Throughout this project I have made use of new ideas, methods and techniques to create my final piece. These have been a further use of editing, a look into colour theory and semiotic analysis and overcoming various challenges throughout.
To start this project, we were looking at various lighting techniques, such as harsh lighting, uplighting and casting shadows. We did some general experimentation with these aswell as some work in the studio trying to figure out how they worked. My experimentation also led me to figure out that I can use multiple lighting techniques at the same time by utilising multiple models. I took one of these pictures into the darkroom to see what I could do with it. After some attempts including solarisation, I decided that darkroom would not work for advertising, so I would not be using it.
As I said in my specialist industry practice research, I was planning on developing a method known as “Cloud Tanking” which utilises a water tank and a coloured liquid that is denser than water to create a cloud. This effect is called cloud tanking because the origins come from the 1977 Alfred Hitchcock classic “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” where the rolling clouds in the background of a scene were created with the use of half salt water and half fresh water in a fish tank. Liquid ink was then injected into the tank to create the rolling clouds.
This type of advertising photography has been virtually perfected by artists such as Mark Mawson, who is likely the most well known aqueous photographer in the world, working with brands such as Gap, Starbucks and Nespresso. His technique for this first came around when he was pouring milk into his morning coffee and he liked the way that the milk spread out in the coffee.
However, I soon found another thing that I could do to link to fear while still being able to develop a more broad set of skills for my specialism. The answer was Halloween advertising, bridging the gap between fear, advertising and seasonal convenience. Because we started this project in September and we are finishing in October, this means that I have very easy access to seasonal items such as pumpkins, Halloween products and various other memorabilia.
I set out researching the different types of Halloween advertisements and something that stuck out to me mainly was the colour palette. This palette consisted of strong oranges, vibrant purples and neon greens. I developed a basic palette using some colours taken from various advertisements and used them on a sketch I made in MSPaint. This worked very well and the colours popped just the way I wanted, so I decided that was the way I was going. I then chose my product, a Starbucks Pumpkin Spiced Latte because it creates some easy links between Halloween and makes sense for the season and setting.
After some test shooting, I decided on the lighting for my final shoot and grabbed some props. I prepared 2 cups, one black with pumpkins on it and one standard Starbucks cup. I then carved a pumpkin out with the typical pumpkin smile and got my lighting prepared. I managed to complete the shoot and everything went well.
After I was done, I took some time to compile various fonts I could use and got some help from an AI called Claude to figure out a tagline for the advertisement. After this, I was finished.
This project was a lot of fun and working out some of the issues I came across were challenging, but enjoyable. I think I produced a good final product and was able to utilise the studio and other resources in an effective manner.