites, contact us now to discuss how we can help make your annual report look great.
March One Advertising Agency
This shoot was for our friends at March One Advertising Agency. The concept was by the senior designer Dan Crozier (the guy in the middle). The image features the staff of the agency and was used in the Promax awards magazine. Promax is a global community of professionals in the marketing and promotional television industry. If you have a concept that you want to bring to life, the Studio Commercial team can make it a reality.
nib Annual Report
Sydney’s Rifle Media once again commissioned Studio Commercial to undertake photography for NIB’s branding and Annual Report. We spent a couple of glorious days in Newcastle doing the photoshoot, it was a lot of fun. Here are some of our favourite images (and some behind the scenes pics).
SBS Create STUDIO competition
Studio Commercial once again was commissioned to shoot and retouch the stills campaign for the Create STUDIO competition run by the arts channel of the same name. The competition finalists made 30 second promotional spots to be run on Foxtel’s channel 132 and the winner also received $10K, John Gosper was announced as the winner. John, Brian & Anelise’s promo’s for the Arts Channel are now playing on Foxtel channel 132 and can also be seen online via the link below. The following images are what we put together for the three finalists work, enjoy!
John Gosper : Winner
Brian Neongsan: Finalist
Annelise Keestra: Finalist
Selling Houses Australia
Working with March One creative agency, we photographed the Selling Houses Australia hosts Shaynna Blaze, Andrew Winter & Charlie Albone for Foxtel’s Lifestyle channel print campaign. Here are a selection of images that were rolled out.
SBS World Movies "Summer of Sin"
Photographic Brief for SBS world movies adult summer of sin: Create smoking hot images to complement the films SBS will be playing over the summer.
This was shot at the Watson’s bay hotel with Creative direction by March One agency.
Skillogalee Muscat
Jason picked up this little gem of boutique Skillogalee Muscat whilst touring the wine country in South Australia. We thought that the beautiful form of the bottle would be a great piece to shoot as a still life. Being an uncommissioned work this gave us the scope to play around with a few props of our choosing and put this photograph together to create a complimentary look and feel. Hope you like it 😉
The Studio Commercial Action Figure Set!
Feel like a kid again these holidays with the Studio Commercial Action Figure Set!
It’s that time of the year again, time to relax and recharge, enjoy family and friends.
Thanks for your wonderful support again this year, we’ve really enjoyed working with you, looking forward to a busy 2014!
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from the Studio Commercial team.
Our studio will be closing Friday the 20th of December 2013 (just after lunch, pop in for a beverage if you’re nearby!), returning Monday the 6th of January 2014, ready for action!
Stay safe,
Studio Commercial.
P.S. We have photographers on call over the break if anything comes up.
Tim Rogers
It’s not everyday you photograph Aussie rock royalty, In this case You am I front man Tim Rogers. Images are from Foxtels recent TV series “Studio at the Memo”. The show is a kaleidoscope of burlesque, comedy, cabaret, circus and theatre acts, staring the likes of Tex Perkins and Kate Miller-Heidke. It’s a world first for Studio and we’re proud to have played our part in making it happen.
Morena
Alejandro contacted me and said that we are hosting a special dinner event “Through the Streets of Peru” and would love it if I could come along to enjoy the night and take a few shots.
For a great night out Morena is the place to go! www.morena.com.au
Here are few of the shots I captured of the Kitchen hard at work.
Giftrap Bumper Edition - Berry Shoot
With the awesome team from Mahlab Media, Jason and I ventured to Berry NSW for Giftrap Bumper Edition. The most fun I have had on a 2 day shoot in a long time! Here are the resulting images 😀
SBS STUDIO
Recently Studio Commercial photographed the four finalists artwork for the SBS “STUDIO” channel. (Yes confusing I know).
“STUDIO” is a creative arts channel on the Foxtel network.
The image making process involved photography as well as extensive retouching to create the final look. We shot this image of Thom in a dark and scary basement in downtown Melbourne. Thom Fraser was the winner and took home $10K and a billboard display in Kings Cross and his TVC to run as a promo for the channel.
California Dreamin'...
In July, Jason, his wife Dale and nine-year-old son Rudy visited good friends in San Diego. They stayed in their wonderful Del Mar home for 10 days then hanged ten in Hawaii for a week.
Some of Jason’s observations:
– Although the population is huge, the traffic is not really a problem (until you get close to LA, that is!)
