Sometimes a concept has to take a number of disparate elements and meld them together into a cohesive whole. It can be a challenge when dealing with tiny details that can make or break your vignette. When it comes to taking care of all the elements that appear in the photo, WE style it so everything appears at its best.
Take this Voodoo Doughnuts and Jimmy Choo heels project: a footwear photography meets food photography mashup with a Studio 3 spin. Voodoo Doughnuts, an iconic Portland mainstay for quirky and delicious donuts, mixes with Jimmy Choo, an iconic upscale shoe brand exemplifying everything that is luxury. Our Team has years of experience in staging props in a way that feels consistent within a single image. Captured by Photographer Matt Jebbia in a studio-designed environment with a studio lighting setup mimicking early morning sunshine, every element in the frame was artfully arranged to keep the viewer’s eye moving through the photo. Every crumb, every morsel, every donut, every prop: angles, shadows, colors, textures, and sizes were chosen specifically to show each piece at its best and tell a story.
What story do you see when you look at this photo?
And, more importantly, how can we style YOUR images to create an unforgettable iconic story? Reach out and see. We’ll have the donuts ready.
Category: Food & Drink
Food Photography – Steak Dinner
You don’t want any photography studio to produce your images. You want someone who not only captures beautiful images, but who also makes YOU look good. Answers the brief, provides a solution, takes care of the details, and turns commercial photography into mouthwatering, jaw-dropping images. Studio 3, Inc. is the solution to any visual challenge – because we not only make images that look fantastic, WE make YOU look good to your clients and customers.
What could look better than a fresh-cooked, hot-from-the-oven dinner, plated and ready for consumption? Shot by David Bell, this photo was styled to elicit the VIP’s restaurant rustic steakhouse feel. David is a pro at dealing with the different temperatures of food and drink and photographing each at its most delicious. The steam coming off the baked potato is natural and was captured in-camera. The steak was cooked to perfection and juice added in artistic splashes by our Production Team. The ice cube in the drink was cast in a spherical mold with a spotlight on it to give it that extra sparkle and hint of cool, chilled deliciousness. The focus on creating Real and Fresh in the scene (rather than digitally altered in post-production) makes each element look natural – and utterly delectable.
Give your visuals the appetizing makeover they deserve. Call Studio 3, you’re always a VIP with us!
Product Photography – Garden Party Tabletop
Sometimes a photo shoot can be intimidating: it involves many moving parts and numerous details to coordinate. The Producers here at Studio 3 take care of everything involving the shoot, so you don’t ever have to worry about the coordination, prop shopping, set styling, model casting, direction, lighting, or post-production. We don’t just put it together, WE Produce It flawlessly so your product takes center stage.
For this Garden Party photo shoot, Producer Liz Swales pulled together all of the serving ware and styled it using her years of prop styling experience to create the perfect outdoor brunch setting. Focusing on bright yellows and blues to illustrate a Summer backyard get-together with the girls, she featured West Elm’s chic Gold Flatware, Textured Salad Plates, and Pad Printed Bowls as the main dinnerware on display. She styled the table with glasses and drinkware from World Market, as well as with numerous items from the extensive Studio 3 prop closet. Miss Liz’s expertise knows how to place each beautiful prop in the perfect location in order to keep the viewer’s eye moving throughout the photo to highlight the product being shot. It’s the placement and styling of each piece in the image that entices the viewer with a lifestyle they will want to buy – translating into direct sales of your product.
The tabletop set was lit expertly by photographer Craig Wagner to simulate bright morning light and make the juicy colors pop. By entrusting Studio 3 with your visual stories, you’ll find that it’s easier and less stressful than you ever imagined to produce a successful shoot from start to finish.
Want to see what we can produce for YOU? Reach out to our team in Portland at 503.238.1748 or in Seattle at 206.282.0939 today to get your product photography produced to a T.
That salad looked so good we couldn’t resist! Stop by for lunch with us anytime.
Lifestyle Photography – Floral Arrangement with Mouse
Working with Studio 3 is a unique and creative experience. Why? Because we don’t just make it look easy, we make it look good, whether your project is large or small, we pay attention to all the details.
Shot by Photographer David Bell, this lifestyle photography shoot added an element of playfulness rather than just sticking with a standard formula. The creative direction was to capture a tabletop arrangement in the style of the old Dutch Masters of still life painting during the Dutch Golden Age – and David’s techniques with lighting, contrast, styling, and framing brought the concept to life. The scattering of the flower petals and the broken pomegranates were arranged with an eye to their disheveled artfulness. By adding a live mouse (accompanied by a binder-ful of signed releases from the pet store!) he added a facet of fun and frivolity to an image that could have just been a beautiful shot of a simple floral arrangement.
Studio 3 goes the extra mile to bring that playfulness – not only within each shot, but also to our production style on-set. There’s a ton of laughter, the clink of dishware hosting delicious food for our clients, excellent jams on the playlist, and a relaxed Studio vibe that still gets the job done – and knocks it out of the park. We’re not ones to shy away from anything – even mouse-wrangling a rodent with stage fright – and will bring that FUN to every stage of the production.
