Would you like a bag with that?

Over the last few weeks I have struggled with a creative block, I was struggling to get models and couldn’t come up with anything work. After becoming frustrated with my creative block I called upon a friend who is a fashion student at the same University as me and we conducted a spontaneous shoot to try and get some ideas flowing. For this shoot I used my own Canon 600D and Yongnuo Speedlite III, we decided to shoot inside as the weather was bad outside which instantly limited our light source. I let her pick out an outfit and we got to work. At first we were shooting with her positioned on the bed as she had a blanket and cushions that matched the outfit. However, she was sinking in to the bed and it didn’t look right. I also noticed that the Speedlite was creating a rabbit in the headlights kind of look and the light was too harsh in the models face. Due to lack of lighting I couldn’t rotate the flash like I had done before and I also didn’t have any diffusers so I tried tying a white carrier bag over the flash to act as a diffuser. This worked really well in softening the light and it also triggered my next idea. I decided to use an orange carrier bag to tie over the flash to create an orangey sepia type effect that matched the models top and the blanket. From here we just shot her in different positions and it started to work. This triggered a realisation that i don’t need a big idea to start with, I just need to shoot and the ideas will come. That way I’m getting practice so when I want to shoot with a specific result in mind I know what I’m doing.