Adrian Heapy Photographic Studio - Belper

Today we travelled to Belper to see a photographic studio that is run by Adrian Heapy. At the moment there is just Adrian and another man called Kieran that work together at the studio. when we got there we were shown firstly to the main studio. I have to say that it was impressive, one of the biggest studio spaces i have ever seen. We went to this photographic studio because it takes on LIVE work all the time. There are not many of this type of studio left in the UK of the size. They specialise in Industrial, press, commercial and room sets.

When we first got there Adrian talked to us briefly telling us how long he has been in the business and about the studio. Adrian has been doing photography since he was 18 years old and he is now 60. so he has been successful at what he does for many years. He bought the building in 1999 and he owned the building the only cost he needs to worry about as regards to the building itself is the gas and electric. He did say that he has been made many offers over the years to lease the building out. However, he hopes to continue on with the business for at least another 8 years despite his age.

Downstairs there was the main studio and an area that consisted of all of his materials that he uses to build different room sets. Also downstairs there was a changing room for clients/models and a second smaller studio that is mainly used for still life and product shots. This area of the business is mainly left down to Kieran these days and Adrian concentrates mainly on the room sets. He admitted himself that he can use Photoshop well, however Kieran definately has the edge over him and ultimately knows how to do a lot more a lot quicker which is effective for there business.

Upstairs there was a media centre, this is where Adrian says he does his own post production and where clients will go to discuss projects. It was a very warm atmosphere, very homely with several desks and a few sofa's. Perfect for chatting with clients!!

We were also shown where he keeps all of his props. In the attic!! Everything that he has collected and used on different shoots over the years he has kept. it was pretty amazing and like he said if you are a photographer you are usually a little geeky and like collecting certain things. I must agree this is true. There were things from pots and pans, knick knacks, stones, bark, manikins, chandeliers, EVERYTHING!!


"ITS TOUGH TIMES, YOU JUST HAVE TO KEEP ON MOVING"

We were shown some of the catalogues that they have produced work for, anything from furniture, jewellery, lighting, food, and lifestyle work. This gave us an insight into the type of work that they produce and how it looks when it is printed and in its final form. Often though, Adrian said that they do not get to see the final product as it can be changed alot of times and very rarely are you sent an actual catalogue with your work in.

He also mentioned the fact that many clients give him very little to go on, they come to him with a brief, thats lets say is very brief. He did say though that he prefers it this way as he can have more of a creative input. He also mentioned that alot of looks are copied over time partly because fashion always tends to come back round again even if you think it never will!!


He said that just the other day he was asked for an image he took in 1977!!! Luckily he has everything archived so well that he was able to find the certain shot in five minutes. Adrian said that his archive has over 2.5 million photographs all named and dated.

Adrian basically said that he is a "master of all trades" and a very good "jobbing photographer".

the reason alot of there work now is from room sets is because it is very hard for somebody that doesnt have a studio that size to reproduce a room set like one of Adrian's. So many people these days think that they are professional photographers, thats why sometimes now photography isnt classed as a highly paid skill like it used to be many years ago.

He Spoke honestly and said that 90% of the work you will do as a "jobbing photographer" is all pretty much machine like. You have to have a quick turn around to keep the client happy and so that they will use you again in the future.

A few pointers about working with clients:

• Always recieve payment off the client before you hand over the images.
• Always check out peoples background before you work with them.
• Also check out your local competition and know what they are doing so you know how to improve your work and appear "better" than them when a new client approaches you.
• He doesnt like working with advertising agencies because he likes to get paid!! :)
• Have terms of contract and conditions nailed down other things can get messy on the legal side of things.
• He wont photography anyone under the age of 18 without the parent being present at the time of the shoot.
• He also wont photograph a female model on his own in the studio, always has someone else with him at the time of the shoot.
• You have to educate your client on different looks you could create and always offer them alternatives.

AND FINALLY INFORMATION IS KING!!!

After we had an extensive talk with Adrian about alot of different areas in photography and his studio. We then went into the second smaller studio to be shown some of the Photoshop techniques used in the studio by Kieran.
I have to say i was very impressed by Kieran's Photoshop skills. He seemed to know alot and i was kind of overwhelmed by how much he knew.

When asked about how he got into photography he said he did an apprenticeship about 15 years ago and that he would definately recommend it to future photographers.

He mentioned something called.....


CLIPPING PATHS

He said that if you know how to use this on Photoshop then it gets you out of a lot of tricky situations and makes your life alot easier. clipping paths are used to cut out products from images. For example he showed us an image of a chair that has been took in the studio. When the image was placed against a pristine white background the other background looked grey. That is where he used the clipping path to cut out the chair and place it onto another background. He did say that he uses clipping paths all of the time so it is definately something that we should be learning how to use if we want to seriously go into the photography business.

He said that he also always uses layers on his images in Photoshop and always saves the images as PSD,TIFF,RAW,JPG amongst other formats. He showed us the way that they archive and sort out there work and the different folders that they use when a new client comes in. Basically they have a default folder and everything is the same for every client but the work is obviously different.

Another thing that he said you should use to your advantage are stock photos. He showed us an image of a model they had took in the studio and then he used the clipping path to cut her out and placed her on a stock photo. You would never know that it had ever been Photoshopped. Sometimes sets are just too expensive to create and take alot of money and resources, so other people use your photography to there advantage so why shouldnt you use stock photos when you really need to for a certain client. I was shocked that this is the case but i was pleased that he was so honeset about the type of work they produce at the studio.