Garage Studios

Hot off the press and ready to rock and roll are the company shots we have just done for the very cool Leapfrogg.

They wanted some head shots for their company and also a shot of all of them together. So we had a few meetings with them and bounced a few ideas around, and thought that we could do something a bit different from the standard corporate shots and help to make their company image stand out from the crowd.

If you work for a company and your headshots are letting the side down, why not get in contact with us and see what the Garage Studios crew can do for you.

I had spent a few days telling some of the people I know all about some photographer on flickr that I was really into. His work seemed to stand out from the rest, but he was only 17 and in the second year of an A-level at a local college. After a few emails I managed to get him to come down to the studio to do a shoot with us. If he brought the models (friends that he shoots anyway) we would supply a Make-Up artist, stylist, assistant and all the studio time, lights etc that he wanted. Our ace Lighting Assistant Natasha set up a clean lighting plan. Then me (DarkDaze) and him, Mr Louie Banks would take turns in shooting and see what came out of it. I tend to never shoot quickly, without a fixed brief, and I never shoot without knowing what the model will look like before she turns up, and Louie hadnt really used a studio much before, so it was a new experience for both of us.

He got some brilliant images (my choice picks below) and you can see some of the others here Louie’s Flickr and to be honest most of them completely burned what I shot (my excuse… I dont have an excuse…)

Here are some of his shots, all ©Louie Banks

So if you want to come and shoot with us, or book a lesson, some studio tuition, or if you are a college tutor and want to bring a class of students down then please get in touch. We have 3 in-house photographers with some very different styles and knowledge and we would be happy to help out. Our aim is to take some of the ‘mystery’ out of studio photography, so feel free to pick our brains, and if we dont know, well we have a lot of photographers that pass through, so somehow we can find out what you need. Give us a call, email or visit us in the studio in the centre of Brighton.

This is Louie on the last shot of the night, with all his models, shot by DarkDaze on a polaroid 340 land camera.

Louie Banks Photographer (and his models) at Garage Studios

If you havent had the chance yet take a look at our big creative shoots tailor-made packages then have a wander over to this blog post Pregnancy Shoot, a lavish, full team production. But we also aim to create unique images for you in studio with one of our team.

This shoot below all came from Adam, aka Brownhorse- but dont follow the link yet read the rest of the post first- then go….. who isnt just our Studio Manager, but shoots a lot in-house as well and has a very immediate style. We wanted to come up with a package that was aimed at couples, initially we were thinking a unique Wedding Portrait, but he was itching to get his hands dirty with a food fight.

Chris, a fully trained Chef and his wife, were called in to be Crash Test Dummies, and were fantastic, the key to these images working is that we can find something that is relevant to you as a subject, and we can create a striking personal image and a memorable slice of your life, but with a bit of a Garage Studios twist. After all not everyone wants one of those samey High-Street portrait packages offered elsewhere.

Adam prepared litres of Spaghetti at home, and then in the studio contructed one of his trademark, pared down, graphic sets, with attention to tiny details being the key here.

Spaghetti Food Fight shoot- Creative Package

Chris and Gemma really got into the action and we’d throw a few of the outtakes in, but we dont want to take anything away from the killer shot above. However if you book one of these shoots with us we can give you a contact sheet with some of the best images of the day on them.

And dont worry you dont need to get messy, it doesnt need to be a food fight, or you wont have to stand in lingerie, outside in the cold whilst pregnant- but after a short consultation we are sure we can can come up with a unique image that you love to keep as a print or send to friends, family.

We will also specialise in offering this service to wedding couples in the New Year, so check back to see what we can offer. Dont forget you can book either DarkDaze or Adam for this, and we will and tailor a budget and package that suits you.

If you are interested you can see a bit more of what we can achieve here…..
Creative

We dont just do over-the-top productions at our Studio though, even DarkDaze has been known to hold back sometimes, and even just shoot with two lights (well okay it was probably three but who’s counting).

So to show you, we shot this with new model Sophie last week. A very simple B/W shoot with some great styling by Ophelia Fancy, who also can do simple and clean when required, and a great local Hair and Make-Up artists.

This was all shot against a mid-grey colorama, in a our spacious warm studio. We can do this for you, if you need a modelling portfolio, or for a new clothing range you may be working on, or even just a great Print to keep for yourself. With DarkDaze and on this shoot a pretty much all-girl team, we can create simple but effective images in just a few hours. If you would like to know more, or have a particular photographer that you would like to work with then please send an email to Adam and we can see what we can do for you. We are more than happy to work out of normal hours, and incorporate as much or as little as you need to make the images a success.

Here are a few of the final shots from Sophie and you can see more on the site and DarkDaze’s blog.

Sophie b/w at Garage studios, shot by DarkDaze

We were contacted at Garage Studios by our longtime collaborators and stylists Ophelia Fancy. They make amazing and eclectic bespoke lingerie and DarkDaze and Matt have shot with them for some years. We worked through a few ideas for them, as having shot their Christmas image last year, they needed something striking again for all their clients- as part of an email Christmas card.

Last Years Image….

Lingerie favourites Ophelia Fancy Christmas Promo image 2007

They had decided on a really plain shot, but with a bit of cajoling we persuaded them to go a little bit more over the top- cos at heart these ladies are all about set pieces and drama- and the image has to fit in with their current look and website style. So they went back and worked on some ideas, gathering props from their extensive collection, and eventually made a white winter wonderland…..

