I am a portrait photographer with a passion for styling, I love working with color theory and I use my children (somewhat willingly) as models in a lot of my work. However, while homeschooling a ten-year-old and looking after a toddler during lockdowns, getting creative was often limited and I had to think outside the box.
I like to create series that are aesthetically pleasing, and I felt inspired to create some flat lays with my daughter simply using items from around the house. Over a couple of weeks we collected each color on the spectrum and began styling.
I am a big believer in using as little equipment as possible, plus good lighting and styling creates simple but effective imagery. When certain restraints such as lockdowns come into play, that’s when I think we can push ourselves to always remain creative.
01. Choosing colors
I began my first shoot using a full spectrum of colors and organized it so they all blended into each other, very similar to how the color wheel looks. I then thought these would make great individual color images and would work nicely together as an editorial series.
02. Gathering Items
I looked everywhere from my children’s rooms to the kitchen cupboards for items of each specific color. I also used a blanket or towel of the same color underneath the items to create more of even background, leaving a gap in the items for my daughter to lay in.
03. Taking your shot
I set the camera to use high-speed sync so that I could use a faster shutter speed to reduce any motion blur in the images. The bird images shown here were shot at 1/250 sec, f/4, ISO250. After a few minutes wait, a solitary blue tit entered my careful setup to feed.
Read more:
Color photography masterclass: Part 1 (opens in new tab)
(opens in new tab)How to color calibrate your monitor with a Datacolor SpyderX (opens in new tab)
Datacolor SpyderX Elite review (opens in new tab)
The best photography lighting kits in 2021: for studio, location and video (opens in new tab)
