Tempest excels with Sony’s Custom Grid Line
Cornwall, a largely rural county in the extreme southwest of the UK, is the home of the volume photography company Tempest. Despite its remote position, it runs a nationwide volume photography service that employs over three hundred photographers. After extensive trials, the company has chosen Sony Mirrorless cameras for its next generation of photography. A new feature, Custom Grid Line, has made the choice even more compelling.
A massive operation
The scale of Tempest’s operation is enormous. The company processes over eight million pictures annually – more than 10% of the UK’s population! With that kind of volume, consistency is paramount. Some individual shoots can stretch to photographing four thousand people in a single day.
Shooting portraits at scale
Photography is typically an almost uniquely personal activity. It relies on the photographer’s individual skills as much as the technology. This still applies even when there are hundreds of people to be photographed. Each photographic subject expects a great image that is technically accomplished and perfectly composed, lit and post-produced.
Tempest likes to minimise the number of potential variables on a large shoot. Once the company has chosen a camera system, it sticks with it for several years. Its photographers are supplied with Sony mirrorless cameras α7M4, so the entire team has the same equipment. It was a clear choice after intensive tests and trials.
Sony Custom Grid Line has had a positive reception from our team of three hundred staff photographers, whether they’re new to the company or old hands. Even less experienced photographers can achieve the exact results we look for as a company. With Custom Grid Line, they know they've nailed it even before taking the shot. We can adjust and tweak the custom visual guides and then launch them as a standard composition across the company. As a camera assistant tool, Custom Grid Line has made it for us. Existing customers who might have been reluctant to change love the Sony cameras and Custom Grid Line. There are so many positives. It’s been a game-changer!
Katherine Worth
Head of Photographic quality, H Tempest Ltd
Superior spontaneity
Tempest likes to encourage spontaneity in its shoots and tries to be flexible in its photography to encourage the best from its subjects. Within the necessary constraints of a volume photographic session, this makes it much more likely to capture natural, less posed expressions.
But it is still important to impose a sense of order on the sessions, with consistent lighting, backgrounds and composition. To help with this, Sony Mirrorless cameras now allow users to set up Custom Gridline to help them position subjects within the frame and maintain consistency within the shots.
The ability to set Custom Gridline as a visual guide means that our photographers can focus on getting the perfect picture—the perfect smile, the most natural pose. It's all about the quality of the images. We allow our photographers' talents to shine through, and with Custom Gridline to help with composition, we can reach a level of consistency we haven’t achieved before.
Rob Tempest
Managing Director, H Tempest Ltd
Workflow
Tempest’s photographers all have their own geographical areas to work in. They build relationships with local schools and get to know the region—sometimes over decades. They make the appointments and take the photos. Photographers upload their images through the cloud, and parents receive proofs on paper or digitally—most retail is through an e-commerce site. Customers receive the finished product directly to their homes or their children’s schools.
Tempest handles everything in-house. Customers can order digital copies or a multitude of framed photos on various media, including canvas.
Custom Gridline
Sony designed Custom Gridline to achieve precision and repeatability in volume photography applications. It lets you place gridlines wherever you need a positional guide, and you can even choose the best colour for maximum visibility against the background of the shot.
Post-shoot, you can review your compositions with Custom Gridline overlaid on the camera’s LCD screen and electronic viewfinder (EVF).
Sony cameras hit the mark for us. We tested them for at least two years. All of the cameras we tried gave us consistent results: the quality of the sensor is fantastic, and - crucial for us - have very good skin tones. We're very happy with the increased resolution, and the combination of focus and lens is very strong. This is a volume photography business, and Custom Gridline will really help our production processes and our lab to ensure that customers get the best possible photographs from us.
Rob Tempest
Managing Director, H Tempest Ltd
