Practical Photography

As many of you know I love experimenting with light and shadows and often take props in to the studio to achieve these effects.

For my Shakespeare images I used a projector to create the shadows I wanted, and honeycomb lighting but this was incredibly hard as the lighting from the projector conflicted with my own lighting set up.

Stencils have often been used to create shadows and patterns in photography but everytime I’ve tried this I’ve either ended up with messy, frayed edges or ended up in casualty having stencilled my hand. The end results are never up the the best standard and this effects the composition and the end result.

However recently I found that laser cutting props is a simple and effective way to create the best stencils, also laser cutting means you can create props out of much sturdier materials like wood and metal. It is a much more delicate procedure and you can create really intricate props from your own designs.

Of course my clumsiness prohibits me from even using a pair of safety scissors let alone a powerful laser but at cutting technologies you can get this done professionally and quickly. And from looking at their past work you can create amazing props that can be used again and again.