Combination Photo Lab and Portrait Studio in Amsterdam
For more than 50 years, Foto Studio Heno has been an industry leader in Holland. Started by Esso Noordhoff I, passed on to Esso Noordhoff II, and now operated by Esso Noordhoff III, the studio installed the Scene Machine Virtual Backgrounds system to provide customers with maximum variety while working in very minimal space in the city center of Amsterdam.
Esso Noordhoff II checked out the Scene Machine for years at both Photokina and PMA, but it was Esso Noordhoff III who decided to make the leap!
Esso states, “Customers love the results and the Scene Machine is contributing to increasing portrait sales averages.”
Commercial space in Amsterdam is tight. The total store occupies only about 800 square feet and this includes space for the full Noritsu photo lab for producing amateur and professional prints and the public sales area. The studio space is squeezed into less than 200 square feet - a perfect situation for the Scene Machine. There simply was no room for multiple backgrounds and complex props. The only way to significantly expand creativity in the tight space available was with the Scene Machine system. They now use it for 100% of their portrait work.
Because they have five photographers, Esso decided that the best training solution was to have Virtual Backgrounds send over Trevon Baker for several days of private training for the whole staff. This worked out especially well and got the studio off to fast start with the Scene Machine with minimal issues.
The studio uses a combination of four lights including a main, fill, and overhead separation light. Portrait photography in Holland is not as common as it is in the USA. Although they will photograph babies and children as well, their primary customer is between the ages of 10 and 80 years. Because the studio is in City Center, they also offer tourists vacation-type photographs with scenes of Amsterdam as backgrounds.
The studio offers more than 200 different backgrounds, some from VB in America as well as backgrounds that they have taken on their own that are exclusive to Holland. They range from classic to modern.
The customer response has been amazing - especially when they actually see their own photographs with the unique and complementary backgrounds. The studio prints all of their own prints in their Noritsu lab.
Foto Studio Heno has a second location in Amsterdam, and Esso reports that he will soon be ordering a Scene Machine Virtual Backgrounds system for that location as well.