We set this photoshoot up for my own birthday. A few weeks in advance I created a guidebook for how a close group of friends would play together to create "The Shot".
Yes there were some creative guidelines, but the overall goal was to create an environment where we could all play together to create an image that felt like "The Shot". We wanted to chase down the feeling of working together to create art rather than chasing down a particular style or result.
We set up a small space with a white backdrop, an off-camera flash that was pointed upwards using the whole room as a bounce. In addition my camera was connected to an iPad using Capture One so others in the room could see the resultant images live as we were shooting them. This was an important setup because there were 3 friends holding small multicolored LED lights to add the pop of color to the images.
"The Shot" came from a Fujifilm X-T5 paired with a 35mm 1.4R and a glimmer glass diffusion filter. F 2.8 with a 1/8 exposure where I panned the camera (to get the light streaks) and fired off a rear curtain flash sync (to get the detail of the subject).
Colors were lightly modified and adjusted in Capture One.