Atlantic Photographics

School is back in session here in NC and it sounds as though it is in many other states as well. That may be the reason that when I realized just how long it had been since we posted a blog entry, the subject line of that old ‘first day of school’ standby popped into my head! And so…here’s what we did on our summer ‘vacation.’

The 2010 Spring High Point Furniture Market seemed to be very good to a LOT of folks as we did a LOT of photography in May and June. (again, we would like to thank all of our client for keeping us so busy and congratulations on YOUR success!) So a lot of our summer was spent behind the shutter.

“Real” vacation time came for many of folks here. North Carolina’s beaches are always popular spots for a midsummer retreat – and with good reason! It seems like the unseasonably warm summer pulled a lot of people to the beach, or into their houses to wait out the days until the temperature and humidity both dropped below 100. I went to Minnesota for a conference and even then I didn’t completely ‘chill down.’

Once we had a bit more room to work in, our designers and carpenters began redesigning our sets. On paper (or rather, on your monitor screen) this doesn’t sound so complex or engaging. But consider redesigning and redecorating your living room, bedroom, and/or family space and all the decisions involved with that. What if

- you had to renovate several rooms at least once a year
- you had to do it for every room
- and each of those rooms had to become a living, dining, family room (or no room at all!) at any given moment

That’s the challenge of designing new sets! Our design team worked in some very unique and different details in many of the treatments. We think our clients will be very pleased when they see their products in them. And in case you are wondering, yes, we do paint the drywall areas of the sets as needed or requested to coordinate with the final design of shot.

So it looks as though we’re back from ‘vacation’ and back into gear as we prepare for the High Point Market pre-Market show. Got photography to do before or after pre-Market? (or want to know a little bit more about what we have been up to?) Drop us a note to sales@atlanticphoto.com

Most of us are all too aware of the impact that social media (Facebook, Twitter, and the like) have made on how we all interact with each other. To us, it is even more interesting to view the impact that social media has made on group events such as the International Home Furnishings Market, which is kicking off this weekend in High Point, NC.

Of course, years ago one had to be a buyer, designer, or have some other sort of credentials in order just to get into the buildings. Print publications (such as the venerable “Furniture Today”) would offer some pre- and during Market trends and outlooks, but for most designers and manufacturers not actually attending the event, days or weeks might pass before they got any tangible information.

Then came social media, and gave the Furniture Market a new wrinkle. Anyone with a computer could instantly connect with almost anyone. The entire Market experience has become more immediate and personal. Buyers, manufacturers, designers, and ancillary service providers (like photography studios!) communicate about business, trends….and maybe where’s a good place to go eat and drink. Social media allows a lot of excitement and energy to build even before the event starts. And that can contribute enormously to having a positive market.

Other new things that social media has brought to market include photographs of showrooms being staged (via Twitter’s TwitPic ), previews of new product (Twitter and Facebook), and seeing who all IS attending Market. It will be interesting to know if FourSquare gets a workout in downtown High Point – or if there are enough attendees using it to make it a significant way of finding someone. Global Views is sponsoring what is shaping up to be a well-attended Tweet-Up in their showroom Sunday evening (http://twtvite.com/hptwtup/1) and organized by @designershay, @wesathome, @maybellinete . Again Twitter is the ‘social glue.’

So while the actual physical International Home Furnishings Market is still limited to those in or associated with the industry, everyone else (including those who couldn’t attend the Market this year) can vicariously attend. And we’re betting that they’ll also pick up on all the positive vibes and energy this event and its participants generate! And that makes business good for everyone!

After seemingly unending weeks of way below normal temperatures (for us, anyway) we thought we’d never see spring again! But last week it finally made its entrance here in High Point, NC. Spring here has a somewhat ethereal quality about it. The Bradford pears and flowering plum trees appear as large white clouds, with bright golden forsythia bushes at their bases. Pink cherry trees – weeping and non-weeping – are popping out too. And driving along our woodlands and interstates, you’ll see the bright magenta wisps of the redbud trees’ small flowers. Yes, we’re pretty enamoured of High Point/Greensboro/Winston-Salem at this time of year – and the dogwoods and azaleas haven’t even thought about blooming yet!

