photography course

One of seven videos filmed for chapter one of the course: creative planning. Branding, moodboards, props and backgrounds, positioning guides, shot lists, photoshoot briefs — the groundwork before anyone touches a camera.

It's the hardest chapter to film and the easiest to skip. Nothing in it glints.

The whole thing is a person making an argument, so the job was structural rather than visual: seven short lessons, one idea each, ordered so the reasoning builds instead of piling up.

It's also the chapter that comes up most in student feedback, which suggests the argument landed.

The practice chapter — nine sessions covering necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings and mixed collections, shot on DSLR and iPhone, in direct sunlight and under studio light. This is one of them.

Filming a photographer at work is a coverage problem before it's a creative one. Jewellery reflects everything, so any light or lens in the room can end up inside her shot.

The camera had to sit close enough to read her hands and her settings, far enough back to leave her working, and never in the light she had just set up.

Each session also had to hold together as a lesson. She's explaining while she works, so nothing could be repositioned mid-sentence for a better angle, and every change to the setup had to stay legible from one shot to the next.Twelve to thirty-six minutes each. The length is the lesson.