We say NO to moody old, dark ‘flash lit’ class shots at Studyshots!

 

It’s not until now I noticed the give away that this is a class shot from a UK Summer School, the box of Strepsils just visible in the front pocket of the girl on focus’ hoody… That will need to be photoshopped if it heads into the brochure!

 

Lovely engaged class shot with some clearly visible branding.

 

Love the way class seems to evolve around the focus student in this shot, plus tons of orange branding.

 

Making the most out of an “economy” sized room for some relaxed branded accommodation shots.

 

When the weather doesn’t let you get sports shorts outside, we laugh at the photographic challenge of dimly lit sports halls to capture great indoor action sports shots instead!
This one shot from high whilst hanging off a climbing frame at the side of the hall.

 

Of course we squeezed in some outdoor sports shots too.

 

Student isolated against blue wall, plenty of copy space on original for layouts.

 

Older students engaged with Teacher and branding, at Docklands Campus.

 

Student Isolated against wonderful red wall and furniture, again lots of copy space on original for layout.

 

A nice bright airy class shot, ideal for a more copy or design led page in the brochure.

 

It’s not all work work work, a trip to the Cathedral with students from the Southsea Campus.

 

Keeping it bright and fresh for laying copy over the image.

 

Holy Mackerel! The Sun came out.

Have a peep at this years USA Summer Schools shoots here: Embassy Summer USA Adventure

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Thomas is pleased to show off the new Embassy Summer Schools Brochure for 2011, which looks fantastic with big bright vibrant studyshots photos…
[ you'd never know it rained most of the time! ]

 

Although a great bunch of students, this group were very camera aware and it took some really stealthy maneuvers to capture some natural shots of the energy in the class. The strong solid primary colours on the clothing [and the smiles] really helped lift the shots from a fairly neutral flat room.

 

 

 

 

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There’s content from shoots at Centres all over the UK for the Embassy Brochure 2011, Studygroup have done a great job on the design leading to a fantastic collaborative result.

 
With a 15 minute slot to get a nice set of shots in the science class, I was a little worried when the tutor disappeared after only a couple of minutes due to a problem with his apparatus. Fortunately this led to the students having a bit of a joke amongst themselves whilst they waited, nudging them toward some practical apparatus led to some nice relaxed science shots without them having to alter their behaviour at all.

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After some anticipation the Bellerbys 2012 is now on it’s way to all the UK Bellerbys centres from Brighton to Cambridge via Oxford.
Featuring shots from all the UK centres and following students from A-level all the way to those who’ve found success in their careers across the UK, including classes and facilities, a broad and far reaching, all encompassing shoot.

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Great to see the Ireland Brochures in print from the Dublin adventure earlier in the year, a great variety of colours textures and locations in these brochures, let’s just hope the construction has finished at Trinity before we head back next year! My favourite location from the 2 day schedule has to be the International study centre at University College Dublin, a carnival of colour, resplendent with it’s own news room style TV wall!

 
Typical class shot, from interactive whiteboard, colour corrected from mixed light sources, skintone teeth and hair dodged up brighter, shadow detail rescued from clothing, teeth and eyes brightened, vibrancy added to colours, sharpening.

 
Typical “easy” star student retouch, colour correction, skin tone improvement, tricky acne across contrast area removed without losing shape of face or disturbing natural line of light on the face, work on eyes, background colour tinted blue to add colour balance / punch to the image, sharpening.

 
Trickier star student retouch,Heavy colour correction from mixed low lighting, Heavy skin work, work on eyes, hair highlights added, background colour tinted blue to add colour balance / punch to the image, sharpening.

 
I take a lot of pride in keeping skin work natural, and colour correction subtle.

 
Typical class shot retouch, colour correction, dodging/burning, colour vibrancy added to flat light colour, catch-light added to eyes, skin warmth added, localised sharpening.

 
Composite images have not been unusual, for example wide room shots to include the bathroom where the bedroom [natural light / bright] and bathroom [artificial light / dark] have wildy different exposures / colour balance but are in the same frame, the worked up image you receive will be the product of two or more shots comped together to compensate, here’s a more fun example from the pier shoot, where a good frame of the boys up close was comped into a good frame of the ride wide…

 
It’s normal, especially when shooting on a tight time frame, to need to remove stray cables/carpet stains/torn chairs etc after the event.

 
Colour correction and a bit of dodging and burning can really lift an image, and make the difference between ours, and others images of the same ilk. In this image I also knocked back the rather striking fluorescent pea green noticeboard to stop it stealing the image from the foreground.

I take a lot of pride in keeping skin work natural, and colour correction subtle, a little warmth added to the face often goes a long way too.

 
Colour correction and a bit of dodging and burning can really lift an image

 
In some case heavy mixed lighting influences are unavoidable, so working with and enhancing those influences can also create more vibrant images than removing the casts all together, as in this case.

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We stretched our legs to a hot and hazy heat-waved New York this summer for this years Embassy Summer USA brochure shots, 4 Campuses in 4 back to back action packed days, made for a great resource for this years Brochure designers!

 

A ubiquitous yellow American school bus frames the front of the Pace University Campus nicely before a day trip to Coney Island, Americanizing the shot nicely for the brochure.

 

A nice bright airy room shot for the Storm King Campus, once host to a young Paris Hilton.

 

A great teacher at the Rutgers campus made engaged student class shots a breeze.

 

Coming out of the Train station at the Rutgers Campus, I had the poor students do this a couple of times to ensure the shot, but of course when I got back and checked the files they had nailed it on the first run… [loving the Rutgers t-shirt with the embassy branding]

 

Nothing really says New York more than a yellow cab in Times Square, with some embassy branded students of course.

 

A bright natural shot of students relaxing back in the accommodation at Long Island University.

 

The pesky rain didn’t stop us getting some lovely facilities shots at Storm King.

 

Thankfully the sun was kind enough to appear over at Long Island University.

 

Students enjoying an overcast but lively Coney Island Ride.

 

Taking in the sights on the Hudson River cruise.

 

When nearly all the students disappeared onto the bus in the morning for the day trip i was worried we’d have enough students to shoot the excellent sports facilities at LIU, luckily these two were super keen to use all the facilities for photos!

 

Putting the campus [Pace University], the New York Subway, and the Embassy Summer branded students into the same shot whilst appearing natural… [I used a zoom from a ways back to bring the subway entrance and the building closer together].

 

At the end of the day it’s the studying that counts.

Have a peep at this years English Summer Schools shoots here: English Summer Schools Shoots 2011