Food Photographer David Bell Fish Out of Water

It’s finally summer and that means summer food, like delicious fish…or sardines? David Bell Studio 3’s Food Photographer had quite the challenge ahead of him making the shiny, little fish look quite scrumptious. He decided to shoot a recipe of sardines, radishes, and lemon, highlighting the freshness of it all. Read below to learn about his techniques and inspiration behind the series:

I wanted to shoot this particular recipe, because it is that time of year when the radishes are fresh, yummy, and abundant. As you will see in the images the radishes are roasted, which brings out that fresh, rich flavor that we all love. Not to mention the beautiful color!

Food Photographer

Pairing the radishes with a strong taste, like sardines, makes a very nice earth and ocean dish…delighting the taste buds. Knowing the mix between the two I knew I wanted to create a beautiful daylight effect. Being the control freak that I am I knew I could control this lighting and really bring out the uniqueness of this dish and to create that I used the Studio Strobes. I used the Hasselblad tilt shift adapter to capture the details and showcase the beauty in the elements. I wanted a surface that was not too rustic or modern. My intention was to find a table that could easily be in ones home or even a restaurant.
In the images below I was trying to attain a real & natural look, without everything being overly styled and perfect. For this project I chose to work with a stylist that was trying to break into the industry. This was a fun experience!
I think the lack of perfection in the styling is what draws you in and makes you want to try the dish. I hope this series will make the viewer want to experiment with sardines and fresh, earthy produce!

Food Photographer

Food Photographer

To view more Food Photography images created at Studio 3 please click here!

Product Photographer Craig Wagner Time for a Dip!

Product Photographer Craig Wagner puts his creative skills to use for our client Nixon. Utilizing natural elements to add drama and movement brings these watch images to life. Read below for a few words from Craig!

This photo shoot required a lot of teamwork and was a problem solver’s dream. It was obvious that digital art would be needed but I chose to capture as much as we could in camera giving the final image a surreal look.

For the first image of the Nixon Dip Dye collection we utilized the Profoto Pro-8a 2400 power packs for their high flash duration to capture the water splashes and their impressive recycle time to capture the floating colored dyes.  Studio3’s custom made “Time-Delay” triggering device allowed us to precisely control the amount and height of each splash.  Managing the colored dye proved to be the real creative challenge on this shoot.  Our studio producer rounded up a variety of colored powdered pigments and dyes to suspend in the water.  We were surprised to find that regular kitchen food coloring provided us the results we were after.  To get the right amount of movement of the dye we used a 33 gallon tank which allowed us enough water space to create just the right current.  
Product Photographer
The second image below of the Nixon Velvet collection was shot on black plexiglass utilizing our Roscoe smoke machine. which we love to pull off the shelf and add into many of our fun creative shoots.  Finding that the smoke was a big challenge to manage its direction and flow on such a small set, we turned to dry-ice which provided a smaller much more controllable amount of vapor flow.  Adding colored gels to our strobes really made the smoke stand out and added a lot of movement to the overall image.  Nixon’s creative team was great to work with.  They had a (tight) solid concept but were very open to experimentation and my team’s input. This shoot gave us the opportunity to play with some new equipment, pull some of our fun gadgets off the shelves and exercise our creativity to bring these Nixon watches to life!

Product Photographer

To view these on the Nixon website click here!

Studio 3 Films Director David King and Hog Wild's President Joe Rooper discuss their latest video project!

Studio 3 Films, Behind the Scenes, Click Shot Commercial Video, Power Popper Commercial Video
 

Studio 3 Films is so excited to partner with Hogwild in Portland to highlight their latest products! For insight into this video project read below to hear from our Director, David King!

Hog Wild, a Portland toy company and one of our long-time photography clients, came to us with a need for two video commercials to launch their newest products: Click Shots and Power Poppers. Both spots were to be shot in studio, featuring kids, voiceover and a lot of action.  We brought in frequent collaborator and Director of Photography Andy Maser with his RED Epic for the shoot.  We wanted to shoot with the RED for a couple of reasons: 240 frames per second, slow motion would help us capture the fast action of the products and the 4k resolution at 24 frames would give us the option of doing some fast, optical zooms in post production.

We shot the spots over two days; one day at Studio 3, and because our stage was already booked for another shoot, we shot the next day at Picture This Studios. While not professionals, the kids were fantastic. The RED Epic performed as expected. Two weeks later, the post production was done and the spots were on their way to Hong Kong for one of the biggest toy trade shows in the world.

