Behind the scenes: A sunny shoot for Ilford Photo

This month, we grabbed our tripods and got stuck into a brilliant day of product photography for our long-time client, Ilford Photo.

From initial ideas to on-set magic and final results, here’s how the shoot came to life.

The brief

Our creative team were buzzing to partner with Ilford Photo on a hero shoot to showcase five of their slower-speed films ahead of summer: PANF, ORTHO, FP4, DP100 and Kentmere 100.

The team wanted to move away from standard white-background product shots and capture something more vibrant, dramatic, and bright to inspire some sunny days of shooting!

The prep

We kicked things off with a deep dive – gathering inspo, building moodboards and getting hands-on with planning.

Colours

To bring the summer vibes, we played with a mix of colour approaches: complementary palettes, bold clashes and more grown-up tonal pairings like mustard and yellow, or orange and red. We eventually landed on a warm, saturated yellow to serve as our summery hero tone.

Lighting

Drawing from editorial and beauty photography, we opted for harsh lighting to cast strong shadows and create the illusion of summer sun. We wanted bold, defined highlights to bring depth and drama.

Composition and layout

We conducted a deep dive on dramatic product imagery, particularly in the beauty space. In particular, the Ordinary’s clean, dramatic composition felt exactly like the energy our team wanted to capture in the shoot.

The shoot

The moodboards were signed off, and the date locked in. Always fans of collaboration, we invited our lovely clients along as we spent the day on-set. 

We built a dedicated product photography set, with a colour-matched yellow backdrop that was cut and draped by hand.

The lighting was calibrated to emulate bright summer sunshine, and we followed our moodboards closely to ensure each shot delivered on structure, composition and energy.

After a lot of snacks, laughter, and SD card memory, we called it a wrap on a really fun, creative day!

The results

Once out of the edit room, we’re so excited to share what we captured on the day!

The photos are already popping up across Ilford’s website and social channels – and they’re looking great (if we do say so ourselves).

The pics really  hit the mark on what we aimed to achieve, and our client was super happy. Music to our ears!

Get in touch

And… cut! Need a hand refreshing your brand imagery? Whether you’re after product shots, headshots or something more, we’ve got you.

Head here to learn more about our photography services.

You can also check out our full Ilford case study, or get in touch for a friendly chat.