I've ran a few 'Shooting for Composite' workshops so far, and have had a really great group of people on each one.
The latest workshop was ran last weekend, and we had the benefit of shooting inside a disused school in Liverpool. This gave us the opportunity to shoot some unique backgrounds for use in the compositing, and also the opportunity to shoot the model, and mentally try to visually pair her with a background all on the same day. Some photographers attending reshot some backgrounds and the model a few times to satisfy their visualisation of their image. We were really fortunate to have this opportunity to shoot in a school.
Although the workload I had personally increased dramatically by running the workshop out on location, I think it was worth it to provide the opportunity to work within the school.
We always start the workshop with a tea / coffee, and short introduction, and I new instantly we had a really great group of photographers. Each person had their own ideas of what they wanted from the day, which is always great, that way there is something to work towards and helps me in focussing more on certain areas and topics in the workshop.
I'm always taken aback by the support I have had on these workshops, a lot of the photographers that have attended are already very advanced and producing quality work, so to come along to the workshop I take as a huge compliment from them.
There was also a great pair of guys that travelled all the way down from Scotland for the workshop, I really couldn't have a greater compliment than that, and thanks very much for making that huge effort John and Eddie,
We started with a slideshow presentation and ran through basics of exposure, light and composition in terms of composite work. Although 'the basics' they really are important that people understand them, before moving on to getting hands on and shooting the model and backgrounds.
Our model for the day was Michela, and MUA was Jenna. Anyone that knows me know I shoot with Michela and Jenna a lot, they are both great at what they do and always work hard with all the photographers to produce a look / pose each photographer wants.
The look I wanted to create was a schools out narrative, but with a twist. So a disused school, school uniform and sugar skull was what we went with.
We ended the day with making a selection on which background and model picture to use, and then putting it all together in Photoshop to produce a believable composite image, utilising what we had learnt earlier in the day.
This is the background I decided to use, and the picture of Michela I selected to composite her into.
This was the final image I ended up with from the day, which will form part of a series of an ongoing project I am doing, and has a continuation from a previous image I have added to that project using the clown and noughts and crosses game. I have used certain elements and styling to make this image fit with other images in that project set.
Schools Out
The photographers that attended on Sunday are already producing some great work, and I'm really excited to see what further images they come up with over the coming weeks.
I must say a huge thank you to the photographers that attended, and everyone involved some already mentioned. A few people left before the group photo, so sorry guys, I should have took this a bit earlier.
A huge thank you to my good friend Sander for helping me out over the weekend and also for providing some fantastic impromptu sound effects on the day.
Sander, thanks for everything mate was really great to see you!