Practice Shoot

Before this practice shoot, I wasn’t sure whether I was going to use either tungsten or flash as my chosen light. I knew the advantages of tungsten are the warm/realistic colours that the lights give and also the ability to see exactly how the light looks and where it is covering in the frame. But the tungsten lights I have access to are fairly bulky which means it would be hard to get them to a location, and they also need a power supply, so I would have to hope for enough plugs (if any.) A flash system will also have its disadvantages, they can be fairly garish and harsh and you also have to spend more time to get them to the right settings, as you are unable to see where the light is going before you take a photograph. However the advantages outweigh them, as the equipment is extremely light, which not only helps you to carry them to location, but to also the set-up. You also have the advantage of them being small; this means you have a lot more creative freedom with the space in your chosen location.

Tungsten Lights:

In these three shots, you can see how I used the mannequin to act as a model, this was because my models I wanted to use were late, and so I had to set-up without them; making greater use of the time I had in the studio. I had the idea of using an orange gel over the light that would be pointing towards the goddess, this would give her a natural glow compared to Arachne, and thus emphasizing the aura she has. As you can see I have taken a picture with and without the gel. I then got all the lights into position. I had a medium height rembrandt that had the gel on pointing towards the left side of the frame, while having a high rim light on the left side to act as a spotlight for Arachne who will be lying on the floor, it would also catch Minerva and act as a hair light. I also used a fill light in a rembrandt pointing towards the right side of the frame, this would mainly be to illuminate Arachne’s face, as the spotlight would cast it to shadow due to her looking towards the camera.

These are the five final selections from my practice shoot with the tungsten lights. I am really happy with how the orange tint to the light has worked; you can see the definite difference in skin warm from Arachne to Minerva. I feel the five as a collection show the transformation of Arachne well and I love the way that I have informed Minerva to walk out of frame, as she has just left Arachne helpless in her transformation to the half-woman/ half-spider. Although it doesn’t say in the story about Minerva’s movements after she sprinkles the potion on Arachne, I feel it makes the final frame of the transformation very potent, as she is the only focal point within it.

Above you can see the initial quick putting together of the five shots, this gives you a better understanding of how they will be in the collection (there will be gaps in-between the photos on the real final.) While I like the ability of seeing where the light is, my models found the light quite bright and unbearable, although I moved them back it was still an issue, they also blast a lot of heat on the subjects they are pointing at. It’s important to take on board the models needs, although this is something I cannot control as the tungsten don’t allow you to change the light brightness. The brightness is also a factor when it comes to shadows, as you can see it has caused very dark shadows from Arachne laying on the floor, but also a double shadow of Minerva on the background. Due to the shortness of length of the black backdrop, I was forced to have them quite close, but the shadows can be reduced by pulling them further away from it, but I still feel it would be a factor with the tungsten lights, they make the scene feel like its from a theatrical play and take away the intense story behind the photos.

Flash Light:

As you can see, I have kept with the same idea of using the mannequin as a person to see how the light is hitting it, the girls I am using as models wanted to re-apply their make-up, this shows how I’m trying to use my time efficiently. I have also used the same technique with the gel as before, I used the gel on the right rembrandt flash pointing towards where Minerva will be standing. As well as this flash, I have a side light on the right pointing to where Arachne will be laying and then also two rim lights pointing towards the backdrop, this will be to light up the props I will have there and also stops any shadows on the background. 

As you can see from the first four photos of this selection (1332,1333,1335,1336), I took the same approach to my composition. I have chosen to use a creative decision in that I used a shutter speed of 1/30 to help create a blur to Minerva’s movement. The tungsten light made the blur just look out of focus, however the flash has made the blur into a ghostly look, which is much more aesthetically pleasing and looks like the creative decision it is instead of a lack of experience. 

Once I had completed the four first shots, I had the fifth and last to do, which shows the full transformation of Arachne. I started by re-creating the same final shot I got with the tungsten light, having the model fully arched using her shoulders. In all the previous shots I have Arachne as dead (she has just hung herself,) so she has her eyes shut, but in this shot I want her eyes as wide as possible and looking directly at the lens. This will help to intensify the shot and contrast it further from the other shots of her dead. I also wanted to keep this contrast with the way her body is placed by getting her to be in a completely different stance, thus shown in shot 1342. Because I do not have the spider legs created, I had to image that the body would have to look as if she is held up by them as well, the stance in image 1342 will help to show the legs off to the camera more as her arms will be out of the way.

I am very happy with how this practice shoot has gone and I have chosen that I will be using the flash system as my choice when producing my final shoot. I feel the flash has given the photos a much more picturesque feel to each shot and made them look a considerable amount more professional. The ability to also attach gels on them makes them easily superior to the tungsten lights and as I’m working in a small area; the tungsten is far too overpowering.

With this lighting set-up, I chose to set the two rim lights and the rembrandt light to channel 1-A, this meant that they all ran off the same setting, making the bulk of the light hitting the frame even and not fighting against each other. I then set the side-light which is acting as a spot to 1-B, this gave me the ability to put the ratio to 1:2, making the spot lighter than the other 3 flashes. Although it did work well, I think I will either have to add more power by altering the ratio, or I could use a reflector to bounce the light from the spot back at Arachne, this will help to add more light to the head of Arachne, which is being slightly lost as it’s the furthest point from the spot light.