Behind the scenes: Porsche Centre Bukit Bintang commercial shoot.

Hello Friends!

2011 is a really good year! Ever since January this year, I've been really blessed to be commissioned with such exciting and interesting assignments. I just got back from the shoot today for the new Porsche Centre Bukit Bintang architectural shoot and thought I'll post some of the images. I've been neglecting this blog for a while and I'm not surprised that some of my regular readers might've lost interest. Nevermind that.

Back to the topic, the image(s) that we shot are for newspaper advertisement and press release, so, keep your eyes out in our local newspapers soon (as soon as next week!).

For this assignment, I'd like to thank my project partner, Amru for his undivided attention, effort and extensive collaboration in making this assignment a success.

I hope this short post will inspire you all to become a better photographer, businessman(or business person), or simply just a person.

If you got a vision or dream of something big, go for it!

Amru trying to sell me this unit.

Here's us after our last shot. It's a wrap!

Amru just got his commission selling me one unit and got himself this Porsche. Ha ha!

Me giving it a go at one test shot.

My trusty WhiBal card. Standard procedure. Don't leave home without 'em.

How I did the Campbell's shoot

Recently I've been pretty tied up with several work, which involved our studio and some personal work. It's been a long while since my last upload and I've been procrastinating the updates, until today it hit me that the update will never get done unless i just yank it. So, here goes.

My latest work involves the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) category. In this assignment, I was hired by an advertising agency to photograph Campbell's soup products, which is under the Kimball Malaysia's distribution. What I'd like to share with you are some after and before photos of this commercial assignment, just to give you an idea of how simple my workflow is for a big job like this.

Art Direction credit goes to Steven Kee.

Here's a line-up of Campbell's Instant Soup in boxes.

Another line-up of some muscular Campbell's Condensed soup in cans.

Prego is also under the same group under the Malaysia distribution.

Here's another variation of the Prego's shot I did for the art director's selection.

So, here's how I did it.


Lighting

Lighting setup was pretty straight forward.
I had two side lights, one light to wash out the background and another overhead light for front fill. Exposures were measured using a flash meter.

The products was laid out on white plexiglass, which gives a nice smooth reflective effect. I love it because this cuts me time in post. It's just shoot, colour correct and bam! it's done! 

The Shot
For each setup, I used WhiBal and QP card for colour reference.

Post-Production
Imported the images in Lightroom, batch colour correct and export to hi-res TIFF! Simple as pie.


Hope this inspires you all to give a go at some product shooting on your own. Cheers!

The Most Exciting Birthday Shoot Ever!

I've had my share of interesting assignments throughout my years of being a photographer. Not a while ago, I was greatful to be awarded a private birthday shoot by Zaki. It's very rare to have an assignment as close to this. Zaki called me up one day to say that he'd like a birthday shoot with his close friends, all dressed up in different themes, in a studio environment. "Each theme represents a part of the story of my life, in somewhat my journey until now", says Zaki when making a comment regarding his concept. I loved the idea and was looking forward to this exciting assignment.

We shot a whole straight 8-hour session from 2pm-10pm, with a pizza break in-between. It was tiring for the "talents" (cos most of their energy went into waiting for their turns in the shots), but when their turns was up, boy they were so energized and all of them gave 110% for the shoot. Thanks to Hatizal, for being my assistant in this session. Easy-peasy cos' everyone's havin' fun!

I must say that Zaki is lucky to have these true friends, who really support him. They're very close and are like family from my point of view.

All I can say is thank you Zaki, Happy Birthday & many, many Happy Returns!

Best wishes!

Azhar Ariff.

Enjoy the pics!

Zaki in Black & White with tie.




Shopaholic


All White. Shooting white subjects against white background? Sounds impossible? It IS POSSIBLE. Very much possible indeed.


With Ateh


Jet Set


Birthday Party!


Close-up, cosmetic


The Haunting


Rockstar


Jeans




Black & White


Prep Style



Office Wear



Dolls

What have I been doing lately?

I love it when I get assigned to photograph subjects that I rarely get a chance to every day. My Black & White Photography teacher, Mustaffa Aziz once told me that once in a while, we should photograph something that we haven't done before, and in the course of doing so, we might end up enjoying it. The best part is, when we go back to our comfort zone (the type of photography we love most), we'll see it in a better perspective.

And for that reason, I'm so grateful to Abdul Majid Othman, the owner of the currently established HSH Innovations, which main business is the sale of exclusive white wares, to assign me to photograph their whitewares for the new catalogue and promotional materials.

The company carry premium dinnerwares, customised to the very personal level. Previously their items were marketed under a different brand, and now they've embarked deeper into the niche market of premium whitewares. You should be very proud to own these whitewares, because they only make a few for Malaysian market. Shown above is a shot for their upcoming catalogue. I'll be processing a set of the images I shot over the weekend for the proofs, soon. Once that's done, I'll be sure to post some up here. Cheers!