Lockdown ballads

I’ve recently had a serious craving to create something in my photography. I have been working in a white studio with amateur models for over a year now. As much as I can enjoy my work in the studio, I have developed a series of poses depending on the demographic and run through them like a well-rehearsed SNES game. There’s no need to be creative when the result is always the same.

So I turned to one of many Facebook groups for models, makeup artists (MUAs) and photographers alike and found both an aspiring model and an MUA with some free time.

I looked at renting a photography studio for a couple of hours in Manchester but the best prices I could get were around the £70 mark. I somehow came across the Karaoke Lounge K2 as an option which for the room is £6 per person. I managed to convince the lady behind the desk that we weren’t drinking or singing karaoke and that we just wanted to shoot some pictures for a couple of hours. She was surprisingly cool about it so I managed to get the room for £24 for two hours.

Karaoke Sesh

Having seen their site it was apparent that they had a variety of styles and colours in each room which was perfect for experimenting. I had considered taking my studio light with me but I’m glad I changed my mind as the rooms were barely big enough for four people to stand in. A giant light would have been hard to operate and would have washed out all of the background lighting. I had bought some clear coloured A4 plastic to use as gels for my speed-light but after a couple of test shots, I opted against them. Instead, I found that just using the dimly coloured lights emitting from the karaoke walls was enough to give a fun nighttime effect.

The MUA Helena Smythe brought so much to the table, that she made the suggestion that we go for an end-of-the-night look with the model and it really worked. It just made sense and created a beautiful aesthetic. Helena helped guide the model for me and made a great human tripod when it came to holding the speed light for certain shots, the day wouldn’t have been half as successful if it wasn’t for her work.

Doing test shoots like these teaches you a thing or two. I’ll be more careful and operate differently with future creative shoots.