Final Shoot

Equipment taken: 

3x Canon 430 EX II

1x 580 EX II

1x Tripod

1x Canon ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter

1x iShoot Radio Triggers

1x Reflector

1x 17-40mm Lens

1x Canon 5D MK II Body

1x Card Reader

Overall I am really happy with how this final shoot went. I felt confident with how I was going to set all the lights up as I had took time to look over my practice shoot photos and also had another couple of sets of eyes on them from my tutors. Even though I had sent the booking for this equipment off two week before the shoot, I decided to just use 2 430’s (one as a backup too) and a 580 flash, I aimed to be using the 430’s as rembrandts whilst the 580 as a main fill. In the practice shoot I used my own camera (Canon 550D), however in my final shoot I wanted to use the Canon 5D MK II as it would then give me full frame photos and would also look nicer.

First Shot - 

Compositionally I kept this shot very similar to my practice shot, I really liked the confrontation that is caused by the poses of the models, they work perfectly to describe both the anger of Athena and the flippant/stubborn attitude of Arachne. The main differences come from the framing. After the feedback it seemed that pulling the frame slightly more to the left would allow me to include the door in the frame and have the central point including both Arachne and Athena, rather than just Athena and having Arachne off to the left.

On my first shoot, I had a lot of difficulties with the ST-E2. Because the system runs off infrared, if it is blocked (in this case by the stairs), it will not fire the flashguns. So on this shoot, I did book them out as a precaution, but I booked out the iShoot radio triggers, this allowed me to put the flashguns wherever I wanted and they would still go off. I also booked a reflector to direct some of the light coming from the flash at the top of the stairs at the back of Kathryn; this would illuminate her hair more, pulling her from the background. I used the 430’s in rembrandt arrangements, whilst having a flash at the top of the stairs to hit the roof and Kathryn.

Second Shot - 

This shot stayed very similar to the original shot that I captured from the practice shoot. A couple of minor differences were added to this shot, such as the addition of the feet, this has stopped this and the first image from looking like I’ve chopped her feet off. The second minor thing is the emotion on Emma’s face, I asked if she could just look more menacing rather than the growl type of face that she had in the practice shoot. Another small creative decision I tried to implicate in this shot is that I wanted the tapestries to be as visible as possible, this meant ensuring that Emma has it turned towards the camera and also on Kathryn’s, ensuring that they were pulling it in a way that kept the image largely intact. I really like how they both (Kathryn more so) seem to be merging into the darkness at the bottom of the photo.

A disadvantage comes from the framing, although I have got the models perfect in the frame respectively with the buildings architecture, I feel that the barred windows are a bit garish and pull my eyes up in the photo towards them. This is a problem as I want to ensure all focus is on the two characters; this can however be fixed with the right cropping in post-production.

Third Shot - 

This shot also stayed fairly similar to my practice shoot. But for this shot on the practice session, Emma had a bit of an issue with staying in the pose long enough for me to get multiple shots, so I took her a small towel that she could kneel on, this meant I had longer to shoot with her like this. I also decided to have the torn tapestry in Arachne’s hand, further symbolizing what has happened in the previous scene, helping the photos to flow between each other. Another aspect I made sure of was that in the practice shoot, you could see Kathryn’s shoes poking out of the end of the end of the dress, however this time I made sure they were covered, giving me less to do in post.

Fourth Shot - 

When I was on my practice shoot, for this shot I decided on changing the lighting arrangement from the third shot. However, it actually made more sense for it to stay where it was, it would further help aid the two shots of looking alike. Also being that Arachne hasn’t moved from her position after Athena’s departure, it wouldn’t make sense for the lighting to change. As well as changing the lighting from my practice shoot, I also went into this shot with a completely different mindset. I had to go into this shot thinking of how much distance I would want behind her so that she can move slightly back to allow me to get the shots I needed to give her multiple legs. As mentioned in my ‘Rejected Final Shoot Photographs’ post, I have put these shots as rejections, although I will still be using them to take the legs from.

Another aspect clearly different from the practice shoot is the use of the spider webs. I first created a thin layer on the floor for Arachne to be on and then trailed it to the wall. Although my intention was to largely cover the door, I actually found that doing that ruined the powerful background imagery that I had, therefore I tried to put it mainly on the wall and feed the spider webs through the bars.