Work Diary - Shoot 2

Evaluation

I decided to capture my first product shoot this lesson, basing it around perfume bottles (ghost, 1D Our Moment and body shop's vanilla mist). The reason that I chose these bottles to photograph is because the colours are related in a sense that they all have a clear see-through packaging, and the beige colours mix successfully with the pinks. The Ghost perfume and Our Moment mix the best with their pink tones, however I feel that all three of them with each other are just as effective because the colours are subtle and blend effectively. For this shoot, I built it. My set-up consisted of a table with two lights either side of it. One of the lights was a beam with a snoot facing down on the table. The other one was a soft box looking up at the table. I began with only one light switched on, which wasn't doing very much for the composition's lighting as it was filled with too many shadows. I then turned two lights on, however there was still a shadow at the back of the paper. I then made the infinity curve of the paper that I used less evident so that the whole image conveyed there being no interruption in the white backdrop. I had to experiment with the strength of the lights as it made one of my images bright white, so I ended up having the camera settings set to iso 200, 1/125 F11. I also used a flash, which enabled me to shoot clean and bright photographs, emphasising the femininity and glamorous appeal of the subjects in my pictures. During this session, after using gels in the previous shoot, I employed this technique into my shoot this time to experiment with colours. I used a pink gel which set a feminine mood in the frame, I used a yellow gel which added to the appearance of warm lighting, and I also used a dark blue gel which added a crystal clear and fresh appearance. I enjoyed experimenting with these gels, however feel that I could just explore with an assortment of colours on Photoshop by using the colour balance edit. Gels are fun to experiment with, however not always necessary. 

These two were the first couple of pictures that I took after developing the shoot, by building the lights and the set. I experimented with composition here, as I wanted the smaller bottle located in the foreground of the frame in order to attempt having the Ghost perfume bottle in the background appear smaller than it realistically is. In the photographs, it looks as though the Our Moment perfume bottle is pretty big, when in reality it is a lot smaller than the Ghost bottle. I aimed for the lights to create a shadow coming from the bottles to the front of the frame because I feel that this adds extra drama to the image, as it outlines the bottles' shape a lot more than it would if it was a clean white image. I was also exploring the formal element form as well, which resulted in these photographs being two successful outcomes. My reasons for pairing these two images together is because I have used a different gel in front of the light each time and I wanted to compare the two. In the left image I used a pink gel, and in the right image I used a yellow gel. These gels set different moods, which is a technique I find extremely interesting. In my opinion, the pink gel photograph is a lot more effective, because the colour compliments the already existing pink in the front subject and background subject. Additionally, the colour adds to the femininity in the composition, which relates to the product as they are both aimed at women. With the yellow gel, it made the bottles appear quite mucky and less pristine, therefore a less effective photograph.

This is another photograph from this shoot that I captured, and was extremely delighted with.  I wanted to take a photograph where all of my perfume bottles were in the same frame, because I intended on creating an advertisement displaying a mixture of present ideas for those who like a combination of scents. These would be the perfect gift for someone at Christmas, and as the season is approaching I felt it would be appropriate to relate some of my shoots to this upcoming holiday. The lighting on this photograph was glistening less, as the ones above were glistening from a light beam, however it wasn't as effective in this shoot. Despite this, I still feel that the clean white background is just as effective, as this is more magazine based. The background contains no shadows and there is no evident light source, which is the approach I was going for in the first place. Having a lack of shadows emphasises the bright and happy appearance of sweet scented perfumes. I reduced the saturation of the image in Photoshop as I didn't want the beige and pink of the bottles packaging to be too vibrant, because I was aiming for a soft appearance in this piece. I left a large white side of the background in the right hand side of the frame so that I was able to add a strap line to the piece, advertising the perfumes more verbally rather than just visually. I am happy with this first attempt at an actual advertisement, and will most certainly be developing this technique in the future.

Progression

After this successful shoot, I am extremely inspired by gel lights (even more so than I was after shoot 1)  and also extra excited for my project. I want to explore more perfume styled advertisements if I get the chance, however I mainly now just want to dig into my food based project. I will be using the same set up that I used today for the majority of my future shoots because this has proved to be a success. If I was to develop shooting perfume bottles, I would like to create more of an atmospheric set up of perhaps an outdoors background. For example, below a fresh scented fragrance is being complimented by a fresh field of green grass.