March’s camera club challenge was One Dominant Colour. The brief sounds simple. In practice it pushed me to think harder about the combination of  location, wardrobe and light than most images I create. 

Finding the Location

I went for a walk around Kenmare scouting for colour and texture. There are more interesting spots just off the main streets than most people realise — peeling paint, weathered timber, industrial doors.
The blue garage door stood out to me, the colour was strong and the texture of the timber planks gave it depth. Blue it was.

The Wardrobe

I called into St Vincent de Paul and spoke to Rita, the manager. Rita is a talented fashion designer who understood the brief immediately. She pulled together a full blue outfit from the rails. Hat, jacket, skirt, everything. The gold buttons were the one deliberate break from the dominant colour — just enough contrast to anchor the eye without pulling away from the blue.

The Model

Diana. Despite the rain, completely professional and utterly committed to the concept. The shoot wouldn’t have worked without her. Thanks Diana!

The Technical Approach

I wanted to kill off as much ambient light as possible to control the image — but not completely. The vibrancy of the door needed some ambient to breathe, so I settled on 1/50s, f/18, ISO 100.
That let enough light in to saturate the blue of the door while keeping the overall exposure dark enough to work with the strobe. A single Godox AD100 Pro on a boom arm, positioned above and to the left, pointing down at full power from close range. That gave me the separation between Diana and the door — without it she’d have dissolved into the background entirely.

The Rotation

I wanted to make the image more than a fashion photograph. Turning the camera 90 degrees and having Diana lie along the wall was a deliberate attempt to shift the viewer’s read of the image — to make them look twice, to move away from the expected. The title Mannequin came from the same instinct. Not to make anyone uncomfortable — just to change things slightly.

How long did it take?
Set up & Planning – 60 mins, Shooting  10 mins. Edit 5 mins

Kit Used

One Godox AD100 heads (Maximum Power)
Nikon Z8

View this month’s full club showcase on the Kenmare Camera Club Flickr page.

Next Month

The April challenge is on…
‘Open Category’  — a panel of images that sit together. No brief, no constraints. Watch this space.