You can see the whole shoot below….

Ophelia Fancy Christmas shoot from Dark Daze on Vimeo.

We had decided to light parts of the set seperately but the ladies are far too active to want to get into, and hold, positions that we could shoot them in… so after a few test runs we had to throw as much light into the set as possible and just let them go for it.

The benefit of a studio this size is that we can shoot a wide shot on a standard lens and not have to get in close on the 10-20mm every time and throw the perspective out too much.

Lingerie Favourites Ophelia Fancy- Christmas Promo Image

You can see the lights used in the balloons here, a small softbox on a boom arm overhead, two Bowens 500w at 45 degree each side of the camera and two more Bowens 500w at the far edges of the frame, behind the sofa, to bounce off the ceiling boards and add some fill light. (You can hire these lights for your own shoot, even with an assistant if needed, or better still get us to shoot it for you…)

If you or your company, band or brand need a Christmas, or any other promo image then just let us know.

We get to exercise a lot of weird ideas with our Brighton Source magazine covers, and have had maybe a years worth under our belt- but even sometimes we think we may have gone a bit to far in the time we get given.

Fortunately Garage Studios is a big space, the biggest photography studio and training centre in town, so we can build some odd sets and work on Matt (art director) obsession with perspective based shots.

You can see in the video how the set was built up, and we can do the same for you if you have a promo or a creative idea that you need to get a strong visual for.

Alice Russell shoot from Dark Daze on Vimeo.

Alice and TM Juke may be world class musicians, who record a prolific amount of work but getting them to stand still for a photoshoot is near impossible, as you can see Alice even dropped the Full English that we bought in specially for the picture!!

The theme for this shoot came from three areas, as DarkDaze was pushing to get a Christmas feel to the shoot (it was for the Dec/Jan issue of the mag) hence the red/white present stripes, Matt wanted the twisted 2d/3d perspective and TM Juke (seated) wanted it to tie in with their recent promos which were shot in a typically english cafe.

We needed a strong Graphic style, as the Source is a free magazine and needs to leap out at you. To do this we used a lot of lights to kill any possible shadows but also to emphasise the blocks at the front of the set. Just at the last minute when everything was ready to go we knocked the camera slightly out of position so that the perspective was skewed, after all we didnt want all that hard work to go unnoticed.

Alice Russell and TM Juke- Magazine cover with full english breakfast

We just wanted to introduce this picture from one of Adams Students on the Flash Lighting technique course. If you dont know about the course then you can see details here. Its our most popular one at the minute and we have a lot of students applying for places in the New Year, but some places are still available.

Anyway on the final lesson of this course, flickr student, chris aka AMooseinBrighton shot this great picture- well technically BigBambooly, a student also on the course shot it, but it was chris’s plan and you get the idea….

This was in just 4 weeks of ‘one night a week’ tuition down at the studios.

So if your feeling unsure of how to use your flash, speedlite etc for whatever reason then come along and join this course- Adam really knows his stuff and is so enthusiastic about flash and off camera flash that he needs people to spread that passion to. You dont need to have any experience with flash as Adam designed the course to take you from very basic to advanced in a short space of time, and you can apply that to shooting anything from portraits to gigs and to very staged images or even just to know how to use fill-in flash on a bright sunny day…

Gift Vouchers are available.

if you are still uncertain then there are more great images from a range of students on our flickr group

Commissioned by a client to shoot her fourth pregnancy. After chatting to us she confessed to wanting a classic DarkDaze style image- big production values, over the top colours, strong lighting and a great location, inspired by the Ophelia Fancy Lido Pictures.

We set ourselves a UK Suburban feel, that was also influenced by Desperate Housewives (the LaChapelle trailer) and Edward Scissorhands. So Matt, (art director) and DD (photographer) went out to source locations. Fortunately thats what we found in Falcon Close, Shoreham.

Excuse the bad drawing but this is genuinely what DD sent off to the stylists, Ophelia Fancy,

After a second consultation with the client we chatted over the idea, as this was a pretty bold image and needed her to be 100% behind the idea.

Project Managed By Adam, we organised a styling consultation with Ophelia Fancy- ensuring the client was confident (the key to the picture) in the look we had discussed. We booked a great Hair and Make-Up artist from London, and set about sourcing the final props.

On the shoot date, all make-up was completed in our studio, with final tweaks on location. Adam shot background images for the client to keep, and also a contact sheet of the entire day.

Matt and Tash worked on the lighting, which was made difficult by extremely windy, cloudy weather, but we settled on 2 bowens 500w with straw (yellow) gels, and metered a stop or so under to get the punch to the sky and clouds that we needed. The strobes were just killing the shadows on the face and making the client stand out from the drab background. You can see some of this in Adams wide shots.

The final print was a 1m c-type print from pro-lab Spectrum, with an A3 archival print of the B/W contact sheet of the day.

Every aspect of the shoot was managed in house- and we can tailor creative images to your own personal budget, if its for a couple, a band, a portfolio or even something jaw dropping like this shoot.

Holler at us…… Contact

We completed the shoot for Insa Heels some time ago, but you can see the wide set-up pic in the Garage Studios flickr, this pic should link to it,

there is a lot of info about the pic on that link, including light set up, crew etc, its worth a look if your into the background stuff.

If you want to know more we have a whole range of courses starting in January, plus a One Day lighting course before christmas, contact us for details. (Gift Vouchers available).

To purchase a gift voucher get in touch.