Spec Shooting???

[epatsellis]

Having recently gotten my feet back into photography, I'm trying to get back into my favorite type of work, tabletop. Is anybody else doing spec work (self assignments, similar to a spec house....) and trying to sell to companies that obviously need your services? I try to spend as little time in post as possible, since the last time I shot tabletop, it was on E6, post cost big $$$ (not a bad skill to learn, really. Life is a lot easier if you get it right before you shoot) Any marketing suggestions and image C&C is welcome, as this working in a factory thing really sucks.....


Here's an example:

(these were shot with my wifes little Canon S2, it's the only digital we have at the moment)

erie

[epatsellis]

and as a second question, would you present this to the potential client?

erie

[Mr. Pickles]

I think you did very well on this. So, yeah, I'd try and get them to buy it. might offer it with and without text as examples. They might want you to change the text or font or whatever.

How did you light this?

[epatsellis]

They do all their own ads and photography, I'm a graphic designer as well, so I patterened it off of what they use (the omnipresent, godawful Times Bold) One thing at a time, I'm sure I can come up with an entire identity package that is uniquely them. Just have to get my foot in the door. here's an overall shot of the set:


Silverdome 24x36 above, flags and fill cards as seen.

[Brooks]

The lighting is good. *The grapes... not so much. *You really need to use only the most perfect, undamaged grapes. This type of advertising is all about the quality of the product so you really should make sure you are using the correct variety of grapes and that those grapes are unblemished. Bad grapes could mean bad wine.

One way to infer freshness in produce, whether it's veggies or fruit, is to spritz it with a mixture of water and glycerin. *The drops of water look cool and refreshing and hide any small imperfections in the fruit.

On the chance that this vintner already has an advertising agency ( and they probably do. someone had to design their label.) you probably don't want to be seen presenting an entire ad with copy, concept, headline and execution already created. *The agency, which will probably be your actual customer for this image, will see that as competition and probably lobby against using it.

So, I wouldn't present this to the client quite yet. *I'd reshoot with better grapes, *maybe show the entire bottle so the shot can be used in several ways, and use only a few grapes, perhaps including some grape leaves. *As it is you have almost as much space in the ad devoted to grapes as you do to the product. *The product should command more space than the props. A couple of different backgrounds might be a good idea. *A white background is good for stripping and makes backlighting the wine easier but a real *background like the end of a wooden wine barrel or stucco wall, etc. might be more interesting.

Just a few thoughts. I do like the light on the bottle.

[epatsellis]

Actually, I'd of preferred to do my usual soak the grapes for a few hours, remove them from the stems, polish each one (a little bit of veggie oil does nicely) reassemble perfect bunches of grapes using black toothpicks, etc. They don't have an ad agency, or a design firm, as I've spoken once or twice to them about the design end, it's the old son of a nephew of a friend kinda deal. These guys are really small, nice people, but small. I don't expect them to be able to afford much work, but a foot in the door could get me their design work/sign work/etc.

forgot to add, lighting a bottle is easy, unfortunately, I dont' have a studio space and my room is very limited. ordinarily there'd be a few more flags, as well as more fills to sculpt the shape of the bottle better, as well as a silver reflector behind the bottle to bring the color of the wine out more.


erie

[epatsellis]

Thinking about the entire concept, the wine/grapes thing is so cliche. how's this for a little different?



erie