Shooting Like A Director – Farmers Image of the Week

This image came from one of those shoots that very easily could have gone a completely different way.

I first met Rachna, the make up artist and stylist behind this look, last year at a wedding. Over the year she kept popping up at more weddings I was working at, and we ended up collaborating quite a bit. The more we worked together, the more we started talking about doing something purely creative. No brief, no client expectations, just a chance to try things, push ideas, and enjoy the process again.

We tried to organise something towards the end of last year, but timing never quite worked out. Then at the beginning of March, she reached out again. She had a shoot planned, shared a mood board, and asked if I wanted to be involved.

If I am being honest, my initial reaction was a bit hesitant. The concept did not immediately excite me, and the date was not the most convenient. It felt like one of those situations where you say yes out of politeness rather than excitement.

The references were full of grand Indian architecture. Huge doorways, regal buildings, rich textures. Everything felt expansive, cinematic, almost larger than life. And then I looked at the actual location… a pub in Walsall.

That is when things started to shift.

Rachna was keen for me to be part of it, so I gave the mood board another proper look.

At that point, it would have been easy to just follow the brief loosely and create something “nice”. But that never really leads to anything memorable. So instead, I started thinking about how I could reinterpret the idea rather than replicate it.

I spoke with Eloria Events, who were handling the decor, and that conversation helped unlock things. There were options with draping, textures, and tones that could bring depth into the space. That gave me something to build from.

From there, I created my own version of the mood board. Less about copying what was there, more about pulling out the elements that interested me. Posing that felt strong. Composition that had intent. Lighting that created atmosphere rather than just exposure.

By the time the shoot day came around, I had a much clearer idea of what I wanted to do.

Walking into The Elm & Ivy, the reality of the space hit straight away. It is actually a really nice little room. Clean, soft, and bright, with skylights bringing in loads of natural light. Perfect for events. Not so perfect for what I had in mind.

The light was also constantly changing. Clouds rolling over meant the exposure was shifting every few minutes. It felt unpredictable, and I knew straight away that with four different looks planned, if I relied on it, I would never quite get consistency or control.

So instead of trying to work with the space, I decided to override it. Once I committed to that, everything became simpler.

This was the second look of the day. The first look was a fairly standard beauty setup with a lighter backdrop. The images were nice, but I wanted to push things further.

So for this second look, we moved away from standing poses quite quickly. They looked good, but they felt safe. And safe was not the point of this shoot. I wanted something with presence. Something that felt more deliberate and powerful.

We brought in a chair and an upside down plant pot, and I physically showed Kiran, our model, the pose I had in mind. It is always a slightly awkward moment, hoping the model understands what you are trying to do.

Luckily, she did.

From there, it just flowed. Small adjustments, slight changes in expression, refining the shape. Nothing over complicated, just building on something that already felt strong.

What I like about this image is that it does not feel like it came from the space we were in. There is no sense of “pub function room” in it. Instead, it feels contained, intentional, and a bit cinematic.

And that was really the whole point.

Not to recreate what was on the mood board, but to take the essence of it and build something that still felt like me.

We have all been in situations where we are shooting in less than ideal locations. But there are always opportunities to create something interesting if you take control and think differently.

That is what is so valuable about shoots like this. You get the time and space to experiment, to try ideas, and to figure things out. Something we rarely get the luxury of on a wedding day.