What really goes on behind the scenes of a photo shoot…
“Just imagine what the whole home must look like.”
That is what all of us think to ourselves when we look at any home or decor magazine. The photos in the magazine show the most beautiful areas of a home, so just think about how incredible the rest of the home must be.
Even for a magazine’s Christmas issue, the shots intrigue us so much, we really want to take a full tour and experience for ourselves the amazing decorations they must have certainly placed throughout.
Well, I hate to be the one to burst your bubble, and admittedly, I thought the same thing till a few years ago, but it’s very unlikely that the entire home is decorated like it looks in the final photos – especially for seasonal photos.
For most photo shoots, especially product shoots, the stylist sets up each individual shot with what is needed for that photo to convey a specific product to a reader or consumer.
For instance, if it is a fall magazine, the stylist will use pumpkins and all things fall in strategic places to put the reader in the fall mood, and Christmas is no different.
Recently the Honest Abe Log Homes Murfreesboro model home was chosen by Old Time Pottery as the location for its Christmas merchandise marketing materials photo shoot. The resulting photos are being used by Old Time Pottery, which has 39 stores in 11 states, for its 2020 Christmas social media campaigns as well as on their website and in print advertising.
Representing Cooper & Co. and Honest Abe, I was fortunate to be invited to spend the day watching the stylists and photographers work their magic.
The myth that the whole home – or in this case the model home – would be fully decorated for a Merry Christmas went by the wayside when I took a look at their shot list.
They’ve shared some of the photos here that they will be using in the Christmas campaign, and I’ve added some of the behind-the-scenes photos I snapped as they worked.
The stylists brought in a variety of their Old Time Pottery items being promoted this Christmas season from snowmen and gnomes – my personal favorite – to Santa and his reindeer.
The most fascinating thing to me is that the shot may seem great just looking on, but if it isn’t perfect through the lens of the camera, the stylist will tweak the setup until it is “perfect.”
From shot to shot they rearranged and reused some of the same items to create a variety of photo options from which to choose for the marketing materials. One Santa in particular was used in several of the shots, both inside and out.
Taking photos is for sure an art. For instance, the lighting needs to be just so for the shot the designer and photographer wants to achieve. I loved watching the whole team from Old Time Pottery, from the photographer to the stylist and everyone in between.
Each person had a set of tasks, and they all milled around staying busy the two days they were with us. Being behind the scenes and being able to take it all in made for an interesting and very enlightening day for our team at Honest Abe.
To see the holiday photos in the Old Time Pottery marketing campaigns, visit their website at https://oldtimepottery.com/ or follow them on social media.
Article by Molly Cooper, Cooper & Co.
My shot above shows the photo being set up. The two below are how the photos turned out for use by Old Time Pottery.
