Five weeks have zoomed by, but we are finally on our way to our first photo shoot! Let's recap what we learned in the first weeks.
Session 1: We started by looking at several examples of still life photo shoots from magazines. By looking at simple arrangements of items, we identified several key factors such as theme, composition, color, lighting, cropping. We talked about creating our inspiration binders, a simple 3 ring binder with 4 sections, one for each unit we cover in class—still life, food (or fashion accessories), portraits and fashion—and throughout the semester we will collect magazine pages and images (let's call them swipes) that inspire us in some way. Whether it's the color palette, the style, the lighting, the propping or we don't even know why we like it but we do, tear it out and put it here.
Session 2: We each put a tear sheet or swipe on the wall and go around the room saying a few words about why we like it. What attracted us to this image? It's just an exercise to get us to articulate aspects of imagery so we can dissect the components that go into creating the image. I put up examples of images with various themes: Vintage, Romantic, Modern, Global and Organic. How would you label an image with a particular theme? What gives it away? Look at the propping, the color palette and the mood of the lighting for starters. We picked teams for a group project, a themed still life shoot.
Session 3: Free associate on this theme. Looks for words that describe this theme using all the senses, even sound and smell. For example, the theme "Vintage" might cause you to think of old, musty, dark, smelly, dusty, dark wood, worn, tarnished. We then come up with a story line for a vintage themed image. My vintage group this year came up with "Letters to Live By" about a young man and women exchanging love letters a long time ago. Their idea was to show an old typewriter on a man's desk and writing papers on a women's desk. Assignment was to develop this story line within the theme and do a "creative brief", a visual page much like a mood board with images and words describing the surfaces, the color palette, prop ideas and any other ideas to express your plans for this photo shoot.
Session 4: Presentation of the "creative brief" to the class and discussion of viability of the idea. We visited Props for Today on 34th St. to see where props of all kinds can be rented. Props for Today is a go to resource for photographers, stylists, event planners, and movie and tv set designers. We discussed the components of the styling kit and other shoot logistics like the minimum size of a surface and backdrop.
Session 5: First Photo Shoot. Individual sets are assembled and groups work together on set up, lighting and arranging their themed still life. Variations are tried to see how different backdrops affect the shot. Each student turns in 10 shots showing a true exploration of the theme through use of props, a subject, lighting and we determine which shot was most successful at achieving the goal.
Session 6: We review the shots from last week's shoot, and discuss what worked, what didn't and overall how the experience felt working in teams to work on a creative project.
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