Blog

A food blog dedicated to the Kansas City commercial photography studio - Alistair Tutton Photography

Making a Mess!
I love working with liquids and we’ve been doing a lot of test shoots in the studio recently so we decided to try and combine those techniques. This shot focused on creating the same backlit glass work you can see on the Johnny …

Making a Mess!

I love working with liquids and we’ve been doing a lot of test shoots in the studio recently so we decided to try and combine those techniques. This shot focused on creating the same backlit glass work you can see on the Johnny Walker bottle and glass and on the wine bottle image. but mixing in the dynamic of the splash. This meant utilizing a similar lighting strategy but with totally different strobes. After several tests we got a result we simply love.

Well done to Bill and Adam on some great retouching to combine three frames - one for the spill, one for the pour and one for the glass contents.

Credits:

Photographer: Alistair Tutton

Assistant: Adam Caselman

Retoucher: Adam Caselman and William Hess

This is a project shot we’ve been playing for a while - just trying to get that perfect outline on the edge of the bottle, then that perfect sharp line reflection that shows the shape of the bottle, the soft fill for the label and then the bac…

This is a project shot we’ve been playing for a while - just trying to get that perfect outline on the edge of the bottle, then that perfect sharp line reflection that shows the shape of the bottle, the soft fill for the label and then the back-lit glow from the wine itself. I loved this particular bottle design and it happened to be down at the local supermarket - no doubt we recycled the contents on the front porch too. The horizon line was part of the lighting design - where we just raised the flag enough that some light crept through and then lifted the bottle up a half inch - as you can see from the reflection we did actually raise the bottle - no photoshop in creating the line, just in taking the block out. I loved the final shot and I was really happy when it was a winner in this years local ADDY competition.

Credits:

Photographer: Alistair Tutton

Assistant: Adam Caselman

Retoucher: Adam Caselman 

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Oh boy, it’s a party now! This was a fun shoot we did in the studio of a Johnnie Walker “Red Label” bottle, and a rocks glass. All we’re missing are some whiskey stones. We played around with different light modifiers at different angles to get the look we wanted on the label. We did the same thing with the rocks glass. 

In post, I blended the different comps with the different light angles in, and gave the label a little bit of a punch with a curves layer. I took out the outline of the Johnnie sticker on the front, and I took out the rear reflection in the glass. There were some rainbow artifacts in the glass, so I desaturated every part of the glass that didn’t have a whiskey color in it. Speaking of whiskey color, I matched the whiskey colors in the glass and in the bottle to each other. There was a little more reflection than we wanted, so I feathered in some black to cut down on some of that reflection. 

I’m a big fan of this shot. It just seems to pop off of the screen, which I would be alright with if it actually did. Who else needs a glass? I can’t drink alone.

- Adam

This is a shot Adam and I have been working on for a while - capturing perfect glass - a beautiful outline showing the shape of the glass and a mixture of highlights on the glassware - the soft broad highlight on the glass and the sharp line that runs down the side of the bottle. All this with the spot light on the label with plenty of fall-off and the backlit bottle to bring out the color of the beverage. Overall we did about six shots with a whole series of different highlights and modifiers to form the final composite.

I love tinkering like this in studio - always a good time.

- Alistair

Credits:

Photographer: Alistair Tutton

Assistant: Adam Caselman

Retoucher: Adam Caselman

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Everyone Screams For This Ice Cream…and Cookies. 

Shatto rocks! And then you add Dolce Baking Company to Shatto and I guess you get rocks squared - so there are these fabulous new Ice Cream Sammiches that have been on the market for a little while…and apparently are fully addictive. They taste delicious and as always we worked with SHS to get photographs of their latest packaging design for Shatto. Here are the results.

Credits: 

Photographer: Alistair Tutton

Assistant: Adam Caselman

Retoucher: Adam Caselman

Client: Sullivan Higdon and Sink

Client: Shatto Milk

Client: Dolce Baking Company 

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Fun with Fireworks!

Adam and I were looking for a fun way to celebrate the 4th of July, so we decided to set off some large smoke bombs and fire of some sprinklers…luckily we only set the backdrop on fire once. 

