HND Photography Year 2

City of Glasgow College 2015/2016

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Exhibition Questions;

‘Transitions’

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Final Canvases;

Above are the final canvases for the briefs this block that I sent away to Deadly Digital to get printed on Lustre paper. I am happy with my final images especially looking at them all together and I think I have improved compared to last block as I enjoyed the briefs more this block and I think this is why I produced better images. 

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Documentary;

I couldn’t get an actual link to the documentary book that I made so above are screenshots of the pages that I made on Loxley designer which was very straight forward to use. I made it on here as I was short for time and needed fast delivery which only took 4 days and it was cheaper than Blurb. (Image 1, front and back cover)

I feel like should of started this project sooner and put more effort in to it I feel as it was quite personal to me and I feel like I could’ve done better with my images so I may carry on this book in my spare time as I did enjoy doing it and there are so many more things I wanted to show in it which I never got a chance to shoot. All of the images I took for inside the book were shot in my home, some using flash and some just using daylight.

My book was printed 6x6 at Loxley and I was really happy with it when it came as it was just the way I wanted it although some of the photos inside printed a little darker than the way they were shown on my screen. I decided to make my book reading from right to left (although above it’s normal) as that’s the way Iranians read and I thought it would show I had put thought in to the book which I did so I therefore made it this way (incase anyone sees it and thinks I made it backwards, it’s meant to be like that and that’s the reason for it). This was actually more difficult than expected as I had to put page one last and my last page first and then change the images about also as you would be looking at the right page first not the left. (Last image, the front cover of the hard copy of the book when it arrived, taken on my iPhone)

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Metaphor;

I shot this image in the studio sitting the chillies on a still life table which I put paper on so the chillies didn’t make a mess of the actual still life table and so that I could get a completely white clean background. It took me a while to set up the shot as trying to get the chillies positioned in a way that they looked like a skull was quite difficult at first but I got there in the end and was happy with the way it turned out. I used small chillies for the inside of the skull (mouth, nose and eyes) and big chillies for the outline of the skull. I like the red chillies as they really stand out from the background and when you look at them you think spicy.

I used two soft boxes at the left and right of the chillies as seen in Image 3 (taken on my iPhone). I also had to stand up on a chair as I wanted to look down on it so shot from above which I think worked best out of all of the angles I tried to take the photo at. I also used my own Canon camera 5D mark III, 24-70mm lens, a light meter and IR trigger.

I tried playing about with the space when creating my image, having the skull in the middle and to the left, right etc but I found that having it to the bottom left and the white space at the top and right works well as it would give me space to add my metaphor text ‘they are deathly’ in somewhere in this space.

When editing this image I edited one with shadows (Image 2, final) and also one where I took the shadows out (Image 1). I decided to use the one with shadows as my final image as my lecturer said it looked better and I would agree as I think the no shadow one makes it look a bit fake. I firstly done some editing in Photoshop by taking the lines of the paper out and any dirt that was on the paper and I done this using the spot healing tool and clone stamp which I also used to get rid of any imperfections on the chillies. I had to move the chillies on the right ‘eye’ down a little as they were not in line with the ones on the left and I done this by using the rectangular marquee tool then I used the clone stamp and spot healing tool again to get rid of the one underneath it. I increased the brightness and contrast in the image to make it stand out more and I also increased the vibrance and saturation. I then finally opened it in Lightroom to make the background whiter and I done this by increasing the whites and highlights and also fixing the colour temperature slightly.

Although I am aware my metaphor doesn’t really fit the brief as I have been told it didn’t fit under any of the categories really that we were given to chose from which I will learn to read the briefs more clearly in future but I am happy with my final image for this and the way it turned out as it was better than expected.

