Tag: studio 3

Spirit Week in the Studio

Posted on by Studio 3 Inc

Ready? OKAY!

In the Studio with Dehen

Our PDX location had its very own Spirit Week as Dehen Cheer paid us a visit. Dehen manufactures custom cheer and dance uniforms. Thusly our spacious, new northeast studio was overtaken by color, hairspray, pom poms and tons of pep!

Maekup time in Studio Dehen

Glamourous photoshoots require glamourous setups. There was no shortage of makeup on hand. Our studio has lots natural light to get the models camera ready.

Dehen Studio homework

Being a high schooler on the set doesn’t mean getting the day off. These young women were hard at work in between shots. We asked what their favorite part of being in the studio was:
“There are so many good snacks!”
“Getting to know others teams outside of the competition.”
“I can nap on the couch until it’s my turn to be in front of the camera!”

Cheer-rex
Emerson showing off her patented “Cheer-Rex” pose.

We love working with kids! Emerson, the youngest person at the photoshoot, had a lot to say regarding her first modeling gig: “It is exciting. I like when they did my hair. Everyone is kind here and it is fun” adding, “I hope to get into karate next year.”

Big, grand productions are a specialty of ours at both the Portland and Seattle locations!  We are more than a photo studio; let us handle the model releases, food, and all other behind-the-scenes needs. Give us a call and take over our studio.

Same Friendly Faces, Great New Location

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Old Location PlaqueOld Location 3 in Cement

We’ve had a busy week here in the Studio 3 Portland branch. As is the norm in PDX, we’ve moved! Yes, after 40 years in the same location we decided it was time to shake things up a bit.

OOOH SPACE at our new locationAhh look at that open space! After months of waiting, we have finally moved into the heart of the bustling Kerns neighborhood in Northeast Portland. Creative, fun, vibes are inevitable here as our new location is surrounded by theaters, restaurants, parks, art galleries, few urban farms and our neighbors, Kamp Grizzly.

Towering Boxes

We loved our time in the Southeast, and we take with us the many years of memories. Memories that we sorted and packed into hundreds of boxes. Boxes that have now formed rising towers, reflecting our decades of innovative commercial photography.

Stash-Tea-drink-photography-studio-3

A little change of scenery has proven invigorating. We are buzzing with new ideas and our studio is ready to handle whatever project your brand may have. We are all settled in, so now is the time to swing by either Portland or Seattle location, grab a cup of coffee and let’s chat about your photography needs.

Salad, Sangria, & Salmon: Get Foody With S3

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The school year is here but before you say goodbye to all the summer festivities, remember there are still plenty of weekends to salvage the warm weather and sparkling sunshine. Which, as we know, is especially important to us PNWers who are used to…let’s say… a “shadier” type of living. It’s like we all announce, a packed week calls for a packed weekend!
Here at Studio 3 we LOVE cookouts. So why not sneak in one last backyard BBQ full of salad, sangria, and salmon?
It’s always great to start with fresh ingredients from Portland Farmers Market.
cooking_lemon_chives
Easy tip: Use the Chef’n Citrus Juicer for a delectable topping to your salad.
Food Green Salad Cheese
When you’re waiting for your charcoal to heat up on the grill, why not whip up this Sangria recipe made with Stash Tea.
Green Tea Sangria
Grilling adds smokiness and texture to your salmon – it’s also an essential for any sort of backyard meal. Are you fishing for the perfect salmon recipe?
salmon on grill next to vegetables
Salmon Sandwich
Fall is around the corner but there’s still time for fun. Enjoy this meal and remember to soak up the sun. (and DRINK!).

Stop, Drop, & Knoll

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Coined in 1987 by Andrew Kromelow, Knolling is the process of arranging like objects in parallel or 90 degree angles as a method of organization.

Kromelow worked as the janitor for Frank Gehry’s furniture fabrication shop, which at the time was designing for Knoll, Inc. Knoll is known for its angular and modern designs and has over 30 pieces recognized and displayed in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Each night when Kromelow would go to clean-up, he would arrange Gehry’s tools in the form of 90 degree angles for order, visibility, and optimal use. Kromelow called this process “Knolling.”

Years later when contemporary artist, Tom Sachs began working at the fabrication shop he adopted Kromelow’s style of organization as a form of art. He became so inspired by it that he came up with his own personal matra of “Always be Knolling.” This was modeled after Gehry’s famous in-house saying of “Always be closing.”

When Sach’s art became public, the Knolling craze took-off.

Camping_Story

And so, to keep Sach’s mantra alive, studio photographer, Chris Eltrich teamed up with commercial stylist, Tristan Weholt to map out and capture Studio 3’s take on camping just in time for the 4th of July.

