The Official We Shoot Blog
Monday, March 22nd, 2021
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Illustration of a White 2016 VW Jetta Sport made from one of our photographs. Seattle Automotive Photography by We Shoot. The original image from which this illustration was made is available from us on Alamy, ID # GFEJ9P. A similar treatment may be available on a case-by-case basis for one of your photographs (not restricted to cars). Contact us through our website for details. Check out our Alamy portfolio at https://www.alamy.com/portfolio/652516.html .
Monday, August 5th, 2019
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Balcar Monobloc 2 Studio Strobe Control Panel. Seattle Product Photography by We Shoot.
Monday, August 10th, 2015
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Olympia, Washington’s State Capitol and the water beyond as seen in this aerial photo by Seattle Commercial Photographer We Shoot.
Friday, May 8th, 2015
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Selectively-colored black and white of Prowler automobile front end from We Shoot
Thursday, May 7th, 2015
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Black and white image of a boat shed on the water in Grayland, Washington by We Shoot
Saturday, September 17th, 2011
Here’s one of our promo videos!
All professional photographers should strive to increase their capabilities. One of the ways is to embrace video. A lot of wedding photographers have done this as this gives them more ways of generating capital. Being versatile is very important. But there are costs for doing this. Let’s talk about video and where it figures in.
In the film days, a professional photographer could buy 2¼” medium-format cameras to do weddings and portraits, or a 4″X5″ (or bigger) large format camera to photograph architecture and products. This was a huge barrier to entry to amateurs, with the huge cost and learning how to work with what were mostly manual systems. Unless an amateur or student was particularly well-heeled, he couldn’t purchase this equipment. He would have to work with the less expensive smaller format 35mm cameras, that were also more expensive when moving up to the high end. A budding pro would have to work his way up, sometimes working as an assistant for an established pro.
In the past, architectural clients wouldn’t hire someone who couldn’t give them large-format transparencies or negatives. It shut out a good many photographers. It was a barrier to entry.
Then digital still photography became the norm and the cameras evolved into something very capable of producing a very large and sharp print. And the price started dropping. The barrier to entry was being lowered. And digital had another perk. Editing software came into its own. The one with the highest regard is Adobe Photoshop. It is not cheap for the current version. But there are some lower-cost alternatives that don’t do as much. A barrier just fell again. More amateurs call themselves pros. Now, the competition is very heavy. It is hard for the clients to tell who can do the work or not. The Internet is awash with images. Some may steal an image and say it is theirs. Others shoot all the standard stuff photographers take as a hobby. Flowers, landscapes, people, boats, cars, etc.
A commercial photographer does more with the images he creates. You wouldn’t hire someone to shoot your company’s expensive product to show it in its best light, if the photographer only showed you a portfolio of beautiful sunsets, would you?
You would want to know that the photographer could get great detail and sharp, clear, well-lit images of products as seen in his/her portfolio.
Since we already have extensive experience at commercial photography, we add video to the mix to increase our versatility and do more for our clients.
Video is a whole different animal than still photography. You have all the things that a still photographer has to think about, plus movement and sound to deal with. And editing videos is more complicated than it has ever been as there are more tools to work with. While a lot of video cameras will do a great job of recording what is in front of them with just the press of a button, editing them is way more than trimming a clip and placing it on the end of another clip. And, everyone watches TV. If you want to see what is possible, look at the intro to CSI Miami. It is a mixture of stills, video clips, and moving graphics. It probably took months to put together and it is over in less than a minute. HD video files are huge. A one-minute HD video in QuickTime format is around a gigabyte in size. You need a computer with some real horsepower to harness the expensive software that it takes to get something really professional. Rendering time can run many hours. Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop Extended, and a legion of other programs come into play. And the learning curve is steep. High costs, a lot to learn . . . Now, there is a barrier to entry.
If you haven’t already, take a look at our video at the top of this post. As you can see, it adds a dynamic dimension to our professional commercial portfolio. It is a great way to show off our portfolio and for a client company to promote itself, as well.
– Gary Silverstein
Thursday, July 8th, 2010
Shooting a new product is something commercial product photographers face all the time. Sometimes the client has ideas about how it’s supposed to look, sometimes not. At times, it is easier to give the client the look he or she wants, if they spell it out, as opposed to “You’re the photographer. You come up with a great image. You’re the pro. That’s what you’re being paid for.” Or something to that effect.
