Setting up a Zoom meeting for a photoshoot

During the Coronavirus pandemic we have been forced into an entirely new world of video calls and social media. Zoom has become a household name and has been used for both personal and professional reasons. 

While producing my project, 'Curtains Down' I relied very heavily upon zoom as this was my line to connect with the people I was photographing. I did two test shoots with friends to really consider as to how this project would work. For the first one, I asked the model to join on their phone and I photographed my iPad. Once this shoot was complete, I quickly realised that I needed as much light as possible to produce the best images as that particular shoot was shot in the evening with minimal light inside both of our houses. Next, moving on from this, I set up my final test shoot with another friend and instead asked if we could create the work during the day and instead of using my iPad, I photographed both my computer and TV which Dramatically increased the quality. 

After consulting with many different people, I eventually felt as though I had enough people to be part of the project, in order for it to be successful. 

I liased with my models and ensured we agreed a date and time which suited them best. I then set up individual, scheduled zoom meetings for the models to join, along with asking all of the models to join on the zoom app on their phones as I found that the latest phone cameras are a much better quality than web cams, along with being easier to move around, too.

I do believe that Zoom was in fact the best option for this project as I knew it would be more reliable than other calling platforms as long as myself and the person on the other end of the call kept a stable connection to wifi. I had some hiccups with my wifi but I did expect that. 

Test shoot 1- Megan

Test Shoot 2- Emma