We present Poradnik Szkolny 2020. See how it was created
Our School Guide 2020 has just been launched, in which we recommend electronic equipment for pupils, students and - for the first time - people working at home office. See how such a project is created.
The school year begins tomorrow, this time under completely exceptional circumstances. And although many things will have to be implemented anew, in our edition one thing remains the same: Poradnik Szkolny. This is a place where we recommend proven electronic devices for various age groups: primary and secondary school students, students, and finally office workers.
You can already see this year's project on the PoradnikSzkolny.pl website.
Our School Guide is unique in the scale of the Polish Internet.
School guides appear on many websites and technology blogs, but against this background our guide is completely unique, of which - as one of the authors - I am particularly proud. First of all, the Spider's Web team recommends products that they have checked and know, so you can be sure that the equipment will not disappoint you.
Secondly, when preparing the guide, we rely on the devices we have. We configure them, use them and then photograph them ourselves. We do not rely on packshots from producers, but on real products that we had in our hands.
How was this year 's Spider's Web School Guide created? Go backstage.
Before we start the actual work on the guide, we look for a visual concept for it every year. In this year's edition, the inspiration was the visual identification of the Białystok Up To Date Festival, namely artistic installations painted entirely in one color. I wanted the background of the guide this year to have a varied structure, but only one color. The product in the center of the photo was to be fully colored, so that it would focus the eyes on itself.
Before we got to the shooting stage, all the equipment had to be completed. As every year, the equipment for testing was ordered by Dawid Kosiński, whose apartment was turned into a real warehouse for a few weeks. There are a lot of devices, and some of them, such as computers or scooters, can have very large dimensions. For everything to run smoothly, you need good logistics for the entire project. However, the preparation of equipment is only the beginning, because after the session is over, you need to reset them to factory settings, pack them safely and send back.
The second stage was very analog this year.
While Dawid was completing the equipment, I took care of the preparation of the props. This year, the guide was to be divided into five parts, each with a different color. Instead of creating five different color variants, I opted for a smarter solution. I decided to paint all the background elements green and then choose the color in the post-process.
I found the perfect spray for this application in a DIY store. And why green exactly? Here I referred to the practice used in the video, specifically in the green screen. The choice of green color on the greenscreen is not accidental, because such a color in such high brightness is very rare in reality. In our case, it was not present on electronic products, so it was easy to isolate.
We managed to fit proper shooting into one shooting day. Irreplaceable Asia Tracewicz, the head of Entertainment, helped us arrange flat lay from our props. In turn, I photographed the whole thing.
On the technical side, I photographed my Sony A7 III with the Sigma A 70 mm f / 2.8 DG Macro lens. I was working in the f / 5.6 - f / 8 aperture range. Pictures taken in isometric projection were taken from a tripod set at a fixed angle, and I was supported by frames taken directly from above.
The biggest challenge was the choice of lighting. I took some of the frames on a set of two flashes, but we quickly switched to continuous light, using a simple softbox. With continuous light, we had better control over how the elements arranged in the background look and whether the whole thing is too flat.
The post-process was the longest stage in the shooting.
Processing the photos took much more time than the shooting itself. I did the selection and development of RAWs, as usual, in Lightroom, but all the color processing this year was done exceptionally not in Photoshop, but in Affinity Photo. I am more and more convinced of this program, and it worked perfectly in the pictures for Poradnik Szkolne.
The color selection at the post-process stage has given us a unique opportunity to move equipment between different categories this year. Such a procedure could be carried out in a few minutes at Affinity Photo, instead of preparing a new photo session. This time, however, we planned everything so well that no changes were needed.
The final stage is putting the whole thing together.
Photos and descriptions provided by the reliable Piotrek Grabiec finally had to be presented in the form of a page. The design and implementation was of course taken care of by our Spider's Agency team led by Przemek Śmit. This year, the cooperation between the divisions was extremely smooth and without friction, and you must know that when two creative teams collide, it can be tough.
We are more than satisfied with the final look of the guide . We obtained exactly the effect we planned when planning the entire project, and it is a great success.
Feel free to check our guide, which you can find on the PoradnikSzkolny.pl website.
We present Poradnik Szkolny 2020. See how it was created
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