Last week, a client openly told us he decided to go ahead with Excite Media after looking at our new team page. In the client’s words: “This page showed me how much care, attention, and personality you put into your work.”
The Process
When it came time for us to revamp our current website in 2015, we decided to go all out creating profile photos that showed off the true personality of the team, and presented each of us in a professional, yet friendly way.
With our creative media crew, we were able to capture the personality of each team member, both in their professional and not-so-professional states! We have since used these photos on our ‘Team’ page, as well as on our Welcome Packs and Website Launch printed materials.
The Equipment
- Green screen
- Canon 5D mkii
- Canon 50mm, Canon 24-105mm lenses
- Lights
- Adobe After Effects
- Ikea floorboards x 4
- Various props
The Green Screen
Shooting against a green screen – or in our case a green wall – allowed us to separate the person easily from the background using an age-old technique of chroma keying.
By treating a particular colour as a key, we then used Adobe After Effects to treat everything green as transparent, allowing us to put in a new background. Bingo!
The ‘Table’
Lacking a seriously sexy table in our lunchroom, we decided to improvise by purchasing a set of wooden laminated boards from IKEA that were designed to be installed as floorboards (we went with the GOLV, but the SLÄTTEN or the PRÄRIE would have also done the trick). This gave us a nice section of ‘fake table’ for our subjects to lean on, and since the edges were out of shot, the result was pretty convincing!
The Lighting
UA mixture of natural window light and our professional studio lighting gave us a nice blend, keeping the photo feeling natural and not too staged.
Our media brethren Nick and Karl carefully discussing the photo shoot.
Editing the Photos
After the shoot, the raw photos were captured from the camera and imported directly into Adobe After Effects for some colour grading and editing. During this stage, we chose an urban brick wall texture and composited the photos over the top. Taking great care with the lighting and shadows, we managed to get a realistic effect that suited the new website design.
Here’s the before and after…
Careful colour balancing and editing makes all the difference to the final result.
The Result
With a little bit of planning, we were able to organise, shoot and edit the new photos, giving our “Meet the Team” page a creative edge.
We are really happy with the results and they are always a talking point for our clients. Take a look at the finished ‘Meet the Team’ page here.