Sights such as these make us think about Mother Nature getting new finery for all of her charges, and perhaps refitting some of them who have changed a bit over the past year. Is it any wonder that man follows suit in this season of renewal? Spring cleaning, new spring clothes, and a renewed sense of purpose.

Businesses too begin reevaluation. What do we need to highlight our product? What will show it off to its best advantage? Along these thoughts, we here at Atlantic Photographics are thinking that product photography is rather like “clothes for your product.” Photos dress up a chair, play up the best parts of that accent piece, or beautifully frame a bedroom suite.

So perhaps it is time to take a look at your existing product photography. Is it looking like an old suit, shopworn and old-fashioned? Perhaps it’s time to think about some new apparel for it. Something as fresh and inspiring as, well, North Carolina in the spring! Freshen up your product with new photography this spring with a look that people will notice.

We’re now booking photography for immediately before and after the High Point Furniture Market and market showroom photography. Give our sales rep a call at 336-887-8600 to book your appointment today.

Oh, and enjoy the view while you are in North Carolina.

or…“When Reality Just Isn’t Good Enough, There’s Always Photoshop.”

When someone outside of the advertising/photography realm things about using Photoshop in photo production, he probably immediately thinks of a digital artist enhancing a product beyond any connection with reality. The truth is though that the goal of most digital retouching is to make the item look as it is intended to look. We discussed a few of these techniques in the previous blog…now let’s look at some more complicated matters.

1. “We Don’t Have a Table for 4″ Sometimes a vendor may only have a couple of the total items needed for a photo, especially if it’s a new product. It’s not uncommon to have to shoot photos a few times to get the number of chairs (or nightstands, pillows, etc) that the shot calls for and in the correct position. (see the example at the end of this article)

2. “Plus It Comes in a Variety of Colors!” The manfacturer may produce an item in a range of colors and finishes, but only sends one piece to be photographed. They rely on the digital retoucher to alter the finish of the subsequent pieces to smaller samples. One sees this technique a lot in clothing ads, where the same T-Shirt is shown in a line up of color samples.

2b. The corellary of the statement above is “It Shouldn’t Come in a Variety of Colors.” Differences in stains, woods, dye lots, and positioning and lighting on the set can cause pieces which should all have the same finish to photograph as if they don’t. Part of post-production retouching eliminates these differences and matchs all the pieces together.

3. “You Can Get There From Here” The photographer may have to shoot an item at a time of year or in a situation that is not what the client or art director has specified. Because of printing and mailing scheduling, the studio may have to shoot an item out of season (summer products in the winter, for example) and the retoucher works with the photo to replicate the warm hues of summer. Or an outdoor shot may actually be done in the studio and later enhanced with a dropped in background and and hue/lighting enhancements.

The common theme with all of these examples is that the product itself is not altered. It still exists just as the manufacturer produces it and the retoucher changes only its variations or setting.

So, before thinking that all digital production work involves ‘covering up’ or making something ‘better than reality’ think of Photoshop work as an essential part of making your product appear as it was meant to appear to your audience!

Photoshop – the image editing program used by professional photographers, retouchers, and graphic artists – turned 20 last month. And what an impact it’s made not only to the photo and grapic arts, but to our culture in general. So popular that its very name has been co-opted into a verb meaning to retouch or alter (”Yes, I’m pretty sure that photo of Elvis and the alien was Photoshopped.”). Beyond the use of Photoshop to create images that bear faint resemblence to the original, what uses DOES Photoshop have for today’s photographic industry, and how has it changed the business?

1. Removing unwanted dust and other particles. Even in the days of straightforward film capture, ‘dirty’ photos were an issue. Dust lodges on (and sometimes, in) the camera lens and become part of the photograph. Dust might stick to the processed film and become part of the print or scan. Traditional retouches could remove most of these spots, and it’s still one of the first things a digital retoucher does to the capture in Photoshop.

2. Correcting product color. The physics behind color alteration during image capture is a topic for its own post (or three). Again, traditional retouchers corrected color on film; Photoshop does the same job in the computer and often better. (see the ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs to see just how much color can alter in a product).

