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In Rain or Sunshine

Having a rain-proof, sun-proof, and dark computer workspace on location photoshoots offers significant benefits for productivity and image quality. Harsh sunlight can cause glare on screens, making it difficult to properly view and edit photos. A darkened workspace ensures accurate color grading and exposure checks in real time. Protection from rain and sun also safeguards valuable equipment reducing the risk of damage and costly downtime. This kind of setup improves efficiency by allowing the digital tech or photographer to cull, backup, and preview images immediately without waiting for optimal conditions. It also supports better collaboration with clients and crew, offering a comfortable and reliable review station.

A controlled environment is crucial for high-end commercial or editorial work so our Inovativ cart now comes with a rain and sunshine cover for all location shoots. The cart workstation can be reconfigured as a mobile client viewing booth while the digi-tech is more mobile and closer to the photographer. It can also be kitted with rating feedback ipads and large monitors as required. Please get in touch for a quote. 

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Capture One Studio

Capture One Studio is a professional-grade photo editing and workflow solution tailored for fast-moving studio environments. Unlike the standard version, the Studio version offers advanced features that cater to high-volume production and team-based collaboration, making it ideal for commercial and advertising photography shoots.

One of the key advantages of Capture One Studio is its robust collaboration tools. With multi-user support, the studio workflow can be streamlined across clients, art directors, photographers, and digital techs. User roles and permissions ensure secure access to specific tools and sessions, enhancing productivity and reducing the risk of errors during large-scale shoots. Live View tools are enhanced in the Studio version allowing instant previews, on-the-fly adjustments, and client review in real-time. 

We complement digi-tech controlled viewing on wireless monitors with rating enabled ipads for key decision makers and these can be used on location or in a studio. Get in touch for a personalised quote today. 

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27″ monitors now available

In the fast-paced world of photography, having a high-quality, large monitor on set is not a luxury—it’s a necessity. These monitors serve as a critical tool for photographers, stylists, creative directors and clients to evaluate what’s being captured in real time. Here’s why key features like size, pixel density (PPI), colour calibration and viewing angle matter.

A larger monitor allows for more accurate on-the-spot evaluation of framing, focus, and visual composition. With a clear, high-resolution display, it’s easier to spot imperfections, whether it’s soft focus, missing elements or compositional shortcomings given the myriad end uses. A large screen also enables multiple people to view the feed simultaneously without crowding.

Colour accuracy is vital for assessing lighting, skin tones, wardrobe and production design choices. A professionally calibrated monitor ensures that what’s seen on set is a true representation of the final grade. Without calibration, you risk making decisions based on inaccurate colour rendition, which can lead to expensive corrections in post.

Pixel density determines how sharp and detailed the image appears. A high PPI ensures that the monitor displays the footage as crisply as possible, closely resembling what the final output will look like. This is especially important for today’s high-resolution cameras, where fine details matter and soft images can go unnoticed on lower-resolution displays.

On a busy set, not everyone can sit directly in front of the monitor. A good on-set display should maintain colour consistency and contrast across a wide viewing angle. This allows the creatives and decisions makers to simultaneously view the image without distortion, even when standing to the side.

The monitor is the window through which the creative team sees their work during production to support a seamless workflow. That’s why we have invested in large, clear, colour-accurate and bright displays from Eizo with high PPI and wide viewing angles. 27” flagship monitors, 4K capable with 164ppi are no longer a luxury but our standard studio monitor.

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Printing on set

Accurate colour prints are crucial on a photography shoot because they ensure the final images reflect true-to-life tones and preserve the photographer’s creative vision. This is especially important for commercial work, where consistent colour reproduction is vital for product accuracy, brand integrity, and client trust. 

The ability to produce high-quality prints on-site using portable large format printers adds efficiency and immediacy to the workflow, allowing for real-time feedback and adjustments. While there are costs associated with on-location printing, including equipment and consumables, these can be balanced by reducing delays, minimising reprints, and streamlining the creative decision-making process. 

We offer a choice of solutions to printing on set utilising smaller postcard prints for rapid storyboarding with a Canon Selphy printer or larger, A3/A4 prints for post-production marking-up with an Epson SureColor P700 printer. Whatever your choice ultimately, integrating accurate, portable printing into the workflow supports both creative precision and professional efficiency.

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Extra monitors and wireless viewing

Sometimes we’ll get asked to provide extra monitors, wireless viewing, remote viewing and location monitors on set to help the client/art director see what the photographer is shooting. Here’s a brief summary of the way we can do that.

