Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2860 Coconut Grove Photo Studio

Huang Yuanlao took charge of the photo studio project and immediately started to do it in a big way... no, he started to do it in a big way. The photo studio was located on a side street in Bairen Town. It was not far from the prosperous main street, but it was secluded enough. Compared with other businesses, photo studios have less impulse purchases and mainly rely on word of mouth. However, it cannot be too far away from the downtown area. If consumers find it difficult to find it, it will lose a lot of business.

In the old time and space, because of marketing tools such as the Internet and television, it didn't matter if the photo studio was not in a commercial area. As long as it had strong customer attraction, it didn't matter if it was in an office building or a commercial center. But in this time and space, it still had to be in a commercial area and have a relatively obvious storefront display.

As a TV worker who went out every other day to make a living, Huang Yaomin also worked part-time as a wedding photographer and private photographer, so he was quite familiar with this kind of work. So he spent a lot of time thinking about the location.

The photo studio is not big, with only two rooms. One is the main door, and the other is the window. The window displays various "sample photos". This is also the usual model of traditional photo studios. Due to the current limitations of equipment, film and personnel, wedding photography, artistic photos and the like cannot do too much. They can only focus on daily marketing, mainly various commemorative photos and daily life photos.

Since there is no need for wedding photography or artistic photography, there is no need for too many sets and props, so the size of the photo studio is not large.

In addition to the business hall, the first floor is a small photo studio used for daily photography projects. The second floor is more sophisticated and is also the focus of Huang Yuanlao's marketing.

In order to attract the most attention, he adopted a greenhouse-style design on the second floor, creating a terrace area that occupies two-thirds of the entire second floor area. This huge terrace adopts a greenhouse-style design, with iron-framed glass inlaid from the roof to the wall, except for a small part that is kept open to the sky.

It is quite bold to adopt this design in Linggao. After all, the average temperature here is very high, and the greenhouse will most likely become a greenhouse most of the time. The reason why Huang Yaomin did this is not simply for the purpose of "attracting eye-balls", but to a large extent to meet the lighting requirements for filming.

The lighting industry of the Senate can now mass-produce some lamps, including kerosene lamps, gas lamps, calcium carbide lamps, carbon rod lamps, and carbon filament lamps, which have only appeared in recent years. Some lamps have considerable lumens. However, in Huang Yuanlao's opinion, most of them are not suitable for indoor shooting lighting, and there are certain safety issues. And there is also a little bit of his personal aesthetic preference here.

So he decided to use natural light as much as possible, and this greenhouse-style studio was designed according to his concept. Due to the shortage of lighting equipment, the Senate conducted a lot of research and practice on how to make full use of natural light, which gave birth to a rather complex shading system consisting of various curtains, blinds, tracks and reflectors. The greenhouse studio of the Coconut Grove Photo Studio also introduced this system, which was personally developed by Lin Hanlong, the head of the optical factory. By adjusting this system, satisfactory light can be introduced into the studio in all weather conditions.

This technology was not invented by the elders. Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century wrote in his works about how to build a venue suitable for obtaining the best light for portrait painting, how to arrange the distance between the model and the painter in different weather conditions, and a technology that is closely related to photographers: "primitive dark box projection."

Lin Hanlong's set of equipment was very sophisticated. Not only did it come with a special user manual, but he also sent a technician to the photo studio for training.

Since he spent a lot of money on this lighting system, the studio on the second floor must create high-value products to make up for the cost. Therefore, this studio is mainly used to meet the needs of those mid-to-high-end customers. Although color photography is not possible at present, it is possible to prepare more props and costumes. For this reason, he specially customized many high-end costumes from Wan Zi Ge.

Photography is a new thing, and most people have no idea about it. Except for naturalized citizens who need to take photos to make certificates and files when they get a job, ordinary people have no experience of taking photos on a daily basis, let alone the need. Therefore, this industry still needs to cultivate customers' consumption habits from scratch.

Fortunately, after the Senate was able to stably produce photographic consumables in the industrial sector, it had already begun to implement the ID photo system. With the promotion of ID cards among the entire population, the business of the Coconut Grove Photo Studio was not a problem. However, Huang Yuanlao looked down on this kind of business that relied on administrative policies to "feed". He was ambitious and wanted to expand more business.

Referring to the life history of photo studios in the old time and space, it was roughly introduced in the late Qing Dynasty, and was initially regarded as "soul-stealing". Then it was gradually accepted by the public in the 1920s, with commercial photo studios, and then became "fashionable" after the 1930s. It was promoted and popularized after the 1950s, and wedding photography emerged in the 1990s. Then it declined with the popularization of digital photography in the early 20th century. Most areas of Hainan Island can be considered to be in the 1920s. At least, the people no longer regard photography as "witchcraft". As for Guangzhou, it is still at the level of the late Qing Dynasty for the time being.

