For the 2014-2015 Carillon Yearbook we took on an ambitious challenge for our theme pages.
Foster Westover '16 in the Student Life Division Spread for The Carillon 2014-2015 yearbook.
The Problem
Last year we were faced with the problem of what to do for interrupter spreads for the yearbook. We needed a fun and eye-catching way to express the individual while also representing each section of the book in a more general way. We started by looking for some inspiration.
The Solution
One image stuck with us by Toni López and Zara Castellanos from Barcelona, Spain who made a series of posters in 2014. In order to make it our own we looked at popular events like color runs and Holi, eventually deciding to give each interrupter its own color. This also worked well with our year's design rules giving colored elements within each section specific to the section.
The original photo that inspired the interrupter. by Toni López and Zara Castellanos
Shooting
Using two strobes with soft boxes and a dark gray backdrop we shot our opening spread photo first. We ended up scrapping the strobes and using overhead florescent lights instead because they already diffused very nicely. Additionally, we used an air compressor with a home made compressed air gun made out of PVC and pipe fittings to launch the powder.
The edited opening spread image. Note the tissue flying by the model's left arm used to create pressure in the compressed air gun. 85 mm, ƒ/3.5 1/800 ISO6400
The most difficult part of the process was getting the powder from the hand clap to spread in an appealing way. That came down to plenty of trial and error.
The next step was organizing the interrupters. That meant first choosing representatives from each division, then figuring out their pose and props to make their section clear. Actual shoots were using backdrops outside in shaded areas to keep the light diffused nicely.
Editing
Because of both how inconsistent the compressed air gun fired powder and how little of a cloud I was able to get I ran into problems quickly. I just wasn't getting the big bold cloud we wanted bouncing off the model's shoulders. To remedy this I took over a hundred shots for each shoot both firing the air gun and throwing powder by hand and I composited them in Adobe Photoshop after adjusting levels in Adobe Lightroom.
To help show what this process was like here is a sped up version of one of the five shoot composites.
The Results
One of five divisions shot for the 2014-2015 Carillon Yearbook. Student Life. 50mm, ƒ/5.6 1/1600 ISO1250
One of five divisions shot for the 2014-2015 Carillon Yearbook. Athletics. 85mm, ƒ/4 1/2000 ISO200
This book was an absolute blast to make and I can't wait until release day the 11th of September. Hope you enjoy it!