One of my clients and online voile curtain supplier, wanted some net curtain photography in a bay window set for use on their e-commerce website. This post is about the process of making that happen and the end results.
Bay Window Set Construction
First of all I needed to locate a cost effective local joiner who could make the window set panels. Through my contacts I came across an excellent home based joiner who was perfect for the job. I explained what was needed and how the panels would be best constructed, in a way that everything can be flat packed and reused on multiple occasions. A week later fresh window panels were delivered ready for painting.
Next came the painting of the new panels and the glossing of the woodwork, along with a refresh of the paint on my existing panels which would be used. After painting the bay window set it started to go up, then it was time to get the skirting and architraves cut and fitted. A day painting and another constructing the set was carried out at reduced rates.
Here are a few 'behind the lens' type snaps to show you the initial construction, preparation and photography of the set in my studio. Click for a larger view
Window View Print
We decided to make a large print for the view out the window. This would not only improve the general look of the image but also show the privacy offered by the different nets.
I prepared a stock image to give a nice bokeh and brighter appearance. A local digital printer supplied us with the A0 size print at a very reasonable cost.
Net Curtain Photography
I wanted to create a dynamic and atmospheric lighting setup for this shoot to enhance the look of the net curtains in this bay window set. So I spent an hour or so doing the initial lighting setup and test shots. Once we were happy with the results we proceeded with the task of preparing, hanging & photographing the different curtains.
Net curtain photography can be particularly difficult concerning image moiré, using my 50MP CCD Hassleblad helps to get around this issue. As we have done this sort of job a few times now we quickly got into the swing of things. Over 300 images were achieved in two and half days of photography time, including taking the set down and cleaning the studio.
Here are few examples of the final results, click for a larger view.
Post Production
The post production of the images required cleaning of joins and imperfections in the set. This was carried out on my high spec Mac Pro using Photoshop CC and ON1 Photo 10.
Because these images were required for e-commerce use various sizes of sharpened web ready files were made via batch routines. All post production and image processing was done in 20 hours on over 300 images. The images were immediately put into action on the clients website which can be seen here;
This was the third time we have worked with Mark, each time shooting hundreds of different products in a variety of styles. On this occasion in particular Mark pulled out all the stops to help us with the set build. We knew the look we were after, and Mark turned it into a reality – which was no easy task. On the day his expertise behind the lens, and with the lighting in particular enabled us to show these products in a style to match their quality. We were delighted with the results, all processed quickly and optimised to size to suit ecommerce, and we won’t hesitate to use Mark again in the future. Steve Mills - NetCurtainsDirect.com