Since photography is not regarded as a black art, it has a commercial prospect. However, ordinary people do not have the consumption habit yet, so he needs to guide and cultivate it.

Fortunately, Lingao has a great advantage, that is, among all the areas under the jurisdiction of the Senate, it is the place where the media industry has the deepest penetration. There are more than 40 popular newspapers and magazines published, and the subscription coverage of the population reaches more than % of the total population. The photos published in newspapers and magazines are equivalent to advertisements, which subtly incorporate the concept of photography into life.

Of course, this alone was not enough, so Huang Yaomin also discussed an advertising cooperation project with Ding Ding, publishing photo studio advertisements in major newspapers and magazines under the media group for a year. In addition to ordinary advertisements, it also included several soft ads, mainly through story novels and comic strips to promote concepts such as "go to the photo studio to take pictures", "take photos to commemorate important days", and "capture the best moments".

He also discussed cooperation with the operators of the Plaid Skirt Club. He took official photos for their "theater" for free and put them on the actor wall of the small theater. He also promised to take a set of photo albums for the members for free after the photography technology improved. In exchange, he got the convenience of promoting the photo studio in the theater.

Of course, Guangzhou is also under Huang Yuanlao's concern, but he can't take care of it at the moment. After all, the level of photography resources given to him is too low, so he will develop in Lingao for the time being, familiarize himself with the technology and train a group of technical backbones.

Huang Yuanlao walked around the studio and "inspected and guided" the work. The Coconut Grove Photo Studio was about to open, and the hardware was basically in place. The remaining software projects such as various decorations and accessories were being stepped up, and it would not take more than three to five days. He calculated that before the next holiday, the Coconut Grove Photo Studio would be officially open for business.

Looking at the "photo studio" he built with his own hands, Huang Yuanlao couldn't help but feel very proud. It's a pity that I can't run a TV station now, otherwise I would have to find a station director...

Seeing that everyone was working hard outside, he had no good instructions. So he decided to take a few photos of his maid to test the quality of the newly delivered equipment and medicines. Because of quality control issues, the performance of each batch of consumables is different. Without taking pictures and taking a look, there is no way to be sure.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

He asked the maid to change clothes, and then he went into the darkroom, put on gloves and masks, and felt like he was walking into a chemical scene. There was no other way. The wet plate camera was assigned to him, so he had to start with the ancient wet plate photography method. Some materials in wet plate photography DIY are flammable and toxic, so cherish life and start with your own safety. Take out distilled water, basin, gram-level balance, alcohol lamp, beaker, stirring rod, large funnel, test tube, measuring cylinder, filter paper, glass knife, silver nitrate water bath. Everything is ready, and start working.

First, pour the prepared collodion onto the glass plate, let the collodion quickly cover the entire glass plate, then pour the rest back into the bottle, and then shake the glass plate to make the emulsion surface smooth and even. Put it into a silver nitrate water bath to make it sensitive to light. Wait for four minutes, take out the glass plate, wipe the back with paper, and put it into the film holder. Back in the studio, Huang Yaomin signaled the maid to sit in front of the blue cloth background (because the wet plate is only sensitive to ultraviolet rays, blue light and some visible light, but weak to warm light.), and use an iron frame to support the back of her head to fix her head. In the era when the wet plate was born, because of the long exposure time, in order to get a good photo, you have to be unable to move at all within 5 to 10 seconds, even if you blink. Set up the gas lamp, wrap it with white cloth, adjust the focus, put the film clip into the camera, open the lens cap (the shutter of the wet plate camera is the lens cap), wait five seconds, cover the lens cap, take out the film clip, return to the darkroom, pour the developer, shake the glass plate vigorously, the image will appear after 6-8 seconds, stop developing after about 15 seconds, rinse directly with water, fix it with fixer after washing, dry it, make the image become brighter and brighter, and finally paint it to finish.

Huang Yaomin looked at the final film. It was a good result to be successful in one try. However, Asian women with nude makeup still don’t look as good as foreigners in black and white photos. It seems that he needs to report to the General Office next time and ask for special expenses. What he did just now was just a warm-up. Now it’s time to get serious. He glanced at the maid’s clothes and gestured. The maid was stunned at first, but then she understood - she had been a model for Huang Yuanlao for many times. Even so, the maid was still shy at first. When she went to the dressing room with a red face, Huang Yaomin’s cell phone rang...