– Because of the good weather, cycling is fantastic all year round and outdoor activity is enjoyed all the time. Whilst in San Diego, I savoured three rides up and down the coast and saw lots of cyclists among the gorgeous scenery. The most amazing thing is that there’s bike lanes on nearly every street. Since you ride on the opposite side of the road, I had to get used to looking over my left shoulder and getting off the bike on the right hand side (whilst on the street, so you don’t fall into traffic). The traffic is a lot less agro than Sydney too, everyone seems fairly laid back and give you more than enough room. Our friends said as a general rule in traffic, there’s no beeping of horns, unless someone’s done something very wrong.
– Baseball games are great, did you know that teams play 5-6 days a week? The population is big enough to support it, the Petco Park stadium in SD is packed for most games.
Petco Park, home of the SD Padres
– The beautiful seaside suburb of La Jolla is pronounced La Hoya, don’t be a dick like me and embarrass yourself.
– A high percentage of Californians are ridiculously good looking.
– I wish we had squirrels in Sydney…
– We had a great time in SD and Hawaii, can’t wait to go back!
Grand Designs - season 3
Working closely with Dynamix agency, we were pleased to be part of the creative team and photograph the Peter Maddison for Grand Designs Australia series three outdoor and print campaign.
Why we retouch our images in house: 5 pointers
Here’s our top five list of why, as photographers, we do our retouching in-house:
1/ End to end Process: We get involved in your image creation from the start of the process to the finalised file. The things you would like to pay special attention to during the photo shoot can be seamlessly emphasised in the retouching. This is an ideal work flow which allows positive details and images that pop.
2/ Experience: Every photographer at Studio Commercial has an average of 13 years in the field.
3/ Instant Feedback: Because your photographer and retoucher work in the same studio there is a constant dynamic feedback that can’t be replicated by sending images overseas or across cities. We extend this level of feedback to our clients.
4/ High Quality: Our photographers are thoroughly trained and we foster a community of knowledge as the latest software and techniques evolve. Check out our retouching portfolio for the proof in the pudding.
5/ We don’t cut corners: We go the extra mile in our retouching, which is the only way to go for the highest quality images. The last thing you want is for your images to look fake or unrealistic.
Active Retirees Cover
We had less than an hour before a storm hit our way and we were in the middle of a golf course, photographing the cover for Active Retirees Magazine.
During the shoot, I was thinking about how quickly our hour was pushed into half an hour by the weather.
The client was very driven to replicate the mock-up, which had clear blue skies. I shot according to the mock up first and once I knew we had gotten the image, we quickly moved to a different location so a cloudier piece of sky acting as a backdrop.
I wanted to add some contrast to make the image pop, make it more dynamic.
The sun was hitting the model’s head quite nicely so I used a main light to fill in the shadows. By now the wind was really battling against us so my first assistant held down the lighting equipment. My second assistant held the reflector just hovering over the grass below the dark golf club to fill in the shadows.
I’m really happy with this picture. It was created in half an hour and I feel like it really builds on the concept of a happy, active retiree.
Want more? Watch the behind the scenes video.
Tips of the photography trade
Studio Commercial has been in business for forty odd years. Our studio has survived the change from film to digital, the global financial crisis and mullets.
This is what we’ve learnt along the way:
- Always carry these to every photo shoot: gaffa tape, spare batteries, spare CF cards and more than one lens.
- Having seven photographers is invaluable. When one of us has fallen ill and another staff member is holidaying in the Maldives, photo shoots continued, emails were answered by others. Everything continues to run like clockwork.
- As a photographer, be very clear about your contract, prices and terms and conditions. Every second client will expect to get all of the raw unedited images at no cost and you will have to explain your policy. If you see nothing wrong with this, you shouldn’t be in photography.
- Be nice to your camera brand’s representatives. They have the potential to love and nurture you and your equipment or keep you guessing as to when you can pick up your camera. Unfortunately, in either scenario, they will never let on when the latest gear is coming out.
- Arrive early to every shoot. Leave nothing behind (that may mean having a gear bag packed with used tape).
Winter Newsletter
Hi guys,
We launched our winter newsletter a couple of weeks ago.
If you dig behind the scenes footage, photography tips and bite sized slices of our lives, make sure you sign up to our mailer in the right hand side column.
You’ll get an email for every season, that’s four juicy emails a year. No dribble, just great information.
If you have any topics you’d like us to cover, please let us know in the comments section.
5 ways to instantly improve your photography
Here are five ways you can instantly improve your photography by making little changes to your camera and the way you snap.
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- Don’t photograph people eating. Nobody looks attractive while they’re scoffing their face or have half a plate of seafood in front of them.
