Planning your photoshootThere is a notable difference in the outcomes you create when going out and and taking shots at random and the ones you create when you have planned your photoshoot. If you know what you would like your photos to look like in advance they will almost always be more successful than if you go out haphazardly taking photos of whatever you see around you. By planning your photographs this will also help the examiner to understand your ideas for the project.
Remember that while you're on your shoot you should be aiming to take anywhere between 15 and 30 photos, and you can't plan for every single shot. A photoshoot plan is more about the overall aim of your photos than meticulously planning how every single one of your 30 photos is going to look.
You can include a host of different information on your plan and they can look a variety of ways a mind map, bullet points with diagrams - it completely depends on your working style and how organised you want to be before your shoot. The most important thing you have to include is notes on what you plan to do and a few images of how you want your photos to end up looking.
The notes you include could be inspired by these sentence starters: • I will do the photoshoot......(where and when) because...... • The props I will need for this shoot are...... • My model will need to wear...... • The techniques I will use are...... because...... • The lighting will come from...... which will give me a mood of...... • ...... could go wrong because ...... • I will need to ask permission for......
Or you might like to use the 'Photoshoot plan' template which you can download here, or you could make your own template in the style that you like and use it each time.
Generally speaking, you will be graded as follows: Green (grade 1/2) - You have included brief notes about what you plan to do for your photoshoot Amber (grade 3/4) - You have included notes on all of the suggestions provided. You have included some diagram/images to further explain your plan and you have carefully considered the layout of your page. Red (grades 5+) - You have included a wide variety of information and thoughts about your plan, in addition to the suggestions provided. Your thoughts have been categorised and linked together.