Photography Project Shoot

At the time I was looking into textures of the body, and particularly the skin. Whilst connecting it to theorists such as Katherine Hayles, who theorized that they may not be a need for the physical body in the future, and our selves (even current selves) will become digitalised in some form. To me this includes our presence on the internet, and fractured identities. So I wanted to do a photography project that recognised the body and its textures and its flexibility. I think sometimes we forget the power of each layer of skin, and its vital purpose as part of ourselves.

I did research into possible materials I could use including a white sheeting, however I felt this was very flexible (stretchy) and did not represent my subject as well. Luckily in a specialist material shop I found a nylon skin coloured material which worked well.

In terms of the set up this was the first time I had coordinated a shoot and learnt to set up key lights and backdrop lights properly. I also used the light meter, and the settings on my camera to its potential, which where things I was not incredibly knowledgable previously. To get a white background I had two back lights facing reflector boards each side of the backdrop, this allows the light to bounce off the reflectors and hit the backdrop without making it over exposed or too patchy. To some extent I wanted the shoot to have a almost 'fashion' style to it, as I did not want it to appear that I was representing a more harsher subject, such as anxiety ect.

Getting the hang of using a light meter to create a more well exposed image

Before shooting the actual photography we did some lighting tests, just to see what we could achieve with this sort of set up. The image above had a really nice white background, however on the left hand side it was slightly too exposed.

I found this lighting, and settings worked a lot better.
 (I'm wearing different clothes because I got changed, it wasn't a different day!)

I had my assistants for this shoot. Mollie (Model), Shahid (Material stretcher) and Josh (Material stretcher)

So once I had experimented a bit and set everything up we got on with the shoot. I enjoyed doing it as it was fun to experiment with the body. Also last year, when I was in the studio it was modelling for Shahid's and Lucy's photography projects, so it a lot nicer to experience it from behind the camera and get a model to do my different ideas. I did have concerns that the material would not stretch very well, or in general not look good, but I was overall happy with how the images where coming together.

The result was a lot of shots! I do have some favourites as some did not come out right. The mistake I did was not regularly check the photos on the computer screen, and because of this I found that actually some of my shots were out of focus! However this has now made me be more cautious with making sure the focus and composition is perfect, and to regularly check them photos on a bigger screen whilst on set. Studio photography was something I was almost scared of and did not know how everything worked technically. Although I still have a lot to learn with photography, this has definitely made me more confident of directing and taking photography, as well as carrying out something more experimental.

Next step is to sort through all the photographs, and edit them slightly, just to polish them up and get rid of any dirt marks, or to crop them.

My overall aim for this project is to have at least 5 photos as part of a projection, and possibly even sound installation. I think this would suit an installation, as it crosses mediums within the photographs.