Practise for my Brand Shoot.

For my Brand shoot I was playing with a few Ideas. My first Design Idea is to have a natural look on my model Bizzee. No7's current and most recent campaigns have all been about natural beauty and and bringing out the natural beauty in every woman. This Idea I loved so I chose my sister to model for me as she is 29. No7 always look for models that are above 25 so I thought my sister would be perfect. Not to mention the fact that she is beautiful and has amazing bone structure. 

I moisturised her face first with Embryolisse moisturiser. This moisturiser is great for all skin types and really hydrates the skin and prepares it for makeup application. I also used my Bobbi Brown vitamin enriched face base as this is great for mattifying oily skin. I then applied mac foundation, a mix between NW13 studio fix foundation and Mac face and body N4. This matched perfectly with her skin tone. I then used Nars Concealer in vanilla under the eye and around any areas that were dark or red. I then set this with translucent powder.  I then contoured slightly for a natural look with Benefit Hoola bronzer. I also used my blusher palette from Coastal Scents to add a bit of natural looking pink to the cheeks. I then shaped and filled in the eyebrows and added a mauve colour to the eyelids. Creating shadow in the outer corners and crease. I added a bit of mascara for a soft full look keeping it very natural. I then added a dusty rose pink to my sisters lips lining them with the matching liner. 

I have included the before and after to see the outcome. I love this look on my sister as I think this really suits her and I feel like this would fit with the No7 brand message. However I want the final look to be a bit more powerful so I'm going to experiment a bit more to see what I can create. 

lesson 3 with Chris Overend: Spotlight and Gels

Today in Chris's class we learned how to use spotlight lighting in photoshoots and we also experimented with gels and stencils (Go Bo's) that slotted into the spotlight attachment. Theses would create different effects and shapes in the photograph as you can see in the above images. There were many different ones but we chose the jungle leaf one and also a tree like effect one. I loved how these completely transformed the photo. You could really use these to create the feeling of being some where else. This combined with an exotic makeup design could be really effective.

We placed the boom with the spotlight attached to the light on the boom. We placed it so that the spotlight was about a metre away, hovering over the model and faced the model. This meant that because the spotlight was positioned a bit away from the model, the light stretched and covered more space. The boom light was attached with a sync lead to the camera. The cell switch on the overhead light was switched on. The camera was spaced a metre away from the model.

We also put 2 black boards either side of the model to keep the light in this space. This was also really useful when using the gels, as seen below. We also put a light with a small beauty dish attached  behind our model, almost in view to create flare, whilst using the gels. This gave the feeling of being in a club or party, with bright lights and colours everywhere. I love this look. Chris also breathed into the lens, Which made a huge flair. This looked really cool and showed that if you play with equipment and use it in different ways you can make some really cool effects in photography. 

For the image below we just used the spotlight without the back light. We put the 2 boards closer to the model. This trapped the light and made it brighter and more focused on the models face! This is a great one for makeup advertising, as the skin quality is bright and crisp and luminous. 

I really enjoyed this lesson and feel like I learned a lot. I really want to experiment and push the envelope when it comes to shooting my editorial shoot. I want to challenge myself with something I haven't done before and hopefully the end result will be worth it.

Test shoot for Editorial Pastiche shoot.

So today I had my test shoot. It was important that I tested the makeup, costume, lighting and camera settings to get the exact image I wanted. I had spoken to Chris a month previously about what kind of lighting I wanted and I showed him the photo thats included in my previous design posts. He talked me through what I needed to do. This included creating a light box that creates almost natural day light. Surrounding my model with light. After speaking with Chris I decided to give this a try in my test shoot. 

1. I began with pulling down the white back ground and Putting up the poles to the ceiling. 
2. I then attached the brackets to the poles and attached the large rectangular light reflector. 
3. I then put 2 large reflective boards either side of this. 
4. This was all placed next to the back wall to create a light cove. 
5. I had a tall light over the light reflector with a beauty dish fitted. This was the light source. This light would then reflect off of all of the light reflectors and boards. This was connected by the sync lead (connecting the light flash to the camera). 
6. I set the camera up about a metre away from this. 
7. The computer was next to me and connected to my camera with the tether cable. so that I could change the settings and see what I was doing. 
8. I used a 50mm lens, SD Card, Hot shoe adaptor.
9. Camera setting were: Manual, Daylight, Raw camera image, ISO 100, Aperture 1/160.
10. I altered the aperture if needed to create the brightness I was after but only after changing the light settings either by, turning the power up or down on the over light. 