We know what you’re thinking, “how could you forget the beer and hot dogs!?” Every 4th of July, Americans consume 155 million hot dogs; Many of which are probably roasted over an open fire and enjoyed next to a lakeside view. With that said, need the perfect place to pitch a tent? We have a few suggestions. But regardless of what you do or where you are this 4th of July, don’t forget how lucky you are to be an American. Even if that means shot-gunning as many patriotic brews as you can. Cheers and Knoll on!

Dial In, Tune Out, and Paint the Town Red With Studio 3

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Very few things are redder than Anne Hathaway at the 2014 Met Gala. Okay, okay… we know what you’re thinking, but let’s keep Taylor Swift out of this. Y’see, here at Studio 3, we like to keep our trend radar always on alert. We don’t just imitate what we see: we think it, we feel it, we breathe it, and we take it to the next level just like our Digital Don, Carl Beery did with his flashy tattoo. That’s why we weren’t going to stand to be challenged by any strutting star on the run-way. While there were many red hot looks this spring, Studio 3 DEFINITELY “wore it best” this season with our rouge rotary ringer, captured by one of OUR personal stars, Photographer Chris Eltrich. Take THAT Fantine. RedPhoneRedSurface_0698 Chris made this image possible through the application of a solid red sheet of plexi glass and a vibrantly colored vintage phone. Besides being inspired by our timeless fashion finesse, Photographer Chris Eltrich explains that he wanted to shoot this because “the phone is very ‘in YO’ face.’ When you look at it all you can think is ‘Pick it up! You pick up that phone!'” We believe that a response that good isn’t generated from just any old red thing “reigning” the runway. With that said, I think it’s safe to assume that there’s absolutely NOTHING that Studio 3 can’t handle. You have a crazy project for us? Bring it on. We’re more than confident that we can produce A1 results, because nothing makes us happier than “wow-ing” you.

The Colorway Explained

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Our digital art department is well-versed in colorways. In recent months, we have completed up to over 1,000 colorways, and that’s just for one client! These colorways, are always accurate due to our in house proofing system, as well as our department’s expertise on matching color. Since this has become an essential need for our current clients, we thought we would share with you exactly how we go about changing color for catalogs, packaging, etc. Digital lead Alex Gumina gives you the dish on how he approaches these specific jobs.

When I approach any digital project I always ask myself three questions. “What needs to be done?”, “How much time are we working with?” and “What is the most efficient way to get from A to B?”. Once the first two questions are answered, I move on to developing my approach. Like most things, when it comes to something like changing the color of a product there are many ways to go about it. This particular shoe project was massive (reference below image), so we needed something that would get the job done, and also be interchangeable between our team of Digital Artists.  With these things in mind we developed a two layer per color method. What this means is that for each color that needed to be changed, we used two layers in our photoshop document to adjust that color. If there were five colors that meant ten layers.
Once we got the color down, we were able to go back in and adjust things per the client. If we needed more highlights or more shadows we were able to go back in and add those on without disturbing the quality of the color. Or, if the color was slightly off, we were able to shift it into place with minimal effort. It was almost like a digital assembly line for touch up and color work. Given the scope of the project and our air tight deadline this was extremely invaluable.

Colorway

To Check Out More of our Colorways, visit our Pre-Media section.

And to have the best catalog ever, give us a call, we would be happy to come up with a plan of action!

Portfolio Perfection!

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At Studio 3, we are constantly improving our portfolio by being inspired by photography trends, current advertising campaigns, as well as feedback from local portfolio shows. This particular shoot was meant for photographer Craig Wagner. We had been constantly receiving client needs that included drinks, food, incorporated in a lifestyle environment. We decided to meet this need, by heading to a Portland hotspot, Produce Row. Below you can read Liz Swales, the Portland producer’s take on the shoot…

The Seattle marketing team came to me with the request of adding some beautiful, natural, and simple lifestyle, drink shots to Craig Wagner’s portfolio.
The first thing that came to my mind was Produce Row, a place that I used to manage and call home. The bar, lighting, classic nature and overall feel of the well known restaurant and bar in Portland, Oregon made it a dream to shoot in.
We were able to use what Produce Row has to offer, lots of whiskey, fancy mixology, and a bar with 25 taps. It was the perfect set up. With the addition of Craig’s beautiful lighting and creativity, we were able to create classy images that met the request.
I set up the shoot among two days, knowing from previous experience that there are only about 3 hours in the day the restaurant is slow. I didn’t want our shoot to affect or be effected by their overall patrons.
This made our team work well and get our creative ideas working in a timely fashion.
It was a great experience combining efforts with our team and my old team at Produce Row, while capturing the beauty and knowledge of drink mixing.
-Liz Swales

And of course, this story wouldn’t be complete without Craig Wagner’s insight on how he was able to capture such beautiful images.

