Posts in Clothing

There are a some new shirts up at the ISO50 Shop and I thought I’d announce them here before they go out in the newsletter next week. First is “Syv”, which is printed on the new American Apparel Tri-Blend “Coffee”, which is sort of a dusty version of the normal heather grey tri-blend with a slight coffee tint. When I first saw samples of these I was immediately hooked. The color and feel are exactly what I have been wanting for a while now and they compliment the design I had in mind well.

Next is the new Vuela colorway, black on black. I have been using American Apparel black shirts for a while now and while they have their own thing going on, I wanted to be able to work with a shirt that felt a little more vintage. I found a company called Alternative Apparel (no points for originality on the name…) who offer some pretty interesting colors. I like how their swatches aren’t truly red, or blue, they’re sort of a distressed version with a little color shift. For the Vuela shirt I went with their “Earth Coal” color, it feels sort of like a vintage concert tee, nice and soft with a slim cut. Definitely of the most comfortable tees I own.

All designs are available in men’s and women’s sizes. Quantities are limited so if you’re trying to get in on these before the holidays, now would be the time.

→ Check them out at The ISO50 Shop

Just a quick note to let you know that many of the shirt designs at the shop have just been restocked. Among many others, Vuela, 77 Black-Black-Tri and 1976 Tri-Blue are all back online.

Link

The heat is coming down hard out here in California so I decided to do a limited run of the 77 shirt on the new American Apparel Tri-Blend Black. It’s super soft and super light for those long summer days. You can check them out at the ISO50 Shop: Men’s Shirt | Women’s Shirt.

On a side note, these are the first product shots I’ve done with all strobe flash lighting. I picked up a Nikon SB-900 and SB-600 and have been loving them. I still have a lot to learn but I am really happy with the initial results (see above; used SB-900 w/ diffuser on camera and remote SB-600 on stand w/ umbrella). I’ll be posting more on the flashes this week.

Spring is finally creeping into town (although very slowly here in San Francisco) and I’ve been way into the AA tri-blend tees this year. So I printed up a modified version of the Vuela Print on Heather Grey tees for your sunny weather enjoyment. As always, you can get yours over at the ISO50 Shop. I’m also clearing out a lot of the older designs to get ready for summer so you’ll find lots of shirts marked down 20-30%. All marked down shirts are the final pressing of that particular design/colorway.

On a related note I’ve been spending a lot more time trying to learn the ins and outs of product photography. I’ve been shooting the products for years but I’ve never spent enough time worrying about the color accuracy of the output. After all this time working with cameras you’d think it would come easy, but I was surprised to find how difficult it was to get good shots when the goal is creating a color accurate representation of an inanimate object. With my creative photography I’m always trying my best to make things appear inaccurate and I guess old habits die hard. For the shots above I used a tungsten photo bulb/can light along with a Quad CF lamp from Calumet. I had been using 3 lights but it turned out that hitting the subject from the right side and front with lights and letting some natural light in from the left (there was a window there) made for better dynamics so I’ve been sticking with the 2 light setup.

The last couple product shoots were the first times I’ve used a Gretag card to calibrate the camera color temperature under the lights. That and shooting in NEF RAW really went a long way to getting a solid foundation, but there was still a lot of work done in post. Having the calibrated monitor definitely helped at that point, but the real key I found was changing my own perception of the image and training myself to see it in a different way than I’m used to. I always catch myself slipping and trying to make the shots look interesting or enhanced and then have to step back and realize that this needs to be a literal representation of the real object. At any rate, I’ve got a ways to go (can’t even imagine how they get all those high end fashion shots) but it’s been surprisingly interesting learning the subtitles and nuance of a new kind of photography. It certainly is it’s own art form. I’m sure a lot of you have some product photography chops, feel free to share any of your tricks of the trade in the comments.

Also, I know I’ve been promising it for a long time, and I assure you, a very detailed post about color calibration is on the way. The project has sort of taken on a life of it’s own and I’ve brought Alex on board to help with research and production. We’re going to be shooting an interview with a color expert in the next couple weeks and we should wrap the post soon after that so stay tuned!

It’s hot as hell but luckily the summer-friendly tri-blend edition 1976 Heather Blue shirt by ISO50 is back in stock! Get them while they last this time, it’s going to be a long summer… Link

There are 3 new T-Shirt designs now available at the ISO50 shop. “77” Cream / Royal is printed on American Apparel 100% Cotton and comes in all Men’s and Women’s sizes. The two Tycho shirts are new typo / colorways of the original “Tycho Avian” shirts which have been out of print since last year. “Tycho Avian” Cream / Brown is printed on American Apparel 100% Cotton and “Tycho Avian” Black / Aqua-Grey is printed on American Apparel 50/50 Cotton/Poly. Each are available in all sizes, M/W. I’ll bee officially releasing these through the newsletter on Monday but I thought I’d post them up here so the blog readers could get a crack at them first. The product images at the shop page are temporary, I’ll try to get some close-ups and alternate angles posted up tomorrow. Enjoy!

On a side note, I can’t seem to get enough of Trade Gothic Bold Extended lately (the face used on the Tycho shirts above). I’m currently redesigning the interface of the shop and laid most of it out in TG with headers being Extended. For those in San Francisco: There’s an old California Savings (closed) on 16th & Mission (across from BART) with a very cool sign that looks a lot like TG Bold Ext. Has anyone seen that? Is it TG? It’s for sale so they’ll probably redo the exterior, I’ll try to walk over tomorrow and get a couple shots before that happens. Probably not a big rush though, 16th & Mission isn’t exactly hot property.

Since Fall is right around the corner, i’ve kept my eye open for an all around shoe that will last me a long time and that i can wear with anything. My friend Ryan Elliott sold me on Common Project shoes, i’ve seen them before but didn’t know much about them. They have no branding and are all leather and a very simple design, i especially love the stamped faded gold serial number on each shoe. For now, they’re a little over my price range but i’ll start saving my pennies.

The 1976 print on grey American Apparel Tri-blend is now back in stock. I know a lot of people had been waiting for the mediums to come back so now’s your chance, get them while they last at The ISO50 Shop.

I’ve been loving the American Apparel Tri-Blend heather shirts for a while now and I’ve finally added one to the ISO50 tee lineup. If you’re not familiar with them, they have a sort of old school feel, a bit more elastic and form fitting than the 100% cotton AA stuff and a lot softer and light. A perfect summer shirt for sure. The design has been screened on without a base-coat to lend a mildly worn effect to the print, it really blends well with the heather shirt. The 1976 design is now available in Heather Gray Tri-Blend at The ISO50 Shop.  Get them while they last, this limited first run is moving fast!

The 1976 shirt and thermal are both back in stock along with the Past is Prologue shirt.  These are the final days of the Holiday Sale so get over to The ISO50 Shop while it’s still on!