Stepping out in style with Terry de Havilland

Often referred to as the ‘Rock n Roll Cobbler’ of the 1970’s the Terry de Havilland brand are famed for their key part in the ‘swinging London’ fashion scene with clients like David Bowie, Led Zepplin and more recently Bianca Jagger and Paloma Faith. The brand’s style continues to be as flamboyant and cutting edge today as it was when first established. Like many designers, Terry de Havilland has embraced the 21st century and offers an online store for the latest styles and with that they need quality photography which accurately represents the colour, design and lifestyle associated with their latest offerings.

While on-white product photography is often mistaken as easy, over the last 11 years PHP has been operating, it’s importance has developed in parallel with the growth of online retail which in 2018 stands at a staggering 18% of total retail sales in the UK (Source: www.invespcro.com) up from 14.4% in 2015. This growth has increased the perceived value of on-white product photography as more and more customers choose to shop online and the importance of high quality, colour accurate and detailed on-white product photography continues to increase.

A good on-white product photograph will quickly and accurately present a product to its target market, arming the customer with valuable information on what they can expect to receive and reduce the returns due to misrepresentation of a product in an online store.

Terry de Havilland

TDH shoes and boots continue to have the attitude, sexiness and style they are famed for – Model: Lisa Marie Thompson

Terry de Havilland approached Philip Hunton Photography with a view to producing images which were to represent their latest designs in their designer store online. As with any online store, customers were buying based on the images that represented the products and it was essential that the photographs accurately showed the colours, materials and features of the shoes so many have associated with the cutting edge designer for so long. The images had to be on-white, colour accurate and must show the features of the shoes to ensure that customers know what they can expect to receive despite them not physically seeing the shoe in a store.

Before shooting a product, every shoe is checked for any minor defects (as usually the products supplied are samples or prototypes which have been handled, and examined by many people before reaching the studio), cleaned and dressed ready for the studio. The studio lighting is set up and any details such as ankle straps are suspended from booms with nylon to hold the straps in the position they would be in if worn. Once ready the products are shot in a selection of pre-arranged angles specified by the TdH team, then downloaded to the studio library for post processing.

Terry de Havilland

Online store product shots for Terry de Havilland

Once into the post processing stage the tone curves are adjusted, the product has any minor marks retouched and the background is checked before being cropped and exported in two sizes, low resolution web and high resolution for print marketing, before being delivered via online drop box to the TdH web and print designers.

In addition to the creative and on-white product photography, we also produced several interactive 360s and videos for their website and social media respectively. the response was great, people could interact and look round the products, zooming in on details and getting a much better idea of the product they were buying.

While final delivery of the images is the end point of the commission for PHP, our team always visit the stores to make sure the shots work in-situ and to record the uses of the images. We also like to follow up with TdH to make sure the images are performing their intended task, to sell the shoes.

This whole process takes only a few days, from delivery of the products from the TdH team to the delivery of the final shots, ensuring they have all of the elements required to present their stylish products to their waiting customer base.

To see the photography in action or to check out the latest styles available from the famous brand visit their website www.terrydehavilland.com

If you would like to learn more about how Philip Hunton Photography can help you present your products in an online store or in print media contact the studio today on 0191 236 1017 or info@philiphunton.co.uk to arrange a meeting.