We have what it takes: Give us a ring and capture the image you’re looking for on your next photography, video, or premedia project.
Drink Photography – Reverend Nat's Hard Cider
Our teamwork is like clockwork, and in each and every shoot WE work it to make products look great and entice the viewer.
Virtually invisible when behind-the-scenes, our team members mesh seamlessly to create mouthwatering images and a fantastic client experience. Every moving part in the Studio 3 process works to fashion something more than just the sum of its parts. We have the attention to detail, the creative styling, the mastery of lighting, and the expert technical ability to not only capture the shot, but to go above and beyond each and every time. Any drink photography shot could have been taken to feature this Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider, but our team coordinated to create that perfect pour, resulting in a mouth-watering image that makes it nearly impossible not to “taste” the cider being poured into the glass.
Let us refresh your brand in a way that makes your customers’ mouths water. Let us WORK it on your next product photo shoot, and see that Studio 3 work ethic in action.
Food Photography – Salt
Why should you make a change to Studio 3, Inc. for your photography needs? Because WE make it look good.
These artisan salts could have gotten any creative treatment there is – but Photographer David Bell strove to bring out the pretty in the delectable, sparkly grains. The Studio 3 Team loves all kinds of salts (since numerous varieties of artisan salts are available in dedicated salt shops and markets everywhere lately) so when the chance arose to feature some of our faves we jumped to it. David had some Japanese Wasara single-use recycled heavy duty paper dishes that he had been holding on to specifically for a project like this. The undulating waves of the dish profiles, the texture of the bamboo and bagasse against the salt grains, the dishes placed just so atop the table: all provided a stark contrast in textures and form that David brought out with his masterful use of lighting.
A crisp, hard light was essential to show of all the granules of salt and bring out all the highlights, brightness, grittiness, and coarseness simultaneously. In choosing the lighting setup David also intentionally created shadow beneath the dishes so the eye can distinguish between white table, white dish, and white salt without straining or confusion. He experimented with playing with pattern, repetition, color, and texture to create the images below, mixing salts to achieve that perfect balance of color and a pleasingly harmonious design.
Featured salts:
Hiwa Kai Black Lava Sea Salt / Salish Smoked (Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt) / Fleur de Sel (Flower of Salt) / Alaea (Hawaiian Sea Salt) / Sel Gris (French Grey Sea Salt) / Pure Ocean (Atlantic Sea Salt)
from Artisan Salt, Co. AKA Saltworks, Inc.
Chili Verde Sea Salt / Yakima Applewood Smoked Sea Salt
from Metropolitan Market, Seattle 
Creating a look in photographs is not random but instead full of intention: highly precise and orchestrated to feature the product in its best light.
So what goes into the “look” of your photography? And how can you develop a look that embodies your brand? Call Studio 3, and we’ll make whatever you have to shoot look so amazing…you’ll never need to go looking for a photography partner again.
Happy Thanksgiving – Punch Up Your Holiday Tolerance!
Punch up your holiday tolerance with Studio 3….because the time for family arriving is nigh. For Thanksgiving this year, we wanted to go the less traditional route and showcase some arresting Editorial Photography with a irreverent holiday twist.
Thanksgiving usually brings to mind turkey, stuffing, and time with the fam, so Studio 3 created a concept that breaks with the tradition of poultry and instead puts the spotlight on a festive holiday gathering…with a subtle kick! So the concept that evolved was to feature a bowl of punch being spiked at a large, brightly-lit party setting.
Behind the Scenes of Editorial Photography
Rather than focusing on the product as we might for a straightforward product photography shoot, Photographer Craig Wagner brought out the irony of the scene in-camera with the use of a tilt-shift to control the plane of focus. The camera angle was established ahead of time with our Photography Assistant Jonny Brandt. Ms. Liz whipped up a delicious Spiked Spiced Rum Punch from scratch (recipe appears below). We used a Studio 3 favorite, Below Deck Spiced Rum from Eastside Distilling for the “liquid courage” to add to the punch. For the shot the liquor bottle was not actually filled with rum- why waste good spirits in drink photography? Instead, we removed the citrusy rum (to enjoy for later) and replaced with a Studio 3 standby: Kitchen Bouquet, a food styling tool of ours for creating browned foods and beverages in photos. Thus in the final image above, the model is actually pouring Kitchen Bouquet into a concealed catch basin inside the punchbowl so the punch does not change color or increase in volume during the shot – a little trick we’ve been using for decades in our beverage photography. And no, that doesn’t make for a consumable beverage afterwards…but it’s all in how it appears on camera.
Since this holiday brings to mind both the happiness and disharmony of putting in an appearance at the yearly family gathering, why not make your own Studio 3 Tolerance Punch (sans Kitchen Bouquet) to get yourself blitzed ahead of time? You’ll be ultra-ready for when those in-laws come ringing your doorbell, guaranteed.
Happy Thanksgiving from the Studio 3 Team!
