WHY FOODPHOTOSTUDIO.COM? BECAUSE WE’LL PUT YOUR PRODUCT IN MOTION

KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

• Motion is propelling a revolution in food product marketing
• Research proves that “motion” drives greater interaction with consumers
• See your SEO ranking vault up the charts by 50% or more

Videos… animations… GIFs… these are just some of the ways that “motion” in marketing is described as our world transforms to an Internet-based set of platforms for delivering cost-effective, content-rich messaging that drives consumers to act.

At FoodPhotoStudio.com, we’re more than just photographers, as our team is comprised of visual marketing professionals with decades of experience in understanding the marketing place, thereby growing, and changing to always offer the best ways for our clients to add value to their brand, and grow their bottom line.

As you'll see in the examples below, there are many ways to utilize “motion” when promoting you product. Our team works to understand your business, including your marketplace and the competitive landscape. From there, we suggest a plan of action and the types of deliverables that will drive increased revenue and greater engagement with consumers.

An example of a GIF created to show motion...

Our studio and corporate office are located in Schaumburg in the Remington Tech Center. This provides an optimal spot for our group of companies, as we have FoodPhotoStudio.com, CurtisNewbornPhotographic.com, and ObscuraCompanies.com, all located under one roof. Our brands in total provide a complete, turnkey solution for visual imagery and marketing execution. 

If you would you like to learn even more about the advantages of working with us, just check out these recent posts on “propping”, “our location” and “our full service offerings".

So as I close this post, all I can say is that if you’re thinking about food visuals, we need to talk… and check our blog each month for more about “why” FoodPhotoStudio.com is THE place in Chicagoland for highly creative, cost effective visual marketing!

This Month’s Solar Eclipse - How You Can Photograph This Cosmic Coincidence

From time to time, we'll write about other fascinating things happening in the world of photography... in this post, we talk about the upcoming solar eclipse.

Key highlights:

• What Exactly is Happening?
• Types of Equipment to Use
• Camera Settings

A historic astronomical phenomenon is bearing down on the United States, and towns in its path are hustling to get ready. For a few hours on Aug. 21, 2017, the moon will move in front of the sun and cast its shadow over the United States. It’s the first coast-to-coast solar eclipse since 1918. 

By mid-morning Pacific time, the town of Salem, Oregon, will slip into shadow. The moon will slowly and inexorably slide in front of the sun, and our star’s light will slowly grow dimmer. Filtered through foliage, sunlight will appear on the ground as a smattering of crescents.

As more of the sun’s disk disappears, ripples of light and darkness called “shadow bands” will wiggle across the ground, the way sunlight seems to shimmy on the bottom of a swimming pool. They are a harbinger of the coming total eclipse. Birds will hasten back to roosts.

Then, at 10:15 a.m., in one of the most unusual coincidences in all of celestial mechanics, the moon will completely block the sun’s disk. In the final seconds, a dazzling ray of light, known as the diamond ring, will remain: It is sunlight filtering through valleys on the moon. Insects will thrum and chirp as if it’s dusk. The temperature will drop.

After Oregon, the shadow of the moon will race southeast, carving a roughly 70-mile swath through parts of 11 other states — Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina — before lifting in the mid-Atlantic Ocean. Millions of people live on the path of totality, and millions more live a short drive away. So as scientists scramble to make some of the most important measurements of their careers, you can step outside and watch, too.

So what about those of you interested in photographing this amazing phenomenon? It is possible, with the right preparation and the right equipment. Here are links to some very helpful videos from our friends at Nikon that show you how to do it:

• PREPARATION: https://youtu.be/ZF8udieMRWc
• SETTINGS: https://youtu.be/jW3jEZtPW6A

It’s exciting to think about the power and majesty of nature as this event approaches… and if you happen to shoot the eclipse and would like to share your work with our audience, email your image (including attributes and contact info) to: 

why@obscuracompanies.com

We’ll be doing a special blog post in September and we will display all of the images that we receive and credit each photographer. And lastly, if you get hungry during the eclipse, click here to check out what Krispy Kreme has to offer!

