When Stephen Segal approached me to put the Nikon Z6 mirrorless through its paces, I thought that the various requirements of the day to day creation of media for a hotel, spa, bar and restaurant would be the ideal testing ground.
Everything needs to happen fast, from production to publication. All the deadlines are “last week, Tuesday” and its a myriad of scenarios with various lighting conditions.
So… this is how we do it.
Trinchado!
On our new Pashash menu, we have a light lunch Trinchado. The sauce is to die for, and you will wipe out the last remnants from the bowl with your last piece of Portugues roll… I promise!
Our job as content creators for the hotel, bars, restaurants and other related services is to … you guessed it… create content! but we can’t just create content… that’s easy! We have to do what every Instagram influencer does, just for our own brand. The goal of every message we create is to Stop The Scroll.
Get people to stop, then get them to consume the image, and then thereby, the message…
Key points:
We need to use the compositional rules to attract attention to the products and services we offer. BUT, we must always shoot multiples of the same shot for different social profile requirements AND the hero shot must be able to hit the maximum number of Social Platforms for brand recognition and brand building (4:5 dimensions, 3/5ths positioning for thumbnail crop) and then decide what will need to have more impact… visual impact or wording…
In other words, will the best spot in the image be an image element… or copy space?
Think about this:
We DELIBERATELY shoot a worse composition to get THE BEST RESULT.
- Copy-space – Where will the text go
- Crop-space – to match the maximum Social Media image requirements
- Positioning – move the bread roll, I need to put a logo on the open spot of the plate.
- As Always… Sell the mood: “I want to go there!” & “I want to try that!”
Also… if you see an opportunity to shoot something that you may use in the future, shoot it now! Time saved, setup saved, media created!
Setup:
To produce fast and accurate and usable stuff, keep the setup simple, and we use what we have around us.
Shooting at a low angle but can’t see in the bowl? fold a serviette and make a wedge to lift up the back and angle the plate. Tequila glass not reaching the logo on the bottle, flip the candle holder upside down an make a make-shift plinth. Shadow too deep? Cellphone light… or make the cellphone screen white at max brightness to make a mini softbox.
A colleague standing next to you can be a flag, blocking off the extra light from a window.
It helps to have a camera that can push out quality images at high ISO. Most of this shoot was done at ISO3200 on the Nikon Z6, and the Nikkor S 24-70 f/4 at f/4, gave the shallow Depth of Field to keep the focus on the brand names but also create spaces that I cold blur more in post for Copy Space, should I need it later for promotion purposes.
Take-away:
Simplify… Robert Capa said… if you don’t have Impact, you are not close enough (coming from a war photographer shooting on 50mm, that says something about my boy’s state of mind! – https://youtu.be/wISNDLNiNrg )
But he wasn’t wrong. A complex setup is difficult to manage well and takes time. you can get just as much impact by reducing details. Simplifying the scene is the fastest way to remove distractions and focus people on your message.
Secondly, forget what is in front of you and look a the image. Then simply change what you don’t like, until you like it. No client or viewer cares about what you did to get the shot, they just want the shot.
Thirdly. Stop! You’ve done enough! Otherwise, you will tinker and tinker and tinker and never be happy.
