Last week a reader asked if Daylight Photo was doing much in the way of video production. Quite a bit, actually. I don’t mention video services a whole lot because, after all, this is a photography blog and my first love is still photography. But, truth be told, adding video to our repertoire is what’s currently creating new business opportunities.

Today I’d like to show you one such example of combining photo and video, part of a series we’re creating for a printing press company. The campaign includes a double page magazine advertising spread and a video created primarily for the web. This really is the perfect marriage of still photography and video, an opportunity for us to provide our unique combination of services. This particular printer is located here in Cincinnati, while a prior project necessitated a trip to Phoenix. There are more projects in this series scheduled for the future.

First I’ll mention the basic parameters of the job. The magazine ads require three distinctive photographs: a portrait of the owner and two angles of the featured printing press. The owner is photographed solo in a conference room somewhere using a large softbox and simple lighting. We’re looking for natural poses and expressions to marry with the overall press images.

The images of the printing press are then created using either strobe or existing lighting, depending on what works best. You can see the final, selected photos in the finished advertisement shown.

As you can see, this is a decent project in terms of just the still photography. My business partner, Bob, and I roll in with our normal combination of location photography gear and shoot with a Canon 5D tethered to the computer so the art director can review images as we go. But that’s not where it ends. Look closely at the portrait and you’ll see a key feature: a video box drawn around the subject and text urging the viewer to meet him more personally through the web video.

For the video we have our high definition Sony video camera on hand, along with sound equipment and a Glide Cam. For this particular project our agency creative director really likes a documentary feel with hand-held shots and quick moves. We conduct interviews with the client both in a quiet, controlled area and also in the press room and then we record ambient sights and sounds of the facility to work in. Here’s the final two minute video:

Subscribers view video on website.

There’s a lot that goes into the video thought process, more than time allows here, and the client gives us quite a bit of creative freedom (as they do with still photography). The important thing is that there’s a consistent look and feel to both the still photography and video. What could be better than having one team produce both?

This is also cost effective for the client. In case you’re wondering, we don’t discount either our photo or video services on such a project. Natural cost savings are realized by the client through the reduced expenses (travel, meals, etc.) of having just one team on the job, though. It makes a difference for them and helps us realize some really profitable assignments.

Remaining relevant in a competitive world means embracing new opportunities and technologies. As new forms of media evolve we’re doing our best to stay at the fore, experimenting with still images, video images and everything in between. And it definitely keeps things interesting!