CREATIVITY

EXPERTISE

Working With Me

FAQ

I'm Kai Bastard, an advertising photographer and CGI director based in London. I work with brands and agencies to create conceptual imagery through photography, CGI, animation and creative retouching. From my East London studio, I help develop ideas and guide them through production, with particular experience in healthcare advertising and campaigns that need to work across several media formats and executions.

ABOUT

Visual Artist

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Photographer

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Creative Retoucher

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CGI Director

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Visual Artist · Photographer · Creative Retoucher · CGI Director ·

  • I'm an advertising photographer and CGI director working across photography, film, animation and creative retouching. I help brands and agencies develop visual ideas / conceptual stories and work out how to make them, bringing the shoot and post-production into one considered process. Healthcare advertising is a particular area of experience, alongside broader commercial campaigns and my own conceptual work.

  • Yes. I direct CGI and animation, including characters, creatures and environments, either as standalone work or combined with photography. I work with specialist artists where the project needs them, guiding the design, lighting and finish. If an idea needs to work in both stills and motion, I like to plan that from the beginning.

  • My studio is BAD STAR Studios in Leytonstone, East London, at 7 Acacia Business Centre, Howard Road, London E11 3PJ, UK. I founded the studio to support photography and film production, with a green screen space that steps into virtual production giving us control over lighting and lets us build the wider environment around the photographed subject. Having an integrated mindset, my approach has always been to make the concept work as hard as it can and this studio accommodates that agile approach.Description text goes here

  • Yes. I'm based in London and work with brands and agencies internationally. My London studio provides a base for photography and production. I have a US O1-Visa which allows me to legally shoot in North America, US enquiries are handled through Gary Hurewitz at Greenhouse Reps. The shoot location and production arrangements are shaped around the brief, so get in touch with the project and where it needs to happen.

  • Yes. I can lead photography, CGI direction and creative retouching within one production. I stay involved from the initial brief through to the finished images, bringing in the right specialists for the work. That continuity helps ensures that nuances and conversations do not get lost in translation, ensuring the original idea stays true as the project develops and providing an agile workflow.

  • Healthcare and pharmaceutical advertising are a significant part of my practice. I work on campaigns aimed at healthcare professionals and patients, often translating a complex or difficult experience into a clear visual idea. I work closely with the creative team so the emotion in the image supports the intended message and the campaign brief.

  • Yes. I can work with an agency's creative and production team or directly with a brand’s internal creative department or directly with their marketing team. We start by establishing what the image needs to do, what has already been developed and where you need my input. From there, I can help shape the creative approach and the production around it.

  • AI is part of my creative toolkit. I use it to explore concepts and, where it suits the brief, to help develop textures and visual detail within environments built in CGI. Photography, creative direction and retouching remain central to the process. I look at where a tool helps the image and what it means for the rest of the production.

  • Send me the brief, any sketches or references, the assets you need, the intended usage and the deadline. A budget range is helpful too. I use that information to understand the creative ambition and work through the photography, CGI, production and retouching involved. We can fill in the gaps together if the project is still taking shape. You can submit a brief via the following link https://badstarstudios.com/

  • I quote around the work involved. The number of images, shoot requirements, complexity of the CGI, review stages, deliverables and usage all affect the scope. Share the brief and a budget range, and I can help identify a production approach that supports the idea and explain where the main costs sit.

  • Item descriptionI normally license commissioned photography and CGI for an agreed period, territory and set of media, with the audience and campaign use defined where relevant. I like to understand those needs before quoting so usage is clear from the start. Additional uses, extensions and working files can be discussed separately and reflected in the agreement.

  • Personal work gives me space to explore an idea with no constraints or outside parameters. It’s an important part of my practice to be developing new ideas, and exploring methods that can potentially influence my commercial practice. From initial ideation I develop the story through casting, styling, photography and CGI, and that exploration feeds back into how I approach commissioned work.

ONE IDEA. THE RIGHT TOOLS.

I don't approach a project by deciding in advance that it needs photography, CGI or AI.

I start with the idea.

From there, I design the production approach around the creative ambition, budget, deliverables and practical requirements of the campaign.

That might mean a predominantly photographic shoot with subtle retouching. It might involve photographing talent against green screen and constructing the entire environment in CGI. Or it could combine photography, CGI, photogrammetry, AI and creative retouching within a single image.

The technology can change.

The objective remains the same: create an image that communicates the idea brilliantly.

SERVICES

  • PHOTOGRAPHY

    COMMERCIAL & ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHY

    Photography remains at the centre of my practice.

