Back in October, I had the pleasure yet again, to work with one of my favourite clients, Dale Office Interiors, photographing a complete fit out they had finished just days before for rapidly expanding e-commerce experts Visualsoft. I had a really great time shooting this office, the interior design was bright and lively yet modern and functional, a great reflection of the warm and welcoming Visualsoft team. The design seemed a perfect fit for them, as the staff arrived for the day, you really feel a buzz about the place and I feel this design plays a big part in this.
I was mainly shooting around the bustling central area of the first floor which comprised a fully fitted kitchen and dining area, a reception and various break off areas. Use those definitions loosely though, this office is very dynamic and the design allows for this. When shooting, I moved with the flow of the staff to minimise disruption and to balance my compositions. The aim was to create images that showed off key spaces in the design in the very best way possible and ensuring a particular shot was not overcrowded is key to this. Dale were recently featured in the latest issue of Mix Interiors magazine for this project.
Here are a few of my favourites from the day.
This first shot was taken before many people had arrived for the day so setup was pretty straightforward. I set up 4 lights to balance the interior with the strong sunlight coming in through the windows from the rising sun and to enhance the curvature and colours in the design.
This next shot was only possible within a window of a couple of minutes. As I was setting up my lights for the shot, I noticed the long shadows that were being created by the rising sun and the glowing light coming through the window. I took a couple of shots with no additional lighting to balance the strong sunlight coming through the windows and really like the natural feel this creates in this image.
The next two shots were taken by using localised lighting to bring up the texture and colour across the image and multiple frames which are then composited together with ambient exposures to create the final image. Shooting in a busy office, compositing also allowed me flexibility when it came to the location and movement of people in the frame.
Next up was the bespoke reception desk and surround. I used a fast shutter speed to capture this to ensure the lighting around the desk looked crisp and the red light did not bleed over the white front face of the desk. I used 4 lights to bring up the rest of the exposure and blended this with an ambient exposure. The supplemental lighting also helped to bring up the texture and colour in the living moss wall.
This final shot was one of my client's favourites from this shoot, here I took a number of different frames as staff moved in and out of the kitchen making an afternoon tea/coffee. I feel this image greatly captures the dynamic nature of this office while also showing the depth and open plan design.
Thank you again to Dale Office interiors for the opportunity to produce some awesome imagery as part of this project! Check out more of their work here and the fine folk over at Visualsoft.