Welcome to the Website

Look Fab Moments in Contract Lighting Magazine

Upshot, a Chicago based marketing firm hired me mid summer to photograph their project for Proctor and Gamble Canada. The results have won numerous awards for Upshot and since resulted in a cover story in the Nov/Dec 08 issue of Contract Lighting Magazine. PDF here: http://www.contractlighting.net/mag.cfm

How I Work: During the Shoot (Part 2)

I do have many techniques that I use on the shoot as well as in post production. I pre-visualize each shot so if I happen to tell you that it will be okay when you get the final, please trust me. Things like shadow and highlight detail, contrast, color balance and the like are best left for my workstation at the office. I never trust a laptop screen, especially when I have no control over the lighting in which it is viewed. If you think it looks good on the laptop screen, trust me, it will look great on a calibrated monitor.

The best way to get great images is to make sure we have a good crew. An art director, stylist and a general crew work best with a larger shoot. Small shoots call for art direction only. The main thing with many shoots is having a crew that helps to move merchandise and product back to their original place once we finish with a shot. This allows us to move on and keep schedule. Many times it’s hard to keep track of where merchandise comes from as we are moving items around to fill out racks and shelves. While we do try hard to return everything properly, I can say that after working all night throughout the store, it can become difficult to find the proper place for everything. We try the best we can. Once finished at the site, we pack up, clean up, say our good-byes and head out of Dodge.

How I Work: During the Shoot (Part 1)

It becomes very hard to analyze what I do on a shoot. After so many years photography becomes so intuitive that I seem to just roll with it, and the next thing you know, the shoot is over. I won’t go into detail about techniques, lighting and the like-mainly sticking with procedure here.

First off, when working at night, once I start working I usually don’t stop. I would rather get the job done and try to get some sleep than to take a break sitting on a hard floor. Besides, I can’t rest knowing that there is more to do. The most important things as you might guess would be camera angle, merchandising and lighting. We work as a team with the art director, merchandising, and store crew (if there are any) to set each shot to its full potential within the given time parameters. I like to start at the front of the set and move back as foreground is most important. Many times, little things in the background can be taken care of with a little cloning in Photoshop later if it means we can maintain a schedule.

I like to get as close as I can to a final image on set as possible. As I do final work on each image back in the studio, I believe the place to correct each shot is while shooting it. If I know that I have to do any work in post later, I will shoot for the optimum files to make that as easy as possible.

While shooting, I bring up the image on my laptop to view for any possible problems. I check focus, lighting and merchandising and will discuss if there are any ways to make the image better. Once again, we have to be aware of time constraints and change plans accordingly. I have the ability to work fairly fast on a shoot. Much of what I do becomes intuitive so while a new client may think I’m just placing lights at random, there is a reason for my placing everything where it is. If there are any concerns about an angle, I might shoot the image two ways to speed things along, and allow for a later decision. Like I said, I like to keep it moving…

How I Work: Before the Shoot

Everyone has their own style of working, subtleties in their style that influence the overall product. For retail photography I can give you the rundown of how I work so that there may be a much better understanding of the process.

Yes, we work at night after store closing. Makes it much easier for all involved save the poor store manager or employee who gets “stuck” with us. I hate being in the way of store employees and their customers as we have quite a bit of equipment and have the need to pretty much take over a space while shooting. Moving product, merchandisers and the like are pretty much norm and having lights with cords around makes for easy entanglement. Liability wise, it’s much better to leave anyone unnecessary to the shoot out of it.

I usually try to get on site before store closing. As my assistant and I try to fly into the city earlier in the day, we check into the hotel and get some food in our stomachs before the shoot. I like to have the client along for dinner to discuss the project and generally B.S. Usually, we’ll bring a stash of eats to keep us sustained throughout the night and as any of my art directors will attest, we bring it all to share.

Usually, it’s not the most healthiest of foods, so let me know ahead of time if you prefer anything special. After doing this for so long…we know what you like. Seems like it’s always the same stuff that is the first to go-it’s not usually the healthy stuff either…chocolate and Red Bull sound familiar?

After the meet and greet, we usually do a walk through to get the feel of the space. Sometimes, we have already received blueprints and “happy snaps” from the client so we have a feel, but nothing is better than being on site to get the feel for the space. My assistant calls this the “designer bitch” where we hear of all the issues that went with the design and installation of the space. I will sometime take a camera with me through the walk through and take a few handhelds to bring up the images on my computer to discuss angles. That helps us plan for the evening. And then we roll up the sleeves and have at it….

Back from Global Shop

and Vacation… Arrived back from Global Shop a few weeks ago, then headed off to vacation. Such a break from the routine between a three day stint in Chicago followed up with a week in the sun. I came back from both feeling energetic and ready to get back to the swing of things.

Had quite a bit of fun meeting people at the Fitch party at BIN36 where I donated a days worth of services to the silent auction for the Design Industries Foundation Fighting Aids/Chicago. Congrats to all involved for raising around $12K. I had noticed quite a few cutbacks within the booths and attendees as well. A sign of the times I believe as companies begin the belt tightening process.

I met so many people in the business and got to see many old friends that I haven’t seen in a while. Talked business with a few people I really respect in the industry and received great words of encouragement. Walked away with some great marketing ideas-including the idea for this blog. I’ll leave you with this beach scene from Gasparilla Island Florida.

An Introduction

Welcome. In this blog I would like to discuss retail photography stories as well as conversational items, and issues that I see clients, colleagues, and even perhaps retailers facing. As a frequent traveller to many of the new and hot retail sites I look upon with interest the new trends. But first, an introduction….

I consider myself a retail photographer in the sense that I almost entirely photograph retail spaces-much more so than architecture and the like. Difference between retail and architectural photography? Well, that will be a later entry as I get into this a little more. But for now, please be aware that I have photographed more than ninety award winners within the three main retail competitions over the past eight years including Retail Store of the Year with M&M’S Orlando for Chute Gerdeman. I work with top retail design firms as well as many direct retailers and each brings a unique perspective to the design and photography process. I enjoy the friendships I have developed within the industry and look forward to many more!

Mark A Steele Photography Inc
1515D Delashmut
Columbus OH 43212
614-291-0519
email: mark@marksteelephotography.com