    I specialise in concept-led commercial and advertising photography, creating imagery for agencies and brands across healthcare, pharmaceutical and consumer campaigns.

    Depending on the creative, a project might be photographed entirely in-camera or designed from the outset to integrate with CGI, green screen, retouching or AI-assisted production.

    Working from my London studio or on location internationally, I approach lighting, perspective, performance and composition with the final campaign in mind — including how an image may later need to adapt across formats, markets, motion or additional executions.

    The objective is not simply to take a photograph. It is to create the strongest possible foundation from which the entire visual idea can develop.

    Services include: advertising photography, healthcare and pharmaceutical photography, conceptual photography, talent photography, green-screen photography, studio photography, location photography and campaign image production.

  • CGI

    CGI & 3D IMAGE CREATION FOR ADVERTISING

    CGI allows an idea to move beyond the limitations of what can physically be photographed.

    I combine photography and CGI to create characters, products, props and environments that can be precisely controlled around the creative concept.

    CG environments can be developed before the shoot, allowing camera position, perspective, lighting and composition to be established in advance. Talent can then be photographed specifically for that environment, creating a much more integrated relationship between photography and post-production.

    For projects requiring multiple markets, formats or campaign variations, the same CGI assets can also be re-lit, re-framed and adapted without rebuilding the entire campaign from scratch.

    The result is a flexible production system that gives creative teams greater control while allowing ambitious ideas to remain believable and photographically grounded.

    Services include: CGI for advertising, 3D modelling, CG environments, character creation, digital props, photorealistic rendering, CG lighting, photogrammetry, photography and CGI integration and campaign versioning.

  • CREATIVE RETOUCHING

    HIGH-END CREATIVE RETOUCHING & COMPOSITING

    Creative retouching is where all of the individual elements become one image.

    Photography, CGI, generated elements and practical assets are brought together through high-end compositing, colour grading and creative post-production to create a final image that feels cohesive rather than constructed.

    Because I work across both the photographic and post-production stages, decisions around lighting, perspective, depth, texture and colour can be considered before the shutter is pressed rather than solved retrospectively.

    This is particularly valuable for complex advertising imagery where multiple photographic plates, CGI assets or environments need to exist convincingly within the same visual world.

    My creative retouching work has been recognised internationally, including the AOP Martin Evening Award for Excellence in Digital Retouching and inclusion in Lürzer's Archive 200 Best Digital Artists.

    Services include: creative retouching, advertising retouching, CGI compositing, image manipulation, colour grading, beauty and skin retouching, multi-image compositing, campaign finishing and high-resolution print production.

  • INTEGRATED PRODUCTION

    PHOTOGRAPHY, CGI & POST-PRODUCTION UNDER ONE CREATIVE WORKFLOW

    Some ideas become unnecessarily complicated because photography, CGI and post-production are commissioned as completely separate processes.

    My integrated approach connects them from the beginning.

    I can oversee the visual production from creative development and pre-production through photography, CGI, retouching and final delivery, building the workflow around what the finished campaign actually needs.

    This creates a single visual direction across each stage and helps identify production challenges before they become expensive post-production problems.

    It is particularly effective for conceptually ambitious campaigns requiring multiple assets, markets, talent variations, environments or combinations of stills and motion.

    Instead of asking how do we photograph this?, the starting point becomes:

    What is the most effective way to create it?

    Sometimes the answer is photography. Sometimes CGI. Often it is a carefully planned combination of both.

    Services can include: creative development, pre-production, casting, studio production, green screen, photography, CGI supervision, photogrammetry, creative retouching, animation, post-production and final campaign delivery.

  • AI IMAGE CREATION

    AI-ASSISTED IMAGE CREATION FOR COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING

    AI has become another tool within the image-making process — but I don't believe it should automatically replace photography, CGI or traditional craft.

    I use AI image creation selectively and under creative control, introducing it where it can genuinely improve exploration, production efficiency or visual possibility.

    That might mean rapidly visualising an idea during creative development, exploring environments and styling before production, developing textures for CGI, extending photographic environments or creating specific elements that can subsequently be refined through CGI and retouching.

    For commercial projects, the important distinction is that AI is incorporated into a structured professional workflow rather than treated as a one-click final solution.

    Photography, CGI, AI and retouching can therefore work together, with each technique used where it performs best.

    This approach gives agencies and brands access to emerging image-making technology while maintaining the creative direction, consistency and production control expected from commercial advertising.

    Services include: AI image creation, AI-assisted advertising imagery, generative image development, AI concept visualisation, AI-assisted CGI texturing, photographic image extension, campaign versioning and hybrid photography/CGI/AI workflows.