Photographic Narrative » Product

Home Sweet Home

Roger — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:44:16 +0000

Great 24 hours up in Dublin.

Met with clients yesterday, and today was taken up with a lighting seminar given by Mick Quinn and Vinnie O’Byrne, two of Ireland’s best commercial photographers, at Mick’s studio and office complex.

Dublin back to Cork only took 2.5 hours, which will be cut even further once the motorway to (or from, depending on the direction you’re traveling and where your allegiances lie) the capital.

Arrived home to find that Anne had baked this:

The perfect homecoming - (c) Roger Overall 2009 - www.rogeroverall.net

God, I love that woman.

Having spent the day learning new lighting techniques, including some food work, I could hardly resist the temptation to take a picture. The lighting scheme was very complicated. I switched the kitchen light on.

Italian Job

Roger — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:44:20 +0000

It was the best assignment that I ever had.

The client flew me to Italy, along with the art director, and we stayed three nights at a wine estate about 20 miles south of Genoa. The flights were business class, of course.

The plan was to spend two days shooting an advertising photograph of a new salad dressing the client was releasing into the Irish market. The estate was the ideal setting, as the client was keen to get a picture with lots of sunshine in a Mediterranean outdoor location.

Into the bargain, we were able to use some of the estate’s superb Italian Chablis in the photograph. And once opened, the bottle had to be finished. That’s the rule.

The client …

Sorry?

“20 miles south of Genoa?”

Er … well … y’know …

“Chablis” in Italy?

Erm … It was a progressive vineyard?

Okay, you got me.

It never happened.

The picture above was taken inside a delicatessen in Rathcormac, Co. Cork, on a wet Monday afternoon.

Here’s the proof:

So, what’s going on here?

First there’s the set up. The furniture is usually outside the delicatessen (Posh Nosh), but stowed inside as it was Monday, when the shop is closed.

The flowers behind the table there are in fact one of the shop’s hanging baskets, plucked from the wall outside. All the other bits and pieces, including the lettuce, bread and wine were culled from the shop’s inventory.

Here’s how we built it up from scratch.

The bare bones:

Bringing in the hanging basket in the background:

Time to look at the lighting.

The lighting scheme was very simple. Two lights. One bounced off the ceiling to give a general ambient. The other coming in from the left with an orange gel on it to suggest golden sunlight.

This doesn’t work at all. The low light suggests evening rather than lunch time, a more appropriate salad time of day. So we shifted the light up higher.

A bit better directionally, but far too warm for a lunch time sun. Using the camera’s white balance setting, I cooled the image somewhat.

At this stage we also dressed the set up a bit more:

The next step was to rig a “tree” using gaffer tape and tissue to cast shadows across the table, as if it were set up in the shade.

And as a last tweak, I put up a reflector to the right to fill in the shadow side of the bottle.

Final result:

Strike a Light

Roger — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:47:10 +0000

I was back at Spa Lighting in Co. Kerry today for some follow-up shots, including general interior photographs. Before I post any of those photographs, there is still plenty from the first shoot ten days ago.

Sometimes it is hard to figure out a picture. You just can’t think of a way of presenting a subject in an interesting way.

Sometimes the solution is so obvious everybody can see it, and everyone knows what it is without even saying so.

This picture comes under the second heading.

The light bulb went on in everyone’s head at the same time when we saw the lamp.

The lighting set-up was straightforward. An off-camera strobe with an umbrella just out of shot to the left of Edel.

By the way, this lamp is pricey. A couple of grand. And you wouldn’t want to break a bulb. Like, erm, kinda happened today.

Nothing to do with me.

Honest.

Anyway, other than a bit of cropping and colour correction, this is pretty much how the file came out of the camera.

Eureka! - (c) Roger Overall 2009 - www.rogeroverall.net

Lighting for Lights

Roger — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:54:24 +0000

I did a shoot last week at Spa Lighting and Living’s new showroom in Co. Kerry. Exhausting and great fun.

Here’s a taster picture, which has just been sent to a magazine for the client. More to come in a few days when I catch up with myself.

Food on Location

Roger — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:52:31 +0000

The oddest place I’ve photographed food has to be on the passenger seat of a client’s Mercedes.

Earlier this year, I shot the product catalogue of a new hamper company based in Co. Meath. The idea was to use the client’s living room and kitchen for the 25 or so set ups – a bit of a headache, but we managed to get the various different looks that we were looking for.

One of the hampers was designed to be given as a gift to a person leaving a job. None of the house locations fit the bill. So, Yestin and I set up in the client’s car for a picture suggesting someone driving away on their last day with their hamper of goodies. Yestin on the cushy backseat with an off camera flash aimed at the interior ceiling. Me outside in the pouring rain shooting in through the open door. I have such a glamorous job.

