We shoot chrome and grey references in the same light as the plate. HDRI is a start, not a finish: we rebuild key and edge in the renderer until the contact shadows sit.
If the physical product cannot be there, we still light an empty stand so the CG object inherits the same wrap. The test is simple — if a producer can point to the render in the first second, we go back.
Materials are photographed, not guessed. Polarisation, roughness, and a measured white help more than a downloadable ‘studio HDRI’ from a different room.
Grade happens with the composite, not before. A plate graded in isolation will fight the CG no matter how good the look-dev was.
We deliver layered files when the contract asks, and flattened masters when it does not. Either way the public image is one picture.
Extracom produces commercial stills and short films from Catania. We plan photography and motion together so a lookbook and a cut share one white, and a campaign does not arrive as two vendors arguing in public. The rooms on Via Etnea hold tabletop, a compact cyclorama, and a colour desk. Clients sit with tethered stills and a calibrated monitor in one visit. Product and grade live on the same floor. Location days stay on the plaster we recce. Bounce and a small key match the square; we do not gel a sunset onto a grey afternoon. If the weather turns we wait or we rewrite, we do not invent Catania later. Agencies send a media plan. We name masters for print, 1:1 and 9:16, keep a working project for the revision window, and hand an archive another editor can open without a private scheme.