“Studio 3 produced two .30 TV commercials for us. Both were for toy products brand new to the market and both need high energy and pizzazz. We gave them a decent script and storyboard but what they came back with based upon their creative input, camera techniques, direction and post production was a mile above where we started. We’ve used other companies for our TV spots in the past but we’re incredibly happy with the results we received from Studio 3.  Three thumbs up for their creative smarts, direction and technical expertise.” President/CEO Hogwild

Meet Liz! Production Coordinator Lady of Many Talents

We are so excited to introduce our newest member to the Studio 3 team. Her name is Liz Swales, and she has effortlessly joined our PDX studio as our Production Coordinator. She’s excited about working on projects from Commercial Photography, Video Production, CGI, and Post Production services! She’s a woman of many talents and charisma, read below to learn more:

I am a crazy, obsessive organized person, that doesn’t feel right without a to-do list in one hand and a phone in the other. With these enduring qualities I knew I needed to find a place that could harbor my talents and keep me constantly busy. Hence I found Studio 3, a place full of awesome creatives and a need for someone to keep it all together. I am very excited to learn about the innovative methods of Food Photography, the excitement of Lifestyle Photography, the craziness of Video Production, the intricacies of CGI/Digital Animation and the language of Digital Art.
Once my to-do list is checked off, I sit back, relax, pour myself a glass of red wine (from Oregon), and nibble on some authentic cheese. I’ve been hard pressed to find a cheese I don’t like. You can also find me walking my adorable Beagle Swijen up on Mt. Tabor (coffee in hand), decorating my house with inspiration from my favorite design magazines, cuddling up to watch a dramatic movie, singing my heart out, to the track: Brass in Pocket, and always participating in impromptu dance parties. I hope to have one with the team on our studio’s turntable, with a 360-degree spin! I just have to convince the team!

Production Coordinator
We look forward to seeing Liz grow in her new role and develop long term relationships with our stellar clients. Who knows, maybe she’ll get the Studio 3 team dancing?!

Product Photographer Matt Jebbia Dior Brush!

Product Photographer Matt Jebbia set out with a goal of showing movement in a still object. His inspiration of the beauty product industry shines below in his latest image.  Read below for a few words from Matt.

Its well known around the studio that I have a little fetish for beauty products.  Not for personal use per se, but I find them a lot of fun to photograph.  For one there are so many different varieties, with all kinds of colors, glass, metals, and plastics to choose from.  I started a few months ago shooting a couple of Dior products and decided to continue to add to my portfolio with this Dior brush.  My goal with this image was to add to the current series of beauty product images centered around the Dior brand and I wanted to add some life to the Dior brush given that it’s a static object.
Product Photographer
So I decided to throw some powder onto the brush and blow it away.  I started by setting up two rim lights accenting the brush from just behind and to the right and left side of the brush.  Studio 3’s photographer – David Bell uses this lighting setup for some of his shoots and I decided it would work perfectly for the image I wanted to create.  Adding a small silver reflector in front of the camera added some light to the front of the brush and brought out the silver tones in the brush banding.  With the static image in place I added powder to the top of the brush and a Nikon SB 800 speed-light from below to add some light to the powder as I blew it off the brush with canned air.  It took a bit of trial and error to get the desired powder bursts, but in the end I loved several of the captures so much I decided to have our amazing digital artists composite several of the powder bursts into the final image. – Matt Jebbia

Commercial Photographer David Bell Tick Tock!

Commercial Photographer David Bell had some spare time on his hands, and the inspiration to create a collection of beautiful images showcasing the technology and texture of the Diesel watch collection. A few words from David…

I decided to shoot a collection of Deisel watches in order to create a new product photography series for my portfolio. I’ve always loved how fascinating a watch can be from the technology, materials, gadgets, weight, and pure beauty of the details.
I included added textures to highlight the specific components of each watch by photographing them in different environments to compliment the design. I chose these products due to the challenge and pleasure I derive from photographing something with extreme complexity. My goal was to make the watches stand out individually and seen as a series. I wanted them to pop and stand alone from the backgrounds in a hero type fashion. I chose the backgrounds based on specific element in the watches so it had a beautiful composition. As you can see the bold watches were matched with dark and gritty backgrounds to compliment the gears.
I chose to work with the Hasselblad H3D-39 megapixel back camera with the tilt shift adapter. The decision to use this camera which is a medium format platform is due to the large sensor that allows for capturing fine details. The high res nature of this equipment is my ideal shooting device. My chosen lighting technique was either dramatic or high key depending on the background and the end look I desired. I used the Speedtron Studio Strobe Lighting kit with utilizing grids, spots and floods; that helped with creating the desired effect. I am looking forward to my next inspiration and having a day off to play and be creative. Enjoy the collection below!

Commercial Photographer

Commercial Photographer

Commercial Photographer

Commercial Photographer

Commercial Photographer

Commercial Photographer

Commercial Photographer

Commercial Photographer

Commercial Product Photographer Craig Wagner Live Hard Work Hard!

