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Lesson Info

Conceptualization: Rainy Plexiglass

we're starting our second Samsara shoot, and this one's going to be really fun because we're using this piece of plexi glass. It's very bendable and safe, and I'm excited to use it because having some sort of barrier in between the camera and the subject, it means that they can interact with it. And it creates a literal sense of being trapped and having a barrier when there's something in between the camera and the subject. So that's what we're gonna play on today. Is this idea of the afterlife, and you might be thinking, Wait, how did you just make that leap into the afterlife? Well, Samsara, the Siri's is all about death and grief, and I thought that it would be fun to play with the barrier between life and death. And what does that look like? What does that barrier, and would you try to come back to life, or would you float away into death? That's a weird, heavy topic, isn't it? But let's keep it light and are going to shoot this and have fun. And the reason why this shot is so impo...

rtant to me is because a lot of this Siri's has to do with simple compositions, and this is going to really exemplify that. I think that when you have an image and a whole Siri's that talks about subjects that are super heavy, it can often be really nice to counter that with simple visuals so that it almost massages the brain a little bit while it's doing work in another area. We talked about having thematic follow through and visual follow through in a Siri's. But how do they complement each other? How do you have a theme that's really heavy? And then visuals that support that? Well, one way is to have the visuals feel really heavy, too, and in a way, these do because there's a lot of contrast, a lot of darkness. But in another way, they're extremely simple. There's just a dark backdrop, a single subject and then maybe a prop in the shot. So we're gonna really play with that today with this really fun piece of glass that we're going to use as a barrier. Now, I've got a slightly different wardrobe here, so I'm going to have you, Anna. And for those who didn't watch the other one, this is Anna. We're going to put this on just over your head and that's it. And we'll just let the fabric drape. And this is one of those pieces of fabric that I love to use because it doesn't have to be really complicated to have a really nice looking wardrobe. So this looks really elegant, really simple. And what I'm trying to do is to essentially say, the body doesn't really matter so much in this picture. It's almost gonna fade into the background anyway, So I'm not really concerned with what the body is doing as much as the hands and the face. So I'm gonna have the hands in the face pressed up against the glass. In this image, we're gonna play with a bunch of different pieces of texture. One, we're gonna play with the breath so breathing onto the glass and cannot create some sort of distortion. We'll play with water droplets on the glass, maybe some syrup on the glass and see how far we can take it. To add abstraction to this largely representational Siri's. We talked about representation versus abstraction. Representative art is art where the thing in the image is what it is. Abstract art means that you're taking away those landmark visuals that we associate with objects and we're replacing it with something abstract. So in this case, we're going more abstract. We will see a face, we will see hands. We will recognize that there's a barrier. But I want this to be very smooth, very ethereal, and really have the body blend away into the background. So let's see what we can dio. Um, I am going to have Karen come in, if you don't mind toe help Hold this glass up. I I love the texture at the bottom. This looks great. And Karen, why don't you come to this side just because of the lighting? So I have a light over here that I placed, which is just a simple led panel, and it's going to be, uh, just add a little bit of a pop of light from the side, which I think is really helpful for an image like this that doesn't have a lot of depth to it. And in fact, we're cutting some of that depth off with this piece of glass. So that's what I'm going to do with that light. Just making a little bit of a pop. We might even move it around and play with back lighting and see what that looks like. We're just gonna play right now and see how it goes. Because that's the most fun way of creating. I'm gonna get my baseline shot. I'm just gonna back up and get a shot without any materials in the frame or anything like that. And we will see how this looks. So if you wouldn't mind, you can stay. Sitting, however, is comfortable. Just lean with your hands against the glass and then kind of press your face against it. There you go. Perfect. S O okay. Ooh, I love this already. Okay. I'm gonna have you stand up on your knees now, actually, if you can, And what I'm correcting right now is something really simple. Which is that I don't want her body to be is close to the glass as her face and hands. So I'm gonna have you just back your knees up a little bit. Just a little, cause I don't want to fall forward or anything. And then it's gonna be pressed lightly on the glass. Okay, so now we have the body moving away from the glass and the hands coming forward. We're gonna do the same thing with the face so that the faces coming forward as well. And I think that what I want to do instead of having so much of a cheek pressed, I almost just want, like your upper lip pressed on it. So it's just kind of exactly like that. So press and then pulled down just a little. Perfect. Exactly. And then close your