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Brand Campaign;

When shooting for this brief my original idea changed. The idea I had was to have someone holding a Red Bull can looking happy and the shadow in the background with wings but the wings not on the actual person in the shot. This idea was difficult to get right as I felt like the can was not the main focus no matter how you looked at it, trying to get the shadow, can and person all in the same shot was proven difficult and didn’t seem to be working at all. I then had the idea of facing the model the opposite way from where I was shooting and instead of focusing on the person I would just have the shadow and then I placed the can on a worktop just to the right of the shadow on the background so I could get that in shot as well as the shadow on the background. I found it difficult to get at an angle that the shadow and can were both in shot and both looked good, well lit etc which is why it’s shot slanted but I actually like this and think it adds to the image rather than if it was taken straight. I also like how the Red Bull can is at the foreground of the image so that it is the main focus of the image.

I used a classmate as a model (Rebecca McKay) instead of my original model Ross as this was originally a practice shoot until I decided not to show her face so I decided it did not matter who was wearing the wings as you would not see their face and her shadow worked perfectly with the image I wanted to create and we managed to sellotape the wings that I bought from the pound shop to her back (t-shirt). Although this was very difficult as they kept falling off and then because of the shape of the wings it wasn’t working with the shadow so we had to draw and cut out a paper wing to make the shadow look more like a wing so we then we had to sellotape the paper on the pound shop wings (Image 3, taken on my iPhone). We managed to get there in the end and get some good shots and Rebecca was the perfect model as she was very patient and helpful during the shoot.

I used two lights for this shoot (Image 4, taken on my iPhone) a snoot to the left to light up the wings/model to create the shadow and also a soft box at the right to light up the can which I had to put a cover in front of to give the light a softer feel that I wanted on the can to light it as you can see above (Image 5, taken on my iPhone). I also used my Canon 5D Mark III camera with my 24-70mm lens, an IR trigger and a light meter. 

When editing this image I had to do various different things to it. I firstly had to cut out a Red Bull can image from another shot I had took on the same day as the shadow was good in this image but the can wasn’t lit good where as another shot was where it was just the can and no shadow so therefore I cut this out and pasted it on to this image which worked well. I done this by using the quick selection tool and refining the edges, I lined this up with the original can and it fit perfectly over the top of the old one. I also made the shadow a little darker and done this by decreasing the brightness and increasing the contrast. I used the spot healing tool and the clone stamp to fix any imperfections on the can/background. I also increased the vibrance and saturation to make the Red Bull can stand out more. Finally I had to change the direction of the shadow beneath the can (Image 1) as it was going the wrong way as my lecturer pointed out that it didn’t look right as the shadow in the background is on the left. I fixed this by cloning out the original shadow and adding a drop shadow in which I learned how to do through a YouTube tutorial.>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67W0Xo1sIFE. (Image 2, final)

I think this shot shows the slogan well ‘Red Bull gives you wings’ which I wanted and although it was not my original idea I am really happy with the final idea and image as I think it works well for the brand image and shows the product and brand well.

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Editorial Fashion;

This was one of my favourite shoots in this block as I had a lot of fun with the colours and I love the final images I managed to produce and also I had a brilliant model.

I decided to stick with the studio location using the vibrant colourful jumpers of my own which my model was happy wearing them. While she changed the jumper I also changed background colour various times. I tried to stick to the colour wheel like the one above shown (Image 6, taken from google) but as you can see some of my images are a bit different when comparing them to this as I tried to make them all different although I did end up with two yellow background images which I didn’t notice until the shoot was over and it rather annoyed me although I am happy with the images.

My model Monica Dunbar was amazing as she stepped in at the last minute as I struggled to get a model. I found her through a friend who told me she had done some previous modelling for him before and he recommended her. When I asked she was happy to help and said she had fun after the shoot which I think is always a good thing as you want that when someone is modelling for you and she was also happy with the final images I showed her. I mainly didn’t have to tell her what to do as she was a natural but I did tell her to do some poses and I really like how in all the images I have chosen she is doing something with her hands in them all which is why I chose them as I think they really work well together and show various poses. I also had her wearing subtle eye and lipstick colours as I didn’t really want the make up taking away from the jumpers as I wanted them the main focus of the images and I think this worked well with the shots.

