Photographing artificial hedges for Leavely.de

Whatsup Hive,

Last weekend I had a pretty calm but productive shoot. We set up a small studio at a location nearby. Nothing fancy, just enough space to light everything properly and move around without tripping over cables. The project? Photographing seventeen different artificial hedges.

Some of them were these simple clean panels, others were tropical chaos with little orchids and yellow bits thrown in. I had to shoot them all from the front, grab a few side views, and take some nice close-ups to show off the texture. The detail shots actually turned out way better than expected. Some of these panels could pass for real foliage in the right light.

Tidy Work
There’s something satisfying about projects like this. The setup was consistent. The subject didn’t move (unless my breathing would move them because I was taking some macro shots of the stuff :P). And once the lighting was dialed in, it was some sort of meditation-like job. Place panel, check alignment, shoot, and let's get the next oine.

It’s not the kind of shoot where I would get super wild ideas, but there is a challenge in this kind of work. Making something 'ordinary' a little bit more extraordinary, or look more luxurious. And besides all of that, it's clean work. And it feels good to deliver a batch of images that are 100% usable right away. Pretty happy with the results! Check 'em out below.

FRONT SIDE

DETAIL SHOTS

FRONT SIDE

What’s Next?
Next up: video.

I’ll be filming some short clips for the webshop to show the hedges in more detail. Maybe a few smooth pans, some close-ups with depth, something loopable. Should be fun to bring them to life a bit more. And it’s always a nice change of pace to switch from stills to motion.

Anyway, just wanted to share a little behind-the-scenes again. I’ve got some editing ahead of me, but I’ll probably post a few more visuals later once things are wrapped.

Talk soon,
Ruben