Student Photography Competition 2010

For this task we had to take some promotional images for the college of various members of students and staff. Within my group we had to use the location lighting equipment to set up an area in the college and ask random members of staff and students if they would be willing to have their photo taken for the project. This gave us the opportunity to practise using and setting up the location lighting and approaching strangers and convincing them to work with us politely. We were working in a big group so with limited time it was difficult to get many shots done, and as I dedicated most my time to asking people to model for the group, I only had time to shoot with 2 different models. 

Without much time to brainstorm ideas before the shoot, I found it very difficult to direct my models and where they should be positioned and how to pose. Due to my surroundings that we used I chose to try a simplistic look to my images and this meant I didn't need to consider too much the poses used and the props used.

If I were to do this again I would experiment more with multiple models and move the positioning of the chairs and tables in the image. I would also interact with the models more to try to get a more natural smile as these seem rather forced.

I asked the model to stand for a few shots rather than sit in the chair as I didn't like how her jacket blended in with the chair, but I think this looks rather messy with the chair behind her, if I did this again I would either move the chair out the shot or move more props into the background to make the chair seem less randomly placed.

I like this image but I don't think the front facing pose is very flattering on the model and makes the image seem more like a passport style photo.

While taking this I wanted to get some space at the side to get the edge of the wall and make the surroundings look less like a studio shot, but I think this had made the image look messy so I will have to crop this out. 

I tried to incorporate the bags with the models to make the image seem more natural and give more of a clue of the personality of the model. I like this shot as there's a good balance between the bag and the model and the bag doesn't take too much attention away from the model.

I really like this image as the smile seems quite natural compared to the other images and I love the composition of the image.

I tried this idea but I really don't like this image. I struggled to focus the camera because it mostly focused on the chair rather than the girl, so I didn't concentrate much on the composition while I was busy sorting this. I may try cropping this to improve the composition and see if I can make the image stronger.

I like this image because most the images were full sized images with the model looking at the camera so I thought I'd try something a bit different and with the student lanyard drawing a bit of attention in the image it still sits well with the brief. Although I'm a bit disappointed about how the hand is cut off on the side.