3. Enhancing or diminishing attributes. Both the photographer and retoucher create a good photographic compositions using a variety of techniques. The photography may use a number of lighting techniques, selective focus, or various camera lenses.The retoucher may enhance an object’s color, lighten or darken areas to attract or lessen attention to an object. Photoshop now allows the digital retoucher to emmulate some of the same techniques the photographer uses on the studio floor, plus use enhancements only available via the computer.

4. Repairing accidents. Every photography studio has had its share of photographs with mistakes in them. Lightstands left in the image area, drawer handles flipped up, unwanted objects reflected in a mirror. The mistakes usually weren’t noticed until the film came back – and hopefully the set had not been ripped because instances like these could not traditionally be retouched out. Photoshop gave digital retouchers the ability to repair these mistakes in the computer.

5. Repairing Really BIG Accidents. The sort of accidents that happen en route to the studio such as scratches and chips in the item’s finish. Or productions mishaps like seams not being sewn straight or evenly.

But now we’re beginning to venture into the “Real, But Not-Real” side of Photoshop…..and that’s a blog topic on its own!

The spread in the original image had an incorrect pink tone. Digitally adjusting the color brought it back to its correct more neutral brown undertone.

Winter is that time of year when almost everything in Nature *seems* to be all hunkered down and waiting in anticipation for spring. But if one looks closely enough, plants and animals are busy restoring and reviving as they rest. They’re rather undergoing an ‘interior renovation’ at the molecular level.

Here at Atlantic Photographics, we are also busy reviving and renovating the studio in between photography. Like a lot of homeowners out there, our rooms (well, actually, our room sets) begin to show a bit of wear, or just need an updated look. The difference is that we do our renovations much more frequently than your average homeowner renovating or redesigning each of our 8 sets every year. That sounds pretty frequent, doesn’t it? Consider thought that each of those sets gets ‘lived in’ by many clients and a variety of furniture every week. Plus a set may be a dining room one day and a bedroom the next.

We think of this continual remodeling as just one of the things that we do to separate us from the average photography studio. Our spacious sets, combined with expert design and styling, are just one of the reasons why Atlantic Photographics can produce photography that showcases your product!

Contact us at sales@atlanticphoto.com and let us know what products we can showcase for you!

So why do we have a springtime photo on one of our December blog posts? Why, to get us in a springtime mood for some of our clients, of course!

People not involved in the production or marketing aspects of wholesale or retail industries probably never stop to think about it, but these industries live their commercial lives out of sync with the seasonal calendar. And so do the industries (such as photographic studios) who serve them. Here at Atlantic Photographics, we have had Christmas trees and decorations put up in our sets in July and photographed grills and hammocks in January. One of our more memorable shoots was a location shoot on the coldest day of the year for a company’s spring catalog. The flowers that we brought to decorate the patio were frozen solid by late morning!

This “altered calendar” comes about because it takes some time and effort to get something ready to print. After we get the art directors’ layouts, we’ll begin staging and then shooting the product. We then send the final photography back to the client, who creates their final layouts. They in turn, send their layouts and our photography to their printer. Add in time for proofs and distribution and one can see how the lead time involved grows.

And so now after our flurry of post-Furniture Market photography, we will begin to prepare for some “springtime photography.” Are YOU preparing your own springtime (or anytime) photography and looking for a fresh alternative? Then why not contact Atlantic Photographics (sales@atlanticphoto.com) regarding your upcoming photography. We think you will be pleasantly surprised at what we can do for you!

And season’s greetings…..whatever season it is in your corner of the world!

The International Home Furnishings Market (aka “The High Point Market”) is only days away now. And from what we see and hear, it has to be one of the more positively anticipated Markets in quite some time.

The signs are all there. The stock market rising above 10,000 for the first time in over 10 years. Spending at the street level seems to be loosening up a bit. Manufacturers and merchants realizing that they cannot continue to just hunker down and do nothing. Lots of new lines, new looks, and bright new colors demonstrating a response to consumers’ desires for furnishings that are exciting to live with. All this combined with reports from earlier smaller markets of increased interest, the signs are right for manufacturers to have a great Market.