For this shoot I used two lights to light the background which had barn door lighting attachments on them, with my different coloured gels clipped on to them. I also had two reflectors at each side of the background lights to stop any light spill on to the model. I used a large soft box positioned at the front of my model which was originally at the left but was moved around a little then positioned facing the model straight on as I felt this worked better in lighting her face and complimented her features more. I also used my own camera Canon 5D Mark III with my 24-70mm lens, an IR trigger and a light meter.

When narrowing down these images I edited quite a few and then chose from the ones I had edited asking others for their opinion as well and came to the decision of the final five images shown above, Image 5 being my double page spread. I used six different jumpers for this and then released you only had to have five images so I therefore had to take one of those out. I think the images I chose work the best in showing the jumpers well and would work well together when put on canvases. I edited them firstly in Photoshop by using the spot healing tool to take away any imperfections on the skin and background and using the dodge tool to bring out the eyes a little, I also slightly adjusted the brightness and contrast in some of the images to improve them slightly. After doing this I felt as if my images didn’t have that strong feeling about to make them stand out which I wanted as I wanted really vibrant in your face colours so I opened them up in Lightroom and used the adjustments brush tool and I used this to brighten the jumper, background and to adjust the skin tone in each image and this allowed me to manually work with each of these sections individually instead of editing the image as a whole which sometimes doesn’t always work well. When in Lightroom I also slightly adjusted the sharpness in the images to make them a little sharper which worked well and also improved the images.

Overall this shoot worked better than expected and I am really happy with the final results and enjoyed working with my model as she was lovely and helped me produce some good images so hopefully I will use her again in future projects.

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Exhibitions;

First three images are the exhibition questions and answers from the exhibition ‘Wolfgang Tillmans pictures from New World’

Second three images are the exhibition questions and answers from the exhibition ‘Girls and their Mothers’

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Fantasy Fashion;

For my fantasy fashion I originally planned to do it in the necropolis in Glasgow as this is where I done my test shots. I met my model at this location and just as I was about to take the first image I got told to leave as you apparently need a permission slip to shoot there? I therefore had to move location to a place near the necropolis. I found this doorway (as seen above in image 1, 2, 3 and 5) and thought it looked quite nice, it had that kind of grungy look about it which I thought would work well with my witch theme and I think it works with the whole outfit and look.

My model was great as she has done some modelling before, I mainly didn’t have to tell her what to do as she was a natural and I think this shows. The dress fitted her perfectly and her make-up which she done herself (image 6) was perfect for the shoot.

I used flash for this shoot which I had my assistant (Euan Kinloch) hold on a light stand as it was very windy. I did move it around a lot to see which worked best but and turned the brightness up and down but it ended up it was positioned to the left of my model as I wanted quite a harsh dramatic shadow on one side of her face to create tension and drama. I think the lighting gives it quite a dramatic feel and this is exactly what I was aiming for.

I took some shots showing just the face which I actually quite liked (Image 6) but then when it came to the editing process I didn’t know what to do to them to give them that fantasy feel as I did try a few things out to them which didn’t work at all. I thought I would add this Image (6) in to Tumblr anyway just to show a head shot and the make up closely. I really like this image as it shows her make up clearly rather than the far away shots and you can see the hood on the dress better and also the necklace that added to the outfit. I also like the way it is lit with the shadow at the right side of the face giving it that mysterious look on her face and the same with the facial expression. I then felt as if the aim was Fantasy Fashion so the outfit needed to be shown and this would be better to edit and try and make it look fantasy like so I chose the full length image to use as my final. Again I really like the lighting in this image and I was lucky enough to catch her hair blowing in the wind in this shot and I think this really adds to the whole feeling of the photo.

