Shoot#2: Edward Scissorhands

This shoot was on the 29th March, I wanted to change the set up a little so instead of the leaves for the floor i used scrunched up paper this time. I also borrowed some taxidermied foxes to fit in with the 'forest' theme. 

I used the same lighting as the first shoot, because i want the images to be viewed as a set they need to be similar. 

The model is Peggy Soo, someone who i have worked with a few times, this time we had no clothing designer on board so all the styling was done by myself. This was quite a nice relaxed shoot. 

ISO: 100, f/3.2, 24mm, 1/200sec

ISO:200, f/5.6, 20mm, 1/80sec

ISO: 100, f/5.6, 10mm, 1/80sec

ISO: 100, f/6.3, 24mm, 1/160sec

Contact Sheets;

Shoot#1: Corpse Bride

The first shoot we had planned was Corpse Bride and Victor. This shoot was on March 16th, we had two models; Little Sofi & Simon Woolley. The clothes for Corpse Bride were provided by Laura Ruxton, Simon wore his own clothes, and the flowers were provided by True Bud Floristry. I arrived early so i could finish painting the set whilst the models got made up and ready, this usually takes quite a while so i came prepared to wait a few hours before the shoot actually starts, some of the things i do whilst waiting are; prepping the set, setting up and testing lights, cleaning/dusting off things and my favourite of all is going into the museum archives to select props. Of course, i was always on hand to give my preferences on make-up/hair and clothes, but this was mostly left up to Alice as that is her area of expertise and this is her project too!

Some "behind the scenes shots";

The set with lighting set up, and a messy workshop! 

Props

Clothes and accessories

Alice using her airbush

Final touch ups before shooting

Finally, it was time to shoot; the lighting i used to start with was one blue/green gelled light and one umbrella. 

This is the lighting set-up in diagram form;

Here are all the finished images using this set-up:

 ISO: 100, f/6.3, 24mm, 1/250sec

  ISO: 100, f/6.3, 24mm, 1/250sec

ISO: 100, f/5.0, 10mm, 1/250sec

ISO: 100, f/5.6, 11mm, 1/250sec

I also wanted some portraits of Corpse Bride on her own, we used some fake cobwebs and i got Alice and Laura to stretch it out behind the model. I also moved the gelled light so it was behind the model. Heres a diagram: 

ISO: 200, f/5.6, 24mm, 1/250sec

 ISO: 200, f/13, 24mm, 1/200sec

 ISO: 200, f/13, 24mm, 1/200sec

Contact Sheets;

Set Building

For the set build i wanted to construct sort of a half-box with wooden boards. So, for obvious reasons our first step was to buy some (cheap) MDF from B&Q, we had to hire a man with a van to transport the wood from the shop to the museum. It turned out that the van wasn't as big as we had anticipated so we had to get all of the wooden boards cut in half to fit, this caused us quite a few problems and quite a set back, because when we finally got to the museum, we had to attempt to re-attach the boards together where they had been cut in half, this gave us a good days extra work.

The Workshop:

Re-attaching the boards:

Our original plan was to simply stand the boards up, and attach the corners with hinges. After we finally had a set that resembled what i wanted, the first step was to paint the whole thing white. We had 5 shoots planned so i had designed two fitting sets, the first one was a black, white and red woodland scene.

Painting the boards white:

I used an old sketch i had made for a background for photographing some dolls, painting this on a larger scale meant that it needed simplifying quite a lot. 

Half finished!

 Finished! 

Looking back now; i wished i had carried the stripes down onto the floor, rather than using leaves. I think it would have been much more effective. 

After doing the first two shoots, i had to re-paint the set. This time it was much easier than the first, as i didn't have to construct anything! 

Heres my original sketch of what i was going to paint;

The way the shadows on the walls are curving in that way is inspired by The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. 

There are a lot of things i would've done differently if i had the time, space and funds. But without mistakes we have nothing to learn from in the future. And despite that, i'm very proud of my sets, and seeing something thats been in your brain for months suddenly become real is magical! 

Misc Inspirations: Tejal Patni

See more of his work here.