Friday, 21 April 2017
Shoot Four (1960s) - Work Record
Plans for the Shoot
This shoot will focus on the 1960s, and will specifically be looking at the make up worn by model Twiggy. Twiggy was a big name in the 1960s and was known for her unique and strange make up, so I will be working at recreating this in my shoot. I will be looking at the work of Barry Lategan throughout conducting this shoot, as he was the photographer who captured some of the most famous portraits of Twiggy. This shoot will have more colour in than my previous shoots, and I will try to create a cool toned effect in order to achieve the vintage feeling I am looking for.
What I Actually Achieved
I feel that this shoot is possibly my most successful so far as I was able to capture exactly what I was looking for, both during the shoot and also in photoshop. At the beginning of the shoot, I did encounter some problems with exposure that I did during the last shoot. However, I was quickly able to find a solution and was able to get the right amount of exposure that I wanted. I feel that I successfully recreated a typical make up look that Twiggy would wear as I was constantly referring back to Barry Lategan's images to ensure that my work was accurate. Below are two images - one I did like and one I didn't.
What I enjoy most about this image is that it is such an extreme close up that it allows the viewer to really see the details in the make up, however it is still far away enough that I was still able to capture glimpses of her hair and her outfit. Whilst there is some contrast between the model and the background, it is not too extreme. This is something I really like about this image as all of my other shoots have had quite extreme contrast, so it makes the images from this shoot stand out against the others.
This image shows an example of where I had problems with exposure. There was too might light coming from the right side of the image, which completely washed her face out and therefore created too much shadow on the left of her face. I also wanted the background to be quite dark to create contrast, but it was very much lit up as a result of the exposure levels. I also was not really a fan of the pose in this image as it did not give a 60s feel that some others did.
What I Am Going to Do Next
My next shoot will focus on the 1990s - specifically the grunge culture. Throughout my shoots, I have mainly focussed on just the models' faces and the make up, even though I have began to put effort into the look as a whole (for example, with their outfits). As a result, I have decided that, in future shoots, I will try and get more long shots of the models' whole outfits as opposed to just their faces as this will help me capture the whole look of the decade instead of just make up. I feel that this will help tie in the whole shoot.
Thursday, 20 April 2017
Shoot Three (1950s) - Work Record
Plans for the Shoot
During this shoot, I will be creating a look that is reflective of the 1950s. I will be focusing more on the rockabilly style of this decade as I want to create a look with dark lips and dark clothing. I will ask my model to have curly hair and wear black clothing with a leather jacket - similar to the iconic outfit that Sandy wears at the end of Grease. As this look is so widely recognised and linked to the 50s, it will help the viewer understand what time the image is supposed to represent. I will be using a beauty dish in this shoot and will shoot against a black background in order to create a lot of depth and contrast. In photoshop, I will add some grain and a gaussian blur to make the image appear old, and I will also make the image black and white as a lot of portraits that I found from the 50s were black and white.
What I Actually Achieved
I really enjoyed the outcome of this shoot and feel that I was successful in achieving what I had hoped to. The use of the beauty dish helped me capture the shadows and depth that I have been lacking in previous shoots, and helps create more contrast as the light was directed towards the face of the model, creating darker shadows in the background. One problem I did find was that, even when using the light meter, my images were slightly over exposed. However, when I researched further into 1950s photography, there was a lot of contrast in the images and so this turned out to be an advantage. I will have to ensure for future shoots that I keep an eye on this as it may not be beneficial for all of my shoots. Below is an image I did like and an image I did not like.
The contrast in this image is extremely strong, which is what I enjoy the most as it helped to draw the most attention towards her face. The fact that the contrasting tones were so high means that her hair slightly blends into the background, which is something that I find very visually pleasing. I also enjoy the framing of this image as I captured the model perfectly in the middle, which helps make her face the focal point of the image as it is perfectly centre. This shoot was certainly influenced by Milton Greene's portraits of Marilyn Monroe, as he often used dark tones in the rest of the image to bring attention towards her face.
This was an image that I did not like. I felt that the way she was slightly smiling at the camera did not work with the overall look as her looks is quite reflective of rebellion, and so I wanted her to have a moody or deadpan expression. Not only this, but I feel that the levels in this image are off as there seems to be a grey cast on her face, which I do not enjoy as it decreases the contrast and prevents her face from popping against the black of the rest of the image.
What I Am Going to Do Next
My next shoot will be focussed on the 1960s. I will be specifically focussing on the look of Twiggy and recreating this as it is such an iconic and universally recognised trend of that decade. To ensure that my images are successful, I will work on getting the levels on exposure right in my images as I do not want them to be too over exposed. I will also look at different poses beforehand and focus more on this as before I have just let the models pose how they want, rather than in a way that someone would have posed at the time/has posed in images from the 60s.
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