Unicorn Cake

by Thanadul Panyunyong

Starting from my childhood in Thailand, I was always spending most of my playtime with all camera stuff, such as Camera, Light Stands, Tripod Stands, where it can be easily grabbed from my father's studio "Billion Studio" who is also a professional advertising photographer and a business owner. Growing up in a family business and living through a change of era in the photography industry, from a film camera to a digital, those days have been attracted me to start thinking of my journey to follow my father’s footsteps. Since the beginning, my journey wasn't only prepared just to be a young business successor. Along this road, I have been polished with management skills as well as creative skills. During my semester breaks I would always be occupied as a photographer assistant for my father; that is where the turning point of my career has begun.

Once the goal has been set, action is carried out. I have decided to study Bachelor of Communication Arts with a major in Advertising at Bangkok University to aim at advertising on a professional level. During my university life, I was also searching for more “real-life experiences” by applying myself as a photographer assistant. These jobs have allowed me to work with other well-known and supreme masters of our industry while wishing to enhance my skill at the same time. After graduation, I was still on a track walking on my map by working as a freelancer photographer, not only for money but also for invaluable experiences. When my skills have enhanced to a certain point, I then started to gain all trust and value back from my customers and be able to perform all my masterpieces until today.

With more than 6 years experience as a professional advertising photographer, plus all experiences working with a variety of famous agencies and a world well-known brand such as Swensens, my year of service has been challenged by a ton of amazingly favors from our beloved customers and those works will filter to find your best skills. I normally begin my work by craving to understand my customer’s needs first, which includes all the mood and tone of the outcome. Afterward, I would start to input my creativity skills and throw my ideas out to the customers from my point of view as a professional.


Referring to this project, I have been reached out regarding a new product launching from Swensens Thailand, which is called “UNICORN CAKE”. The key idea of the shoot was having a colorful cake floating in the sky. After a challenge has been accepted, I have come up with an idea of maximizing on a real shot taking and minimizing a retouching process. Following this idea, I then started to do some brainstorming with a stylist team to implement the plan and start making our colorful cake float soft and gentle on a cloud with a color splashing like a Unicorn. The challenge of this project is controlling the overall tone. While having various colors bombarded on a photoshoot, we must remain an authentic color of product at the same time.

Speaking of the lighting of this project, I have chosen broncolor, which is my all-time favorite that we have used the most at our studio “Billion Studio” and the most familiar choice since my university time. There are many reasons to mention why broncolor is becoming one of my favorite choices. Firstly, they require a short charging time, which is a great helper while shooting a product such as Cake and Ice Cream, the ready-to-melt product, and requires a speed. Also, a bracketing technique and focus stacking is applied. Secondly, they have a reliable light quality of product and light shapers along with a variety of choices of products, which are ready to be fit in for all types of projects.

Start by placing a Scoro 3200 S power pack with Pulso G lamp head which is used as 3 main lights to flash on a Product. The first one connected with P70 Standard reflector with Honeycomb grid flashing through Frame scrim from the left-hand side. Follow with the second one equipped with a conical snoot flashing behind the product from the left side, to create a shaded highlight on a cake to make it outstanding. Plus, it helps to gain more texture while avoiding a product blending with a background and help to keeps the lights in the right tone. I was using tracing paper with a lamp to reduce the contrast scale of light but remaining on highlight that flashing on the cake. For the last one, I have equipped a Parabolic deep umbrella on the top of it to provide a diffused light and control color on the top of the product along with the overall background.


Once the main lights meet perfectly with a product, the next step is setting up a cloud by making a clear acrylic as a table for putting our artificial clouds on top. As a clear acrylic is a transparent object which allows the lights to get through to the artificial clouds. After the stylist has completed their set up on the background, I then started to put all of 6 of Siros 800 S and 1 Pulso G Lamps on each marked area by gently setting up with P70 Reflector and L40 Reflector, including Honeycomb grid. Setting up lighting at this stage is time-consuming and must be detail-oriented to control the direction of light, to be at a specific point, and to avoid flashing directly on a product. Color gels are required to create a colorful atmosphere and texture of the photoshoot as per a goal from the customer. Lastly, take the final photoshoot that has been selected by the customer, put it up on a projector, and then put it on a background to create mood and tone to meet our customer concept at our best level.


Website: www.billion-studio.com
Behance: www.behance.net/thanadulphotographer
Instagram: www.instagram.com/thanadulphotographer

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