Test Shoot

On Friday 8th April, we did our first test shoot in the same studio that we are going to be using...the Digital Studio (ME246). This studio now has a white background which is what we need!

These are some images that I took 'behind the scenes' to show the first lighting set-up that we did. Chris Horgan kindly came to help us also.

This lighting set-up did not give us the images that we wanted. Therefore, we experimented further with the honeycomb grid, barn doors and the snoot lamp fittings.

There is one lamp which has been removed to get repaired, therefore only three lamps currently in the studio which was proving diffficult to light the background and the model with to achieve the aesthetic we wanted.

Here are some images that were taken on the Canon 5D Mark I (which we will be using in the actual shoot) :

This is the vignette/spotlight effect that we want to go for in our images. However, the loss of detail in the clothing is not good but maybe inevitable with this lighting? We want the clothing detail to show as the stylists have got some lovely garments which need to be shown at their best.


This is paler lighting which wouyld be used for the childhood end of the spectrum as the youthful mood is generally lighter, more creative, innocent and playful. This is an idea above for this, while still maintaining the idea of having shadows which we all like also.

Here are some more photographs which we were quite pleased with, in terms of the lighting, spotlight and retained detail:

At the end of the test shoot we were happy with the photographs and the lighting set-up, feeling confident we would be able to re-create it at the shoot next week. However, having looked at the RAW images afterwards, the vignette effect has made the clothing have a major loss in detail and there are specks/marks on the images due to dust being between the lens and the sensor within the camera. Therefore, we will need to use a blower to get rid of the dust when we get the camera next time before the shoot and maybe adapt our lighting further to avoid loss of detail.

On reflection, due to the images not being entirely what we are hoping for, I have managed to book the same studio for tomorrow morning (12th April, 11am - 2pm) for Stephanie to go along with an assistant to experiment further with the lighting and to feel more confident for our shoot on Wednesday 13th April. Unfortunately, I am unable to attend this second test shoot due to travelling to the University and Stephanie understands this.