Blog

CREATIVE CHRISTMAS SHOOTS

As the festive season is fast approaching, Garage Studios want to make your company look good…

Last year we were commissioned by Harrison & Co creative agency to come up with an inventive, attention-grabbing
concept for their Christmas cards. We had a fantastic time shooting these images and received great feedback
from both the team at Harrison & Co and the clients who received their cards.

Our team of highly creative photographers hold a large and varied client list, and have many years of
experience in devising unique and innovative shoots to a diverse range of briefs.

If you have an inspired idea for an unusual Christmas image you want us to shoot for you, or if you’d like us to
come up with a concept that will get your clients talking, we would love to hear from you.


Photography by Adam Bronkhorst & Lighting Design by Natasha Alipour Faridani

For more information about the creative services we offer or if you would like a chat about your idea email or call

New campaign for Ophelia Fancy.

We have just finished shooting the new campaign for lingerie favourites Ophelia Fancy, and although we can’t show the final images until the official release we are so excited that we had to post a shot of model Tess Dimos on set.

We have worked with Ophelia Fancy for several years now- we are confident this is our best collaboration yet with a really strong set of images that represent where the brand is going. The images retain the very strong identity that Ophelia Fancy have crafted but also reflect the new commercial outlook to the collection.

We sourced the model and location for the campaign, whilst the client took charge of all aspects of styling, hair and make-up, and of course the amazing lingerie pieces. We hope to release the images very soon, but first we have to shoot their lookbook for the the website. You will be able to see new Ophelia girl, and one of our favourite models, Tess Dimos in the collection from next week.

Studio Lighting Course: Students Work

The Studio lighting course was running this weekend, and it was a really enjoyable one. Taught by Kevin Mason and Natasha Alipour-Faridani, the course is a 2 day hands on intensive covering all aspects of studio lighting, building from very basic set ups and progressing to using the sculptural quality of light to develop your work. This is central to the course as the main focus is to help understand light and how you can use it to bring different qualities to your images.

We were lucky to have Tess and Otavio as our models who are fantastic to work with, and a really great group of students, who took some excellent images over the course of the weekend.

We managed to get through a lot of different set ups, so the images below are just a small percentage of the photographs taken by our students. They are unedited and represent a selection of what they achieved over the weekend.

Images by: Samantha Nelmes, Andrew Nelson, & Olly Courtney

Lighting Design: Kevin Mason & Natasha Alipour Faridani

If you would like any information on the Studio Lighting course or any of our other courses or you would like to book a place, email or call us on

CHRISTMAS GIFT VOUCHERS AND OFFERS

As the festive season is approaching and the hunt is on for unique and interesting gifts, we’ve designed some offers to take the panic out of Christmas shopping and get your creative juices flowing.

Whether you have just bought a new camera for someone you love, know someone who would like to hone their lighting skills or even want to buy present you can enjoy with a friend, we have the perfect gift for you…

HOLGA & DIANA WORKSHOP AND CAMERA GIFT OFFER

Learn to love your quirky plastic camera, and create atmospheric images in a weekend workshop with Garage Studios.

Buy your camera and course together and get a 10% discount on your camera and 20% discount on the cost of the course.

The perfect gift for al those with a flair for creativity!

CHRISTMAS GIFT VOUCHERS

Give someone the gift of photography training this Christmas. Whether you are buying for someone who is a complete beginner and has just bought a new camera, they have been interested in photography for a while and want to improve their flash techniques or creative photography, or they have been shooting for years and want to learn advanced lighting techniques and work on a full editorial shoot. We have courses for every level of ability and interest.

Want something a bit more specific? We can tailor 1-2-1 training sessions with experienced tutors to tailor to your exact requirements.

BUY TWO COURSES TOGETHER AND GET A 10% DISCOUNT

Whether you would like to buy a really special gift for a friend of loved one, or you want to book a place for yourself and someone else so that you can go on the course together, as a thank you gift we will give you a 10% discount when you book on more than one course.

If you would like to have a chat about which course would be the best gift for someone you know, or if you want to book on a course, email or call and we will do everything we can to help.

