DEVELOPMENT STAGE: SHOOT 1

I used all the inspiration images that I gathered to decide on how I would construct this experimental shoot. I wanted a plain white background and a plain model, so that when it came to editing and using mixed media it wouldn't look too over the top and confusing, and so that the attention would be on my mixed media experiments. I chose a male model to use as I feel that I always use a female model and I wanted to be more experimental with my shoots for this project. I had already gathered materials for the shoot when I found rolls of cellophane from the shop Tiger, so all I really had to organize was the location of the shoot and the lighting.

I wanted the location to be a plain studio setting or at least against a white wall. I did leave this aspect to the last minute as the shoot was being held in my model's house and conveniently he had a white wall I could make him stand in front of, but the lighting was only natural lighting because I hadn't had any access to lamps. This was something I should have thought about and something I will definitely avoid in the future when doing a shoot towards the final production. Because the styling was only limited to the cellophane being wrapped around as a garment I only really had head shots of the model, but I thought this didn't matter too much as the photo-shoot was only an experiment so that I could work over the images and decide what worked and what didn't, but when I begin to work toward my final product I will vary the shots and angles of my photography.

It was difficult to style with the plastic as it was only on a roll and hard to pin into the shape of a garment, so instead I wrapped it around the model's neck like a collar or a neck accessory. The plastic did wrinkle in the way I wanted it to and I liked the way the light bounced off of the material as it created the texture I had hoped for. I had to pin the plastic around the model so he found it quite hard to move, which is probably why there isn't a variation of shots from this shooting session. I kept the model how he was already but styled him with plastic and no top so that the texture of the plastic wasn't interrupted by clothing underneath and so that the material acted as the garment.

It took a while to get the model to take it seriously, but eventually I was instructing him on how to pose to that I could get the right compostions to work over but I still wanted them to look like fashion images. I took around 70 photographs in total and I tried some with some yellow acrylic that I use over the flash of the camera to change the colour of the photographs, but I decided that this didn't work with the general theme of the shoot, even though it would work with the theme of colour and emotion. I kept the shoot simple and clean but I still got good and interesting shots on their own without the workings over the top or the layers, which is what I wanted from the shoot.

All in all I feel the shoot went well, but it definitely wasn't good enough quality to take into my final images. I do however really like the cellophane use, so I will definitely use this again in my second shoot and in future shoots.