- Play around with Aperture priority. By shooting at f2, your images naturally improve by the background or foreground being completely out of focus. Have a look at this flickr group to see what I mean by f2.
- Save your images in the highest resolution possible. Yes, you might have to read your user manual to find out how to do that, but your images will thank you in five years time. We have images that we took on digital in 2002 that are tiny files, but at the time, they were cutting edge. Expect the same and don’t just stick to the automatic JPEG size.
- Stand closer to the subject, then get closer. It will only improve the image. You’re never as close as you think you are. Unless you hit them in the head with your lens. Then say sorry.
- Turn off auto flash. Most modern cameras can deal with the mild darkness and will automatically pump up their ISO (light sensitivity). You’ll know pretty fast if your camera is capable of this or not by looking at your LCD screen.
How to buy your first DSLR and other articles
Our seasonal newsletter for Autumn just launched. It’s filled with exclusive photos of our adventures in photography, insights into our studio and useful tips on photography.
This mailer has pointers on how to choose and purchase your first DSLR, Dave’s images of New York City and Adam Liaw, the MasterChef Winner of 2010.
Have a look at the first issue and make sure you join up to get our Winter issue.
Jason's May editorial
Jason, the head honcho, writes a once in a while editorial
I joined the Studio in the late 1980s, when Sydney was riding high on bicentennial fever. We had four camera kits for seven photographers. The Studio was a quarter of the size it is now; hidden in a little alleyway in Pitt Street. We had three dark rooms and everyone learnt film processing, we did our own printing. Hand printed, no less.
When the studio opened in 1967, the photographers used to have a Graflex Speed Graphics camera that only loaded sheets of 5×4″ film. At each shoot, they could only take six (really good) images.
Shooting with film was completely different to using a camera today, we used a light meter all the time. We used medium format Bronica film cameras when I came on board.
These days, it’s a lot quicker to take an image and change things around relying on the LCD screen at the back, although we still use light meters at most shoots.
We had to dress more conservatively for our corporate clients but that’s changed with time. We’re not expected to dress corporately, it’s expected that we’re not cut from the same cloth.
The technology for cameras is literally moving in leaps and bounds. Each year, the advancements in camera bodies and Photoshop is pretty amazing. Because of this, photography as a communication is getting more advanced every three months.
Our work in the 80s now seems dated. Even work from the early 2000s ages quickly.
Photography as a field is at a really interesting point right now.
Six reasons to feel good about photography right now
Photographers worldwide have had a lean couple of years but now that we’re a quarter of the way through 2011, there are some things that we should celebrate about the state of photography in this day and age.
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- Photography is more easily accessible: The entry level has been lowered as the price of high quality cameras go down.
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- More people interested in photography means more people can appreciate good images when they see it.
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- You can fix up pimples, bumps and lumps in Photoshop, more often than not in under 30 seconds.
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- Interested in obscure photography? Want to go old school? You can form a community around your images through flickr, strobist and other sites. The photography community is increasingly moving online, which means you can always find support for your images.
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- Instant gratification: You take a photo and you can look at it straight away so you know if you got it right or failed miserably. This also has it’s downsides (see: facebook pose)
- Cameras are getting smaller and smarter. And if people give you shit for say, using your iPhone, remember, Henri Cartier Bresson used to be criticized by the more traditional medium format photographers of his era for using a 35mm camera.
What can you add to the list?
Five things you didn't know about Studio Commercial
- There is a door that leads to nowhere in the Studio: It used to be old fire stairs once upon a time but the stairs were replaced and now the door leads nowhere. There’s a safety glass barrier, it’s all kosher, nobody has been killed.
- Jason was over the moon when during a press shoot, Hugh Jackman asked him “Hey Jas, where do you want us?”
- Our darkroom has been converted into a storage room since 2001, when the first Canon D30 came out. It was three megapixels. That’s less than your old mobile phone.
- Dave recently came back from two months in Chile and a month in the States. Feel free to practice your Spanish on him.
- We did all of the renovations in the studio ourselves over the last ten years. It was a long work in progress.
Hello World!
We’re starting this blog to share what we know about commercial photography in Sydney, show you some of our photoshoots and the occasional behind the scenes shenanigans. We also want to have a crazy amount of fun and interaction.
Stroll through our about pages to find out our areas of expertise and what each of us would do on our last day on earth.
Be curious, ask questions and let us know what you would like to see more (or less) of by emailing blog[at]studiocommercial[dot]com.
Cheers, Jason Doyle, Vanessa Etherington, Dave Silva & Andrew Ratter.
Want to know the history of Hello World?