Each year the Antonelli Institute of Graphic Design & Photography holds a huge student photography competition. This year, second-year student Lauren Driscoll walked away with a Sunset Print Award for her lemony-fresh commercial product shot entitled, well, Lemon Fresh.
And fresh it is, especially for Driscoll, who won for a type of photography outside her comfort zone. Her forte is fashion and portraiture, as you can see from her portfolio when you click here, but Driscoll doesn’t feel as comfortable with commercial photography.
Each student can place two prints that they print and mat themselves into each category, which includes landscape, photojournalism, commercial, editorial, fashion, portraiture and others. From there, the faculty judges narrow it down to the top 12 in each category. Those 12 are then judged by outside professionals that include local photographers and alumni, who rank them and then pick best of show, which was Driscoll’s Sunset Print Award winner.
For her award-winning commercial capture Driscoll says, “I laid everything out and tilted the bottles to give it a more fun and playful look. Shooting down on an object is more unique and eye-catching, so you tend to look at it longer because of the different angle. I’m into a rustic, organic feel with my photography, which is why I used that wooden background.”
For the lighting Driscoll used a strip box modifier reflected off a piece of white foam board leaning against the wall, which bounced the light to the other side the way she wanted it.
“My teachers always say to work smarter, not harder. I wanted to get the most out of that light before I had to bring in another one and I liked the look it gave,” she says. “During processing I did very little work to the image: I bumped up the contrast, enhanced the yellow so it popped more and took out some random dust and dirt spots. I really didn’t want to change it too much from its raw form.”
After she graduates from the Antonelli Institute, Driscoll plans to assist wedding photographers for on-the-job training, while doing freelance photography on the side. “My dream is to have my own studio,” she says, and it looks like she’s well on her way to realizing that dream.
