Week 12 – The photo shoot & editing

With the equipment hired and shoots all planned, we started with our exterior shots selecting a clear sunny day in the city. We choose some laneways, playing with colour of the street art and Carla’s costumes and then we shot along the river, thinking about the movement of the water referencing the movement of dance. We had to work fast to take advantage of the sunlight, but it still took time moving from one location to the next and setting up in the correct positions. We were able to get some great shots just before sunset against a textured wall, which created a contrasting background to Carla and her costumes.

For the interior shoot, I set up a studio in my apartment with the hired lights (three-point lighting) and backdrops. We allocated several hours and still went over time. I decided to start with the interview to warm up and get Carla comfortable and talking, so she would be most at ease at the end of the shoot when we would be trying to capture important shots. There were a lot of elements to consider, backdrop colours, lighting warmth from 3200K – 5600K, many costume changes, plus make-up and hair. Carla had some of her props, which included fans, candelabras and a sword, she explained that these were important to specific dances and costumes, so we also wanted to include those. This was a big shoot with plenty of elements to consider but generated a lot of strong content.

With so much content, came the editing process. I had to select from hundreds of images, narrowing it down to just a small selection, this was a challenge! We went back to the initial concept of presenting three elements of Carla and used that as our criteria for selecting the images that would best tell that story. Carla selected some photos for herself to use as professional headshots, although they are good photos, we had to decide if they were right for the photo book narrative or more suitable for other uses. It was important to collaborate with Carla during the editing process. Once I had narrowed down the photo selection, I had to piece it together with the other elements including music, video and the narration audio from the interview. I played with the composition and placement of the photos, using cropping, hierarchy and movement to highlight various elements. With so much imagery, multiple mediums and a substantial concept, the key was selecting photos that could convey the narrative themselves once placed together in their sequence in the photo book.