I done quite a bit of editing to this image and especially trying to make it look fantasy like which I really struggled with. Image 1 shows the original image with some editing done to it just using the spot healing tool to take away any blemishes and imperfections on the skin and background. Image 2 then shows I decreased the vibrance and saturation as I thought taking out some colour would work better with the witch theme and my image and feel I was trying to create. I also added a layer that I adjusted the brightness and contrast and I played around with curves as well to try and get the feel I wanted (Image 4 shows all layers on Photoshop for final image). I added a layer that I used the burn tool to darken the hand as it was a little too bright and I also used the dodge tool to brighten the eyes a little to try and make them stand out from the make up and in the photo as a whole. I also opened this image up in Lightroom to sharpen it a little. The 3rd image shows my attempt at the ‘fantasy feel’, I watched a few YouTube tutorials on how to create kind of smoke/mist as I felt this was the only thing I could really add to this image to make it fantasy like. After playing around with this image for a while and watching YouTube tutorials I went to filter>render>clouds and I found this gave a kind of smokey effect even if it is called ‘clouds’. I then went to layer>layer mask>hide all as I painted over my image with a white brush to let some of this ‘smoke’ through (image 3). This didn’t work well as you can see it doesn’t look good. I then tried playing around with the blend modes and found that colour dodge worked well as it gave a weird quite cool dramatic effect on the background as I only painted over the background and not on my actual model which worked out well I thought and that’s what I have used as my final image to try and create a fantasy feel (image 5, final image).

Although I did plan ahead of this shoot I should’ve maybe tried to do something fantasy to one of my test shots to see how it would’ve worked out as I still don’t feel that my image is very fantasy like even though I do like it but that’s the best I could do with this brief with the images and ideas I had as I do really like this image but just unsure if it actually meets the brief?

*Final-Image 5

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Documentary PowerPoint Presentation;

This is my Documentary PowerPoint brief plan.

For this project I have decided to do Iranian culture. I chose this as it’s something close to home as my dad is Iranian and I thought I would have access to many Iranian things. We were told to choose something that interests us and Iranian culture/Iran has always fascinated me as I love listening to the stories my dad tells from when he lived there and I love learning about this culture and I thought this project would give me that opportunity to learn more.

I took the inspiration for this project from Sarah Amy Fishlock as when she came in to the college to talk to us she showed us her project called ‘Middlemen’ which I really liked. This was also about a different culture and how they were bringing traditional things from back home in to this country like the food that they make and she showed this through simple images but they were made interesting which I want to try and do. (Some images shown on slide 3).

I thought this would tell the story of even though my dad lives in this country now and has for many of years he still has all this Iranian stuff from back home and still considers himself as Iranian and I like to think I am half of that too and proud to be. The Iranian stuff that we have in our home I consider as normal as I see it everyday but to others they may find it interesting and I would like to show this through images.

I plan on taking various different images of thing like maybe food, objects, clothes and anything I can find really to do with this culture. I will shoot this from all perspectives to see which works best as I am going in to this project with an open mind to see which works best for me and my images and to see what will help them flow together as I have to keep in mind the photo book I will be creating at the end of this project. I will be experimenting with angles and view points and trying to be creative and maybe abstract with this project.

I may use natural light when shooting this project if it is sunny some days I may try and capture shadows within my images. I could also use flash to make things more dramatic I will see which works best for me I could always do both.

I done a few practice shots which I actually quite liked (Slide 6) but I am struggling a bit on how these images may fit well together so I may have to edit them in terms of image toning or something to help them flow together when making my photo book.

For the photo book I will most likely be ordering it from Blurb (creating in Lightroom) and will probably have about 15/20 images in it depending on how my shooting goes I may have more or less. I also considered having writing under the images but I’m unsure if this will work well or not. I saw a photo book a few weeks ago and it had one image per two pages for example nothing on the left page but one image on the right and this was continuous throughout the book and I liked this idea as you’re only focused on one image at a time and have no distractions surrounding that one image but weather this will work with my photos I will have to wait and see.