We here at Atlantic Photographics are excited about the 2009 fall Market. If you will be visiting the Market here in High Point for the first time, we welcome you to the Furniture Capital of the US and hope that you experience some of the hospitality that our area is famous for. Returning visitors, we’re glad that you are back! To ALL of the vendors, buyers, sales and supporting staff – we wish for you a successful and BUSY week ahead.

So…..let the International Home Furnishings Market – and the excitement – begin!

Although in some areas of the US it may not seem like it, autumn arrived this week. The trees here have only barely begun to change color (and by the time we are in full autumnal hue, we’ll also be in the midst of Furniture Market preparations!) so it seems appropriate to talk about light and color.

What you may know (or perhaps not) is that the color we see is that color that is reflected off of an object. All other colors are absorbed by the object. In the case of our leaves, the chemical chlorophyll absorbs red and blue light and reflects green. Other chemicals in leaves are carotene (which absorbs red, blue-green, and blue light and reflects yellow) and anthocyanins (which absorb blue, blue-green, and green light, reflecting red). Red, green, and blue are the “primary colors” of light and analogous to the red, yellow, and blue primary colors of pigment.

Chlorophyl is a large molecule and very numerous in leaves, so our leaves reflect green light throughout the summer. With the cooler days of autumn, the chlorophyl breaks down, leaving behind the carotine and the anthrocyanin. Depending on the chemical structure of the leaves, they will reflect red, orange, or yellow.

So, how does this relate to photography? Remember that photography is “Writing With Light.” Just as with our leaves, the subject being photographed reflects the portion of the light spectrum that it does not absorb. Here’s the twist: instead of our eyes’ retinas seeing the light, the camera lens sees the reflected light. Therefore the entire photo may have a color cast that must be corrected. Traditionally this was done with gel filters on the lights and lenses. In digital photography this correction is done within the computer either during the capture or while processing the image. This color cast occurs even within the controlled lighting of a studio, so it is no wonder that photographs taken in the environment of multiple light sources (such as a showroom) show such great color contamination!

Adding yet another twist to our changing leaves analogy is how some dyes reflect light. It is not uncommon to have a photograph where the basic overall color is very good, but one object (such as a chair or a blanket) does not photograph in the correct color at all! For example, some green dyes photograph grey or reddish. Again, this comes back to what colors light the object reflects back and how the camera sees them. Selectively color correcting items is an integral part of Atlantic Photographic’s post-capture photographic process.

We here at Atlantic wish you all a bright and colorful Fall season!

Mention “Pre-Market” to anyone outside of the furniture industry, or people in High Point associated in some capacity with the furniture industry and most likely you’ll receive a blank stare in return.

As an explanation to the ‘blank stare contingency’ of our readers, “Pre-Market” is an informal precursor to the International Home Furnishings Market and held in September and March – one month prior to the actual week-long market. Pre-Market is part dress rehearsal, part focus group, and with a liberal sprinkling of brand advertising thrown in. Manufacturers introduce their latest products to their more familiar buyers giving them first opportunity to purchase the product AND getting feedback from them regarding design. The manufacturer may then use the few weeks before the actual Furniture Market to retool the product.

The manufacturer may also use the intervening weeks to get photography done of his new product and then possibly have sales prints created so that they are ready for distribution at the Home Furnishings Market. The time just after Pre-Market can easily be as busy for us here at Atlantic Photographics as it is just after the Market proper. Which is good as it means that the manufacturers think that they have a winner on their hands are are ready to promote it.

So, if you happen to be in High Point for Pre-Market, we welcome you to the Triad. It looks as though we’ll be having some lovely pre-fall weather for you. Should you be looking for a studio to create photography that will show off your furniture at Furniture Market and beyond, give us a call at 336-887-8600 or email us at sales@atlanticphoto.com. We want to help YOU sell your product!
Also, be sure to visit our NEW photo gallery on our Facebook fan page http://tinyurl.com/atlantic-fb