We had to complete the shoot in two days and get back to Cork for another assignment the day immediately after. In the end, we worked late into the night on both days, only returning to Cork at about 2 o’clock in the morning at the end of day 2. Given the tight time frame, I was happy with the range of pictures we got. More importantly, the client was delighted.

Recession Confession

Roger — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:46:23 +0000

You can react in two ways to an almost certain recession – timidly or boldly.

I’ve decided to go the bold route, though I sometimes wonder if for “timidly” I should read “sagely” and for “boldly” “foolishly”. Time will tell.

So while it’s been a bit quiet on the blog for a couple of weeks, behind the scenes I’ve been concentrating my energies into business development and marketing. Detailed business plan, a new logo, new website, a new print portfolio, a newsletter… the works. I’ll follow this with a big push on face-to-face meetings with existing and prospective clients. We might be in the recession for a while, and I want to make sure my clients know I’m around. The new website is still being fine-tuned, but it should be launched later this month.

I’m also upgrading the office computer system at a cost that brings a tear to my eye every time I think about it. Still, it should pay for itself in terms of efficiency gains and reduced post-production time.

And I put my name down for an iPhone, though I’m still trying to invent a rationale strong enough to convince the accounts department that I really, really need it. Suggestions on a postcard, please.

In the meantime, the embargo on some of the work I shot during our so-called summer here in Ireland has lapsed. So time to post some samples. All from gift and hamper company shoots. Today, I’ll post some photographs from the Heritage Hampers catalogue. Heritage are a regular client and they’ve been good to me ever since I moved to Ireland.

This year’s shoot was a three-day affair and we did some fun stuff on location here in Cork. One of the props we used was a €45,000, hand-carved desk and chair set we were able to borrow. Nobody was allowed near that one with their tea or coffee mug, I can tell you.

Round Peg – Round Hole

Roger — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:14:20 +0000

How do you conceptualize something as intangible as the recruitment industry?

You drink lots of coffee and take the first idea that comes into your head in your caffeine-induced delerium. Works for me.

Sam Rathling runs Cork’s most prestigious recruitment agency – Expect Talent. This is no mean feat. Three years ago, the company didn’t exist. Now she has the established agencies shaking in their boots and is looking further afield.

Sam’s success stems from a simple philosophy. Do exactly the opposite of all of her competitors. So, instead of behaving like a machinegun and splattering her clients’ inboxes with CVs, she puts forward only those candidates she thinks will stand up to task. She offers a service of such high quality, her company is winning contracts with big international businesses. How big? Amazon big (not the jungle, the company). And she’s snapping up these contracts from under the noses of her larger, longer-established rivals.

She’s also clever enough to know when to get a professional photographer involved to take a photograph. She needed a picture for an online recruitment fair. You can bet dollars to donuts that her competitors will put in standard head and shoulders shots – possibly, horror of horrors, taken by someone else in the office on their iPhone. Sam knows that to stick out in a crowd you need something with a bit more oomph. And she trusted me enough to come up with something that would catch the attention of those logging on the fair.

I come over all woozy when a client gives me Full Creative Control, but the coffee helps. Anyway, this is what we came up with. If everyone else is trying to squeeze a bunch of square pegs into round holes, let’s show Sam putting a single round peg into one.

Sam Rathling - Expect Talent - (c) Roger Overall

Musical Chairs

Roger — Sun, 04 May 2008 16:19:48 +0000

Last week we were on a two-day shoot at the Cork School of Music with two executives from Wenger Corporation, a US company that provided much of the performance equipment (such as chairs, music stands, podiums, and risers) for the school. We’re not talking your average chairs here. These are moulded along Alexander technique guidelines to ensure perfect posture for performers, and they are made to the highest standard.

[Ironically, the shoot was so intense I don't actually remember sitting on one of the chairs at any point]

The shoot was scheduled for a Thursday and a Friday, and the school had hoped to help out with some students willing to act as (paid) models. In the States, Wenger has no trouble finding volunteers and such is their reputation that schools and students generally clamour to be included in the company’s catalogue shoots. Over here, Wenger is relatively unknown and we only had one model to begin with.

Fortunately, I’d been able to source five more from outside the school, while the music student we did have helped us get some of her friends in the school to model too – one of whom was able to work the lights in the main auditorium, which was invaluable when I needed lights in various parts of the hall balanced. In the end, we had just under a dozen student models, which we were able to make work for us.