The sequence of the bartender making a drink are amongst my favorite, I created a bit of energy by dragging the shutter to allow movement, the soft natural light was a bonus.
With mixology being all of the rage these days, I thought it be nice to expand my portfolio with some environmental shots, my producer sent our scout to a few locations including Produce Row, which was remodeled in 2010, the space, environment and lighting made it the perfect choice for this particular project.
Shooting on location can be challenging, light conditions can change rapidly, space can be tight and you may need to shoot during business
hours. We chose to break the shoot into two afternoon sessions to lower our impact on their patrons.
A large bank of north facing windows provided beautiful natural light. Only using a flexfill and a kicker light in addition allowed us to move
around the venue quickly.
-Craig Wagner

Check out Craig Wagner’s beautiful images below and be sure to give us a call for your next on location shoot!
portfolio
Produce Row
Produce Row
Produce Row
Produce Row
Produce Row

Raising the Bar with Anthro

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Recently, our video department had the exciting opportunity of shooting for Anthro Corporation. Anthro started with a plan to make technology for furniture. Our plan was to take their vision, highlight their latest addition, and bring it to life. Director David King speaks more in depth about putting together this clean and subtly sexy clip!

For anyone who has a job where spending long stretches sitting at a desk is a requirement, I’m sure there are many a day you wish you could just stand up for a while, stretch the back, get the blood flowing back into the legs, and keep on working. When I’m wearing my editor’s hat, it’s not uncommon to pull 10-12 hour shifts sitting in front of the computer. Because of this, when we renovated our edit suite here at Studio 3 Films, finding an adjustable work surface that could be used while sitting or standing was top of the wish list. Once you do any research at all on the subject, the company that tops your search list is Portland-based Anthro Technology Furniture. As an editor, I’ve been aware of Anthro’s product line for many years and was thrilled to be able to build our new edit suite around a desk from the Anthro Elevate series. Motorized height adjustment, tilting keyboard surface, cable management and adjustable monitor arms make this workstation infinitely adjustable for maximum ergonomic comfort. I’m standing as I write this!

Shortly after getting the new desk, Anthro approached us with a need for a video, showcasing one of their desks for an upcoming trade show. While I knew Anthro for their creative field products, they are also very big in the education and medical furniture fields. The product that we were asked to feature is called “Steve’s Station”; a Radiology Desk, featuring acoustic panels, dimmable ambient light, as well as Anthro’s signature height adjustment. The folks at Anthro had a vision of showcasing Steve’s Station as if it were a luxury car, using sexy, low-key lighting, subtle camera movement and a moody music score. I’ve worked on dozens of car commercials over the years so I knew exactly what they wanted and thought it would be great fun to translate that look and feel to an adjustable workstation. It was certainly easier to light without all the reflective surfaces you get from an automobile.

-David King

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Drinks on Seattle Magazine!

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Seattle Magazine recently approached Chris Eltrich, to do a drink photography shoot. Seattle Magazine’s goal was to showcase the best watering holes in Seattle. In order to truly capture the spirit of each Seattle destination, they gave Studio 3 the task of capturing each bar’s signature cocktail’s unique look and recipe. Luckily, we had help from a mixologist, from each bar. The mixologists whipped up the drinks, and we couldn’t be happier with their styling skills.
On set, we enjoyed hanging out with all of the talented mixologists and testing all of the different cocktails. Our favorite beverage included the salad drink, it made us all feel quite “healthy”. It’s multipurpose nature, won us all over. However, with that said there wasn’t a cocktail that didn’t agree with at least one of us! We can’t wait to visit these spots as a team and try all of their fun drinks!
Besides the team having a blast on set, Seattle magazine was quite impressed with the results, running one of the images as the cover. Stephanie Mennella, from Seattle Magazine, shared a few words with us on the feedback received regarding the images:

It looks AMAZING!! It’s getting tons of compliments, and I appreciate the extra mile you guys went to accommodate the hectic schedule of getting all the drinks shot.

With such awesome words, we couldn’t help but feel great. It’s always a blast working with Seattle Magazine, especially when spirits are involved. We look forward to our next shoot with them and hope perhaps it involves Seattle’s best restaurants…
On that note, we expect the months ahead to be full of fun drink photography shoots and hope to get a call to work with you on your next drink project!

drink photographyThe infamous salad cocktail from Rocco’s

 

Drink PhotographyA delightful concoction from Cafe Flora

 

Drink PhotographyThe cover image, a beautiful treat from Stoneburner

 
This edition of Seattle Magazine is now available on newsstands, so check it out!