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Advertising PowerPoint Presentation;

Metaphor:

This is the other part of my Advertising PowerPoint plan which I presented to my class.

I looked at many metaphor ideas when researching for this brief and originally had the idea of having cigarettes in the shape of a skull but then saw that it had already been done and wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before. So I then started to think about what else I could do in the shape of a skull as I liked this idea and saw the image of the chillies (Image 1). This is the sort of idea I was thinking of but that one was done with chilli flakes and I want to do mine with actual chillies. So I then research some more hoping that it hadn’t been done before and thankfully it hadn’t as I only found this cartoon like image (image 2) which is the kind of idea I was thinking about but just with the shape of the skull made out of chillies.

I was then thinking of a metaphor to fit this idea and thought of something along the lines of ‘they are deathly’? but then I’m unsure if that actually is a metaphor or not? I will be sticking with this idea anyway and then will think of a metaphor to fit my image if the one above is not one which I will find out but I think it is?

When looking at the brief for this project I was unsure if my metaphor idea fit any of the categories but I suppose it could come under Lifestyle ‘desire’ as some people like really spicy food and may like that about the chillies that they are ‘deathly’ so may want them.

I will be purchasing chilies from the supermarket and will get the red ones as they’ll stand out the best on a white background which I intend to do this on. I will also be needing rubber gloves to put on to handle the chillies as I don’t want them going in my eyes or anything and will source these from somewhere which shouldn’t be a problem.

I plan on doing this in the studio with a white background and a soft box light at each side to make it look well lit like an advertising shot. I will have the camera above looking down on the skull made out of chillies which I will try and create myself. I will have them on a white piece of paper which I will purchase and sit this on a still life table in the studio.

When editing this I plan on making the background a clean white if it’s not already and maybe increasing the saturation to make the chillies stand out more from the white background. I will also add in the metaphor probably in red writing to stand out from the white background and to match up with the colour of the chillies.

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Advertising PowerPoint Presentation;

Brand Campaign:

This is the first slide of my Advertising brief plan which I presented to my class.

My idea for this project was going to be done as the advertising metaphor brief but I decided to make it the brand campaign one instead as it is a brand and I came up with a different metaphor and I still want to shoot this idea as I like it.

So my idea after looking at the Red Bull brand photos was having a person in the shot holding a can of Red Bull and a shadow behind them with wings, as their slogan is ‘Red Bull gives you wings’. It will look a bit like image 1 above in slide 2 although with a person. Image 3 also shows a good example of what it will be like, when photoshopped the person will not have the wings on but the shadow in the background will have wings.

I will hopefully source the wings from somewhere or buy them cheap, I’m sure the pound shop will do them as the quality won’t matter as you will only be seeing the shadow of the wings and not the actual product itself. I will also be buying the can of Red Bull from the shops obviously which I’m sure I’ll get from any supermarket.

I plan on doing this in the studio as it will be easier to create the shadow with studio lights as you can get the harshness of the light to create the shadow (snoot lighting attachment possibly). It will also be good as I will have access to the white background which is what I want for this shoot as the background. 

I have a model for this, Ross McClory (he said he doesn’t mind wearing wings) but before getting him in to the studio to do this shoot I plan on doing a test shoot to sort the set up of how I will get the shadow and how the model will be lit and also how the can will be held and just how everything will come together so that when he comes in I am not wasting time, I know the set up and know what I am doing. I plan on getting him to wear just a black t-shirt or something plain to stand out from the background and also make the product stand out.

When editing this image I plan on layering two images together so that the wings are not on the person but they’re on the shadow so I will take two identical images of the person wearing the wings and then not wearing them or I will just photoshop them out on the person as I may be unable to get two identical images if the person has to move to take them off. Someone in the class also suggested photoshopping the shadow in instead of using wings to create it which is also an option if the shadow of the wings doesn’t work. I will maybe use selective colour also just to make the product stand out in the image or enhance the products colours to make it stand out and be the main focus of the image.

