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.
Pacificunior produces commercial stills and short films from Santander. Photography and motion share a recce so a campaign does not split in public between a lookbook that looks like noon and a cut that looks like sunset. The rooms on Calle del Sol hold tabletop, a north window, 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 granite we recce. Bounce and a small key match the overcast; we do not gel a false bay. If the weather turns, we wait or we rewrite, we do not invent the hour in the suite. 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.