Producer: Liz Swales
Photographer: Craig Wagner
Photography Assistant: Jonny Brandt
Equipment: Hasselblad H-4D camera, 50mm lens with tilt-shift
Lighting: Speedotron with diffusion and modifiers
Cranberry and Spiced Rum Punch Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 orange, zested
- 2 Mexican cinnamon sticks
- 5 whole cloves
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped peeled ginger
- ⅓ cup water
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 (25 ¼-ounce) bottle sparkling cider (about 3¼ cups), chilled
- 4 cups cranberry juice cocktail, chilled
- 1 (1-liter) bottle club soda
- 1 cup dark rum
Directions
1. Bring the orange zest, cinnamon sticks, cloves, ginger, water, and sugar to a boil in a small heavy saucepan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Reduce the heat and then simmer, covered, 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let steep, uncovered, for 1 hour.
2. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, discarding the solids.
3. Combine the remaining ingredients with the spiced syrup in a punch bowl and stir. Add ice before serving.
Recipe by Aaron Sanchez, from Food Network
Food Photography – Mac & Cheese Shoot
This Mac & Cheese food photography shoot showcases the Studio 3 creative Team’s exceptional ability with food photography and food styling. The goal was to show the quintessential down-home comfort food (macaroni & cheese) in a cozy Fall table setting, creating a warm, family-inspired atmosphere. The color palette featured an array of rustic wood, reds, and yellows…but with a Seattle twist. A Thanksgiving with friends = a “Friendsgiving.” The resulting photo depicts a homey environment in a beautiful, relatable way.
David Bell was the ideal choice as photographer for this shoot since creating a dark, moody atmosphere is one of his many skills. David and our fabulous Producer Ms. Megan spent half a day just working on the lighting and playing with the tilt-shift the week before the shoot. The tilt shift adapter is a favorite tool of Mr. Bell’s, allowing more control of the plane of focus. With this he was able to get the essential shallow focus to the shot, directing where the viewer looks. Due to the extensive lighting preparation once the model was actually on-set, the shoot was executed seamlessly within just 2 hours, making the model budget reasonable.
The team utilized an old cast iron skillet that had been loved for many years, and mis-matched bowls to give the sense of Seattle “found” goods. (It seems to be a recent trend in food photography and prop styling to have an eclectic collection of silverware, plates, bowls, glasses etc. instead of “matched sets” of everything – check out the latest issues of your favorite food and lifestyle magazines to see this in action!). In trying to stay authentic to the creative vision, we used the bowls as our (seemingly) random element and kept consistency with the silverware and glassware. Cider right now is the new beer (isn’t it, though?) and we have a BIG love for local ciders, so wanted to make that option available on our endless prop table. The request for a model with a hipster vibe took us visiting tattoo parlors instead of the normal modeling agencies. 
Besides the food, the model’s arms were the most important element in the image. We needed someone that had interesting colors, patterns, and art covering their whole forearms, and ideally, with tattoos on their hands as well. (No makeup necessary!) We originally toyed with the idea of a woman serving the food, but thought that was too conventional. We settled on a rugged PNW (that’s Pacific Northwest for those of you not familiar with our local slang!) male with the perfect amount of unique designs, color, and composition to his tattoos. This edgy element really took the shot to the next level.
Food Photography Essentials in a Professional Photoshoot
*Food photography often has a short window of time before the food starts to cool off or look less than “appetizing.” Unlike other product photography shoots, there is a time-sensitive imperative to capture the shot quickly.
*Allow time before the shoot to extensively text lighting setups and prop styling. The more time spent beforehand on these details, the more efficiently the shoot can be carried out. (Time is money!)
*The Producer’s skills are essential in executing the shoot and in coordinating all the necessary logistics. Our Producer Megan Nolan has years of experience with Food and Beverage Photography, so is able to coordinate efficiently and effectively to capture that perfect shot.
Producer: Megan Nolan
Props: Megan Nolan
Wardrobe: Megan Nolan
Comic Relief & Prop Removal…aka eater of mac: Chris Eltrich
Photographer: David Bell
Digital Artist: Alex Gumina
Model: Michael Lopez
Camera: Hasselblad V-Series with a 35mm lens and the tilt shift adapter
Lighting: Speedotron Fresnel flash head
Check out more of our food photography here – but we’re not responsible if your mouth starts watering uncontrollably. And if you’re in the market for photography that makes your products, beverages, and food entice, give us a ring anytime.
Pick Up The Phone!
Stressed about your company’s visual needs? Would you rather spend time having fun in the sun? Let Studio 3 ease your mind this summer. We’ve been smashing out countless videos back to back, while continuously providing outstanding photography and flawless production. Oh, did we also mention that our digital team is amaze balls? Trust us, you don’t want to be the only tanless, overworked one at the company party because you didn’t know about Studio 3. Save the embarrassment of all the “are you kidding me?” looks. We’ll make sure you meet that crazy deadline. There’s no reason to miss out on all the perks of working with Studio 3. And no reason to keep on reading, you’re wasting precious beach time – make a Pina Colada, and start dialing!! Make that golden phone call!!!
And to make it that much easier, if you didn’t have our number yet, here ya go:
Portland Studio 503.238.1748, ask for Dalcetta
Seattle Studio 206.282.0939, ask for Marcella