We also got a lucky break when the choir we thought we’d booked for a photograph of one of the risers didn’t turn up. It left us with a picture and lighting all set up, but no-one to fill it. Fortune smiled on us, though, when a friend of mine walked into the school with a 30-strong Swedish choir in tow. They were in town participating in a contest and had come to the school to warm up before performing in front of the Lord Mayor of Cork. We got a handful of them on to the riser and I snapped away while they and the rest of the choir, who were behind me, belted out a fantastic performance. It was stunning. One of the Wenger execs was even able to attend the performance at City Hall a few minutes later.

For me, this was a great shoot to work on. Wenger puts a lot of emphasis on its photography, which means they value both photographers and their work. Nice. Also, the Wenger people and the rep from their UK distributor were really easy to get on with. Our models were also a good bunch – patient and accommodating. We even had one poor girl on a tiny podium three feet off the ground with her €6,000 antique cello in one of the school’s offices just so we could shoot with a window behind her. Did she complain? Not a squeak.

Charity Starts at Home

Roger — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:14:35 +0000

This has been an amazing week for me. Not only have we been very busy in the office with pre- and post-production of a number of very interesting projects, we spent a couple of days working on Happy Faces, a national charity initiative organized through the Irish Professional Photographers Association (IPPA), of which I’m a member.

Each year, the association nominates a charity and members raise funds by shooting and selling portraits to the general public (social photographers) or to their corporate client base (commercial photographers). This year, Angels Quest was the beneficiary.

My plan was to approached all of my commercial contacts and spend a day chasing round the city, setting up a simple lighting rig at their offices and shooting quick portraits before moving on to the next location. Minimum fuss for the client, maximum benefit for the charity. Well, I have to say, such was the take-up that a) I had to spread my event over two days and b) I didn’t even get to my last client today.

I am humbled by both the support and by the efforts that some people put in on my behalf in this regard. So, I’m going to make a fuss of a few people, by way of thanks.

I deal with two computer solutions companies here in Cork city FixIT and TSG. FixIT organized a networking event around the portrait sessions at their offices, while TSG offered me a room in their complex and access to the many satellite companies that use their building. Thanks, Arnaud and Sean.

Don, my framer, got me into his studio for a shoot with his children – and then ended up offering me an exhibition space for later in the year.

Mike, whose kind of a private guy (so I won’t name him fully) but big in Cork and international business circles, ordered five portraits and then told me not to even bother turning up to shoot them. (I like to think that this was to spare my schedule rather than a reflection on the quality of my photography).

There were many more individuals, and I can’t list you all here, but nevertheless thank you for your support.

I’ve learned a lot from this year’s Happy Faces. Firstly, Cork folk are a generous crowd, which I kinda already knew. Secondly, I picked up a bunch of tips that will make next year’s event a whopper.

Brian O’Kane (Oak Tree Press) and Arnaud Disant (FixIT)
Happy Faces Day 2008
(c) Roger Overall 2008

Evolution of a Photograph

Roger — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:56:15 +0000

It’s great getting the shot first time, but it doesn’t always happen. Sometimes, a photograph develops over a couple of shoots with feedback from the client. This recently happened with a commission from Cork-based tea producer Barry’s Tea.

The brief was to photograph a series of new packaging designs for use in printed material aimed at retailers rather than consumers. Barry’s had produced similar material in the past and asked me to deliver a result that would keep all of the current and past material in synch.

The first shoot produced this image for one of the new ranges:

Barry’s Tea Fruit Infusions – 1
(c) Roger Overall 2008

On reflection, the client said that they would prefer to see all of the boxes standing. They also asked for a different colour background in line with the dominant fruit colour and for the ginger to be removed from the shot.

No problem. Here’s the second photograph:

Barry’s Tea Fruit Infusions – 2
(c) Roger Overall 2008

A little more discussion followed, and the client decided that they preferred a green background after all, which gave us this photograph:

Barry’s Tea Fruit Infusions – 3
(c) Roger Overall 2008

All along we had also been shooting versions of the photographs without the fruit and ultimately this is the image the client chose:

Barry’s Tea Fruit Infusions – 4
(c) Roger Overall 2008

The lighting set-up was fairly simple. The boxes were lit from above with a large diffuse light created by bouncing a strobe off the white ceiling of the studio. A second light with a grid spot was fired from the left of the frame creating some fill and shadows. I lightened the shadows a bit by placing a silver reflector to the right of the boxes. Lastly, the coloured backgrounds were created using a third flash with a colour gel aimed at a white backdrop about three metres behind the boxes.

All the fruit made for some terrific smoothies afterwards.