Category Archives: Photography

PR & Commercial Photography

Posted on June 4, 2012 | 3 comments

PR Professionals, You Should Bookmark This Page

Alex James, bassist from Blur turned cheesemaker, is launching an exciting, innovative line exclusively with Asda entitled Alex James Presents.The range, on shelves from August 22nd, includes deliciously creamy cheddar blended with wonderful flavour combinations, such as Cheddar and Tomato Ketchup, Cheddar and Salad Cream and Cheddar and Tikka Masala. Alex with a huge sandwich filled with sliced cheeses from the new range. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Picture the scene; your client has spent tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds on the launch of their latest product or service. They have hired your PR firm to generate interest and spread the word. Months if not years of R&D, planning and hard work have gone into this moment when the product is to be revealed to the public. It’s a make or break moment. You yourself have spent weeks or even months planning, writing press releases, talking of strategies and when it comes to one of the most crucial aspects, the actual reveal to the public, you choose your photographer without much thought and skimp on budget, trying to cut corners for what is a tiny amount in the grand scheme of the project. The result? All this effort and expense goes to waste; the papers don’t give your client coverage, the product fails and you and your company not only look bad, but risk losing that account.

Grey Goose vodka and Virgin Atlantic have today announced the opening of the world’s best airport bar – the Grey Goose Loft at the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at London Heathrow. The luxurious bar will offer Virgin Atlantic Upper Class passengers a bespoke experience and a level of service which until now could only be enjoyed in the top cocktail bars in the world. A Grey Goose Signature Dry Martini. London, UK. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

I can be of help. I’ve been a press photographer also covering PR and commercial photography since 1989. I’ve weathered two recessions – not through dropping prices or doing silly promotions, but by producing great, award winning photography – consistently. On several occasions my PR photography has made it into the papers’ “Pictures of the Week” and been given the space good photography deserves. I can be involved at the early planning stage by being a consultant (essential and often overlooked), advising on what will make a strong photographic campaign and what the picture editors will go for, all the way through to the actual photography and getting the pictures out there to the papers.

Nell McAndrew wishes UK National Lottery players the best of British luck for the record breaking £100 million EuroMillions rollover jackpot. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

This is a post you should bookmark and even more importantly, here’s my PR and commercial photography website which you definitely should bookmark:

www.commercial.pix.org.uk

I look forward to hearing from you on your next project. Your clients deserve the best photography, so don’t let them down and get in touch.

Feature on the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) in Stanmore ahead of the launch of their fundraising appeal. The Imaging Department is one of the departments that will benefit from the redevelopment. Superintendant Radiographer Marubini Mamphwe carries out a Scoliosis X-Ray on patient David Chapell. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

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Posted in Business, Photography

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Gunter Sachs Collection at Sotheby’s

Posted on May 19, 2012 | 2 comments

An Exclusive Behind The Scenes Look


Behind the scenes as Sotheby’s prepares the Gunter Sachs Collection ahead of the sale on May 22nd and 23rd, 2012. Sotheby’s will be offering close to 300 works of art from the prestigious single owner collection. The sale is estimated to realise £20 million.

Almost 7200 pictures were used in this timelapse. The majority were shot on a pair of Canon 5D MkII cameras specifically set up for shooting this timelapse (with a 16-35mm f2.8L II and 24-105mm f4L), one being triggered by a Pocket Wizard Multimax and the other by the highly configurable IO Shutter running on an iPad 3. A GoPro HD Hero was used for the overhead view timelapse. Reportage images were shot on a Leica M9 and M9-P (using a 50mm Noctilux ASPH, 35mm Summilux ASPH and 28mm Summicron ASPH). The images were all processed in Apple’s Aperture and the video created using Apple’s FCP X.

Huge word of thanks to everyone involved, especially the team from Sotheby’s press office, the lighting crew , technicians and contemporary art experts.

Update: Thrilled to share that the video is published on The Guardian website.

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Posted in Canon 5D MkII Video, Film, multimedia, Photography, Pictures, Video

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The Leica M Monochrom Hands On Review

Posted on May 17, 2012 | 24 comments

The King Of The Tones?

