One of the most common questions we are asked at the beginning of a project is 'what's best? shooting in the studio or on location? well, as with most things in life there is no simple answer, each has it's own benefits & drawbacks, in financial terms there's really not much in it, so which is the best for you? I'll try to explain here.
Let's start with our studio, we have 1500sq ft of workspace which is large enough to build a pretty generous room set, we have a selection of set components, walls, windows, floors etc that we can use to create at set that suits your furniture, or we could have our set builder design & build something bespoke.
One of the main benefits of shooting in the studio is that it is a controlled environment, if, for example you have a super king sized bed & two 8' wardrobes that you want in the same shot we can design & build a set that fits around your specific requirements. We also have the ability to control lighting, which for me is one of the key ingredients that help us produce authentic living environments in the studio, with a careful mix of natural & artificial light we can create any lighting conditions we like, we are also not bound by time constraints like we would be on location (more of which later)
Set building takes time, it can often take a day to build & decorate a set ready for photography and once the set has your furniture in it we may only get 2-3 different shots within that set before everything starts to look a little repetitive, of course we can repaint or wallpaper the walls, change the set dressing & props even re model the set but it all takes time.
Below are some examples of sets we have designed & built in the studio, hopefully giving you an idea of what we can do.
So onto locations, a good location is going to cost anywhere between £1000 & £1500 per day so it's essential we choose the right environment for your products, this process will usually start with us sending you a number of suitable options from a location library such as Good Spaces which we will then refine down until we have maybe 2 favourites, we'll then visit them & check for things like dimensions & variety of the rooms, lighting, access etc.
By the nature of shooting on location we will achieve authenticity, your furniture will look completely at home which will resonate with your customers and providing we get the location choice right (we always do) we will also be able to create a number of different looks by simply moving rooms.
Most location houses are actual homes so will be full of the home owners stuff, obviously the large items of furniture will have to be removed before we start shooting but, providing the style of the home suits your product our in house stylist Janie Bevan will be able to use what she can to complete the look of each set up.
The drawback in a nutshell, is that we are in someone elses house, which means, as mentioned before, we have to remove their stuff before bringing ours in, we also have to put it all back again, we have to be very respectful of floors & door frames when moving furniture around & we are restricted by time, usually an 8 hour day.
All of the images below were shot in one location house.
So, there we have it, I hope that's been helpful, if you want to discuss anything here or any other aspect of your photography needs just give me a call, I'm always happy to help.