The Puzzle Shoot

And so I present my latest series of shots and one of my first attempts working with body-paint, thanks to Ani Payne, Helen Coyle and Tanya O’Callaghan (there’s plenty more to come and they get crazier).

This first batch of body-paint shots wasn’t the first paint shoot on my adventure but I couldn’t wait to work on them and get them online. The shoot itself was actually quite tricky but I’m delighted with the results. Ani had the great idea of “jigsaw legs”, so herself and Helen spent hours painting the pieces on Tanya (who quite literally became a walking canvas). But the first test shoot against a black backdrop proved difficult, losing alot of the outline and effect.

We moved location (thanks to Helen for letting me re-arrange her sitting room) and tried shooting against a white blanket instead. Using my 18-135mm zoom lens and brand new SB-800 Speedlight at first, I just wasn’t getting the desired effect.

So I swapped over to a 50mm lens (cheers Ken), allowing me to shoot as low as f1.8. Putting the white blanket over a chair and getting Tanya to lie upside-down meant I could use the white blanket and walls in the sitting room to overexpose the background and burn it out. I have to point out that this was all shot under natural room lighting without the flash!

The new problem was the limited shooting space and very limited depth of focus with the lens. But this was easily worked around with the introduction of a mask and tying Tanya’s legs together, simply shot from severe angles, forcing perspective and throwing the focus to my advantage. I did have to remove door frames and curtains from the background in some shots but overall the background burnout was perfect.

It’s not very often I’m proud of my shots (I’ll always find something wrong and be overly self-critical), but these would definitely go on my short-list of pieces I’m proud of. They are definitely the furthest I’ve stretched out in different photography styles (so far), but there’s a lot more to come. Bordering somewhere between fashion and fetish photography, and it’s also a first to actually involve art and body-paint, once again I have to say a huge thanks to Ani, Tanya and Helen.

I know we’d all really appreciate comments on these shots so please have a look and leave some feedback.