Preliminary work

Photoshoot - Birthday party

3 days before the shoot/birthday, I was about to send a message to my tutor saying I didn't want to do a birthday shoot because I wouldn't be able to take any photos, even though I liked my ideas and had it all planned out. Everyone knows how it is at a birthday; even when the person tells you, "Yes, I will give you 10-15 minutes to do the shoot," it rarely happens. The birthday started at 5, and even though most people were late, I couldn’t go to the photo shoot because it wasn't dark outside. Then, when it was dark, I got the scare of "let’s cut the cake" because 2 girls had to leave, but I didn’t have any photos, and most of my photos were with the cake. So I rushed the birthday person to take the photos (and it was very hard), but I didn't have a wall where it was dark with nothing on it, so I also had space to move. In the end, we did the photos with a bit of a green light from the exit sign (in my head, I said I would edit it and it wouldn't show as much; it had a more unique effect) as you can see: (for some reason, it doesn't let me post the photos before I edited them, so I will show you the result only).

For this photo, we used regular lighting since it wasn't intended for a dark environment. Initially, her hair was pulled back, but after seeing the photo, she suggested it would look better with her hair in the front. She was very helpful throughout the process. Here, you have both options in color as well as in black and white.

This is a close-up. I experimented with various pictures to create more options, but ultimately, I decided on this photo that I will present to you here.

I also want to point out that there was an exit sign, and you can see a bit of the green background.

This was intended to be a long exposure to capture the smoke, but I used burst mode instead and didn't realize that live mode wouldn't work. By the time I noticed, it was too late. You can see some of the fire movement, but not the smoke, so I tried to adjust the picture and edit it to focus more on the age.

I combined two ideas—the toilet paper roll and the long exposure—and this is the result. Although it wasn't what I initially intended, I actually prefer how it turned out! I thought of the idea there, to take a picture of her pretending to blow out the candles.

I love how this photo came out with her pretending to blow out the candles, even though there's no cake. However, I had a bit of a challenge taking it to avoid capturing my own shadow.

This is how the wedding idea unfolded here: it seems as though the invited guests are all taking pictures of the birthday girl.

What I really like is that you can still see their reaction and this is what I was aiming for.

I really adore this picture because it places her right at the center of attention, which is exactly how one should feel on their birthday.

In this picture, the way the light focuses more on her is quite noticeable, and I really like it because it was a coincidence that she was dressed entirely in white. Taking these photos was challenging because my phone required a 5-second delay to adjust to the outdoor lighting, and the girls were constantly moving. Organizing everything so that everyone was visible while ensuring the lighting looked good was also difficult.

I faced a bit of a challenge with this because I had to position myself in a way that you wouldn't see me in the 1 or 7 with the phone. However, if I took the picture from below, it wouldn't look good because it would appear as if it was taken from a low angle. But I absolutely LOVE THEM!

I edited all my photos in Lightroom and then applied some filters using the iPhone's photo editing feature.

Overall, I was thrilled with how each of the photos turned out, despite my initial stress about not being able to complete them and doing them in a hurry. The Birthday Girl was also very pleased with the outcome and enjoyed being a model.