NEW DATE: Photographer's Assistant Course

Due to a large amount of people requesting another date before Christmas, we have now booked in a Photographer’s Assistant course on Saturday 4th December.

This course is not just for recent graduates and current students, but also for anyone who is looking to get into the industry and wants to gain experience as an assistant.

Natasha Alipour-Faridani has many years of assisting experience with many well known photographers and film makers and is our in house product photographer here at Garage. Her course is taught over four hours and will cover all aspects of assisting, including: The basics of what is expected of you in order to be a good assistant; the technical aspects of equipment terminology and set up; a discussion of different qualities of light and how you can achieve them, and a practical hands on session of light metering and correct equipment usage.

This is a fantastic course, costing only £35

For more Information or to book your place email or call and speak to Beth.

NEW DATE: Photographer’s Assistant Course

Due to a large amount of people requesting another date before Christmas, we have now booked in a Photographer’s Assistant course on Saturday 4th December.

This course is not just for recent graduates and current students, but also for anyone who is looking to get into the industry and wants to gain experience as an assistant.

Natasha Alipour-Faridani has many years of assisting experience with many well known photographers and film makers and is our in house product photographer here at Garage. Her course is taught over four hours and will cover all aspects of assisting, including: The basics of what is expected of you in order to be a good assistant; the technical aspects of equipment terminology and set up; a discussion of different qualities of light and how you can achieve them, and a practical hands on session of light metering and correct equipment usage.

This is a fantastic course, costing only £35

For more Information or to book your place email or call and speak to Beth.

FLASH COURSE: ONLY 2 PLACES LEFT!

As the winter nights are drawing in, you may find that your photography has taken a darker turn (and not necessarily in a good way). If you feel that a bit of flash could make all the difference, but you’re not quite sure how to go about creating the light you need then we have just the course for you.

The next Flash:Improve your lighting course is running as a full day course next Sunday 14th November and is nearly full, but we do have a couple of places left. The course will cover on and off camera flash, balancing flash and natural light, correct metering, different techniques to make the most out of your images and a whole host of ingenious ideas to add sparkle to your shots.

The course runs from 10.30 am till 5pm and costs £155

If you would like more information, or to book your place email

Noah Kalina Talks and Workshop

We are currently planning our next guest photographer to come to Garage Studios and run some workshops as well as giving a talk on his work. If you attended the Summer courses with Lou O’Bedlam you will know how much of an invaluable experience this was - and that there is never a time to stop learning in photography. It is also particularly good to see and hear a very different perspective on photography and nothing makes you question your own work as much as a tutor who is passionate about their work and photography practise.

We are proposing bringing New York based photographer Noah Kalina over- once again unashamedly proposing photographers who we are extremely interested in at Garage. Noah’s work can be viewed here,

Website
Noah Everyday

Noah is a professional photographer whose work has become a definitive part of popular culture- his Everyday project has become one of the most viewed videos on the internet- managing to bridge the gap between popular and critical acclaim, and appears often in polls of Top 50, 10, 100 etc Internet Videos of All Time. You can view some of the Press here and read an interesting New York Times article here.

Noah is also an agency represented photographer with an enviable commercial portfolio and a publication list that includes ID, Nylon, Surface, Blender, Rolling Stone, Adbusters and a client list that includes VH1, MTV, Motorola, Sony Records and more.


He has published his own magazine Kalina and his own personal practice is of interest to any photographer from amateur to experienced pro. His immediately arresting use of light, strobes and shadow within the landscape of his frame conveys a very personal style, but never at the expense of thought provoking or memorable images.

We would like to get an idea of numbers interested in both the talk and the workshops. The talk would be in the evening, and at this point we would like to schedule the workshops for daytimes and/or weekends, although we would aim to keep the price low we are bringing Noah over from New York. When we have an idea of the interest for this, we will chat again to Noah and get back to you all with an idea of dates and prices, and more details about what the workshops would involve.

At this point if you would like to mail k if you would be keen on attending, or leave a comment below. We would love to bring this to you sometime early next year and have enough people to run several workshops, either half or one day.

Many thanks, Kevin.

