Anecdote Candles BTS

Hey all! Excited to share this little BTS post of our shoot with Anecdote Candles. This was such a fun project for us because we got to create some really elegant shots that I am just totally obsessed with. Anecdote Candles is a candle brand that's inspired by stories, moments, and personal recollections. Their candle names and descriptions are honestly some of the best out there. They also smell amazing and make a pretty great gift so I would 100% check them out if you're wanting to shop small this holiday season. This is totally not sponsored whatsoever, we just loved their products so much and we had such an amazing time working with them. I'm actually burning one of their candles right now!

Inspiration (Set Design)

Anyway, let's jump right in! Of course, I can't speak for Elle on how all of the concepting went down but Anecdote came to us wanting to elevate their brand with some new imagery for their Fall Collection, Candle of The Year Collection, Holiday Collection, and a few individual shots for some of their core scents. Since we've been super into architecture and interior design lately, it was only natural for Elle to pull a lot of amazing inspiration from these mediums to help create some of the sets. For example, the arch cutout that Elle made from particle board or the raised grid background. If you are a Saturday or Sunday level member, you might have seen that video last month for how she created the grid backdrop. I highly suggest checking it out if you're interested in learning more about how it was made and painted.

We also used a number of fabrics for this project which made the overall mood feel organic and elegant at the same time. Some of these fabrics included a brown velvet, a green satin fabric, and some cream linen. The velvet fabric was used to create a sort of loose curtain effect while the other fabrics were draped behind the products or underneath to create a sweeping backdrop. It's pretty awesome how much fabric can transform an image or convey a feeling. That green satin was probably one of my favorite fabrics we included because of how beautiful it photographs.

The colors for this shoot were kept mostly neutral with the exception of a dusty rose color and this muted pistachio green. This was definitely one of those shoots where we didn't necessarily have to create an entirely cohesive set of images because we were shooting so many different collections but we still wanted to make sure that they all looked like they belonged to the same brand. I think we definitely achieved this by keeping the colors consistent, using some of the same backdrops or fabrics, and keeping the lighting and editing style the same.

Props 

If you read Elle's updated "Where To Find Shoot Props" post, you might have recognized some of the props that we used for this shoot including the terrazzo shape objects or the ceramic candlestick holder. Elle can probably speak to her styling and art direction process more than I can but I have a strong feeling that including a lot of home decor pieces was the right choice for Anecdote because we were really going for a cozy vibe as if we were in someone's home. A home can symbolize so many things but at the end of the day, it's a space where memories are created and stories are told which is exactly what Anecdote is all about. 

The other cool thing that Elle did, which I thought was pretty brilliant, was she looked for items that we already had and used them in our shoot by positioning them in more interesting ways. For example, in one of the shots with the arch backdrop, she used one of my black planters and flipped it upside down to create an entirely new prop that looked more like a decor piece rather than something to put your plant in. Sometimes placing a prop sideways or upside down can transform it and make it something totally different and unique. 

And of course, I can't forget to mention that we also used some of our amazing Moodelier props. We loved used the arc piece and some of the fluted columns to allow for some levels throughout our shots. They were also spray painted this lovely neutral cream color so that they wouldn't take away from the Anecdote candles.

Shooting + Lighting

Thanks to Elle's amazing concepts and mockups, this shoot was very streamlined which helped make the whole process that much better. We knew that we were going to shoot with our typical one light setup and some white cards to help reflect some light back into those shadows. However, because our client included some fun lighting in their inspiration, we brought out some of our old cutout foam core to help us imitate some window lighting. If you haven't read our post on "White Cards," I would highly recommend checking it out so you know exactly what we mean. The thing about this lighting technique is that it can't ever be fully planned, it usually takes us quite a few shots to get the "one." Or, sometimes we end up compositing a few shots to combine a few different shadows that we like.

One other random epiphany that we had while shooting was that we actually didn't even need to photoshop the candle flames in post. Many years ago, we had photographed a shoot that was for Fourth of July that involved a cake and sparkler candles. For some reason, we couldn't capture the sparklers at all and now that I think back to that shoot, I remember we were using a really large octabox to light our model/scene which probably washed out the candles. Anyway, my point is that we discovered that using a hard light over a large soft light did not make the candles look like they weren't lit and they looked completely fine. It was sort of a weird discovery but we took it because it saved me some time from having to composite a flame that wasn't going to look quite as realistic.  

Post-Production

Ok, you all know I am not the biggest fan of editing but this project was actually really fun for many reasons. Obviously the images themselves were just so pretty but the other thing was that most of our other work tends to be bright and colorful and so this whole shoot was a fun new direction for us. It was great to work with a more moodier and subdued look and so when Elle told me she was thinking that maybe we would add some grain to these images, I was totally for it. I'm a personal fan of grain, especially in my own portraiture work, so this was exciting to me and I think the grain really helped to create this nostalgic feeling of being at home, perhaps with family or maybe sitting around a campfire telling stories.

Most of the editing included compositing, fixing the arch backdrop, cleaning up the raised grid background, adjusting the colors to fit Anecdote's branding, dodging & burning, sharpening, and so on. However, the added effect of the grain and also adjusting the highlights to make the overall images a bit softer was a fun touch to the whole shoot. 

Well, there you have it folks. A little behind-the-scenes post on this shoot with Anecdote Candles. I hope you all enjoyed it and if you're curious about anything else, feel free to drop a comment with your question and we'll do our best to answer! Feel free to check out some of the final photos on our site here. :)

Is it the weekend yet?
Arabela