15) Photoshoot (part 1) for 'Steps to Happiness' Manifesto - 26/10/17

On Thursday I went into the studio and took some of the shots to illustrate points from the happiness manifesto I found on the BBC lifestyle website. In this shoot I wanted to take photos for these different steps:

1) Treat yourself

2) Phone a friend

3) Plant something.

I had a variety of different props for the shoot and I wanted to almost deconstruct some of the purposes of the props which relate to these different happiness steps. My contact sheet from the studio session can be seen below, as well as some drawings of the studio set up. For half of the shots I wanted a portrait set up on the object, so I set up a table with a coloured backdrop clamped on and then had a different coloured other backdrop set back from it. I used a floor light to light this, and then used the boom with a soft box for the main light, and another light on a stand on the left as a fill light to combat shadows. I shot at around f11 to ensure my depth of field had everything in focus, and I'm really pleased with all the shots from this set-up. The second half of the shots were created from a birds eye perspective, so I just used the boom with a soft box light on it and then used the table again with a backdrop clamped on, again I'm really pleased with the shots from this set up.

As you can see from my contact sheet the three shots took quite a while to set up and perfect, so although I've only come out with 5 final images for the first part of this photoshoot I'm still really pleased with the final outcome.

These are my finished images for each different happiness step:

1) Treat yourself.

I really like the clean outlook of this image, with the cake being the treat in the middle. I'm really pleased with how the lighting looks also, with brighter light surrounding the cake itself, and then getting darker as you move further away from the subject. I wanted to elevate the cake from the surface to show an air of importance and also luxury, because its a treat.

2) Phone a friend.

I couldn't decide my favourite out of these 3 images so I decided to put all of them in. The idea behind this phone a friend step was to make it look more satirical, so I included some sex lines of 'friends' people can contact. I really like the playful nature of this image with the twisted phone line and the ironic magazines, and I think these props work really well with the vibrant blue background.

3) Plant something.

The satirical nature behind this image for plant something is that all the plants pictured are fake. I really like the composition of this piece and I think the blue and pink colours compliment the plants well. However I do think this backdrop makes the 'treat yourself' image and the 'plant something' image look too similar, so I think I should try to re-shoot this piece with some different coloured backdrops, so the images look more stand-alone and not linked.

Due to how long it took to get the set up of the studio right, I didn't manage to get all the shots from this shoot so I've booked another studio slot to get them done. So my next steps will to be create the still life of my other two happiness steps: exercise more, and cut your TV viewing in half.

#photoshoot #obsessions