May 2013 - Nigel Goldsmith photography & film

Industrial product photography

Many specialist industrial and scientific tools are rarely seen outside of the workplace however some are so beautifully designed it is nice to share them with a wider audience. This is a recent shot taken on location at a workshop in Wiltshire is of a paint spray gun used in the auto trade. This type of industrial product photography can often be done at your site using a portable studio set up or if you prefer we can collect it to shoot in our studio. If you would like more information give me a call on 07973 631185

Industrial product photography – De Vilbiss spray gun

Photoshop case study – How we changed the weather over London

During yet another wet summer’d day I recall how I once used Photoshop to change the British weather. This is my Photoshop case study.

A few years ago I was asked to produce a cover image for a client to illustrate ‘work / life balance’, the brief was to show a typical family spending leisure time together but with their work commitments intruding. We decided to get a shot of the family on a beach but prop it with furniture and items from the office. At the time we were experiencing the typical wet British Summer, the nearest sandy beach to my home in London was Camber Sands, a two hour drive away. Rather than risk taking the models and props to the location and the shoot being rained off the decision was to montage a picture together.

I had two tons of sand delivered to my garden in Battersea, this was then raked over tarpaulins covering the lawn to create a beach. The deckchairs and office items were placed on the sand and the models took their positions and the first pictures were taken. When the weather was good enough I went down to Camber Sands and took some shots of a clear beach.

The images were then brought into Photoshop. I started with the beach scenes, moving the shoreline to the correct position so it wouldn’t crash into coverlines on the page, I then adjusting the hue of the sea and sand so that the colour matched the sand on my lawn. The picture of the people was then placed into the collage, the rhubarb and tomato plants behind the subjects were then erased to reveal the sand behind. I moved the football and ‘raked’ the sand digitally for aesthetic reasons.

Beach and shoreline scene for background

People with rhubarb and lawn removed to reveal beach

The picture was submitted for the annual TUC Press & PR Awards, the judges thought the image was a ‘straight’ photograph so it was entered in the photography section rather than in the illustration, a category my images have won in in previous years.

You can see more examples of my photo-montages and illustrations in the gallery section of this website.

I also offer 1:1 and small group training if you would like to develop your photographic and Photoshop skills.

Image as published

Photo film – PR for small business

A photo-film produced for a Bath-based gardening business. Photo-films combine numerous still images with a professional voice-over to produce a video style presentation but at a cheaper price than conventional web video.

Click on the HD 1080p option to view the clip at the highest quality.

Hasselblad 500CM (V system) – end of an era

It has just been announced that the Hasselblad company have stopped making their ‘V’ system of cameras. These iconic cameras have been the reliable workhorses of countless photographers over the years. In all of the time I have had my 40+ year old Hasselblad 500CM it has hardly needed more than a minor service. It is probably their robust and reliable nature which has led to the decision by Hasselblad, photographers buy them once and never need to replace them. My Hasselblad has outlived numerous digital SLR cameras and I anticipate using it for work and pleasure for many years to come.

The Hasselblad ‘V’ system changed so little over the years that it became a standard for medium format digital backs. I still occasionally stick a digital back on the camera and use it for proper commercial jobs and it is always carefully smuggled in my holiday luggage on family holidays much to my companion’s chagrin. See earlier post http://www.nigelgoldsmith.co.uk/its-back-to-front-dad/

My 40+ year old Hasselblad 500CM, a digital / analogue hybrid

The photo-film, a digital version of the old ‘tape-slide’ show

A long time ago I produced a number of analogue photo / audio presentations knows as ‘tape-slide ‘ shows. The process was very technical and tended to only be used for gallery presentations. It involved setting up two or more slide projectors that were carefully aligned so that they both projected onto the same part of the screen. The system used two C60 audio tapes, one with the dialogue the other carried the timecode which synchronised the projectors to each other and to the audio. The end product always looked great but was expensive and time consuming to produce and during the quieter parts of the presentation you could often hear the slide transport system and the clunking of the carousel.

Today, tape-slide presentations have largely made way to digital photo slideshows or photo-films, these are much easier to create and are equally at home on websites or physical galleries. With quality images and audio these can look and sound as good if not better than a well executed video but involve considerably less post-production and crew members. Photo slideshows or photofilms are therefore considerably cheaper to produce than the equivalent length of video.

The photography and sound recording for a photofilm can normally be carried out in a single day. Normally the images are of activities, portraits, workplaces, products etc but can also use existing images supplied by the client providing that they own the copyright of the images. A typical 3 minute photofilm will use between 60 and 80 pictures drawn from a photoshoot of between 200 and 300 pictures.

The still images used to create the photofilm can also be used as stills on a website or for print purposes, the still shots can be supplied for a small additional fee.

Prices for the photography and sound recording for a 2-3 minute photofilm start from £550.

If digital copyright cleared images are submitted and only a voice over is required the price starts at £450.

Please contact me if you need material digitising for a photofilm.

This is a photo-film produced for a local gardening company. Click on the HD 1080p option to view the clip at the highest quality.

Archive for ‘May, 2013’