On Monday I spent my day photographing furniture on location at the Boston Design Center for John Herbert. John has me come down pretty regularly now to take some photographs of his most recent work. I travel to his workshop rather than having him transport his large, shiny, very expensive and labor intensive pieces of furniture to a studio. Location shooting can be very difficult depending on where you end up but bringing a studio to a location like the design center is usually much easier than most.
  1. The guys at the Boston Furniture Collaborative are kind enough to keep a roll of 12′ seamless hung in the 20′ wide hallway for me most of the time
  2. When you flip the light switch all of the lights go out
  3. I have more than 150′ to back up and finally,
  4. There are ample wall sockets to plug into with easy breaker (and restroom) access.
The list may seem strange to some but, combined with a hard working assistant, these things make life a vacation for a photographer. There is one window to worry about when you have to burn in ambient light, like I did for this piece:
A close up interior shot of a custom built display cabinet. This one lights up and is lit up.
…but it never gets direct light and it comes from a narrow spot in the hall that can easily be blocked. Even with all of these great advantages to the location, it is still not a studio and requires a bit more post production than I would like. Here is the original. (I have already done the basic LR adjustments) (more…)