“It’s all about the vibe,” states Beau, talking about his approach to creating product shots that reflect both a brand’s style and his signature creative touch. Beau Roulette is Senior Art Director and photographer at Vans, and has built a career crafting powerful, story-driven visuals for various brands like HUF, Levi’s, RIPNDIP, and more. From designing dynamic campaigns to capturing the character of shoes, tees, and more, Beau’s work is a blend of skill, vision, and craftsmanship. We talked to Beau about his creative process behind setting up lighting recipes used across Vans’ PDPs and his experience using our powerful Pro-D3 to push creative boundaries in the studio.
Building creative campaigns from concept to final release
When realizing campaigns, Beau steps in right at the beginning. “What’s the product? Who’s the subject? What’s their character? How can the lighting help me tell that story? Can we tell the story differently from how we did it in the past?” are some questions that Beau goes through when developing a concept until product release. With a lot of creative freedom, he gets to explore a fresh approach for every shoot. Using Profoto for his setups, Beau can fully focus on how to shape and model his light. “Profoto lighting has really helped me with building powerful marketing campaigns,” states Beau. “The simplification of the dial of Pro-D3 and its ease of use takes away the pressure of setting up.”
Scaling powerful e-commerce content creation
“When seeing a new product, I think, ‘I could actually light this kind of fun’ or ‘We can show this feature for the PDP in a different light,’” explains Beau, outlining his initial thoughts when showcasing an item for e-commerce. The photographer and Art Director employs two studios that create Vans’ PDP content. Beau builds the light concepts using Profoto lights and modifiers, which the studios then adapt locally. “Using Profoto for my lighting recipes allows me to rely on a consistent look over months, seasons, and locations. I can easily take them from my office to the studios.”
The perfect lighting setup for every product
Pushing creative boundaries, Beau often explores how he can adapt his go-to light setup with different lights and angles. “The Pro-D3 has given me the ability and the ease to do that. I can adjust the light by the 10th of a stop and move fast.”
Beau loves to test and play in the studio to inspire his creativity. His favorite setup includes an ambient fill light paired with a hard light source. Using a large White Umbrella or a Soft Zoom Reflector paired with a Beauty Dish, he creates an exciting combination of shadows and highlights that work for portraits and show intricate details in product shots. “I have developed the look for the Vans PDPs based on that same type of lighting story. It’s easy to explain and easy for other studios to set up.”
“It’s the little things that Profoto continuously thinks of that really help us photographers. Profoto always strives to make good things better for our community.”
Consistent output meets on-set-efficiency
Pro-D3 allows for the highest consistency across all the brand’s channels and is quick and easy to set up for fast-paced e-commerce shoots. “I can control even one-tenth of a stop when adjusting my lighting, which is super helpful. Today or two weeks ago – I achieve the same result. Also, it’s so easy and so quick to set up.”
Beau is especially fond of the powerful LED modeling light to shoot quick videos that take his campaigns full circle. “I love the strong LED for little BTS videos. I sometimes mix it in for some nice fill light. It’s a great little bonus.” The modeling light allows him to achieve his desired setup faster and more efficiently. “The consistent output between LED and photo is amazing,” states Beau. “It allows me to set up pretty much exactly what I want to achieve even before firing the first flash.” Using the LED to set the scene, Beau is fully in control and can get creative without moving too far away from the lighting he wants to realize in his shots. “Especially when having clients in the studio, I don’t have to trigger the flash all the time and can easily set up without having to meddle with the lights.”
Another favorite is Pro-D3’s compact size and packaging. “Having everything in one head is just great. It packs small in the car and is easy to take to another studio – no extra cables needed, no need to worry about outlets.” Beau smiles when talking about the typically efficient Profoto packaging, “It’s the little things that Profoto continuously thinks of that really help us photographers. Profoto always strives to make good things better for our community.”
How Pro-D3 makes a difference
In a recent campaign shoot for an updated version of a cross-track shoe – a rugged outdoor lifestyle model designed for both trail and city – Beau aimed at highlighting the shoe’s technical features compared to the canvas upper the brand usually produces. “It’s the second season for that shoe now. What I did last season worked really well, so we wanted to recreate the light we used in the shot.” Beau and his team used a backlit rim light with long exposure to capture extra motion and emphasize the shoe’s tech-like finish.
Using Pro-D3, Beau benefitted from shooting with precision and control while noting how quick grids and simple adjustments made it easy to fine-tune his setup. What initially took 1.5 hours to configure the first time around, only took him 15 minutes to setup when shooting the second season of the shoe. Pro-D3’s reliability and powerful consistency enable Beau to easily recreate and perfect his shoots. “Like this, I can tell the story again and again if a client asks me to repeat it. It just makes my life a lot easier in all regards.”
