Geno Proteau

angleVU | Quebec, Canada

info[at]anglevuphoto.com | +1 (514) 795-4366

Q&A with Geno

How did you get into taking pictures for a living?

It was back in high school. I took the class at first for the extra credits, walked in with my grandma’s old screw mount Zenit camera and little did I know that summer class would become my life passion.

Tell me about your 360º photography studio setup! For starters, what kind of camera do you shoot with?

Throughout the years, I’ve shot with most brands but I use Canon now. I also always lived in my studio, from a loft on the Montreal Plateau to our home in the suburbs.

The home studio is an open space with 17feet ceiling and beautiful natural light. We also just got a mobile studio pod that can accommodate clients on location shoots. We can shoot 360º products or corporate portraits right outside their office without disturbing the workday.

What type of products are you particularly good at creating 360º views of? Do you have a specialty?

We don’t specialize on a specific item; the machine can handle up to 250lbs for now.

We do a lot of animated 360º to give the spin a little more life. Each project is worlds apart but the end goal is always the same, to deliver great product photography for our clients.

Describe your ideal client for shooting a 360º view.

I love small to medium sized companies. They are smaller jobs that repeat the business every season. It’s easier to tweak the images because you can spend more time to make sure it’s perfect and consistent.

For 360º photography, do you prefer to shooting in high volume or low volume?

We all want the high volume shoots, as it’s one setup and shoot, shoot, shoot, for weeks. It’s fast and more convenient for the client, but here too, quality is important. Photo is my bread-and-butter and the extra time pre/ post-production to ensure everything matches perfectly is crucial to consistency. It doesn’t matter if we photograph 50 items in a day or match 1 image we shot a year ago, it’s important that all the imagery stands together nicely. I care about what my work look like on my client’s website.

What kind of things do you do for fun? You know, outside of work?

I’m a father of 2 vivacious boys and I love to rediscover things through them. You work all day and then its time to pick them up from school; I become a kid again.

Music is also something that lives with us 24/7, even in the middle of the night; I can sometimes hear my son’s lullaby player go. We enjoy camping too!

Who are some clients you’ve done work with in the past?

We worked with Jam Industries in Montreal, a top distributor in music instruments and consumer electronics – we shot 360º items for a promo video.

Behaviour Interactive is another one – they used our 360º to implement in an augmented reality application development with Arbonne.

How does your pricing work for 360º product photography?

Test demos are great for guesstimating how long it takes to shoot one item… Some items need more care; like a chrome microphone where it’s highly reflective and prone to dust particles or a bike that needs to be held up and balanced on transparent wire. So price is customized to the client’s needs and budget. The demo also shows them what they are getting, how it works, how their product looks in a 360º view. We have an hourly rate that works best for high volume projects and we have a price per product for just sliders or low volume using our 360º product photography.

What’s a memorable project you’ve worked on in the past?

I try to make all my jobs memorable, every shoot has a story and we try to have fun more than just work. It keeps stress light for everyone.

I shot 360º views of Arbonne products where they used it for augmented reality. I saw the application before the launch and it was cool. The rep would interact with the ingredients as it rotated while showcasing information and benefits of the product. Our 360º spins are also being integrated with still frames for animation. These are epic for product and their features; talk about a way to elevate the online experience!

What’s the best way for someone to get in touch with you?

Send me an email and I’ll reply in a few hours. Sometimes I think I’m old school, I still enjoy talking to people so a phone call will be planned to discuss details.

Contact Geno