Preparations leading to the shoot
- Hired the scaffolding from a local company, hire cost covered in the final cost of the shoot.
- We couldn't find a diamond plate background large enough or within budget so we resolved to edit that into the pictures in post (This added editing time witch was also resolved in the final cost)
- The scaffolding was delivered to the studio several days before, this meant I could set it up and test the lighting set up before the day, meaning the morning of the shoot we could jump straight in as we only had the one day to get this done.
The Shoot
The shoot itself when very smoothly, it was helpfull that Darren gave me a lot of creative freedom with how to pose and arrange the models. The first couple of garments took a bit longer as we adjusted lighting and the models (Who were not full time, but did a fantastic job non the less) got used to how we needed them to stand. However, we soon got into a rhythm and despite having nearly 40 different shots to complete, we got through the shoot with time to spare, including different poses, and setting up a couple of shots to use for the possible water splash shot (We sprayed the models with water so they would blend with any water effects added in Photoshop)
The final Images
As follows is a selection of the final images, photo shopped diamond plate background, and with water splash.
The response from BLX about the images has been fantastic. The initial response when I sent them samples was a simple one word message "WOW!". To say I pretty pleased with myself is an understatement, and while I know and can see where I need to improve, this has been a fantastic experience working on a live brief, seeing the project through from conception to fruition, meeting and planning and bringing it all together. While it is not my first time working on a project such as this, it was the first time we did so many photos in one session, and with a deliberate and considered brief (Even with the creative freedom I was allowed). My take away from this in terms of evaluation, is that sometimes photoshopping is not the answer. Editing the diamond plate background into every final image has been a laborious task and did take longer than planned (though I did not exceed my deadline) and the same can be said for the water splash. If these had been done for real then the many hours of editing would have been saved, and given that I would have to charge for time editing, it would be a false economy for any future clients. but overall, this was a massive success.
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