[ Shot for the page ]

Frames thathold the page.

Campaign
Lookbook
Portrait

Campaigns, lookbooks and portraits, shot and retouched to editorial standard.

Styling, casting and light are decided before the day. The shoot itself is for making the picture, and there is never as much time in it as anyone expects.

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A frame from the SHAHD GOHAR editorial shoot

Every frame is delivered retouched at print resolution and in the crops the channels actually need, so the same shoot dresses a billboard, a lookbook and a grid without a reshoot.

See the work →

[ The process ]

Four stages, and the order is the point: nothing is left to be decided on the day.

[ Phase 01 ]
Concept Development
Concept
Open
Mood, narrative, visual references, casting and styling direction. The concept is what every later decision gets measured against, which is why it is written down rather than agreed in a room and remembered differently by four people.
- Visual Design
  Creative
  Production
  01
  Three Teams, One Concept
  Creative sets the story, visual design owns how it will lay out, and production knows what the day can actually deliver, with all three in the room from the first conversation. A concept agreed by one of them and inherited by the other two is where shoots go wrong.
[ Phase 02 ]
Pre-Production
Location Scouting
Casting
Styling and Wardrobe
Shot List
Open
Everything that has to be true before a camera comes out of a case: location, cast, wardrobe, the list of frames the day owes, and the crew and kit to make them. A shoot day is an expensive place to still be deciding things.
- Scouted 04 / holding 01
  01
  Location Scouting
  Candidates are visited and shot on a phone at the hour the real shoot happens. A room is a different room at four in the afternoon.
- 02
  Casting
  Options are read against the concept rather than against a portfolio: the right face for this story, not the strongest card in the pack.
- 03
  Styling and Wardrobe
  Pulls are made and tried on before the day. What survives the fitting is what gets a rail on set; nothing arrives unseen.
- Full length · cycWhite tee, satin maxi01
  Seated portrait · 85mmSilver cuffs, oval shades02
  Three-quarter · turnOversized linen shirt03
  Low angle · pantsArchive satin, black heel04
  Exterior · gardenWhite tee, satin maxi05
  04
  Shot List
  Every frame the day owes, in the order it will be shot, with the coverage the layout will need marked against it.
[ Phase 03 ]
Production
Open
The shoot itself, directed to the concept, with art direction on set holding continuity with the layout or sequence the frames are going into. There is never as much time in a day as anyone expects, which is what the two stages before it are for.
[ Phase 04 ]
Post-Production
Selects
Retouching
Color Grading
Open
Selects, retouching and color grading, and, where the job includes one, the handoff into layout for the editorial or the lookbook to be assembled from the same set rather than from whatever survived.
- Library · Grid12 frames · 5 picked
  FilterAllPickedRatedSort · Capture time
  Frames12
  Picked5
  Rejected0
  Keywords
  editorialstudioshahd
  01
  Selects
  The edit down happens before any retouching, because choosing between finished images means choosing with sunk cost in the room.
- Develop · Before / AfterDSC06936 · NEF
  Tone curve
  Light
  Exposure +0.35
  Contrast +12
  Highlights −18
  Shadows −22
  Whites +8
  Blacks −6
  02
  Retouching
  Cleanup, not reconstruction. The frame that leaves is the frame that was shot, with the distractions taken out of it.
- Develop · ColorDSC06727 · one grade, whole set
  Shadows
  Midtones
  Highlights
  Color
  Temp 6570
  Tint +43
  Vibrance +13
  Saturation
  Luminance
  03
  Color Grading
  One grade across the set. A story that changes temperature between spreads reads as a collection of pictures rather than as one.