We all agree around Studio 3 that Craig Wagner is one of the hardest working photographers around.  And his lighting skills are truly amazing!  What he can do with an ordinary pile of broken concrete and a pair of work boots rocks! A few thoughts from Commercial Product Photographer Craig Wagner!

This was truly a smoke and mirrors shot. I returned from a location shoot to a pile of rubble sitting in the studio. This was left over from a previous project. How could I let this opportunity pass? I pulled a few tools from my garage for props, contrasted the rough concrete texture with smoke, and asked my producer to locate a pair of boots. Nothing like a bit of inspiration after a shoot day!
I found myself in a rock and a hard place on this project due to working alone, which I may add, I do prefer sometimes during photo testing. It can greatly help with the creative juices. Normally, as a team we get extremely involved in the concepting process, but this project was extremely spontaneous. So it was completely up to me!
Commercial Product Photographer
 
I had to operate the Hasselblad and the Roscoe Smoke Machine at the same time. What to do? I recently downloaded Phocus App for my Iphone 5 that enabled me to trigger the camera and operate the smoke machine while being away from the eye of the camera. I am not trying to do a big recommendation for this App, but its pretty cool. It allows me to completely control the camera functions with not being tied to the camera or the computer and it even gives me a preview mode so I’m not running back and forth to the computer screen. This is a really great tool for our Commercial Photography clients and one of the great things about working at Studio 3 is we are always up to date on the latest technology!

Beverage Photographer David Bell Espresso Made Easy!

It’s a known fact that all of us, at Studio 3 Inc., love coffee. One thing we love more than drinking this delectable beverage is highlighting its beauty through the lens. Our most recent Drink Series was shot and the set was designed by Beverage Photographer David Bell, characterizing the steps necessary to make a fantastic cup of coffee with the amazing Moka Pot. David, details his inspiration behind this specific shoot, along with his love for the product:

When I was in Italy, staying with a family, this was how our coffee was made every day. What a wonderful memory! Ahhh…the smell of espresso is always accessible when you have a Moka Pot, more commonly known as the “stovetop espresso maker”. The coffee that the Moka Pot makes is a cross between espresso and drip coffee. It’s simplicity is similar to Instant Coffee with an amazing flavor. It’s strong, but not bitter – perfection!

This product was brought to us thanks to it’s wonderful creators Luigi De Ponti and Alfonso Bialetti. This invention, has made enjoying espresso available to everyone, which is what I wanted to showcase in my step by step imagery. So I decided to create a series showcasing the brilliance of this machine.

I shot this series utilizing one of my favorite cameras the Hasselblad H-39. I also used a very long lens in order to capture the detail and the background. For image composition I used bright colored cups to help separate the pot from the background. This helps to create color and interesting reflections in the product.

As long as you have the right bean variety and grind, you can always count on a wonderful cup of joe anytime of day!

David Bell’s Espresso Made Easy Image Series is below!

Beverage Photographer

Beverage Photographer

Beverage Photographer

Beverage Photographer

Beverage Photographer

 
To view more Drink Photography created by David Bell and other photographers at Studio 3 please click here!

Technology Photographer Henry Ngan Up Close and Personal!

Tech-Guru and Photographer Henry Ngan takes us on a micro journey into the inner workings of an Intel board.  If you have ever wondered what runs the high processing computer systems of today check out these beautiful images.  Read on for a few words from Henry on this tech savvy shoot and yes we call him the Technology Photographer here at Studio 3!

 If you look at this internal computer hardware in ordinary light, it would look very industrial and a little on the rough side like maybe an uncut diamond. So my inspiration was to make this motherboard look more like polished jewelry basking in really nice golden light.

Technology Photographer

The other image was more Star Wars like in cool light. I had to handle the board and attached components very carefully guarding against static charges which would render the product useless. There were only 2 light sources used but the lighting was expanded in many directions using lots of reflectors of different sorts and mirrors. This was shot with a Canon 5D MkIII camera with a 100mm lens and some depth of field optimizing software.

Technology Photographer

On board the DQ77MK is Intel’s 3rd Generation Core i5 3570K unlocked, based on the 22nm Ivy Bridge Architecture.  The 3570K seems to be the gamer and over clocker’s choice at the moment.  So I decided to capture this Intergalactic Battleship with the 3570K mounted in the LGA1155 socket cruising overhead in the night sky. The other image of the Q77 chipset board shows off the amazing array of input/output headers, including SuperSpeed USB 3.0, high power USB, dual Intel Pro 1000 NICs, DVI-I plus DVI-D, eSATA, and even legacy support for IEEE1394 (firewire).  The board is actually more of a mainstream business board with support for Intel vPro Technology.  The i7 3770K is also supported on this board if you need HT for video editing.  Sorry for geeking out but this is what goes through my mind when I’m shooting technology. – Henry Ngan