Real Milk, For Real Advertising

The preparation and production for advertising days is so extensive that often what I’m really contributing is the audacity to say, “No, we’re not going to do it that way.” The days are scheduled out as to be the most efficient and cost effective, and that’s of real value, but my primary job is to get great images for the client, so that means I sometimes turn the best laid plans upside down.

We shot this Lactaid ad outside, on a real farm (well, the buildings and fields were real, but they are only ever used for photo and film locations), so our main light source was the sun. Logically we should shoot the hero shot when the light is most beautiful, right? Not necessarily, as the best light is just before sunset. The producer wants to ensure that we wrap on time, and the agency and client don’t want to wait eight hours before knowing that we have nailed it.

Luckily, most lay people know little about lighting and they can argue logistics with me but they won’t get too far down the “how to light” path. But I’m a man of reason, and we shot all of the “in-studio” shots first (in actuality it was “in-barn”), and then started the outdoor hero shot two hours before my projected ideal light target.

In the end, we got a great variety of images to choose from, the finished ad looks wonderful, and I got some sweet bts photos of me with a herd of cows in dusk light.

Thanks to Deutsch NY, Marieme Sall and Vijay Patil for having me along!