General Mills Renovates and Expands Photography Studios

General Mills’ completely renovated and expanded photography studios are among the largest in-house, full-service food photography and food styling studios in the country. Photographs for all General Mills’ product packaging, cookbooks, magazines, web sites and sales materials are shot internally.

The department has 12 employees, plus a pool of more than 100 talented food photographers, food stylists and prop stylists. More than 25,000 images are photographed and archived each year.

“Our team has the expertise to ensure all photographs highlight a brand’s key visual attributes,” says Nanci Dixon, photography studio manager, General Mills. “Our new large space has helped us become even more efficient. We can meet the needs of General Mills brands and have the capacity to offer our expertise to non-competing businesses.”

General Mills photography studios’ capabilities range from tabletop food shots to huge, indoor natural light lifestyle sets. To view the studios’ portfolio, go to www.Photography.GeneralMills.com.

Highlights of General Mills’ photography studios include:

• Six studios, two with natural light, for a total of 13 shooting bays. Combined square footage of the photography studios, housed in two locations, is 15,500 square feet.
• Four large, unique kitchens to prepare and style food. The kitchens were designed to be photo settings as well. Each kitchen has a different cabinet style, from sleek white to traditional cherry, and a movable island so photographers can shoot into the kitchen.
• High-definition, 60-inch monitors in each studio to provide electronic image reviewing. Photos can be reviewed on the screen rather than printed, in a move to go paperless as much as possible.
• Closed-loop color workflow to ensure color accuracy for web and print specifications. The completely digital studios have high end 91 MB file digital studio camera backs; medium and large format studio cameras; 61 MB file video and still SLR systems; 13 digital workstations; dedicated servers; and a digital asset system to archive the photography.
• Digital lab with large format printers for color managed proofing.
• Wireless network connection, dimmable, color-correct daylight lighting, and adequate food and equipment storage and refrigerator space. The network jacks and electrical lines run under the floor to eliminate cords.
• Extensive prop collection with thousands of pieces of dishware and linens.

Source: http://www.generalmills.com/corporate/index.aspx