SHOOTING STEPS
1
Create A NARRATIVE The inspiration for this came from the bright yellow Forsythia bush. I put together an outfit I had already. The ruffles in the shoulders reminded me of flowers, and the headpiece worked well to elevate the character I wanted to create on-screen.
2
USE WHAT YOU HAVE See what you can create with jewellery, fabrics, and anything you may have around you at home. Here I used pearls and nails to add points of interest in the styling and complete the look.
3
GO ON LOCATION I visited this location a couple of times at different times of the day to see what time the light looked the best. My favourite time of the day to create is usually in the evenings, when the sun is lower in the sky and the light is golden and diffused. If you have a garden, see if there are any suitable backdrops there first.
4
READY YOUR CAMERA AND
LENS I experimented with both 35mm and 50mm lenses, and set the camera on a tripod slightly lower than head height tor a more cinematic feel. I chose a 50mm lens, since I loved the creamy texture and bokeh of the images I captured.
5
CHOOSE SETTINGS AND FOCUS
For those who don’t have eyefocusing settings on their cameras, I would recommend setting the camera up to a centre-focus mode. Once I got the camera set up, it was time to find the right settings and framing. I just played around a little to see what pose worked best with the light, moving the camera around to check different angles and adjusting the settings to suit. For the final image the exposure was 1/250sec, f/2.2, ISO 200.
6
SET SELF-TIMER, AND SHOOT
I began to shoot and move into poses, using a remote control to fire the shutter with a self-timer. I wanted to give myself multiple options to consider later in the editing selection process.