An Amsterdam Look in Spanish Rooms: Photographing Student Residences in Madrid and Granada

Client: Student Experience, operator of student residences in the Netherlands and Spain
Industry: Student Housing / Hospitality
Scope: Interior Photography, Two Residences, Brand Look Matching, Archive Harmonisation
Location: Madrid and Granada, Spain

The Project

Student Experience is a Dutch operator of student residences, with buildings in Amsterdam and Leiden and, in Spain, in Madrid and Granada. Every one of them is sold through a single website, room by room.

That website shaped the whole commission. A studio in Granada had to look like it belonged to the same company as a studio in Amsterdam, because on the booking page they sit a few clicks apart.

The brand needed new room photography for both Spanish residences, and it wanted its existing image library from earlier shoots brought into the same look, all ready to publish in the week of 23 February.

The Brief

Each residence was covered through a fixed set of views: the bedroom and study area from three angles, the kitchenette and the bathroom. Every angle came in two versions, one clean and one with supplies set out, so the same room could work for different uses. In Granada the set also included the view from the room.

The visual direction was clear: vivid colour, bright rooms and a premium feel. The brand's references made one priority plain. The bed has to look right.

Alongside the production, a library of 200 to 250 images from previous shoots of both residences was to be edited to the same standard.

The Challenge

One brand across two countries

The Spanish residences were not being photographed on their own terms. They would be published next to the brand's Dutch properties, so the benchmark was neither our house style nor a generic interiors look. It was the standard Student Experience had already set in Amsterdam.

Two cities, winter light and a fixed launch date

The production ran in February, in two cities, against a publishing date that could not move. Rooms like these depend on daylight: grey skies flatten them and rain on the windows shows clearly in a high resolution file. Each city needed its own bright day.

Compact rooms where every detail counts

In a student studio the bed fills a large part of the frame, and there is nowhere for a detail to hide. Bedding, cables, reflections and the way the bed sits against the wall all read at a glance. The rooms had to feel generous and premium without looking staged.

A library from several shoots

The existing images came from different shoots, in different formats and with different grades. Before they could sit next to the new photography, they had to share one look.

Our Approach

The look agreed before the shoot

We calibrated the look before the camera went into either building. Trial frames were graded on the brand's own images, and Student Experience approved the direction against reference photographs from its Minervahaven residence in Amsterdam, which set the standard for brightness, neutral whites and skin tones.

That approval came the day before the Madrid session. Both residences were shot and graded towards the same agreed target from the first frame.

Dates chosen by the light

We tracked the forecast in both cities and scheduled each session for its best window. The Madrid session moved from a date forecast for rain to the morning of Tuesday 10 February. Granada was set for Friday 13 February, the day the forecast showed sun.

We travelled to Granada the day before so the session could start with the morning light, with a car ready as an alternative to the train. The adjusted schedule was absorbed in post production, and the delivery date held.

Built around the bed

Ahead of the sessions, we asked the residence teams to prepare each room: beds made tight, windows cleaned and props ready.

In post production, light and contrast were shaped so that the bed separates cleanly from the wall behind it and reads as the centre of the room. Every image was finished to booking page standard, with bedding smoothed, cables and reflections removed, verticals corrected and signage cleared from the doors.

One colour standard across every file

White balance, brightness and colour were matched across Madrid and Granada, so the two residences hold together as a single set. The archive was then graded towards the same standard, each image taken as close to the new photography as its source file allowed, so the brand's library reads as one body of work.

Selected Work