Why foodphotostudio.com? Because We’re Not Just Photographers

Key highlights:

• We go beyond just the “image”
• Our philosophy is built around being "visual content providers”
• We work to understand your business and the marketplace

So today, as we dive deeper into the “why” of FoodPhotoStudio.com, we thought it would be a great time to spell out the many differentiators relative to the “typical food photography vendor”. The reasons for our company philosophy being focused on a more holistic approach to you marketing are two-fold; it allows us to better understand the full landscape of your business, and it also provides you with a more cohesive approach to marketing that generates results.

As you can see from the graphic above, visual content is critical to the success of your marketing... so let’s dive in and discuss “why" is this type of marketing so important? A quick look at some very telling statistics shows the way: 

• 93% of communication is visual
• Visuals are processed 600,000 times faster than text
• While people only retain 10% of what they hear and 20% of what they read, they retain 80% of what they see
• Content with visuals receives 94% more total views and is 40 times more likely to be shared on social networks
• To put it simply, human beings are visual beings, and visual information is much more sticky than any other type of content.

So whether it is product photography for your website, complete design and production of your packaging, or the creation of viral components that drive social interaction, FoodPhotoStudio.com and out team of professionals will deliver results that will propel your products to new heights, and also drive your bottom line.

Our studio and corporate office are located in Schaumburg in the Remington Tech Center. This provides an optimal spot for our group of companies, as we have FoodPhotoStudio.com, CurtisNewbornPhotographic.com, and ObscuraCompanies.com, all located under one roof. Our brands in total provide a complete, turnkey solution for visual imagery and marketing execution. 

If you would you like to learn even more about the advantages of working with us, just check out these recent posts on “propping” and “our location”.

So as I close this post, all I can say is that if you’re thinking about food visuals, we need to talk… and check our blog each month for more about “why” FooodPhotoStudio.com is THE place in Chicagoland for highly creative, cost effective visual marketing!

AR is Here… Try These Apps on Your iPhone

Each month, we examine what's being talked about across the online universe to look for a "tech topic" that would be of interest to a wide array of folks who follow us and read our blog. Here's the latest offering, compiled by Curtis Newborn, our Chief Creative Officer. You can follow him @CurtisNewborn on Twitter.

AR is Coming of Age

Augmented Reality (AR), which has been around the edges of popular consciousness for many years, is all about what you see and under what circumstances you see it. Unlike virtual reality (VR) where you are transported into another world, AR is still the real world, with an extra added something within your view.

AR iOS apps use your camera and location data to capture or project virtual objects and information directly onto the phone or tablet for entertainment, information, or even business uses. While there are many apps out there, below are details on some of the most popular among tech bloggers and imaginative creators of content.

Google Translate

If you’re traveling abroad, you can use Google Translate (free) for its text translation of 103 languages. It reads typed input, as well as signs, menus, posters, and anything with text via the Google Neural Machine Translation system, designed to translate sentences in context as opposed to merely word for word. This artificial intelligence component helps the app deliver relevant, more conceptual translations, while at the same time offering a more human, grammatical delivery.

Today, 52 languages can undergo translation without an internet connection; 30 languages can be translated via text by pointing your camera; 37 languages can be translated via the actual smartphone camera image. You can also use audio to translate bilingual conversations in 32 languages, draw text characters in 93 languages, and save translated words in all supported languages for future reference.

Transparent Earth

The Earth is round, so what is underneath our feet, on the other side of the globe? Transparent Earth (free), a 3D AR app, attempts to answer that question with a camera overlay that calculates the position of major localities in direct reverse of your current position. So what you see, in various degrees of opacity, is a reversed landscape, including cities, continents, and oceans. The app lets you position yourself anywhere in the world, regardless of where you actually are. Transparent Earth is for entertainment purposes, and compass accuracy may be affected by nearby metallic objects or other electronic gear.

Quiver

An altogether charming and absorbing AR coloring app for kids (and adults who never outgrew their crayon obsession), gives you that old fashioned experience of coloring on paper, and then tops it off with a brand new, utterly rewarding interactive experience. It takes a bit of prep, but the results are worth it. First, you print out a coloring page from the website, which contains a token that works with the app. Some sponsored coloring packs are free, while others are available as in-app purchases. Quiver offers its own free picture pack to get you started.

When a fully colored page is ready, you can watch it come to life through the app with an animation that you can view at every angle. You can even interact with and play games with the characters by touching the screen as well as zoom, play and pause, and capture photos and videos of your creations to share. Sound effects are built into each picture.