eyes for this one, I think. Great. Alright, so that's our first test shot. And I'm leaving my settings the same that they were from my last shots, which are 2 50 for my shutter speed F 4.0, and s 0 12 50. So nothing needs to change. It looks really awesome as it is. And let's just play with Cem. Pose right now to see what kind of pose we like before we add all these other weird elements to the shot that might get a little bit sticky, literally and figuratively. So I'm going to have you do that one more time and maybe just spread your hands in a different way. That's right. And what I'm doing here is I'm creating a sense of shape. Instead of everything being right in a line on the glass, we're gonna move the hands and we can probably play with that a few different times. Just moving the hands, even mawr. Dramatically pressing versus having soft hands. And we'll just see what looks good to start. So let's do a few different things like that. Great. And I am at a bad angle. So there we go. We're going to play with hands in a different position for the shot. So instead of creating one straight line of the head in the hands, we're gonna try to move them at different heights so that it creates new shapes and gives more visual interest to what is otherwise a very simple shot. So we're gonna have the hand staggered. We're gonna try hard hands, really pressed and some soft hands with just fingertips to see how all of that looks, because it's going to evoke different emotions. So let's give that a try whenever you're ready. Good. Awesome. Oh, I love it. Okay, let's try, um, like, really pressing. I know that you're there. You go. Awesome. Fantastic. Okay, Now let's try, um, let's try opening your mouth slightly and just breathing out onto the glass and we'll see if we can get a little bit of ah oh yeah, perfect. It's like it's the subtle little things. And I'm so excited about this because I know that this is what makes something connect to an audience when you have an image like this and there's that little detail that you could just feel it makes all the difference. Like somebody is going to look at this and see that detail and know what it feels like. Toe, exhale that breath and and you know that feeling so it creates more connection. So that was super exciting to me. Thio Just to get that shot because it adds abstraction and it adds connection. Um, and it looks so beautiful. So I really like that. Now we're going to try a couple more. Can you back up even further from the glass? Great. And again, I don't want you to fall, so let me know if you're too far okay and we'll have you. Let's just do one hand this time, actually, and you can bring the other one. Maybe just like around your stomach around your ribs. Exactly like that? Yeah. And then if you compress your face against it, do But are you too far, okay? Yeah, Let's go for that. Perfect. Oh, I love that. That's really beautiful. So now let's try to add some angle with your face. And can you turn your head that way slightly? Oh, yeah, that's perfect. And then a good exhale out. Perfect. Got that? Okay, great. So I think that we have enough shots to test here and these air looking awesome. So I'm going to try the water first. We'll try some water and see how that looks on it. So it's almost like this rainy barrier. And after that, we might try some syrup. Ben, who knows where this is going to go because we're playing. And it should be playtime, huh? Yeah, So I'm just gonna add the water, and right now I'm doing this light mist, but I wanna make sure to get some spots where it's gonna drip like that. There we go. And this is right about where her face will be. So I wanna make sure that's the most distorted part of the shot because the rest doesn't matter so much. It really just matters where she is. Okay, let's try that, and we'll do the same thing. Um What? Yeah. 02 hands again. I think that's good. Yeah. Okay, let's see if I can even see the water, which I think I can. Okay, I'm gonna take a look at that test shot to make sure that it's coming through. Oh, it totally is. And it looks even more abstract. So this is This is where what I want to do with the shot is the first shots were really beautiful, but not super abstract. But now that we've added the water wherever it's really cloudy, that's adding that sort of blur where it's dripping. It's adding this really creepy Dexter, do it. So I love that. And the addition of syrup is going to do that, but almost make it permanent. So where every but the syrup, the syrup is not coming off. That's why I'm gonna wait on that element of it. I also might want to try some clay. Just try some like hand prints on the glass to see how that goes to. So there are a lot of things that we could do right now to make this even more fun. I'm going to take the spray bottle and sprayed on the other side so that when she presses against it, it's really gonna smear the water there, too. So let's see. Okay, Okay. Oh, and it's really interesting because the backlight that we've added is doing even more now for the shot because there's water for it. Thio work through, and so that's making it stand out even more so. I really like this back light and I am going to change it soon. So we get a true backlight and not a sidelight. We'll just see how it looks both ways, Okay? Oh, yes. You know, we could see the fingerprints. Do you see how it's really coming through? Because it's wet now. And, you know, I just had an idea. Go ahead and move back with your head because this is a really interesting shot here where we've got just the hands and then the faces obscured in the background. So I'll just take a quick shot like that because I think that's super interesting. So