Turning Setbacks into Setups: Learning and Growing from a Challenging Photoshoot

 I had such high hopes for this photoshoot. Since last quarter I had been daydreaming about this production day. 

The model had purchased this dress and was excited to do another photoshoot with me. I saw the dress on her and the inspiration came instantly. I envisioned a gothic Victorian photo. Fast forward to a week before the shoot. I had the date and time set, the flowers picked out and scheduled to be arranged, I had my assistant on deck, and a lighting plan in place. I had come across a photographer on IG who likes to shoot in a soft skin mode with her mirrorless camera and I love the way the photos come out. I don't have access to that technology yet, but I figured if I played with the lighting, I could research some editing techniques and learn something new and fun. I have worked with this model before and have come up with some fun fantasy photos (example below), so the bar was already set.

The night before the production I was helping my mother, a talented florist who owns her business, arrange the flowers she personally chose. I was excited and nervous, the feeling you get the night before Christmas morning, I always get that feeling before a photoshoot and I've learned to embrace it, it's because I care. Everything seem to be in place and ready to go. Fast forward to me showing up to my location and finding out my assistant had double booked and wouldn't be able to help me until two hours after my shoot was to begin. Queue the panic...The shoot did not go as planned at all. I became overwhelmed, I rushed, I didn't think clearly, and I pushed my model to the point of her tapping out because her feet hurt so much. At this point, I thought to myself, "well, I have a lot of options and everything I need to put this photo together, it's fine." Come time for postproduction and I realized that there were several mistakes I made throughout the production and there really wasn't much for me to work with. After 6 hours of sitting in front of my computer, I decided it was time to take a break and walk away. In all honesty, I cried for 2 hours following. I was angry, frustrated, and had no desire to go back to edit the image any time soon. 

Fast-forward to the day of class critiques, my photo was brought on the screen for all to see and I explained all that had failed that day, how I failed that day, and that the photo as is, is not a representation of my work. My teacher went over a few options for editing in color and as he continued to play with the photo, he then added a black and white adjustment layer and said, "Have you thought about editing the photo as a black and white?" Nope, the concept hadn't even crossed my mind. There was hope yet. As I've shown above, the edits on the photo were where I left off frustrated and then inspired with the black and white adjustment layer. I have not edited any more than that, but I at least have plans to come back to it. My anger is no longer there, and my curiosity has returned.  

When you feel like you have failed with a photo, find the courage to show it to someone in the photography community and ask for help, ask for feedback, ask what they would do and become inspired again. It's perfectly fine to take a break from a project but make sure to come back to it down the road, something will change in the meantime.