BRIEF ONE - NATURA - PHOTOGRAPHY - ART DIRECTION

As previously mentioned, a definitive part of the project are the product images as they will form visual element the viewer will interact with when reviewing the look book and posters. Not only will the images form the visual representation of the product, they also link directly to the 70's inspired colour scheme defined in the design decisions blog post. 

To ensure that the product images are taken to a professional standard I collaborated with a member of third year photography. A brief was written and sent to the photographer to help communicate what I want the outcome of the shoot to achieve. 

The image below shows the type of image I want to replicate;

Link

ART DIRECTION 

I decided to use a photographer as part of the shoot to ensure that the lighting and final images were were taken to a professional standard resulting in a body of high quality photographs. The image quality is important as they will form the visual aspect of the project that will not only engage the viewer but represent the products sold by the company.  

Although the selected member of photography was responsible for setting up the lighting and taking the images they were not responsible for the art direction of the shoot, such as the selection of the background colours and position of the plants in the images. Therefore, I was able to take on an art direction role and define the specifics of the shoot.

BACKGROUNDS -

As previously outlined the plants will be shot on coloured backgrounds that reflect the outlined 70's inspired colour scheme. I fist researched into the availability and cost of a large roll of coloured paper however, I soon discovered that to buy four coloured rolls at the required size was going to cost well over £150, which was completely outside of my budget. To overcome the problem I purchased sheets of coloured paper from the library at college. Luckily, the coloured paper that was stocked reflected the set of colours outlined for the project.   

Once I had purchased the paper I used masking tape to create the backgrounds, lines formed where the paper joined so unfortunately the background is not seamless as desired. However, this problem can also be overcome in post production, when the images are being edited the lines can be removed using the 'patch' tool in Photoshop. 

The image below shows the extent to which the line was visible.

Unfortunately, the background created with the paper was too small as it didn't leave enough negative space around the edges of the plant. Therefore, I had to buy three extra pieces of paper which were add to the background to ensure it was the optimum size.  

CONCLUSION  

• The shoot was an overall success and took around 2 hours to complete from start to finish. 
• Working with the budget that I had for the shoot I believe that utilising the makeshift backgrounds was an efficient decision that allowed the shoot to take place.
• Other than the yellow background being too small no other problems were encountered while completing the shoot.