tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43897176529822850952008-12-05T14:36:55.207ZNews, views & techniques for advertising & corporate communications photographySimon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-35198787636767674852007-12-21T11:54:00.000Z2007-12-21T13:14:21.762Z

Coming off-topic a little here to mention a 10-page tutorial type article in January's PhotoPlus magazine (issue 04). Each month PhotoPlus carries a feature titled 'The Apprentice'. For this feature a reader spends a day - evening in this case - with a professional photographer and gets to learn something of their speciality. Well, in this issue I'm the pro and the subject was London architecture

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-44670446315249483052007-11-16T16:28:00.001Z2008-11-25T22:52:25.841Z

The SAA have just released details of the results of their negotiations with Getty Images over the controversial $49 license. It's a major revision for the RM & RR license and one that I think many of Getty's creative contributors will find a lot more palatable. Compare this with the 500 pixel, 1-10 year, free-for-all of the launch... Rights ManagedCommercial: One of the following uses at a size

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-89610491716485802362007-10-29T22:52:00.006Z2008-12-05T14:36:55.254Z

This month I’ve been rubbish when it comes to blogging. Sorry. It has been the busiest month in my two-and-a-bit years as a photographer. Lights-camera-action-Photoshop have taken precedence. After that marketing has filled what time has been left. But I don’t want a whole month to go by without an entry so here’s a quickie: 5 excellent 'rules' for happy commercial photography business (in no

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-46871293538015877862007-09-26T20:40:00.000+01:002007-09-30T15:31:43.884+01:00

This entry's title links to a nifty little piece of programming by an anonymous photographer. For any pinpoint location on any date it calculates sunrise & sunset times. More impressively it also calculates the axis of the rise and set. Use with the Firefox browser and you get graphic red lines indicating the directions. Switch to satellite view and you get some idea about contours too.Not a

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-63938410566472324212007-09-05T14:15:00.000+01:002007-10-31T14:12:16.509Z

Who in this business would have thought they'd ever be reading a sentence like that eh? Last week Getty Images quietly announced that they’re now offering Web resolution versions of the images they market for $49. For that you get a digital media license that’s perpetual for royalty free, 10 years for rights ready, and 1 year for rights managed. The full-scale marketing campaign has yet to begin

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-31491832876005482622007-08-03T19:33:00.000+01:002007-08-15T10:59:29.315+01:00

I'm making a conscious effort not to turn this little corner of blogdom into yet another, "Today I blah, blah, blah...". But in this case I can't resist. Yesterday was a weird day. About six weeks ago I made a pitch to a potential new client. They're well known internationally in the luxury interiors sector. After a brief portfolio review and a fair bit of dialogue I was commissioned to do an

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-44499774210485418772007-07-13T18:03:00.001+01:002008-11-25T18:51:02.705Z

This entry's title links to one of the most compelling pieces of footage on photography I've seen. Shut yourself away for 22 minutes. Every word and image is time well spent.

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-89635398667699290522007-06-28T18:37:00.000+01:002007-09-05T11:09:27.923+01:00

This week I've been in the market for a new portfolio book and visited four London bindery's before ordering. A photographers portfolio needs to be... Changeable. If you can't update or revise your portfolio at whim you're going to go bankrupt buying new ones. Many commercial and editorial photographers change their book's content before each viewing to target the material to the

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-66049002905136348322007-06-03T16:52:00.000+01:002007-06-30T12:18:32.853+01:00

Many Photoshop skin retouch procedures leave the skin devoid of pores and fine detail. Others overlay a fake texture which is passable at small print sizes but falls to pieces when viewed close-up. Either of these looks are fine for a glossy cosmetics ad but they're a no-no for lifestyle photography. This entry will explain a process that evens up skin tone perfectly whilst 'keeping it real'. It

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-69569041818925916932007-05-23T19:24:00.004+01:002008-11-25T22:24:59.625Z

Interiors. For a while I've been either heavily lighting them with multiple flash heads, or using the multi-exposure mask blending techniques used for many of my exteriors. This has just changed. I've just completed a restaurant interior shoot. For this I decide to use small off-camera gelled units to gently highlight key details and reveal form. This was followed by the full multi-exposure blend

