This photoshoot exercise occurred on Wednesday, November 14th 2012 during an open evening session at the college. The shoot lasted for well over an hour and several images were taken. The aim of the shoot was to experiment with lighting conditions and how they affect an image as well as viewpoints; I basically aim to recreate examples of existing products as they relate to the music genre. Below are some examples demonstrating the types of framing, viewpoints and lighting conditions.
This image above was the very first image taken, at the time my camera was set to Manual mode and I was making adjustments based on lighting conditions; it's fair to say that it isn't that great of a shot because it was overexposed. Although you don't always have to go by the rules because you can generate other pretty interesting lighting effect.
Below is low angle shot from my practice shoot and although it is not really conventional to use these shots in a music magazine but I just thought it would be pretty cool. The low angle exagerrates his overall appearance, making us feel vulnerable and the model powerful. This image cannot be used because of the ceiling in the background; it is something I just wanted to experiment and I am considering to go on a better location and shoot a photograph like this one again.
These shots below were typical examples of what happens when just the 'key light' is turned on and everything else off. Apparently neither of them went too well because the amount of light hitting the subject's face was too hard creating a bit of over exposure which casts a dramatic shadow behind the subject. This is why the backlight and fill light are important to counterbalance the overall appearance of the image.
As we progressed further into the shoot I decided to introduce some props related to Hip-Hop. Although typical rappers' jewelry are considered as props, many of them are seen with objects like water bottles, money, weapons, electronics etc.
In these images you'll notice that the model use hand gestures and signs alot as this is important because it reflects the Hip-Hop industry. Rappers want to be 'known,' they love attention and lots of it and that's why many of them have special hand gestures as it seems cool and appeals to many of the young audiences in the world.
Even though this shoot was my first one I ended taking some really interesting photographs; some of which can be used on my front covers, double page spreads and contents page with photo effects applied to them.
These 6 Images above are all very great images I would consider using for my front cover and the one below I think would make a really nice double page spread image.
What was the purpose of this shoot?
This shoot was done in order to experiment the different possibilities and ideas which can be generated and then later 'supposedly' used as images for the final magazine. A lot of thought was put into most of these images as I am a photographer; I might not be at a professional level as yet but I am determined to get there. This exercise helped me to understand the importance of camera position and lighting; these are elements which need to be paid keen attention to as they can affect the layout of text in a media product. In the end I took well over 140 photographs; approximately 45% of them turned out to be usable shots. I wouldn't consider the remaining percentage to be a failure as this was my first shoot and they helped me understand what to consider when taking the next photograph thus creating 'less mistakes.'
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