DEVELOPMENT STAGE: SHOOT 2 - MOVING ON FROM MIXED MEDIA WITH TEXTURE AND COLOUR

After the first shoot I did and after the experiments I made using mixed media, I decided that using mixed media wasn't for me and that I didn't feel it would be very practical for me to produce a final product made entirely of mixed media photographs. Because of this I decided to go down the route of creating texture and layers within the photograph instead of after the photograph has been taken. I still used inspiration from the I-D editorial I found, but wanted to take my own spin on things and not just 'respond' to the images. I decided to do another photo-shoot to experiment with creating texture within the photograph. Because this was another experiment there was no real story to the photographs.

To create the texture I again decided to use cellophane, this time I used the polka dot roll I had purchased but never used in the previous photo-shoot. I really like how the plastic looks in my previous images so I decided that I wanted to keep the theme of cellophane and texture going. I used a female model this time round so that my shoots don't look all too similar and boring. I also wanted to do something different with the aesthetics of the shoot and add more colour into the images. Instead of doing this through the styling of the model I decided that I wanted to experiment with colour gel lighting to create a more in-depth, interesting looking image.

The styling of the model was relatively simple, similar to my previous shoot, however looking back I think I could have been a bit more experimental with the styling of the model to make the images even more interesting. Even though there wasn't much styling of the model, I still wanted the images to look fashion-based, because my project is about fashion photography. I got the model to pose and instructed how I wanted her to look, so that she didn't look too boring and still. I also achieved a sense of movement with using slow shutter speed, which really works with colour gel lighting.

I wrapped the cellophane around the model's shoulders at first, but after a few shots decided that this wasn't working very well. I took a moment to re-drape the cellophane and really play around with the lighting. I then ended up wrapping the cellophane around the model's head and tried to cover her face with it. To achieve the lighting I used coloured plastic bags over the top of the lights, which worked well as a temporary cheap alternative to purchasing rolls of coloured cellophane. I also used a yellow acrylic tile and placed it over the pop-up flash on my camera, which achieves a yellow overlay on the photograph.

The shoot took longer than expected because of my mistakes in the beginning, but the model was patient and fun to work with as she is a close friend of mine and also one of my favourite models to use in my photographs. This shoot was also my first time working with colour gel lighting as usually, when trying to achieve coloured light, I used a coloured lightbulb. I'm very pleased with the results of the shoot and the aesthetics of the photographs I think are really beautiful.