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-63288485676549523202007-04-13T19:39:00.000+01:002007-04-15T23:14:35.336+01:00

Reality & Media Collide: In my 6th April entry there is a vid' for Skins, a new UK TV drama for teens. This show hit the news in the UK today... "A TEENAGER was hiding last night after 200 yobs at a Skins party wrecked her family’s posh home. Rachael Bell, 17, wanted to copy the cult Channel 4 sex and drug drama while her parents were away. She posted an invite on networking website MySpace to "

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-90566291437790166452007-04-11T17:19:00.000+01:002007-04-15T20:36:10.518+01:00

The Office for National Statistics published a detailed UK social trends report today. A full PDF download is available here.There is some tie-in with GI's recent 'One Life' global visual trends report. For example, more than seven million Brit's now live alone, compared with three million in 1971. And the average age for a first marriage in England and Wales is 32 for men and 29 for women, up

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-19955959496990007512007-04-09T20:17:00.000+01:002007-06-30T12:18:32.853+01:00

What it is & why it happens... Chromatic aberration is an optical effect found in almost all wide angle and cheap telephoto lenses, both primes and zooms. It's caused when the different wavelengths of white light originating from the same point hit the sensor (or film plane) at two different points. It always appears as two different colours as a result.Blooming cannot occur with film capture. It

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-7730937397426458782007-04-06T11:24:00.000+01:002007-12-17T19:39:48.091Z

In yesterdays entry I briefly covered the trend of documentary styling in commercial visuals, especially those featuring/targeting teens & young adults. I've just remembered some recent trailers for a new Brit TV show, 'Skins', that happen to feature/target teens & young adults. Click here to see one of them. Quite a revision on the 90's teen hit 'The Fresh Price of Bel-Air' isn't it... Click

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-20446117484430455072007-04-05T19:16:00.000+01:002007-04-08T19:59:37.969+01:00

It seems clear that there is an increasing crossover between illustrative (aka straight, documentary, journalistic, editorial) and produced (aka commerial, creative, advertising, conceptual) imagery in terms of what is deemed by viewers as 'real'. In essence what was once accepted as reality is now viewed with a level of scepticism by some viewers. I'm not just talking about moon landing

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-76788474144340420592007-03-22T22:12:00.000Z2007-04-04T14:18:37.331+01:00

This morning I attended a three hour seminar given by Pepper Stark on stock image distribution. Liz Pepper, Claudia Stark and their small team are consultants for the stock image industry. Specifically they are involved with recruitment, sales training, contract negotiation & distribution management. Each member of the team has solid industry credentials. The seminar was attended by 7 or 8

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-88543582145487447942007-03-21T19:34:00.002Z2008-11-25T22:07:23.831Z

I've just come off of a Live Meeting hosted by Getty Images London. Lewis Blackwell, GI's Senior VP of Creative Customers, took us through the findings of the recently published MAP report. The report is the result of research conducted by GI. 'One Life' is the title of this first MAP (Make A Picture) Report. A tidy reference to the common thread that runs through its findings: Visual media is

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-24201293657413392412007-03-17T16:31:00.000Z2007-06-30T12:18:32.854+01:00

Films Sin City and 300, and the work of stills photographers such as Andrzej Dragan and Jim Fiscus have recently helped popularize a dramatic, dark, muted colour palette style of produced photography. Obviously lighting and post production are the keys to these looks. I'm not going to speculate about how other photographers produce their images other than to state that contrary to many peoples

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4389717652982285095.post-23409656195561047902007-03-14T21:34:00.000Z2007-03-21T21:15:46.175Z

Welcome to the 'Commercial Photography Commentary' blog. I'm Simon Stanmore, a UK based freelance commercial photographer. In the months ahead I'll be commenting on topics related to the commercial photography scene, both in the UK and Worldwide. Some posts will be of interest to many in the industry. Others will be particularly art buyer or photographer orientated. Anyway, enough of the preamble

Simon Stanmorenoreply@blogger.com