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Fantasy Fashion;

Test Shoot:

I originally decided for my Fantasy Fashion shoot the location would be in the Necropolis Cemetery in Glasgow as I wanted the gravestones in the background like in image 1 that I took. But then when I actually took the image I wasn’t really happy with it as it didn’t work as well as I expected it to as you can’t really see the gravestones in the background and can’t really tell the location. I did try and move around to a few locations in the cemetery to get this shot but I still wasn’t happy with any of them. 

Then when walking around the graveyard we found the perfect location (image 2 taken on my phone) which was actually great to go with the witch theme I thought.

I had my model (Rebecca MacKay) stand in front of the gate bit of the building on the steps which I think worked well (image 3, not edited). I would just take in to consideration when shooting the real thing for this I may get my model to go up a few steps as I do feel she is a bit low down in the image now looking back on the test shots and I may also do some full body shots so you can see the feet and the steps in the image.

Image 4 (taken on phone) shows my set up I had for the test shoot which I plan on having this for the real shoot. I had the flash on the right side (held by Euan Kinloch, my assistant) and my model seen in the image standing on the steps of the building.

Image 5 and 6 (taken on phone also) show the settings of the camera and flash that were used on this shoot.

So now with the test shoot done I feel confident about the final shoot, I’m just hoping everything goes to plan especially with the outfit and the weather. 

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Fashion Powerpoint Presentation;

Editorial:

This is the other part of my Fashion PowerPoint plan which I presented to my class.

In this shoot you have to keep something continuous throughout to make the photos look linked so I have therefore chosen to have the theme of bright bold colours like in the images above in slide 2. These images are by Erik Madigan who’s work really inspired me when I saw it as he does quite a few fashion photoshoots where he focuses mainly on bright colours and they really caught my eye so I would like to reproduce images in the same theme he has.

The clothes I have chosen for this shoot are colourful jumpers as looking through the clothes that I have (and my sister) I have a lot of colourful jumpers/tops that I think will work really well for this and I will contrast them with the background, I will use the colour wheel to do this which I will upload a separate picture of as I think this will be interesting and will make my images and the clothes stand out. I will post photos of them from when I do my practice shoot which will hopefully go well and I am hoping the colour ideas work as well as I think they will.

For my practice shoot I will be using a female friend. I am unsure of the final model although it will have to be a female also as the clothes I have are girls clothes. I want to see what I want from this shoot then I will source a model for the look I want to go for as I have a few people in mind this should not be a problem.

I was maybe going to use make up in this shoot to go with the clothes so if the top is red maybe have red lipstick or something like that, I will see how things go on the practice shoot which I may take some make up with me to try out and we shall see how that works together with the clothes.

I will be doing this in the studio as I done lots of research in to places I could do it outside at but unfortunately could not find any colourful locations which I wanted so in the studio I will have access to the colour backdrops and gels which I can use to light to make the backgrounds a different colour. I have the studio booked in for my practice shoot and then from there I will book in my final shoot once I decide my final model and know their availability.

I am unsure how I will light my model and the clothes which is something I will also be deciding at when doing the practice shoot. I want something that compliments the clothes and makes them look good along with making my model look good, most probably a soft box or two to create minimum shadows.

When editing these image I may boost the vibrance and contrast of them as I want them to really stand out and for the colours to be very bright although I don’t want to overly edit them so will do this in a subtle way.

Looking at the brief for this project it asks what these images would be used for (intended market) and I would say my approach would be used for magazine use as I am taking the same sort of approach as my influence Erik Madigan and his photos were used in a magazine. It would also be editorial approach and not advertising as I am not really advertising any sort of clothing or brand.