Opening of the Leica Studio-S, 27 Bruton Place, Mayfair. Portraits of photographer Edmond Terakopian trying out the new Leica M Monocrom and APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH. May 16, 2012. Photo: By Brett / http://www.bybrett.com

I have to admit that when I first read rumours of a black and white Leica M, I thought it would never happen. When I saw the announcements, I was a tad surprised, until I saw the images. Such tonal range and amazing detail at very high ISOs all of a sudden made so much sense.

Test shots with the Leica M Monochrom and APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH. Camera was set to jpeg. 640 ISO. ***All shots on a pre-production Leica M Monochrom***. May 16, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Test shots with the Leica M Monochrom and APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH. Camera was set to jpeg. 640 ISO. ***All shots on a pre-production Leica M Monochrom***. May 16, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

I was fortunate enough to be able to try out a pre-production Leica M Monochrom today, along with the astonishingly great Leica APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH. In my enthusiasm to shoot with the camera I unfortunately didn’t check to see if the camera was set to RAW, so all these test images are from jpegs which I have processed a little in Aperture. Naturally RAWs produce the best files, so take these jpegs, which have been saved again as jpegs and thus degraded the image quality (especially at higher ISOs) as a guide. Even so, they are amazingly good!

Test shots with the Leica M Monochrom and APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH. Camera was set to jpeg. 8000 ISO. ***All shots on a pre-production Leica M Monochrom***. May 16, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Test shots with the Leica M Monochrom and APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH. Camera was set to jpeg. 8000 ISO. ***All shots on a pre-production Leica M Monochrom***. May 16, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Test shots with the Leica M Monochrom and APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH. Camera was set to jpeg. 10,000 ISO. ***All shots on a pre-production Leica M Monochrom***. May 16, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Test shots with the Leica M Monochrom and APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH. Camera was set to jpeg. 10,000 ISO. ***All shots on a pre-production Leica M Monochrom***. May 16, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

One of the great aspects of the launch event for the press at Leica Mayfair’s S-Studio was being able to discuss the camera with friends and colleagues.

Photographer Ian Berry from Magnum Photos tries out the new Leica M Monochrome. May 16, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian (Image shot on an M9-P and processed in Silver Efex Pro 2)

Photographer Ian Berry from Magnum Photos tries out the new Leica M Monochrome. May 16, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian (Image shot on an M9-P and processed in Silver Efex Pro 2)

I must admit to being blown away and yearn to be able to work in black and white like the good old days!

The huge thing with this camera is not needing the bayer filter in front of the sensor. This makes the sensor much better at picking up ultra fine detail and a wider tonal range, not to mention it’s ability to produce really gorgeous files at 8000 ISO. Just playing with these jpegs it’s clear to me that Leica have in fact pulled off a master stroke of absolute genius. I can’t wait to get my hands on this camera again, shoot in DNG and process them properly through Aperture. It is going to be lush!

For a full set of images taken with the M Monochrom, visit my Flickr stream.

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Posted in Camera Equipment, Leica, Photography, Pictures, viewpoint

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Camera Club Talk

Posted on May 15, 2012 | 2 comments

Presentation At The Thatcham Photographic Club

Photogrpher Edmond Terakopian during a street photography workshop for the Metropolitan Police Photographic Society. London. September 17, 2011. Photo: Steve Osborm

For anyone in Berkshire or the surrounds, I’ll be giving a presentation of my work and having a chat with a Q&A at Thatcham Photographic Club on June 13th. If you’re interested in popping by, it would be good to have you. Contact the club directly to make a booking.

We’ll be raffling one of my prints, with the proceeds going to the club. Additionally, it’s my pleasure to announce that I’ll also be making several prints, from two of my images from Armenia available for purchase, at very special prices.

Images from Armenia. Signed and embossed prints, made available at a special rate for the Thatcham Photographic Club talk in June. 24cm x 16cm (roughly) archival and embossed print, signed, £25.00. Photo: Edmond Terakopian (These prints were made on a Canon iPF6300 during the testing of the machine which is why I can offer them at this reduced rate).

Images from Armenia. Signed and embossed prints, made available at a special rate for the Thatcham Photographic Club talk in June. 45cm x 30cm (roughly) archival and embossed print, signed. £45.00. Photo: Edmond Terakopian (These prints were made on a Canon iPF6300 during the testing of the machine which is why I can offer them at this reduced rate).

For anyone wishing to purchase a print, please note that on the night, it will be cash only, so kindly make sure you have sufficient means! Alternatively, you can contact me via the Contact page to pay via BACS beforehand and collect your print on the night.