The following product shoot fits the latter scenario more than the first:
I had three bottles of an inexpensive nail polish to shoot. The bottles contained glitter. I wanted to show the bottles to be more powerful than they are. After all, from my perspective, if one is seeing the nail polish in an ad, it should appear to be, well, more than nail polish. The bottles themselves were less than perfect. In a big money promo shoot, a photo stylist will sift through many bottles to find the perfect ones. Sometimes the manufacturer supplies the products, and sometimes the stylist has to go to several retail outlets to get the most perfect props for the image. In the case of the nail polish, it was three colors of glitter nail polish – a red, an orange, and a green. In this case, it was a low-budget shoot, meaning no stylist. Also, I found only one local outlet for the product, and they had a limited supply. So, I picked out the “best” bottles.
Next, I had to prepare them for the shoot. Cleaning dust and fingerprints off needs to be done. It is harder to remove these blemishes with editing software than cleaning the bottles physically. I used an anti-static cloth, and a can of Blow-Off to remove the aforesaid marks and dust.
I placed them on a translucent white square mounted over a studio strobe. This lights them from underneath and eliminates shadows. It also provides white light behind the clear parts of the glass. See setup image below, example 1.
After adjusting three studio strobes and the camera for the exposures I wanted, I then captured the image you see in example 2. As you can see, the color is way off due to the lighting changes, so color correction was in order.
With numerous changes made in Photoshop, including adding more glitter than I could get from lighting alone, I created the image in example 3. Glitter comes from adding a small light source to shine on the glitter. I used a bare bulb on one strobe and shut off the strobe part so the modeling light would act as a small light source (hence the yellowness in example 2). I increased the time exposure to allow that bulb to put enough light on the subject to appear bright against the instantaneous strobe light. I also used a “mine flashlight” (the green object to the left front of the nail polish bottles in example 1) to shine on the bottles. I additionally added small specs of glitter to the bottles with a “bling brush” in Photoshop in several colors. I had to add the colors and rectangles and shadowing to the background.
What if I told you that given the “You’re the photographer . . .” speech above that once the image was shot, there were several tries with internet communication about colors and backgrounds before the client was happy. Like I said, it is sometimes easier to make the client happy when they have a clear image of what they want, and they convey that idea to the photographer. Otherwise, it is a real challenge to guess what the client will like, and it may take several tries.
In the end, it is nice to see the finished product. But very few know how much work and dedication go into that finished product. Now you have an idea.
-Gary Silverstein
Example 1 - Click on image to enlarge.
Example 2 - Click on image to enlarge.
Example 3 - Click on image to enlarge.
Saturday, June 26th, 2010
As I sit here, an old friend comes to mind. A camera repairman in Los Angeles. Whenever I had any trouble with a camera, I’d go to Marvin. He may have been around fixing cameras for Ansel Adams back in the day, as far as I know. He knew everything – and I mean everything – about cameras and their operation. I often think of how great he was at his job in his off-the-beaten-path repair shop, and how so many people weren’t aware of his business, and didn’ t know of his talent.
I knew another talented professional – an auto repairman – who got lost in the shuffle because of his far-out location. His customers relied upon him every time they needed a repair. On occasion, they’d mention him to a friend, but in this busy world many of us neglect to talk of such things to others and, like so many professionals, this repairman had days when no business came in, as was the case with my camera repairman.
One day, I got a call from the auto repairman requesting I take a photograph of him to accompany a newspaper ad about his business. I suggested an image of him working over a car engine, and even though many newspaper ads don’t work, this one did. People shuffle through their paper and flip through their magazines. They barely take notice of their trade periodicals, oftentimes not even noticing the articles, let alone the ads. Why did this one work? I’d like to think it was because of this picture, and maybe it was. New customers responding to the ad would mention it when they called for an appointment or when they came in to see him. “What a cool picture!” And as they got to know him, they’d say, “watching you work on my car reminds me of that newspaper photograph.” Apparently the image seemed to say to them, “I care about what I’m doing. I care about doing a good job.”
In the case of this wonderful automotive technician, they were right. This mechanic cared, just like my camera mechanic cared. Did the photo say that to the people who responded to the ad? Apparently so. Looking at it from that viewpoint, it’s not necessarily advertising that brings in the work, but the kind of advertising. In this case, advertising with photography. (An interesting anecdote: no customer seemed to recall that the photograph was accompanied by an ad, even though it obviously was since it brought the new customer to his business, but the picture was what stood out.)
What made the image work? Was it the sparkle in his eye – made even more luminous by our professional strobes? Was it the highlight on his wrench – made even more powerful with my assistant’s precise positioning of the mechanic’s hand? Whatever it was, without the picture, the ad in this case may not have even been noticed.
There are many professionals like these two mechanics. Do you know of some? If so, reach out to them. Tell everyone about them. Hey, even better. Take his or her picture. A good one . . . shot with care.
– Dione Benson
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