Also, Adam really can cross his eyes like that…the things we learn at work.

Credits:

Photographer: Alistair Tutton

Assistant: Adam Caselman

Retoucher: Adam Caselman

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Beer :30.

Beer…yummy. Here’s some shots we took in studio recently for fun. I love the look of the Guinness surge and we worked really precisely to get the lighting where we wanted - lots of shape on the glass and then a little spray to style the glasses for a final touch.

Credits:

Photographer: Alistair Tutton

Assistant: Adam Caselman

Product: Guinness

Product: Stella Artois

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Sometimes Photography is Yummy.

I can remember the day I heard that Shatto Milk Company was launching a line of ice cream sandwiches. I knew they were going to be marvelous and I fully enjoyed being a part of this tasty debut. The sandwich packaging was shot on white seamless, so all that was required on the background was a bit of cleanup and some level boosting. The shadow from the packaging gave the sandwich some dimension, so it was left in. Some of the packages needed to have the creases taken out or reduced, so there were compositions used for that task. Some careful manipulation was used to align the packaging comps that didn’t line up perfectly. Yay liquify tool!

The shot of the ice cream package in between the two cookies was a result of combining three images. The cookie wasn’t large enough to cover the whole top of the package, so I blended all three positions of the cookie to create one big one. It wasn’t too hard because the texture and color of the cookie was fairly easy to blend. The last thing to remove was the reflection coming off of the plexiglass. It was easy since the ice cream and cookies were shot on white. Simple and sweet!

Credits: 

Photographer: Alistair Tutton

Author: Adam Caselman

Retoucher: Adam Caselman

Assistant: Adam Caselman

Client: Sullivan Higdon and Sink/Shatto Milk

When Showing the Portfolio.

The oddest things can happen - I’m always certain to meet incredible people and see some of the most beautiful, creative offices around the country. But without a doubt my favorite was this year when visiting Campbell Mi…

When Showing the Portfolio.

The oddest things can happen - I’m always certain to meet incredible people and see some of the most beautiful, creative offices around the country. But without a doubt my favorite was this year when visiting Campbell Mithun. Yep, this is a photo of me in a soundbooth, doing a voiceover for the agencies entries into “The One” show. I have to admit that while my silly accent has proven very entertaining over the years I’ve spent in America, this was the first time I actually had someone choose to record it for posterity - thanks go to Kat Dalager for a very entertaining time.

Credits:
Kat Dalager, Campbell Mithun

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Shatto means tasty.

I’ve been working for a few years with the wonderful people at Shatto and SHS and have loved seeing the packaging design/packaging advertising evolve in new and exciting ways. So, here’s the latest products (which I think you can already find in your neighborhood grocery stores). A new ice cream flavor with new ice cream packaging and three new butter flavors with radically new packaging. This stuff not only looks great, but it tastes delicious!

Credits:
Shatto Milk
SHS
Assistant - Adam Caselman

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Art Director + Photographer = Something of Beauty

We were back in the studio and having some fun working on a concept shoot with Shaun Crockett, of AdFarm. It was a pretty cool shoot that we have been working on for a very long time. We actually pre-lit the scene in late December and only just had a chance to return to it and give the shoot the time it really deserved. 

As you can see Baxter was in his usual spot - right behind the action and making sure we were safe. In the meantime we were working with some very tricky subjects - a very reflective stainless steel dish and some very shiny objects in them. It was great fun focusing some precise lighting and highlights to give us a beautiful final shot; which we’ll be showing you very soon.

Credits:
Art Director - Shaun Crockett
Assistant - Adam Caselman

Why do I do it…


So I typically use the blog to show off the new images, so I wanted to try and post some stuff that’s a little less shoot based and a little more me based. I occasionally get asked “how did I end up here”, pretty much all the time …

Why do I do it…

So I typically use the blog to show off the new images, so I wanted to try and post some stuff that’s a little less shoot based and a little more me based. I occasionally get asked “how did I end up here”, pretty much all the time - it’s the accent I think - and while it generally relates to me being in America and talking in a strange way, I think it could equally relate to my photography. So yeah, how did I end up here. I started off in a very different direction; I was going to be an architect, like my father, and wound up doing an exchange program to the University of Kansas - there’s a long story there - and then wound up designing retail interiors and exhibits all over the country - several long stories there. I loved it, it was a really cool job with some really exciting projects…and then I started photographing them.

