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Through the course of a week and a half each day’s photo shoot had a different intention and feel. As we familiarized ourselves with the camera and lighting, a trend began to emerge. Out of the numerous photos we had shot, we ultimately chose images that we felt contained various strong emotional and dramatic visual components.

The pervasive dramatic element in our pictures manifested itself through the camera angle, lighting, and positioning and posing of the subject. Our props being primarily costumes or textile based in nature, texture and colour frequently played a significant role in determining our placement and emphasis of subject.

We collaborated using different props such as scarves, fabric, nerf guns and squirt guns. Composition-wise it was difficult to resist tending towards some traditional portraiture sort of compositions because of the “covergirl” lighting from the broly box that makes your face look so good. However our photographs also contain examples of highly exaggerated gesture and facial expression.

Backlighting was something we also frequently used, creating a comfortable glow around the figural subject.  This tonal contrast between background and foreground, and gradation of light helped to create tension and depth in the composition. Though most of our images are of static figures, the dramatic tone was further heightened in some photos by the creation of dense shadow.