Final Shoot for Editorial

Today was the day of my final shoot and I had booked the studio from 10-2. I had arrived at 8.30 to set up my makeup in the beauty area. My model Annie arrived at 9 and I began to apply her makeup and style her hair for the shoot. Once I had prepped Annie for the shoot, I then started to set up the studio as the previous people had now left. I had a few problems with the set up, as it was a very busy morning in the studios and there was a lack of equipment. I asked Chris for advice and he advised me to be creative. I really appreciated this as this happens a lot in the industry. Sometimes equipment is forgotten or theres a problem and you have to think on your feet and come up with a new way of getting the same result. Chris talked me through building a structure to use instead of the boom. I then began to build my lighting set up. 

For my final shoot I wanted the lighting to be very light but still crisp enough to see all of my models features and my design detail. I built a light box so that the flash lighting would bounce off every direction. I used The poles and put them in place to hold the light reflector board above my model, using brackets. I tilted this. I then put up 2 white foam boards either side of this structure to keep the light in, and used a white back ground. I also used a foam board to close in the structure. I tilted this and this helped keep the light on my model and fill my images with even light.

http://www.lightingdiagrams.com/Creator

Below I have added a picture that shows my camera settings. I adjusted the flash power on my overhead light on the boom, if the image was too bright or too dark. I also played with the aperture on the camera settings to get the perfect light balance and the colouration I wanted for my image. 

Once I had the right lighting I postitioned my model and began shooting. I played around a lot with the composition and made sure I had a lot of close up's, For this I used a 50mm lens. I also took some full length images, with my model sitting on the ground and also some half body shots. I wanted to make sure I had a lot of variety to choose from and  this was also really good for experimenting with different compositions and making sure the lighting was adjusted accordingly. 

Outcome and Thoughts: 

I definitely found this shoot challenging and I learned a lot about the setup and structure of a shoot. Photography is all about taking risks and experimenting and I find letting go very challenging sometimes. It can be very pressured shooting within tight time frames and managing the set up, the makeup and hair, styling, lighting, photography, and editing all by yourself. This shoot was really important to me as I fell in love with my design idea and really had a specific outcome in mind when I was shooting. I can be quite a slow learner and I can find it hard to hold on to lots of information (especially technical), so this was really hard for me and I did feel like giving up a few times. I'm very glad I pushed through and achieved this outcome. I definitely want to make a concerted effort to be more patient with myself and approach photography in a more open way. I really enjoyed the whole design aspect and feel that I achieved a high end look for my final editorial photographs. I really feel that my final design reflects my research and design development with my chosen word and I am really pleased with how it all came together and definitely feel that my hard work paid off. 

I have picked a few of my favourites, unedited as a sneak peak.