That was that.

I just bought a camera from Best Buy, and twelve months later I was done, I chatted to some wonderful full-time professionals, who critiqued and advised and helped me adopt the best practices. I went to the library and read, I picked up the camera and practiced, I looked and looked, at my work and other people’s work and then just walked out.

So why?

I love the camera, I love the physical nature of capturing that fragment of time, that moment, I love the technique, the multiplicity of options to solve almost any visual option. I love the incredible range of styles. 

That’s why I do it.

So I take a lot of photos, a lot of photos, and sometimes I get asked what my favorite image was. Last year I finally had time to go home at Christmas and see my family for the first time in four years…yep, it sounds soppy but my favorite image was this outtake that really took things full-circle for me. There are some images I want to frame, some I want to frame and have in the house, but I don’t have many images that make me this happy.

Credits:

Mum and Dad

Fun with Booze. I love my job.

We got these cool glasses from Boulevard brewery and came up with the idea of trying some really stark product shots with strong reflections. Then we added some cocktails and wrapped up with some coffee. It’s just another play-day at the studio…with booze.








Credits:
Food Stylist - Trina Kahl
Assistant - Adam Caselman

Why Just Use a Regular Chair, When You Can Have A Piece of Art?

3 Axis is one of our wonderful Rosedale neighbours and our paths have crossed before - most recently at Arrowhead where they built the insanely cool 12’ tall football helmet for the sports science exhibit - it’s cool. So when they came up with an idea for a line of plywood stools we leapt at the chance to photograph them. These are wonderful and they literally are made out of half a sheet of plywood each.





Credits:
3-Axis
Assistant - Adam Caselman

Our Little Adam Goes to the Big Apple.

T-Mobile has been working with Wong Doody Crandall Wiener to develop a new concept for their retail stores and we got the chance to go and photograph them for the designers and for the corporate folk back in Germany. This involved travelling to New York to shoot in the Times Square store and also going to Seattle, T-Mobile’s US HQ, to photograph the corporate store. Lots of late night lock-ins survived with the use of gummi-bears and coke zero.

PS Thanks for the entertainment on our night off Jeff Smith - that was a whole lot of Seattle we got to see!




Credits:
T-Mobile
Wong Doody Crandall Wiener
Assistant - Adam Caselman

Change is Good

“Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.” - Author Unknown

Change is inevitable, it’s the only sure thing in life. Things are changing at Alistair Tutton Photography. We now have an on-staff retoucher/assistant in Andrew Hoxey and with my addition to the staff we now have a studio manager as well. We are growing and looking forward to all the future holds for us. New opportunities with current clients and opportunities with new clients.

Who am I you may be asking yourself? My name is Kate Crockett and I joined Alistair in mid-March as studio manager. I am very familiar with change and the opportunity it can bring. I am a navy brat who moved 11 times in 13 years and have enjoyed a variety of experiences in my over 15 year career in marketing. Change always brings some level of trepidation with it, like learning to work with new people, my least favorite - learning new computer programs or sometimes it’s just learning the names of your co-workers - granted here it’s learning the names of all four pups and yelling the right one at the right time to avoid incident. But change also brings with it excitement at the opportunities yet to be uncovered.

I look forward to the excitement of helping Alistair Tutton Photography expand it’s opportunities and I am thrilled to be working with such a great group of people. We are looking forward to launching an updated portfolio on our website so stay tuned for that very soon. In the meantime if you see me at any upcoming networking events please say hi and if you are in need of a puppy fix feel free to stop by the studio for some time with our furry friends.





Credits:
Assistant: Andrew Hoxey and Natasha Frederick
Retoucher: Andrew Hoxey