Nene Overland are a specialist Land Rover, Jeep and 4×4 specialist. As well as selling vehicles the company imports and retails a wide variety of equipment for independent overland enthusiasts looking for a bit of adventure off the beaten track.
This advert was placed in a number of magazines to promote Hannibal Expedition Equipment, manufactured in South Africa and exclusively distributed in Europe by Nene Overland.
I started by photographing a relatively standard Land Rover Defender 110 straight off the sales forecourt, but which had undergone a few modifications and had a few bits of extra kit added. Obviously a completely flat field in Peterborough doesn’t quite convey a sense of adventure that would appeal to buyers so I set about creating a composite image.
As you can see the original image is not quite ‘high end marketing’ standard
A few simple weeks in photoshop: boosted the contrast, added slightly too much sharpening (always looks good in print adverts), increased the colour saturation and cleaned up a few blemishes. Looks much better but still not great.
Tweeked in photoshop
Then took a background image from a stock library.
Stock photos can be very cheap but check the licensing restrictions before using them.
A composite of the two together.
Composite looks very natural – Always check lighting direction and shadows!
TIP: It is key to always check lighting and shadows when creating a composite from different photos. I just about get away with it on this one but in reality with the sun behind the truck would have created a much longer shadow.
TIP: When working on any marketing for motoring clients you should always remove or obscure the number plates. leaving them in immediately dates a vehicle
For the final adverts this composite image was imported into Adobe InDesign to add text and logos etc.
Full page A4 advert used in magazines.
Half-page advert
TIP: creating a composite with a larger background than is necessary gives you the flexibility to repurpose the image for different sized adverts and publications. This one was used in a variety of shapes and sizes and also worked well online.
