Throughout my fyear at Quad Photo Studios, now known as Betty Photo Studios, I have developed numerous skills in production, studio management, set design, styling, merchandise coordinating, photography and even a little modeling. Below is a mixture of my work.
Art direction
One of the areas I am particularly passionate about is art direction. I enjoy putting together mood/aesthetic boards, working with models/products/props and making the overall feel match the desired outcome.
For the first project, Quad Threads, Quad’s merchandise branch, reached out in hopes to use the crew and get a group of trainees and interns to post for a JCPenney styled shoot. I took this idea and ran with it; directing the 20-some employees and creating a shot deck. I loved how these photos turned out and enjoyed my time art directing even more!
Set design
With a warehouse of props and walls, I was eager to test my skills in set design. For this set, I drew inspiration from the dark academia aesthetic. Later on, color correction came in handy when making the walls an eery white to a forest green to establish a scholarly setting.
STUDIO MANAGEMENT
Organization & cleanliness
SOLUTION 2:
Not all solutions are winners right away. Since the drawers didn’t work, I re-evaluated and turned spare parts into a hanging napkin wall. This wall has been successful, is now labeled, and is lit with better lighting.
SOLUTION 1:
My first solution was to color code the napkins and place them into drawers to be easily accessible and sleek.
This didn’t work because we were unable to tell how many were in a pair and with the studio being fast-paced, the napkins just ended up being thrown on top of the drawers.
PROBLEM:
With multiple napkins, cloths, etc., it was hard to access and see our full selection.
Our studio van hadn’t been cleaned in a good amount of time. I took a few hours to gut and reset the van.
Another struggle I noticed within our studio was the lack of decor. With bins and bins of frames, photos, and wall decor, I decided hanging our decor would be a great double win! Not only would we be able to visually see our decor and access them much easier, but also our walls are far more interesting!
In our industry, we tend to work with freelancers. Because the freelancers bounce back and forth between our studio and others, they tend to not know where everything is. So, with my skills in organization and design, I created a map that was then printed off and digitalized to help the crew know where they can find items in our studio.
Assistant positions
As I shadowed the experienced employees in the studio, assistance was needed throughout much of the year.
Knowing where to be, how to help and what I can be doing more of was important when it came to assisting. Some of the jobs I did while assisting was being a second eye for stylists, helping producers get models in and out of the studio as well as signing the proper papers, assisting photographers with lighting/shadows, fixing broken sets, assembling products and jobs as simple yet important as making sure the crew has food/water.