Many years ago (mainly pre-covid) it was common for clients and art directing teams (plus glam and styling teams!) to be crowded around the Digi-station watching the images coming in from the camera on a monitor. As stills shoots started to take a lead from video/film teams we began to incorporate a separate monitor away from the Digi-station when budgets afforded a second or third monitor. Then covid mandated more social distancing and we borrowed the video team technology to wirelessly stream the images to multiple monitors and iPads or even remotely to clients off-site.

For remote viewing Capture One offers this capability for viewers to be in different parts of the world and watch and rate the images in real time.

For clients and art directors on set we can prepare a monitor with either wireless or wired connections. We’ve set up wired monitors up to 30m away (more could work, we just haven’t been used for this yet) and this has the advantage of not being susceptible to signal interference or lots of solid walls blocking the signal. Alternatively we can use wireless connections which work well outdoors or where cabling isn’t practical and these can work up to 500m depending on the location.

With our location batteries we don’t always need power where you want that monitor which opens up more possibilities.

It’s always best to have this conversation about what extra monitors, wireless viewing, remote viewing or location monitors you need on set before the Digi turns up on the day!

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USB 3, 3.1, 3.2, 4 and TB 4?

What’s the difference between USB 3, 3.1, 3.2, USB 4 and TB 4 and why not Gen 3.2 2×2 in terms of speed for accessories to Macs? We’ve come across some confusion with back-up drive requests on shoots with questions over which drive to use to get the fastest copy times.

Tom’s Hardware has a clear explanation and we’d add the following to make it relevant to photography and Mac users:

  • The fastest and most affordable backup external drives work at USB 3.1 Gen 2 (also called USB 3.2 Gen 2) which is 10 Gbps. Anything less and you may encounter a longer wait for backups.
  • Macs don’t use USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 which works at 20 Gbps unfortunately so buying drives that have that higher speed doesn’t do us any good.
  • USB4 is here but as with all things tech, it’s taking a while to get the hardware that works at this speed at a decent price. Backing up lots of data will be quicker but the some USB 3 speeds will do until then.

    We try and keep on top of data backups through the day so no one’s waiting around for long at the end of the shoot!
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Fuji GFX100s kit

The Fuji GFX100s produces large image files suitable for anything from online to billboard use whilst being lightweight and easy handling and having used it extensively since it’s launch we have added a body/lens kit to our hire list.

The GFX100s has been a real game changer with it’s offering of 102 megapixels in a lightweight body that handles as easily as 35mm small format camera would. The image files are beautiful for both portrait and still-life use. We have plenty of experience working with all the popular cameras such as Canon, Nikon, Hasselblad, Phase One and Contax but after using the Fujifilm camera we’ve been impressed with it’s versatility. The large pixel count facilitates images being cropped in a number of different formats whilst still maintaining large enough dimensions for any print or online use. It shoots quickly for capturing movement sequences and for such a large format camera tethering speed is good too. The photo quality is great in low light with little loss of image sharpness until going above ISO1600 in our opinion.

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Location Power

We’ve disposed of the need for a location generator (the infamous noisy and smelly petrol ‘genny’) and are proud to be able to supply enough power in the form of mobile batteries that have been recharged with solar power for all day photography monitor and computer use!

We already had plenty of batteries for laptop power but traditionally running a monitor without mains electricity has either required using smaller moving-image monitors or using a smelly, noisy petrol-powered generator. Now we can get rid of the noise and smell and occasional power spikes that can blow equipment and run off a stable battery system. And the best thing is that this is all solar powered as we can recharge them in a day without any environmental damage. The solar power recharge station also allows us to charge all photography equipment with this clean source and helps shoots to run carbon-neutral.

[update] We forgot to mention that the pack we’re using is the Anker 555 Powerhouse!

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Cart upgrade

We’re delighted to have upgraded the equipment cart to an Inovativ Voyager 36 and it’s not available to hire. 3′ x 2′ of felt soft workspace on 2 levels with sturdy wheels allow the cart to operate equally well in studio and on location. We’ll usually rig the cart with a monitor and computer plus transmitters when they’re needed plus it can carry all the tether cables needed, camera equipment and even back up power supplies.

The Inovativ Voyager is incredibly well made and adds a refined professional look to the photographer’s workspace that many clients comment on. It also allows us to keep everything nicely organised on hectic shoots and self contained rather than having to rely on ad-hoc table clearing. This is much nicer than work off a trestle table! Photos will be added to the equipment page soon.

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New MacBook Pro

The New MacBook Pro M1 Max is in the kit bag and ready to go with top specs – we’ve tested it and it’s super fast! Amazing battery life, faster processing of RAW files both for preview rendering and processing, runs quietly, colour accuracy on the built in screen, fast SSD to handle data in and out.