services
At The Fast Lens, our strength lies in what we do with photos to make them special. Based in Canton, Michigan--in the shadow of the Motor City--our goal is to deliver affordable, customized works of art to proud owners of some of the coolest vehicles on the planet in a matter most convenient to them. While a good, high quality photograph is the end result for many photographers, it is only the starting point for us. If you want to risk the damage to have your vehicle driven or shipped to a studio for a full day or more, pay a photographer for setup of equipment, lighting and backdrops, plus post-production work on top of that, it is almost certain that you will have a beautiful photo. But it is also certain that you will pay an arm and a leg. We prefer a much simpler, easier and more creative approach.
what we do
Sure, many of the photos we take are print-ready to begin with, especially if we have the opportunity to snap your vehicle in a good location at the right time of day. But if you’ve taken a look at what we do, you’ll see that we like to take things a step further. Sometimes it’s a small step, other times it’s a bigger step. That all depends on you and your goals. Remember that we aren’t limited to a physical studio’s limitations. Maybe you’d like your vehicle under a spotlight? How about sitting atop a mirrored reflection? Or maybe beneath storm clouds? We’ve even placed vehicles in different realistic locations (although this is often tricky and depends on a number of factors to be successful). The end result always has the owner’s wishes in mind and the approach is always discussed up front before work begins.
how we work
We begin with a high-quality photograph of your vehicle. While not always necessary, our preference is to use a photo we’ve taken. We prefer to meet you with your vehicle at an agreed-upon location for a photo session lasting an hour or so, to make sure we have a number of exposures to choose from. Because we tend to eliminate the surroundings in most cases, the actual location often isn’t as important as the time of day (if shooting outside) and the lighting conditions. Because our strength lies in post-processing, the need for excessive lighting and equipment is not necessary. A professional-grade digital camera is our only tool when on location. Nice and simple.
Taking our own photograph is certainly our preference. However, sometimes that either isn’t possible due to distance or location, or you may already have a favorite shot that you would like us to work with. As a result, we have at times used digital photos supplied to us by the client. This is certainly possible if certain quality criteria are met. These include not only artistic qualities (eg, composition, angle, and lighting) but also the resolution (pixels per inch) of the photograph. Please contact us if this sort of arrangement better suits your situation.
The concern over image resolution relates directly to the quality of the printed image. A high-resolution image allows for sharper, larger prints. Most of our clients ask for prints ranging anywhere from 8”x10” to 24”x36” in size. In order to ensure a nice sharp image at those sizes, we must start with a very high quality, high-resolution image. JPEGs or TIFFs that are 240 pixels per inch at approximately 11”x17” are preferred. This is typically the product of many high quality digital cameras (10 megapixel range) nowadays placed on their highest quality setting.
what you get
And that leads to the next topic: what our deliverables are. As I mentioned, most clients ask for large scale prints for framing. As such, we offer printing in sizes ranging from wallet size to 24x26 and all standard sizes in between. You can choose from a selection of photographic papers in glossy, lustre or metallic, and you can further choose to have your print mounted to firmer substrate such as matboard or styrene. Your prints can be shipped directly to you when/if local pickup in the Detroit area is not possible.
We also offer printing directly to some substrates such as styrene or foamcore via state-of-the-art large scale full-color laser printing technology. At the present time, this method will be local-pickup for the Detroit area only.
Check out our pricing page for more information on The Fast Lens and its services.