The Bradford-based company rebranded this year following Sun Chemical’s acquisition of the Watt Gilchrist company in 2006 and broke with the tradition of photographing stars and sparkles used in the composition as part of the original setup and instead decided to montage them at a later stage.

SBS said that developments in retouching techniques had meant that there was a more accurate, controlled and powerful way of achieving the desired effect. In addition, the inclusion of the stars and sparkles as a separate layer meant that they could be moved where necessary to fit with the composition.

The use of separate layers allowed retouchers to focus some of the stars in the foreground, leaving others in the background, giving a three-dimensional effect.