On Thursday the 3rd of November, Harlow College held the first opening evening out of three for the upcoming students who will hope to attend college next year. Within our department we had set up in the large main studio, small side studio, darkroom and J127 classroom.
I based myself in the large studio however had visited each of the setups at one point in the night. In the main studio we had two photography set ups, As you walk in the first camera setup you saw was for portraits, where I had posed for a couple shots whilst Katy or Jess took the photo to help demonstrate to the visitors what a shoot consisted of. There was a chair placed in front of a black background where the model would be sat. To light up this shot we had a soft box to make the lighting soft and have no harsh edges. This was attached to the hot shoot to the camera which triggered the flash. Around the other side of the curtain was the still life shoot setup, Melissa had taken control on this shoot and allowed any of the visitors to have the chance of taking their own photo of the fruit on the DSLR camera. She then continued to explain the course and answer any questions that the parents wanted to know. The fruit was placed on a board on the white table to be shot in front of a white background. To light this shot we used two soft boxes either side of the table to make the shots soft and we also had a hard light to light the background to make it pure white in the final shot. The visitors were able to see this for themselves when taking that photo.
The things that went well for me during this night was I was able to engage with the future students and parents and show them what sort of thing us photography students get up to in shoots with do in college. Along with everyone else I was able to demonstrate what we do in the shoot and answer any questions the visitors had that would help them decide whether or not this course was for them. The negatives that occurred in the night were thing like the portrait shoot setup, it was abandoned due to students getting fed up or bored. I think that the set up should be different for the next open day so that not only the visitors are engaged but the photography student that attend college are too. The studio became overcrowded and i know for sure that other photography locations weren’t as busy and could take up some other students, for example the darkroom had no one in it at all. For the next open evening we could maybe try and have a practical going on in the darkroom.
Overall, I think the open evening was successful as everyone did what they were assigned to and made sure they gave a great variety of answers when asked questions by the parents. The parents and students were able to experience a College photo shoot and understand what goes on in college and what the course will bring to their child’s life.
Rachel Jacob 