A note on copyright: Please note that by purchasing prints, you are buying a print and not the rights to the image.

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Posted in education, News, Photography, Pictures, workshop

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Reportage On The RNOH

Posted on May 1, 2012 | 17 comments

The Power Of Photographs

Following the RNOH film, I decided I wanted to do a different edit to our TAPTV film. My thoughts were to combine some photographs within the edit. At first I looked through the beautifully edited by Neil Patience film and realised that there were some nice still images within the footage. With Quicktime 7, I went back to the original Canon 5D MkII footage and exported some still images, particularly from the interview sections.

These images were imported into Aperture 3 where I processed them. For the B/W conversions I exported them into Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro 2. Here I created four custom looks and these were applied to the images as appropriate. Using FCP X I then did an re-edit of the film, incorporating the images captures. I also used Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Looks 2 to grade the film slightly differently to our original.

Earlier this year, we decided that to coincide with the launch, it would be a great idea to shoot a proper photo reportage on the RNOH, so over a three and a half day period, using a Leica M9 and M9-P, I wandered the operating theatres, halls and wards (with the invaluable help from the fundraising and communications teams), making a set of pictures. I mainly shot the entire project using the Leica  50mm Noctilux APSH, the new 35mm Summilux ASPH and the 28mm Summicron.

These were first edited in Aperture for my agency Eyevine and once done, I set about incorporating them into my video edit. As before, Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro 2 was used for the B/W conversions and I set about importing them into FCP X and making the new edit of the video.

There is something much more powerful with B/W imagery and for me, this version is even more powerful. It’s a full multimedia marriage of video, audio and photography. I’d love to know which version of the film you find stronger and why.

My biggest ask though is that if you were touched by this amazing place, please help in their redevelopment and donate to the RNOH fund. Thank you.

Lastly, here is a slideshow of my favourite photographs from the project:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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Posted in Apple, Canon 5D MkII Video, Film, Leica, Mac, multimedia, Photography, Video, viewpoint

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RNOH Appeal Film Launch

Posted on April 27, 2012 | 1 comment

Film Premiere & Exhibition

What an amazing evening. We had the launch of our RNOH appeal film; a project we have been working on since our first meeting in April 2011. The film was premiered at a special event at St James’s Palace by HRH Prince Andrew and HRH Princess Eugenie. I shall be posting a in-depth article on the project with some behind the scenes photographs and technical briefing on techniques and equipment used. Firstly tough, it is my pleasure to show you our film:

Alongside the film was also a photographic exhibition of images I had taken around the hospital, documenting the amazing work that goes on there, despite the conditions of the fabric of the hospital.

The RNOH launch their funding appeal at St James’s Palace in London. Photographer Edmond Terakopian’s exhibition of photographs documenting the state of the hospital. April 26, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

The RNOH launch their funding appeal at St James’s Palace in London. Photographer Edmond Terakopian with his exhibition of photographs documenting the state of the hospital. April 26, 2012. Photo: Theodore Wood / http://www.theodorewood.com

Here are some images of the exhibition of prints, and some photographs by Theodore Wood from the event, showing Princess Eugenie viewing the exhibition and being presented a print on her departure from the event.

The RNOH launch their funding appeal at St James’s Palace in London. Photographer Edmond Terakopian shows HRH Princess Eugenie a series of photographs documenting the state of the hospital. April 26, 2012. Photo: Theodore Wood / http://www.theodorewood.com

The RNOH launch their funding appeal at St James’s Palace in London. Photographer Edmond Terakopian and Rosie Stolarski (head of fundraising), present HRH Princess Eugenie with a portrait of herself (taken by Edmond Terakopian). April 26, 2012. Photo: Theodore Wood / http://www.theodorewood.com

To make donations to this extremely worthwhile project to rebuild one of the world’s top three orthopaedic hospitals, please visit the RNOH Charity website. Thank you.

HRH Princess Eugenie of York who had spinal surgery at the RNOH. RNOH Fundraising Film stills grabs from the film. June 02, 2011. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

HRH Princess Eugenie of York is also helping raise funds for the hospital by taking part in 100km bike ride; please pop by her page and make a donation if you can.

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Posted in Canon 5D MkII Video, Exhibition, News, Photography, Pictures, printing, Video, viewpoint

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