Where's there's a will, there's a way
It’s an interesting process to how these book photos are captured.
Here’s how the sausage is made :)
Recently, I’ve been working with authors by capturing photos of their books - the cover, spine, illustrations, pull quotes, chapter titles, section headers, the works.
And, those photos have led other people to reach out and ask me how I’ve been creating these photos without anyone else in the room, holding the book open.
Since I incessantly talk about the importance of showing your audience how the sausage is made, I need to walk the walk, too :)
The raw materials are simple - stage clamps, flat surfaces, tabletops, window ledges, and anything else that’s within arms reach that will help keep the book propped open.
The fun part is identifying something to shoot in the book and then using all the professional - and non-professional - staging equipment to help shape the way the book is opened in front of the camera to create compelling, high-quality book photos
That’s the before and during...here’s the after:
While setup is fairly straight-forward, there is a lot of freestyling and experimentation going on every time a new book is shipped to me to shoot.
As you can see in the before photos, anything that’s within arms reach - a lighter, remote control or Starbuck coffee can become a valuable staging partner in the process.
There’s a lot of subtle nudging, prodding, and leveraging gravity and the wind blowing through my windows to help swing pages to and fro to give the pages some movement in the photos.
On more than one occasion, I’ve found myself using my hand or just blowing on the page to keep it right where it needs to be.
It’s a delicate art - one that I find quite cathartic and interesting as I blast music in my headphones and get lost in the process.
While it can become a bit mind-numbing as the pages often behave in unique ways based on the type of cover (hard covers pose different challenges than soft covers) and the tightness of the binding, the results are worth the effort.
As I often say, the juice is worth the squeeze :)
While the process of how these photos are created is an interesting peel back of the curtain, the why behind creating these photos is always kept in mind throughout the entire process.
Clients have poured their heart, soul, and experiences into these books.
There is transformation in some shape or form shared within the pages, and it could help spark change in the minds of those who need to read it.
These photos are meant to provide those potential readers with an opportunity to preview the book.
As a result, we want to give them a chance to feel the book in their hands through their eyes as a way to get them excited about the possibilities to which the concepts shared in this book could lead.
That’s why digital renderings of the cover aren’t enough to share in your marketing materials.
When you invest in book photos that capture all elements of the book, that enhances the buzz, the interest, and the chance to take the visual storytelling opportunities to the next level.
And the shots look sexy as hell - they’re not referred to as “book boudoir” for nothin’ :)
If you’re interested in finding out what a photo session looks like for your book, you can do so here.
Set up a time to chat with me to talk about how we can schedule some time to give your book it’s close-up time in front of the camera.