"Fleeting Perspectives: A Paper Ballet" Part 5

BACKDROPS

Shooting the backdrops are the next exciting step to this paper project puzzle I've been working on this year. A lot of prep work but I know the results will be well worth the effort. In camera, on the spot results make working so much quicker than the way I used to shoot with Polaroids. Shooting my Nikon D800 in live mode gives me the opportunity view the set up and frame the shot, making set up time minimal.

8 set ups with 4 frontispieces and 4 backdrops. It would also be a good time to shoot the 8 shadows that I will eventually cast about the dancers but I haven't picked them out yet. I will decide on the objects at a later date, once I have placed the dancers into the backdrops. Shooting them on a plain white backdrop in the box, I surmise I will play around with the forms the shadows make in juxtaposition to the dancers in post production. But at hand is the process of photographing the backdrops and making a final selection.

I start with the spiral ground to minimize tape ripping the background paper. My first encounter with the set is finding out the frontispiece of the single layer of clouds against the cardboard isn't wide enough. Tape to the rescue! Good old Gaffers tape...

Testing the lights to see what kind of mood I wanted to create of course took the longest time to dial in. I knew cutting out the top of the box was essential when it came time to lighting the set!

On to the next set up with the all around cloud frontispiece. Didn't account for light coming through the paper and blocked out by the cardboard trim but I like the results, so will keep it in the shot. How exciting to see this become a reality after all these months of preparation!

Shot spiral in overall cloud at two different angles, one higher and one lower. Thought I might shoot them at an angle but decided against going down yet another road and stuck to my original layout. Will keep this set if I want to explore this idea further in the future. There are endless combinations and the idea of creating this paper world from scratch is filling my ticket!

Sorry orange nail polish streak fans! They aren't showing up that well but I can faintly see them on the sides of the box.

Next up, applying the checkered ground to the cloud frontispiece. Shot the checkered ground with lower clouds at a lower angle to give the dancers some space to exist in. Decided to shoot the checkered ground with feather frontispiece at a higher angle for the same reason.

Then a thought hit me.  Why don't I also shoot the spiral ground with the feathered frontispiece. It's only film... errr I mean data! And if that is the case, why don't I shoot the waves with it as well? It's already set up to go...

In the end, deviating from my original shot list doubled up the image list but I ended up not shooting one set up because I felt at the time that the waves got lost in the checkered ground.

I'm still not sure whether I want the original set of 8 combinations or the expanded sequence of 16 images yet. I will start working on processing the dancers into the backdrops with the 8 original layouts and see how it looks. Then I will make my final decision.

Now on to the square background with waves, feather, clouds and checkered frontispieces. I was messing around trying to line up the square on the triangles for a good 20 minutes before I realized I had the triangles on upside down! I took the entire set apart and placed the 3 paper pieces into the set while laying on the floor.

Of course there is something sticky on the square so I went to erase it with my favorite but unfortunately black eraser and smeared. A nice big black line on a completely white set!  Oh well... whiteout to the rescue - photoshop in post-production.

What can I say? It's a different era I'm shooting in and these additional tools are at my disposal. Just another tool but am thrilled to have them at my fingertips!

I decided on set to double the waves up, as they created an interesting pattern. Their interesting and graphic effect was much more powerful than a single row, which allowed for too much light to bleed through. I find that it is best to go with these happy accidents and embrace them without being too rigid with my initial ideas. How would I know they would look so beautiful until I lit the set?

I end up having to peel up the back lip of the cardboard box to allow more light against the white on white backdrop. I have to place my black eraser against the back of the box in order to focus, as there is so much white, I can barely see my edges!

Now on to the feathered edge. I'm going to go for front focus on the feathered edge frontispiece just at the edge before it begins to focus on the back ground.

Even turning off the front lights all together for a black foreground creates a whole new mood that I begin to explore and apply to each set up. All of which now begins to be shot at a lower angle to create more space for the dancers to eventually explore and occupy in the final presentation.

The circle with the clouds in gray, black and white looks like a sunrise in the sky. The circle with the undulating waves looks like a moon over the water. The overall cloud frontispiece with focus on the background circle will make for a dramatic closeup.

I ended up shooting the cloud upside down in 2 sets, which cut out more light making for a more dramatic lighting, this time with the focus on the background.

And here are the results, minus of course the checkered ground and double waves...

The possibilities are endless as I end up playing for hours and hours with paper and light...

Julie Pavlowski Green
September 21, 2013