A Taste of Italy
This has been my favorite project/assignment/homework that I have ever done, and I don't think I've ever
put in this much effort into anything I've done for school. I had so much fun with this project. I really
enjoyed the creative aspect of the assignment. Throughout this process I learned that I am not very good atreading directions. I think I get too excited and just want to go-go-go, and forget to actually slow down.
First issue I ran into this was my original idea was to do a can of strawberry juice, laying down in an acrylic
tray, with water and strawberries, but then I realized it needed to be a bottle, since bottles are harder to
light. One of my big artistic inspirations is vintage advertising, so I decided to start there for inspiration and
work backwards. I knew I wanted to do something involving alcohol, but quickly realized I didn't feel
connected or inspired to anything like vodka, whiskey, etc. However, I do have a signature drink 😊 I
started with the Aperol Spritz inspiration, and just planned on working the bottle in later. I got lots of
inspiration from pinterest, checked out equipment from Colin, and drove around town to get my supplies. I
got a wine glass from World Market, oranges from Trader Joes, aperol and a pre mixed spritz from total
wine, fabric from Joanns (BTW, they're having a liquidation sale soon at the South Hill location, so might be
a good place to get cheap fabric!) and palms and fake ice from Michael's. That night, I was up until 2 am
playing around with everything until I got what I thought looked good. Unfortunately, I would need to get a
steamer, poster board (I'm just now realizing that this occurred starting day 2 of a new Adderall
treatment... which actually explains so much. I have leveled out now. I think.) I got my supplies, fixed my
shot, and sent it to Jacqueline who actually paid attention to the demo, and was prepared in class, and she
advised me on how harsh my lighting was. This sent me into a spiral. I watched so many youtube videos,
and they kept saying to diffuse the light source. Up until this point, I had a very loose concept of the inverse
square law, and when I say loose, I mean I knew that it existed, and it had to do with light. With that being
said... I thought that adding diffusion to the light source could be done by holding poster board up TO the
softbox and grid. I was wrong. I watched one more youtube video, that explained that explained using
scrims (don't quote me on that). For some reason that's when it clicked. If I create distance between the
light source and whatever the diffuser is, it will soften the light. I think that I "knew" that, like I could
regurgitate it back if asked, but I did not comprehend it. So, after more playing around and some redneck
engineering, I somehow taped posterboard (I'm not sure how or why I used posterboard. This entire
weekend is actually a blur to me) onto wooden sticks that help secure sliding glass doors, and was able to
diffuse the lights.
If I were to shoot this again, which hopefully I will reshoot but alcohol is expensive and I'm too much of a
perfectionist to try to use soda water and food coloring (which I did buy just in case the premixed drink
went flat, I would only use two lights, not whatever the hell I was doing. I would also either be sure to check
out diffusion supplies from the school or invest in diffusion paper. I do now have white fabric. I have also
tried garbage bags, they have a hue, and paper towels taped together in a big sheet. And probably just
everything else. Not be at home, alone, in the middle of the night on adderall.Overall, I do think that this was a really good learning experience for me, and I feel a lot more confident in
my problem solving skills as a photographer. I also truly gained a better understanding of lighting. It's really
easy to overcomplicate it, but it's also fun to challenge yourself.
With Love,
Hana
