Setting up a studio in a dorm bathroom is always fun. Turn off the lights, add some glow sticks and you’ve got the front pack for The Daily Tar Heel from Wednesday, Sept. 10.
DTH/Catherine Hemmer
To begin, I duct taped a sheet of black velvet to the wall of my bathroom and set up a tripod. Then, I brought in my models, props and an external flash.
After arranging my friends to look like they were at a party, I turned off the lights in the windowless bathroom and set up my camera to do a longer exposure than usual, around 15 seconds. Once I hit the shutter button, I walked around to the side of my camera and used my external flash to light both models.
Before we started, I instructed my male model to back up into the bathroom stall after I fired the flash once. After he moved out of the frame, my female model moved her arms to look like she was pushing him away, and then I used my external flash again to light up her new position. Once the main subjects of my photos were captured I used a blue glow stick and waved it around my friends to make it look like they were at some kind of rave.
Waiting for the shutter to close again and the screen to light up with each new image was a lot of fun. There was a lot of trial and error involved with making this photo illustration because moving models around in the dark can present some challenges. Oftentimes their arms wouldn't line up or the beer would be out of the frame entirely, for example.
In the end, though, we managed to create a few really cool images to accompany the article about intoxication and consent, “Definitely, Not Maybe,” by Amy Tsai.
To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.
