End of Year Show - Photo shoot

The chosen method for our end of year show branding was photography based. We booked the photography studio to take professional photos for the promotional materials, with the help of a photography student, Meg Banner. We thought this would be the best method as Meg knows how to set up the studio and lighting and camera settings to a professional standard.

During test shots, we played with the lighting settings. The first problem we encountered was that the lighting on the right side of the shot was too dark, so we added some more lights to the back of the studio, which would make the shot brighter.

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We started with a white backdrop and some close up shots. We then moved onto some farther away shots, we liked these pictures as we could see the feet and legs of the model which further gave the appearance that it was a student being unveiled, which is what we intended. To our surprise, the fabric we had sourced showed up more metallic than expected and would need little editing. The way the lights hit it made the fabric really shine and highlighted the folds in the fabric. 

During the photo shoot we experimented with the way the fabric was draped, as well as multiple people under the sheet, and even having the model moving which gave the fabric some movement and shone even more. 

After these experiments, we altered the backdrop to a black background. We much preferred the black as the background as the fabric looked more vibrant and metallic. With the black background, we again experimented with movement and carried on to add a plinth which the model posed on top of in various positions, sitting and standing. We then acted out the act of unveiling the model which gave us a few pictures in the stages of this, showing the progression of the act. We continued on this strategy whilst the person pulling off the fabric was atop a ladder.

Our final experiments were to completely wet the fabric. This would make it heavier, and also give it more cling to the models form, giving the photo more shape. Wetting the fabric made it less gold and more orange, but made it shine and drape more.

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We narrowed the photos down by reviewing them as a group, flagging our favourites and repeating this process over again until we had a small group of our favourites left. We tried to keep the photos consistent, so they would not be varied too much across the final group. We then edited them in lightroom so the material would be as metallic as we could possibly make it, as well as making the white backgrounds whiter and the black backgrounds darker.

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Our final photos are below. We had a range, including photos for the printed campaigns as well as the social media. The photos of Hannah standing still under the sheet, for example fig 16, and the posed ones atop the plinth (fig 22) would work best for the printed campaign and the "unveiling" photos (fig 28-30) we had taken in the shoot - so multiple shots of the unveiling action - would be good for use on social media, to countdown to the exhibitions.

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