A New Look and a New Approach
As a freelance photographer, having one client remain loyal for the best part of 20 years is something of an achievement. When that client is the University of Bath, I think I can give myself a virtual long-service award! If I can work out exactly when the 20-year mark is, I’ll be sure to have an extra slice of cake that day.
University of Bath and I are the same age!
Now celebrating their 60th anniversary as a university (University of Bath received its charter the same year I was born), they’ve taken the opportunity to freshen up and strengthen their brand. This isn’t just a tinkering at the edges, replacing a font, logo or colour here or there, but a top-to-bottom re-design including the photographic look and approach.
As part of the process I spent some time liaising with the University staff photographer. I shadowed a photographic session to get a feel for the new visual direction and have been looking at how my workflow needs to adapt to keep aligned to their needs.
Seamless Integration
Having freelanced for them over so many years, I was already pretty well embedded and familiar with their systems; from capture to captioning and delivery, I’ve always worked to ensure that there was as little difference as possible between working with me or with the in-house photographer. This applied as much to the photographic style as to the admin and workflow aspects of the relationship.
As they roll out the new branding, I’m continuing to adapt how I work with them and have already covered a couple of jobs using the new approaches.
A New Approach
I have to say, I quite enjoy the new photographic approach which allows me to stand back more, allow elements to interrupt the edges of the frame and also gives the subjects more space to be themselves and interact naturally. It’s been more evolution than revolution from the previous style, yet also quite liberating. I feel I can be more creative in terms of in-camera visual effects, and rather than trying to cover absolutely every aspect of an event, I’ve been justified in seeking out aspects which work to the new narrative style.
It’s still early days, and there will need to be further tweaks and adjustments as I go, but I’m going to leave you with an example of the new style, using an image taken at this year’s Summer Graduations. You’ll recognise this image from a recent blog post, but I thought it would be a good example to play with.
Experimenting with
Here we have the out-of-camera version with no adjustment (Bath Abbey is dark!), followed by the original edit and then an edit in the new style which leans into the cinematic ‘orange and teal’ look of current cinema and TV drama productions. The final version could probably do with more finessing, but you should easily see the direction of travel.
Let me know in the comments if you have a preference or any thoughts on this.
