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Demo

Salt & Silver is a fictional practice, written to show the Aperture template. The reviews, prices and people on this page are demo content.

A photographer reviewing a shot beside a softbox in a daylit studio.
San Francisco

Photographs thatstill work in a year.

A two-room studio in the Mission shooting portraits, editorial and events. Packages are published, dates are answered the same day, and every shoot is delivered inside a fortnight.

Studio
Two rooms, daylight and strobe
Delivery
Fourteen days, every shoot
Booking
Dates answered same day
Travel
Bay Area included, further quoted
Work

Three things, done often

Rather than a long list of genres, most of which any studio would take on and few of which it is actually good at.

  • A studio portrait lit with coloured gels against a graduated background.

    Portraits

    Studio and location

    Actors, founders, authors and anybody who has been putting off a decent headshot for four years. Two hours, two looks, twenty edited frames.

  • A photographer positioning a boom light in the studio.

    Editorial and campaign

    Half and full day

    Commissioned work for magazines and brands, usually with a stylist and an art director in the room.

  • A crew of three working a shoot with a camera and a video rig.

    Events

    Two hours to full day

    Launches, conferences and the occasional wedding. Two shooters as standard, because one photographer at an event is a photographer missing half of it.

The photographs in this index are licensed stock standing in for a portfolio, because this is a template demo and the studio is fictional. On a live site every frame in this band is the photographer's own work, and it is the only band on the page that genuinely cannot be filled with anything else.

Packages

What a shoot costs

Published. If a studio will not tell you a number before a call, the number depends on the call.

What a shoot costs
ShootFrom
Portrait sessionTwo hours in studio, two looks, twenty edited frames delivered.
$650
Extended portraitHalf a day, location or studio, forty edited frames.
$1,200
Editorial half dayFour hours, one assistant, usage for twelve months.
$1,900
Editorial full dayEight hours, one assistant, usage for twelve months.
$3,200
Event coverageTwo shooters, priced per hour with a three hour minimum.
$450 an hour

Every price includes editing and delivery inside fourteen days. Extended usage, print licences and rush delivery are quoted separately and always in writing before the shoot rather than invoiced after it.

Check a date
The studio

Two rooms and a lot of daylight

Alabama Street, in the Mission, since 2016.

The main room takes a full-length backdrop and holds daylight until about four in the afternoon, which is why most portrait sessions are booked in the morning. The second room is smaller, blacked out, and used for anything that needs to be lit rather than found.

Everything is available to hire when it is not in use, which is roughly two days a week, and the rate is on the packages list rather than on request.

One photographer, one assistant who has been here since the beginning, and no interns being paid in exposure.

Main room
40ft, north light
Second room
Blacked out, strobe
Hire rate
$95 an hour when free
Parking
Loading on Alabama, permit on request
The main studio room with a boom-mounted light and a black backdrop.
Words

What clients say

  • I have had headshots done four times and hated all of them. These I have actually used. He spent the first twenty minutes just talking, which turned out to be the whole trick.
    Ingrid V.Portrait session
  • Delivered in nine days against a fourteen day promise, with the usage terms written out plainly enough that our legal team had no questions.
    Marcus D.Editorial full day
  • Two shooters at a launch is the difference between a gallery and a handful of pictures of the back of people's heads.
    Priya L.Event coverage

These reviews are demo content written for this template. On a live site this line names the platform the reviews were collected on and links to the profile they came from.

Questions

Before you book

How far ahead do you book?

Portraits usually two to three weeks. Editorial and events depend entirely on the date, which is why the form below asks for it first.

What do I get, and when?

Edited, colour-graded frames in high resolution and web-sized versions, inside fourteen days. Raw files are not delivered, and that is a policy rather than an upsell.

Can we shoot at our own location?

Yes. Anywhere in the Bay Area is included in the package price. Beyond that, travel is quoted before you commit to anything.

What about usage rights?

Twelve months, all media, included in editorial and campaign packages. Longer or exclusive usage is priced in writing before the shoot.

Do you shoot weddings?

A few each year, under event coverage. If you want a specialist wedding photographer we will happily give you three names.

Check a date

Is the date free

The most useful thing this page can do is answer that quickly. Send the date and you will hear the same working day.

Worth knowing

  • Portrait sessions are usually booked two to three weeks out
  • Bay Area travel is included in every package price
  • The studio is available to hire when it is not in use
(415) 555 0173

Every enquiry is answered the same working day, including the dates that are already taken. Your details are used to answer it and nothing else.