EXPLORING SPACE IN PHOTO SERIES’

I often do photoshoots outside of school for fun and jobs. So I wanted to challenge myself for this photo series.

Recently, I had been creating many 360° images for a client’s online store. Like these. I did this by placing a product on a motorized turntable and taking 36 images every 10° rotation. These 36 images can then be stitched together to create the illusion of a 360° image of the product.

I have been doing portrait photography for a few months now so I thought why wouldn’t this work with a person? In theory taking 36 images of anything every 10° could be stitched together to do the same thing. But how would I do that with a person?

To take 36 pictures equidistant around a person from a center point, I would use a string, a protractor and wooden steak. I had a friend’s help to mark 36 toothpicks every 10° around the subject where I would place my tripod and camera. I found it interesting due to the nature of the way the photos would be viewed it would be possible for things to be revealed while the audience revolves around the subject. For this photo series project I thought it would be fun to do a scene for halloween.

ATTEMPT #1

For my first attempt I just wanted to see if the concept would work at all. I reached out to a model, Paige and we went to Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown to shoot. Paige was super helpful and we took some pictures around the gardens along before attempting the 360° image. After we marked the spots with the toothpicks I found difficulty fitting my tripod in the small space because we had marked too close to the bushes. I ended up trying to change the elevation of the camera from low to high (behind her) to low again as the camera came back around. I did this by hand without the tripod. I also used a 9.0 f-stop to make everywhere in the scene more visible instead of blurry various depths.

This is how it looks put together.

Overall, it looks okay and the concept would prove to work with a portrait; however next time I would be more strict with the camera’s height placement so the rotation would appear smoother.

ATTEMPT #2

For my second attempt, I dragged my friends to Rock Creek Park. I had a vision for a scary scene that would be revealed as it was rotated. I used a very low angle to limit the perspective of the viewer.

Here’s how it turned out.

This time the camera was strictly placed at the same height; however, I regret doing a couple of things. First, I used a shallow depth of field to prevent the picture from appearing too dark and for cinematic effect. I think it interrupted the effect of moving around a scene. Second, I used a longer radius from the center of the scene than last time. Without a centered subject like last time it is difficult to tell it’s the same scene.

Overall, my second attempt was more inspired by the idea of covering an entire scene in a series the way a 360° image would.

ATTEMPT #3

This time, I decided to explore what could be revealed in space when the camera travels in one direction instead of around a subject. I also tried to connect this series to the previous ones.

Here’s how it turned out.