Outcome and thoughts:

I'm really impressed with how this came out. I love the skin quality and how the white feathers softly blend with the back ground. Its soft and angelic which I love. I will have to see if I can create some contrast between the headdress and the background as this is an important aspect of this shoot. I'm also really pleased with the way the skirt, bra-let and headdress came out. They go so beautifully with the jewellery and I really feel you can really see my design ideas and how they have developed. I'm really excited to see how this shoot comes out and I really feel that this will be a strong photograph to go into my Portfolio. This project has really inspired me to design some new shoots and develop my technical skills in photography. 

Test shoot 2

I came in this morning on a Sunday to do a test shoot with my model Annie and to help assist with her shoot afterwards. I was in a much smaller studio this time so this did affect the lighting set up and also how to photo's came out. I had spoken to Peter O'keefe about my lighting and I showed him my test shoot photo's and he said that I could experiment with the lighting by adding more to light up the white background. This would make the headdress stand out more and create a separation between the white back ground and headdress. So I decided to try this Idea. I didn't make up my model for this  test shoot as it was a quick lighting experiment so I just used the time to play with the lighting. 

I created the same lighting structure but I moved it further away from the background and added some soft boxes facing the background. This was a very small space so It didn't quite work the way it was supposed to but It was a very good experiment and I could see how it would work in a bigger studio. I used the same camera settings as I did in the previous test shoot as I had recorded them to use in these shoots. 

As you can see from the top row of photos I had to adjust the lighting to get it just right. I adjust the power of the flash first and then adjusted the aperture on the camera if needed. 

I love how porcelain and crisp the skin quality is in this light and how you can see everything. The lighting is highlighting different parts of her body and I love the contrast between Annie and the background. This lighting is something I will use in the future for more shoots as I loved the outcome. However I will know for the next time that I will need a bigger studio as this was too small for this large scale set up. I do also want to try this for my final shoot shoot to see how this comes out.  

Final Shoot for Editorial

Today was the day of my final shoot and I had booked the studio from 10-2. I had arrived at 8.30 to set up my makeup in the beauty area. My model Annie arrived at 9 and I began to apply her makeup and style her hair for the shoot. Once I had prepped Annie for the shoot, I then started to set up the studio as the previous people had now left. I had a few problems with the set up, as it was a very busy morning in the studios and there was a lack of equipment. I asked Chris for advice and he advised me to be creative. I really appreciated this as this happens a lot in the industry. Sometimes equipment is forgotten or theres a problem and you have to think on your feet and come up with a new way of getting the same result. Chris talked me through building a structure to use instead of the boom. I then began to build my lighting set up. 

For my final shoot I wanted the lighting to be very light but still crisp enough to see all of my models features and my design detail. I built a light box so that the flash lighting would bounce off every direction. I used The poles and put them in place to hold the light reflector board above my model, using brackets. I tilted this. I then put up 2 white foam boards either side of this structure to keep the light in, and used a white back ground. I also used a foam board to close in the structure. I tilted this and this helped keep the light on my model and fill my images with even light.

http://www.lightingdiagrams.com/Creator

Below I have added a picture that shows my camera settings. I adjusted the flash power on my overhead light on the boom, if the image was too bright or too dark. I also played with the aperture on the camera settings to get the perfect light balance and the colouration I wanted for my image. 

Once I had the right lighting I postitioned my model and began shooting. I played around a lot with the composition and made sure I had a lot of close up's, For this I used a 50mm lens. I also took some full length images, with my model sitting on the ground and also some half body shots. I wanted to make sure I had a lot of variety to choose from and  this was also really good for experimenting with different compositions and making sure the lighting was adjusted accordingly. 

Outcome and Thoughts: 

I definitely found this shoot challenging and I learned a lot about the setup and structure of a shoot. Photography is all about taking risks and experimenting and I find letting go very challenging sometimes. It can be very pressured shooting within tight time frames and managing the set up, the makeup and hair, styling, lighting, photography, and editing all by yourself. This shoot was really important to me as I fell in love with my design idea and really had a specific outcome in mind when I was shooting. I can be quite a slow learner and I can find it hard to hold on to lots of information (especially technical), so this was really hard for me and I did feel like giving up a few times. I'm very glad I pushed through and achieved this outcome. I definitely want to make a concerted effort to be more patient with myself and approach photography in a more open way. I really enjoyed the whole design aspect and feel that I achieved a high end look for my final editorial photographs. I really feel that my final design reflects my research and design development with my chosen word and I am really pleased with how it all came together and definitely feel that my hard work paid off. 

I have picked a few of my favourites, unedited as a sneak peak.