What is Colorama paper?

At Studio 5, our Manchester photography studio, we use Colorama seamless paper for our photography backdrops.

We choose to use Colorama background paper in our photography studio because we believe that it is simply the best paper on the market. The Colorama background paper rolls are seamless and crease-free, they are also very effective when being used for flash photography as they don’t produce any shine or reflection like some of the cheaper brands do. They are also available in an impressive 55 colours!

We stock a large number of colours on-site in the photography studio, but if there is a specific colour that you would like to use for your shoot then please use the Colorama colour chart to select your colour, and we will order it in for you in time for your session from our preferred supplier in the UK, Manfrotto.

In our photography studio, we use 2.72m wide backdrops from the Colorama range. As we have found that this is the best width for full-length standing portraits, and also group shots, which allows more flexibility for you to be creative with your photography during your time in our studio.

Below is the handy colour chart to help you find your next colour. Please quote this colour in the description when booking online.

Chart, treemap chart

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Why won’t my wireless flash trigger fire?

There is nothing more frustrating that wasting valuable studio time trying to get equipment working.

We have listed our top 3 tips to check if you are struggling to get the off camera flash to fire for your Canon or Nikon camera. You will be surprised how often it is always the most obvious thing!

  • Check the channel first! For the transmitter and receiver to communicate they should be set to the same channel. You can use the test button to confirm that the transmitter and receiver are communicating. The test button will trigger the flash directly.
  • Have you attached the flash trigger transmitter to your camera correctly? If you can trigger the flash via the test button on the transmitter but not when firing a shot from your camera then its worth taking the trigger off of the hot shoe and reattaching it firmly ensuring the trigger is all the way on and secured so the transmitter connections are fully connected to your camera flash.
  • Batteries? If you can’t fire the flash from your camera or the trigger then try replacing the batteries, It’s not uncommon for batteries to go during a long session, most studios including studio 5 have rechargeable batteries on hand so do switch the batteries out and see if that helps.

Artists are reaching new fans and earning additional revenue with high quality live streams

Image: DENSE live in session at Studio 5 for Show Stream TV

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital tools for many of our day to day activities, from online shopping to catching up with friends and family on zoom, however the most significant changes have been in work and entertainment.

Microsoft Teams went from 20 million subscribers in 2019 to 75 million by April 2020, we have become a World of people proficient in video conferencing. From 7 year olds to 89 year olds we’ve been forced to change how we communicate with friends, family and colleagues.

Netflix gained over 25 million subscribers in the first 6 months of 2020 taking Netflix to almost 200 million over all subscribers. Not only have people been finding more ways to watch TV at home they have been spending significantly more time in the home and watching the TV.

In the music industry we have also seen a wave of change from physical experiences to virtual. Borne of necessity as artists, organisations and fans have been pushed to either find alternative ways to share their experiences or waiting for things to get back to ‘normal’ as soon as possible.

Over the pandemic many music industry organisations have embraced live streaming from ticket sellers such as Dice and organisations such as the Music Venue Alliance amongst many others.

Alongside live streaming venue performances, many more artists have used streaming on social media platforms as a means to perform and stay connected directly with their audiences.

In this direct to fan live streaming space, some of the more interesting developments have been the introduction of the Bands in Town live stream listings and their collaboration with the newly created Billboard live stream charts.

In terms of monetisation Twitch has for a long time been a successful platform for gamers to earn money from gaming fans. Twitch is now trying to push this platform more for music, allowing artists to take advantage of its core capabilities and ethos for encouraging ‘Tips’. It will be interesting to see if this works and how these capabilities may extend to other platforms.

Here at Studio 5 our journey with live streaming started in 2017, where there was no forced need to find ways to connect and share in the non physical world, we just recognised that the means to film and stream and connect digitally had become accessible and the possibilities of what this could mean were really interesting to us.

We created Show Stream TV as a platform that allowed artists to share their live performance with fans all around the world and sell virtual tickets or stream as free to view on the Show Stream TV YouTube channel.

If you are interested in filming a high quality live stream from Studio5 please get in touch or book the studio. We have everything you need to record sound and film live so either using your own production crew or working with us we can help you share your performance.

contact@show-stream.tv