5th shoot

The shoot that took place yesterday, Thursday 15th March went really well.


I set up in plenty of time and arranged the backdrop and lighting to how I wanted it to be shot. I was in a different studio which worked out better as it was a lot bigger and catered better for two models.


Laura arrived first and I started doing her hair and make-up. Within about 20 minutes of me starting Stephanie arrived, 40 minutes earlier than I had asked her to arrive. I continued to style Laura while Stephanie sat and took of her make-up and painted her nails.


The make-up and hair design for Laura went exactly how I wanted it to. The hair piece went into her hair well and I plaited some of Laura's own hair to disguise the fact that it wasn't her own hair. The hair colour was a very similar match, any colour difference could be later changed on Photoshop afterwards. The only issue which I did have was that the hoops were maybe a little too large and that meant that they sat quite tall on top of her head. If I was to do it again I would probably make the rings smaller. Also, because they were so large, it meant that they kept on falling forwards, so just before Laura stepped in front of the camera I tried to fix the hair with plenty of grips, this helped a little as long as she did not move her head too much. I feel that although I faced some problems with the design, I was still able to find a solution and as a result achieved several of the learning outcomes. 


I was also pleased with the application of Stephanie's make up. Because I had used the oil colours it made the blue very intense in colour and show up on camera well. The only problem with using oil colours was the fact that it did no dry and because it was underneath the eyes it kept on creasing, something which I then had to keep amending. The hair piece on Steph's hair was also difficult to fix into place. I had perhaps made the hair piece a little too long for her head and it meant that it was a challenge to make it perfectly symmetrical on her head.


When Magdalena arrived she approved of the studio that we was working in and advised me to try and shoot in there again. I did find that she was trying to influence me on the way I should photograph my images. She wanted to use a different backdrop to what we had already been using but as I had explained the images needed some consistency and when previously re shooting one of my images on a black backdrop, it didn't work well within the calendar. She accepted what I wanted but made it clear that she wanted some more variety to the images.


Magdalena started shooting with Laura whilst I finished styling Steph's hair. I did not mind this as I had given clear instructions of what I wanted and as I was still present I was able to jump in whilst they were shooting. This also meant that Steph did not have to sit around whilst I was shooting, time keeping was kept efficient.


Laura had to leave earlier than planned which cut the shooting time short. But I felt the images were strong enough and was happy to help her pack up and remove her make-up and hair piece.


As I had bought lots of jewellery as I was not sure how it would look on camera, we decided to swap around with the jewellery and see what would work best. The earrings which were initially used gave a very classy look, almost too classy and not fashion looking enough so it was decided with the agreement of the photographer to swap to using a pearl necklace. This worked a lot better and allowed more variety to the images as it could be moved around.


Overall I feel the shoot went well and we managed to achieve some strong looks. I have decided that using my laptop during a shoot is extremely helpful as music can be played which makes everyone feel more relaxed as well as being able to receive and view the images straight away.