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coffee house commission- HELP!!!
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Hi guys, i’ve been commissioned by a magazine to shoot a new coffee house and was wondering if you have any tips. It’s a small coffee house (probably 3 by 4 meters) and i think what they would like is probably a shot from outside looking in.first thing is I don’t have any additional lighting so won’t be able to light the inside much (is that a big problem?), secondly, i was just curious to know what focal length would seem or look the best for this kind of shot? is it a question of trial and error, of getting it as wide as possible or only as wide as can fit the whole cafe? thirdly, should i try and have a few tables occupied? if i have too many occupied it’ll certainly look busy but might not put the emphasis on the cafe. if there are too few, it might give a wrong impression?
Basically, i’m looking for any pointers tips and hints you all might like to share with me, as i’ m a bit nervous about the whole thing, so any ideas would be greatly appreciated :D :? :D
Shoot it at night perhaps. Try a polariser to reduce reflections from the windows. Find a really wide angle lens and try and get some funky indoor shots.
Good luck
Si
I just love having a new type of shoot. A new problem to figure. Get out your notebook and hey go for a coffee there, the ideas will come, write them down, sketch them. The style of the shots should reflect the magazine and the coffee shops image. Have fun and charge properly 8)
Magazines love the ‘lifestyle’ sort of shot, think details, maybe a steaming cup of coffee with some identifiable coffee shop equipment out of focus in the background, maybe some coffee beans spilling out of a cup on its side in a big wooden container with a very shallow depth of field, all on top of the usual wide angle shot of the interior/exterior. You could also try and rope in some business-like guy/gal with a coffee in their hand, reading the Financial Times with a laptop or modern mobile phone on the table. Depends on the image I suppose, if its a bo-ho type place you could get a bo-ho looking group of people laughing and sharing jokes . You could also go for the clich? image of an implausibly attractive girl in smart clothes with a cup of coffe up to her nose, sniffing the aroma with her eyes closed, an out of focus background looking out through the windows would look good with this i think.
Hope this gets the imagination kick started, good luck with it!
Sounds like an interesting little project!
Some nice ideas there Cian. Don’t forget if you include people, you need to get a model release, elthough if it’s an editorial, then this may not be as critical (I’d still try and get one though).
I would also steer clear of shooting it at night unless there is some reasonably decent street light avaialble to you.
The ideal time to shoot would be during the hour immediately after sunset (or the hour immediately before sunrise, if it’s open that early). Provided the weather conditions are right, that should give you some nice light to work with.
Look at the interior and exterior work of some architectural photographers on the WWW for inspiration. Check out the Hotel and Leisure gallery of one of my favourite architectural photographers, Gerry O’Leary
thanks for all your replies guys- i went there for a coffee and took a few snaps to see what the results would look like. it’s not looking too bad and i’ll try and implement a few of your ideas for the ‘official’ shoot
thanks again for the ideas
I have done similar stuff on many occasions… I like Cians/Kens ideas… So far the firms i have taken architectural pics for where not interested in having people in their shots. Definitely day and evening shots with and without lights on. In fact I often find that even in daytime you need lights turned on inside to balance natural light from windows etc… Shoot RAW if ye can.. its best as white balance can be tricky with different types of light sources and can be easily adjusted afterwards in processing. Obviously tripod, remote release and even an angle finder to make sure your images are pin sharp. If ye can get your hands on a decent wide angle lens go for it. I always bring a 100mm macro and 50mm lens for detail shots..! Gerry O’Leary’s site is excellent and well designed stuff but the scale of the work is quite large… check out Ros Kavanagh’s site for smaller/tighter work… Ros trained as an architect before becoming a photographer… his work is really superb… http://www.roskavanagh.com/php/architecture.php
Good luck with whatever you do… its great fun doing this type of stuff….
Richie
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