Mood Boards, why I use them

09 Feb Mood Boards, why I use them

Posted at 11:39h in Uncategorized by angelaholmyard 0 Comments

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Inspiration takes on many forms, but when it comes to putting together a concept for a shoot I find it’s always helpful to gather ideas in a mood board first. Recently, I was inspired by two funky necklaces I bought from Value Village but turning these pieces of jewelry into a concept took more than a trip to the thrift sore. Here’s how I came up with the mood board and how the shoot came together.

First, I created my mood board with an app called Canva. This app gives you the ability to add your own photos to a predesigned template. I don’t know about you, but I’m not a graphic designer so this app allows me to skip the hard part and get to putting my ideas together in a super easy manner. *I have no affiliation with this app and I am not sponsored by them.*

Here were the mood boards I came up with:

I start with photographing any elements that I have with me that can bring the idea to life. For me this was the two necklaces. I also do product photography, so it was easy to take some professional studio shots for my products, but a simple phone photo works just as well. Pro tip: Using natural light (e.g. by a brightly lit window) is a great place to photograph items if you don’t have a studio.

With product photos in hand, I then do a bit of research. This involves finding a model or figuring out what look would best complement my idea. I base the makeup and hair look around the model and find looks that complement her face/body shape and hair texture/length. For these two shoots, I found makeup looks online that matched the colour palette I was trying to capture, which was highly influenced by the necklace. For hair, I wanted both looks to have the hair in a pretty updo that would allow the necklace to shine without hair blocking it. Once I found some reference photos of the makeup and hair I wanted, I simply plugged them into the app alongside my product photos to create the mood board.

Mood boards are a great way to conceptualize your ideas and when working in a team they are an invaluable tool to help others visualize what you are thinking. I always leave room for adjustments or further ideas from my team. After all, these are creative projects and I want the full team to be happy with the results.

Here are the photos captured:

First Look – Turquoise Necklace