Shadow Element

Photography

and the Digital Darkroom

Fashion shot of model Ines Wieland with hat

A fashion shot for a milliner.

Both traditional and computer expertise are required for a modern photographic workflow. Styling, lighting, and capturing an image is just the beginning. Retouching, masking, compositing, and grading are important skills for a photographer today.

Anemones Avocado Half with Pit Bat Dancers’ Backs Elk Breath Fish Upside Down Four Kids on Rock Garlic Heads Girl with Cupcake Jasper and Trumpet Log Cabin Dance Milk and Food Color Orchids Portrait of Joseph Mandl Portrait of Ned Kahn Portrait of Paul McLoughlin Portrait of Proud Father and Son Portrait of Sabrina and Winston the Dog Portrait of Semion and Mila Portrait of Smiling Woman Portrait of Two Girls Samsonite Luggage Sea and Sky Staircase to Children’s Floor Tule Fog Weekend Warriors White Jordon Almonds Yo-Yo Fair Ride
Photos for an elementary school science activity that uses Alka-Seltzer tablets as rocket fuel.

Photos for an elementary school science activity that uses Alka-Seltzer tablets as rocket fuel.

Detail from a poster of mammal skulls created for the San Francisco Zoo

Detail from a poster of mammal skulls created for the San Francisco Zoo.

Pipsqueak combines traditional photographic technique with digital photographic manipulation. We’re adept at Photoshop—we’ve been using it since it came on floppies—and After Effects. Since we combine photography and digital image manipulation, we can craft our photographic work in anticipation of manipulation in post. And since we’re photographers, our digital work doesn’t have that computer-generated look.

Three science-related nature macro images

A leaf of a carnivorous plant—the sundew (Drosera binata) top. a sea anemone (Anthopleura xanthogrammica) above, left. And some mushrooms in our garden (Mushroomus unknownus) above, right.

Reticulated Giraffe head and neck skeleton
An assortment of bird eggs at proper scale
A food shot for Capellino Pasta.

For these product shots for Capellino Pasta, strobe lights were positioned underneath our large translucent shooting table.

A product shot for Capellino Pasta.
The image on the left, titled “After the Party”, was shot on medium format Provia film and then scanned.  The image on the right, titled “Paris O'Connell”, was acquired digitally.  Both were enhanced.

After the Party, left, was shot on medium format Provia film and then scanned. Paris O’Connell, right, was acquired digitally. Both were enhanced.

Product Shot for Pitch Dark Chocolate - Single Bonbon with Bag + Bitters
Pitch Dark Chocolate header combo element Product Shot for Pitch Dark Chocolate - Box of Bonbons

Moody product shots for Pitch Dark Chocolates, an innovative Portland company.

For lighting, we often use strobe lighting (Dynalite) for our still work and tungsten or LED lighting packages (Lowell, Arri, Mole Richardson, and Dedolight) for our film and video work.

Our studio includes a large translucent shooting table, a Cambo camera stand, and an onsite HD reviewing monitor. We also shoot in 360°—great for tours and environments, especially when viewed in a VR headset.