Randi Coran:
Macs at the End of the Runway
Holding to tradition, photographers captured images of lanky models gliding down the runway during Polo Ralph Lauren’s Spring 2005 preview for fashion editors and buyers in New York.
They broke with tradition by capturing the event digitally.
“We cover everything at the runway show,” says Randi Coran, general manager for Shoot Digital, a Mac-based digital photography studio whose clients include Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Lancôme, Neiman-Marcus, Estée Lauder, Geoffrey Beene, Marshall Fields, Saks Fifth Avenue and New York’s top advertising agencies.
Front Row Fashion Shoots
“Most of the time, clients use our studios for shoots,” says Coran. “But when we shoot a runway show — in this case, it involved three back-to-back shows one morning — we take the studio with us.”
“Four years ago I was pleading with ad agencies and photographers to give digital photography a try. Now I get calls all day from clients who want our digital support.”
7 a.m. — Three Shoot Digital photographers arrive at the Polo Ralph Lauren show in Manhattan’s hip Chelsea neighborhood, digital cameras and flash memory cards in hand.
Two photographers shoot the runway models, and another works backstage “because everybody loves the intimate feel of backstage activities,” says Coran. “Don Ashby might shoot a model getting in makeup, shining her shoe or chatting with people.”
Lunchtime — The shows finish in time for lunch, but Scott Stanton and Martin Mitev, Shoot Digital’s onsite technicians, use the time to transfer thousands of digital shots to two 17-inch PowerBooks. Using iView Media Pro, Stanton and Mitev size, name and catalog the images, burn them to CDs and back up the entire shoot to FireWire drives.
The CD images hit the news immediately.
From Runway to Web Page
3 p.m. — Stanton and Joanna Hoepner work with Polo Ralph Lauren’s creative director to whittle down the images to 500 or so and rush the selects to Shoot Digital’s studio.
“Our production staff and retouchers upload the images to our Xserve server and onto their Macs so they can color correct every single image,” Coran explains. “They have to get the images ready so Polo Ralph Lauren can post them on the Polo.com website that night.”
9 p.m. — Shoot Digital has delivered hundreds of finished images to Polo Ralph Lauren. By the next morning, the world gets a front row seat for the website version of the fashion show.
