Furniture photography: Behind the Scenes

You know what’s important for a furniture company that sells online? Good photos. Photos that show off the quality, the aesthetic, the style… giving your eyes all the information they need without actually being in front of it. 

Tom will tell you that good photos are hard to get right. Something about ‘colour grading’ or ‘lighting’, and because we make customised furniture, it is rare that two pieces are actually the same.

He’s been doing incredibly well to get the ones we already have, which have usually been taken in our customers’ homes. But as we grow, it’s time for us to move on to something that’s more efficient and manageable.

Renting studios and moving a bunch of furniture to and from them is both expensive, and a massive pain in the arse. It’s a bit like trying to move house on a tight schedule. So we decided to build one for ourselves, in a corner of our London workshop. 

Cue Jamie. A great designer, sure, but his claim of being a DIY specialist with a favourable reputation in  the local area? Hmm… we’ll see. His brief: a flat, paintable and repairable wall, with a platform floor that folds away, that all looks good. 

Here’s a picture of a man affixing floorboards with a nail gun (great fun by the way).

So, first up- measure, saw to the centimeter, and assemble a timber frame. Then attach some flat panels, and move the (rather heavy) pieces into place.

We’ve painted the wall a warm, but non-intrusive off-white matte, and the floor is made from whitewashed oak floorboards. This gives us a clean, minimalist backdrop for our furniture, and allows Tom easier colour editing.

Credit where it’s due- it looks like Jamie did a good job. We’ll update you if anything falls down though. 

We’ve paired the completed studio with some awesome adjustable LED lights to give complete control, because there’s apparently quite a difference between photographing solid oak, coloured lino, and veneered birch plywood- all materials we’re currently using in our furniture.

We’re building a collection of styling props, (grabbing pot-plants and trinkets from our homes mostly) to give the things we photo here a bit of real life flavour, that will be coming soon.

And now? High quality photos whenever we want, with our in-house facility. Such a boost for a startup furniture business like ours!