Neon/ Pastel Shoot

For this shoot i wanted to create something I can put in my portfolio but also will go into my magazine. Firstly, I had trouble finding models, there are only so many models on model mayhem and I would rather use semi professional models than my friends as I want my Zine and portfolio to be viewed seriously rather than unprofessionally. I befriended quite a few models on there first and then went through the ones that i thought could be suitable for my shoot. The only problem is people rarely check Model Mayhem as much as facebook, so I contacted 3 models messaged them on Model Mayhem, Emailed them and Facebooked them and not one replied! As I was getting quite desperate, it was the night before and noone had replied, I was going to use my friend who was interested in modelling and had previously modelled for me before, however luckily I got added to a Facebook page dedicated to collaborating at Solent and asked if there were any blonde models for the next day, and someone had replied.

I had bought everything i needed for the shoot the day before and was really excited with how the pictures were going to turn out. I was modelling for a make up artist Allie Meek a few hours before my Neon shoot, so i had asked her if she wanted to collaborate with me on my shoot, which she happily agreed to. I had also befriended a Fashion Photographer in third year in the corridor after a lecture and had kept in contact with her since and she agreed to do the photography for my shoot. 

I prepared some sketches and sourced some images i wanted to base the shoot on and brought poses and these pictures to the shoot so my model knew what to expect. The shoot is based on the neon and pastels S/S 2012 trend. For the trend package project i had used this theme and really wanted to include it in my zine. Also, i intend to create 3 fashion shoots based around a designer,  charity shop finds and high street finds - and as i sourced all the clothes from high street shops i can include that as one of the shoots.

Here are a few examples of unedited images taken from the shoot yesterday.

In terms of photography, the concept I had thought about was slow shutter speed, quite ghostly images. Because neon colours are bright, bold and also associated with light, I wanted to incorporate this element in the photography. I was really pleased with the results as the photographer I was collaborating understood the idea fully. We worked together, playing around with different settings on the camera and ended up making some really beautiful ghostly images. The only problem I had whilst retouching these images were the fact that they were quite dark; because the effect only really worked when the lighting was darker than normal, I did spend quite a bit of time on the editing. Nonetheless, I  was happy with the diversity of the images. 

I looked at a few model release form templates and was able to download a free guideline. Taking this basic template, I changed a few of the wordings and added my logo to make it more professional, so at each shoot the model will sign one and this allows me to use their photos in my magazine.