Shooting Invitations

July 28th, 2009 by Kris

So, my wife, Lynn, has started a new little biz, Flourish Paperie. Where she’s making hand made invitations. Really cool handmade invites that are rooted in old school art stuff. So, let’s talk about photographing these!

Get High, Get Low

shooting-tabletop-invitations

With table top stuff you need to make a few quick decisions, BEFORE you shoot it.

  • Who is the Audience?
  • What is the Purpose of these shots?
  • What do you want these to Feel like?
  • Are there any client Requirements?
  1. Alright, audience for this set of images is brides to be, pregnant women, and people throwing showers and parties for these respective ladies.
  2. The purpose of these shots are to generate a sales lead, if that takes to form of a call back or website visit, that all depends in the marketing placement of these pictures. This time, that’s not our job!
  3. Because of these first two answers we want these to feel warm and inviting and approachable.
  4. The only client requirement is that we showcase the texture of the handmade designs.

So step one Get High!

We need to show people what these look like, right? So I found this cool dark wood table, set up a “fake daylight” setup and dropped ‘em in.

invitation-high-shot

invitation-2-high-shot

invitation-3-high-shot

Now that we’ve documented the high angle, shown people what these look like, now it’s time to Get Low, and let them get an idea of they feel like!

So I brought the camera down to eye level and the gradually moved up, after all we are shooting sheets of paper, there has to be a little angle on them. Same lighting setup, different camera angle.

invitation-low-shot

invitation-2-low-shot

invitation-3-low-shot

So there you go! Here are some take away bullet points for you:

  • determine audience, purpose, and feel BEFORE you start shooting
  • make sure you listen to any client request, and implement them.
  • figure out a lighting setup that is duplicatable at the very least, better yet a setup that you can just move the camera to a new angle and touch a thing.
  • Get High, then Get Low; Make sure we know what it is that you’re shooting before you get all artsy on us!

That’s about it. Now go shoot till you fingers bleed!! Then it’s your turn to share.

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