Amikasa

It’s time to redecorate and you’re not taking any chances. The Amikasa (free) 3D floor planner employs AR to help you place commercially branded furniture in all the rooms of your home—living room, dining room, bedroom, office, bathroom are included. The app lets you choose your new couch or dining set and play around with different upholstery and pillow patterns and then view how your home looks with the new pieces in place. Sellers can add products to Amikasa with direct links to their website. Not only can you design and view your new home, you can share your floor plan with friends and buy your favorite pieces from within the app.

InkHunter

If you’ve ever contemplated placing permanent ink on your body, you know it’s not for the faint of heart. Tattoos, unlike love or democracy, are forever. InkHunter (free) uses virtual tattoo designs to let you sample what a tattoo would look like on your skin. Just use a pen to draw a square smiley face on any part of your body to mark the spot and the app reads that marker to place your chosen tattoo pattern. You do have to use a pen to draw on your skin, but come on, you’re considering a tattoo, right?

InkHunter offers a gallery of positively stunning professional designs in both monochrome and color, but you can also use the app to try on your own design or search the web for different ones.

Star Walk

Even if you don’t know much about stars and constellations, Star Walk (free) will lure you into its drop dead gorgeous stargazing guide to the night sky. Whether you’re strolling around your campsite, street, or patio, Star Walk delivers a heavenly view in real time with more than 200,000 celestial bodies and information about them.

After launching the app, you can see stars, planets, satellites, and constellations correctly positioned from your location, and you can watch everything refresh and update as you move around. Tapping the AR icon superimposes the sky view on whatever your camera is focused on. Various view modes include Gamma Ray, X-Ray, Night, Visible, Infrared, and Microwave. You can even go backwards and forwards in time. This app also works with Apple Watch.

Wikitude

Think of Wikitude (free) as an AR-infused city guide that shows you a multitude of services, restaurants, parks, and areas of interest wherever you are. Just launch the app, and it will calculate your location and present a choice of featured entries: Wikipedia for the sights and TripAdvisor for the local hot spots.

Once you choose a search category, such as a restaurant—markers representing those vendors appear on screen. Companies can offer search codes that will guide users to an AR experience. A routing feature can map your route to any place found in the app. You can also use Wikitude as a tool to experience special AR content, ad campaigns, promotions, and games.

Dinosaurs Everywhere

This AR app puts some gigantic pre-historic beasts right next to you in real time and in life size, floating them around the room, walking on top of the TV, making fearsome dino noises, and even fighting each other on occasion.

Just hold your iOS device as if you were taking a photo, observe what’s happening in the room, and keep your ears open. There’s no need for any special equipment. The app starts off with five dino species; a paid upgrade gets you five more. Tap the screen to learn fun facts about your dino friends.

We hope you'll check out some of these apps and see how the world of "Augmented Reality" can bring you some useful information, and even some fun!

Why We're Located In The Suburbs

"WHY FOODPHOTOSTUDIO.COM?" 2ND IN A SERIES: LOCATION

Key highlights:
•Easy access from all directions
•Amazing restaurants and entertainment
•So easy to shop for props, food and supplies last-minute

Many times we’ve been asked by prospective clients why we’re not located in a downtown Chicago studio space. It’s always been an interesting question to have asked, because there’s not a simple answer. While downtown Chicago offers many things for photographers and studios, because we’ve work in both environs, we feel like we’re well-prepared to answer this for our prospects.

As many Chicagoans know, the entire area is one, big mass of humanity… of diverse peoples, cultures, types of businesses, and as things change in this “Millennial Era”, it is not a cut & dried solution for a company to simply be “downtown… where the action is”… because frankly, the action is everywhere! 

Our studio and corporate office are located in Schaumburg in the Remington Tech Center. This provides an optimal spot for our group of companies, as we have FoodPhotoStudio.com, CurtisNewbornPhotographic.com, and ObscuraCompanies.com, all located under one roof. Our brands in total provide a complete, turnkey solution for visual imagery and marketing execution, and the services that we provide go well beyond photography. 

Would you like to learn even more about the advantages of working with us? Check out this recent post about “propping”.

So as I close this post, all I can say is that if you’re thinking about food photography, give us a look… and check our blog each month for more about “why” FooodPhotoStudio.com is THE place in Chicagoland for highly creative, cost effective imagery!