Hiring a location full of potential props can make life so much easier on a shoot. It helps keep costs down and reduces the amount to transport to the location on shoot day. Celine, one of our Hosts and the owner of Eastern Elegance – SE19, knows this well from her days assisting on location. Celine’s home is a light and airy location house in Crystal Palace, London that is popular with photographers and brands for its warm, versatile spaces and abundant light as well as the variety of beautifully considered props. Here Celine tells us what she’s found to be the three most popular items used by clients during their shoots.
“I had always planned for the house renovation to be conscious on a number of levels. This included considering sustainability, how I wanted to feel in the space and for those who hire our home to utilise the space as fully as possible. My professional background in Graphic and Interior Design often required me to assist on brand photoshoots so I built up an understanding of what elements could really make a shoot successful and I wanted to apply this in my own home.
Looking back at the first shoot that I assisted on when I was an intern, I was asked to paint flowers onto blank mugs to jazz them up, using some leftover emulsion paint and a spoon as the venue was a blank canvas and there was no time to source any props – it was all quite rushed. This isn’t the experience I want my guests to have when they come to Eastern Elegance! So I’ve always kept that in mind and thought about the most useful props that would work best for a range of shoots.
The three most popular props that hirers choose during shoots at the house are:
1. The artificial palm plant in our living room
Plants are always so helpful in all shoots, whether they’re real or fake. As we keep this palm near the radiator in the living room, it made sense for it to be fake but it really is so realistic looking! This makes it really impactful and because it’s artificial, it’s really light, easy to move around and really durable.
2. Ceramics
A lot of the ceramics on our kitchen shelves were hand made by me so they have a certain uniqueness to them and they’re so useful for shoots, especially lifestyle and product shoots. Nice mugs and bowls will always be winners and I think the quirkier your ceramics are, the better they are for location shoots.
3. Chopping boards
I made a conscious decision to collect a range of different chopping boards in varying shapes. I’ve had some of them for several years and others were bought from local small businesses. Whether you use them for displaying food or other items, they are such useful items to have to hand. I love to use them to cover up sockets and to add texture around the space, especially to any solid white areas in the kitchen.
I hope that by creatively styling the space and choosing props carefully, that guests coming to Eastern Elegance will find lots of useful backdrops and props to use in their location shoots!”
Explore Celine’s beautiful home and book it for your next shoot.
