Studio 2: Party surprise!

Armed with my new studio knowledge, I decided to go back into the studio and try something a bit more difficult. It is proposed that part of my project will have to do with capturing the 'instantaneous' or that flash of lightning that occurs within performance. To try and demonstrate this, I bought some party poppers to try and catch them mid-pop. There was a bit more pressure on this one. I had one bag, which equals 20 poppers, which in turn meant I only had 20 shots in order to get it right.

The only problem I had was setting up the lighting. Initially, I tried to put everything at the front of the studio, but the lights in the back kept getting in the way, so I just moved everything to the back and shot it there with two lights. I metered the lights and got them bang on f/8 for a 1/125 shutter speed. I noticed that the lights threw two shadows (one for each light source) and I quite liked this effect, though I noted that next time it might be interesting to use a diffuser to try and mute the shadowing effect.

Party pop 1

I also turned the house lights off, which gave a soft 'vignetting' style around the background, which I really liked as it framed the picture. This effect was less evident when the house lights were left on. I started to notice that there was almost a 'knowledge' as to whether a shot had worked or not. You can actually see when the flash goes off if the light has caught the party popper mid air or not and there was something satisfying about that sense of 'capturing' the exact moment.

Party pop 2

What I like about the above image is the 'anonymity' of the figure. I have begun to nitce that once you shoot, although it is strictly self-portraiture, you do start to disassociate yourself with the figure in the picture. In these shots, I feel very much as though I am 'demonstrating' an action, which is quite Brechtian in it's way. I discussed this with Sian, who also agreed and said that the gesture act as a 'poitner' or signifier to something else. This contrasts with the work of someone like Cindy Sherman who is definitely trying to embed the 'self' into the photo. This particular shoot actually draws more parallels with someone like Bruce Naumann. To that end I love the 'anonymity' of the above shot. It has all the 'surprise' of the party popper, but it could be coming from anywhere. Also, an interesting unintended side effect of the focus in the above shot is that the end of the streamers are in focus and it gets progressively out of focus.

Party pop 3

Also an unintended effect produced above is that the blue streamer touches the very edge of the frame, giving the composition a '3D' effect, or makes interesting use of depth of field in order to give relational perspective to the shot. This emphasises the viewer/performer relationship and gives them a sense of how and where they are in relation to the person in the image.

A thing to note in these pictures is the use of space: I am becoming increasingly aware of composition and 'face on' or centred shots can obliterate the whole perspective of the shot. It's better to place yourself off centre and use the rest of the space in an interesting way in order to give a sense of that space you're occupying.

I'm interested in the contrast between studio and location setting. Both have their own specific challenges: while on location seems like it might be more unpredictable, there is actually something more 'thrilling' about it and the fact that it is more gritty not only contributes to the spontaneity of the shoot, but also to the framing of the constructed reality of the shot.

In the studio, it's much safer but because of that a chasing of perfectionism can become evident. There is no reason not to get the perfect shot as you can shoot continuously until it happens. However, that shot is almost as spontaneous as any other – there's no telling when it will come. I can see studio shooting can easily be quite intensive.

I am looking forward to going back into the studio and developing the above shots. I really feel there is an interesting and impulsive feeling to these shots and – as ever – it's about re-shooting until you get the perfect picture.