Please note all images are copyright Noah Kalina.

Product Photography Case Study

Case Study:
Beenum Vig Jewellery Shoot
Client: Beenum Vig
Shot By Garage Studios
Product Photographer: Natasha Alipour-Faridani

BRIEF:
To produce a creative product shoot of Beenum Vig’s jewellery collection. The proposed outcome was a series of images that read together and helped develop the jewellery brand identity. This was an open brief with full creative control given to the Photographer.

The initial meeting with the client consisted of looking at the collection and discussing what she wanted as a product shoot. The two options were,a flat pack product shoot or a more creative shoot. After discussion we both agreed a creative shoot would be more beneficial, bringing the collection together and creating a coherent branded style to her work, which at this point the designer hadn’t fully developed.

Natasha’s idea proposed the building of sets for the jewellery to sit in. As the jewellery was very colourful and playful, the sets needed to reflect that. The idea that was pitched involved black and white 3D sets that were simple 2D drawings, with the jewellery placed in the scenes. The collection is quite diverse so it was essential to have a consistency with the style
of the sets and have different scenes that complemented specific pieces. The client was happy to leave complete creative control of the sets with me.
Natasha worked with illustrator Kams on all four concepts for each image and to map out, illustrate and make the sets.

The illustrations were printed and mounted onto foam mount and cut out to create the layered sets and lit very flat to enhance the 2d/3d aspect.

Natasha worked with 4 lights, two bounced off of the ceiling, lighting the white colourama evenly and then two soft boxes either side, angled the same and pushing out the equal amount of light onto the subject.

The post work consisted of basic retouching and cloning out wires that the set pieces were hanging from. Final images were processed for both print and web size.

Here are the rest of the shots. If you would like a creative product shoot and would like to work with us then please get in touch.

Natasha Alipour-Faridani - Product Specialist
Direct email:

LookBook Photography Case Study:Plain Lazy AW11

Case Study:
Plain Lazy Lookbook AW2011
Client: Plain Lazy/Clothing Label
Shot by Garage Studios
Fashion Photographer: Kevin Mason with Natasha Alipour Faridani

BRIEF:
Plain Lazy Women and Men’s 2011 winter collection lookbook and branding campaign- numerous T-shirts, Hoodies, Jeans etc to be shot on location in Brighton, a mix of ‘urban’ and open spaces with models that fit the Plain Lazy Brand which is a laid back surf lifestyle vibe.

Through discussions and looking over their previous imagery with the campaign manager Larry Jarret-Kerr we discussed the initial idea of having a male and female model to look like they are in a dream state with eyes closed, on top of buildings- a slight sleep walking feel. As a group we really liked the idea and felt it would work really well with the playfulness of the brand- which is less ‘extreme’ than other surf and skate companies.

Plain Lazy’s previous approach to their images was a natural approach and we wanted to keep to this and have the same natural feeling throughout the series of images and proposed the shoot to be on both digital and medium format film, and on an overcast day, with any studio lighting just lifting detail rather than accenting the boy/clothes. We ended up using two medium sized softboxes to create a very flat shadowless light.

We then took the ideas and started breaking it down to how it would work as a series of images. We decided to not have the eyes shut in every image but half open and transfixed, so we could maintain a stillness and dreamlike element to it but still have a connection with the subject. Instead of having the subject on top of buildings, they would be placed in various urban environments. The shoot was scheduled for March/April time so we had literally no trouble ensuring we had an overcast day, (thank you to the English weather, it rained too!)

Locations were sourced by both Garage and the clients as we looked for interesting wall textures, and open spaces and we cast models from our portfolio book, Elin, and from a local coffee shop, Ben.

We shot on wide apertures to throw the background out of focus and bring attention to the clothes and the model and let the grey english weather do the rest. The shoot was an early start, but we were wrapped with approx 8 hours and ensured a quick turnaround on the post work, both film and digital- sending the client a rough contact to choose from ensuring they had the right images before we completed the post work.

The clients have used the images on their print media and website branding and they have a option to License them for further use such as POS etc. We have included some of the uncropped shots below. If you would like us to shoot for you then please get in touch.