I am going to be going in to the studio to do a practice shoot before doing the real shoot taking the clothes I wish to use for this shoot with me to see how well they work being photographed and with the backgrounds I want to use. I will be seeing what works best with the background colours I have to work with, I can use the backdrops and also get gels to change the colours of these. I was planning on doing colours opposite from each other on the colour wheel so for example if the colour of the outfit was red I’d have a blue background like image 1 above as these colours contrast each other and I really like this. I will only be focusing on the top half of my model as I am only using tops as part of this fashion project and I will be having her doing different poses so that they are not all the same.

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Fantasy Fashion;

Make-Up:

This is the make up (Image 1) I told my make-up artist I would like who is also my model so she done a test trial of it at home and sent me photos of it which she gave me permission to put on here (Image 2). I think it looks exactly like the photo I sent her so I’m really happy with it and can’t wait to shoot this for my witch fantasy look.

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Fantasy Fashion;

Outfit:

Above (image 1) is the hooded dress I purchased from eBay for my Fashion Fantasy project and the choker (image 2) I also bought from eBay to go with the dress. I am also hoping to buy fishnet tights and get black plain shoes from somewhere or ask the model if she has any as you may not even see the shoes in the shot.

Make-Up:

Image 3 is the kind of make-up I would like for this shoot which I sent my model/make-up artist Shannon Mclean (my model who is also a make-up artist will be doing it herself) who is going to be doing a test trial of this and sending it to me to make sure it’s the kind of thing I want.

Location:

The location I have chosen is The Necropolis cemetery in Glasgow (image 4). I will need to bare in mind that this location is only opened from 8:30am-4:30pm.

*No images above are my own.

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Fashion PowerPoint Presentation;

Fantasy:

This is the first slide of my Fantasy Fashion brief plan which I presented to my class.

My plans for this project is that I want to do a witch theme shoot. I took this influence from when I saw an image by Miss Aniela on her website (http://www.missaniela.com) which is shown above (image 1). I decided on this as it’s something I like and I think it’s quite important to like the idea you come up with to strive you to work on the photograph you want to produce otherwise there would be no point in doing it as you wouldn’t be enjoying creating the image.

I therefore looked in to witch costumes on google, eBay etc and thought of the film ‘Hocus Pocus’ for costume ideas (image 2) which I love and thought I would take the costume type inspiration from this. I did hope to get the outfit either from someone to borrow or maybe rent it from somewhere. I have done more research in to the type of costume I want and I really like the idea of a hooded dress which is different from my original idea of the vintage kind of dresses from the film ‘Hocus Pocus’. This brief is to do with Fashion and I think that’s quite fashionable and it hopefully won’t look cheap which some outfits I saw came across as. I found a black hooded dress on eBay which I liked so I purchased it which didn’t bother me as it wasn’t too expensive and will hopefully be worth it with the image I want to create. I will accessories this up with jewellery which I done some research in to and the pentagram is the ‘sacred symbol of The Witch’ so I thought It’d be nice to have a choker with this symbol on it to go with the outfit. I found one perfect to go with the dress, I bought this on eBay also. I also have a broomstick which I borrowed from a friend which I may use in the shoot to make the witch theme more obvious.

With these ideas of course my model will have to be a female. I found a girl through a friend perfect for what I’m looking to do and she is up for dressing up in this as she is a model and is in to this kind of stuff as well. Her name is Shannon Mclean and she is also a make up artist so will be doing her own make up for the shoot. Unfortunately the dress I purchased I could only get in a size 10-12 so it will probably have to be pinned at the back to make it fit her as she is slim but this should not matter as you won’t be seeing the back of it anyway. The hair of the model will probably be down either curly or straight.

The make up I want to go with this shoot I originally didn’t plan on having any make up only something like lipstick but because my model is a make up artist she will be doing her own make up which is a bonus as it means I don’t need another person. I have gave her an image from google of what I would like which is dark eyes and dark lipstick as I think this will go well with the witch type look and she liked it and said she would try it out at home and send me a photo to make sure it’s what I want (I will upload these images separately along with the costume and location).

The location I was thinking about having my shoot in was a graveyard or a forrest (weather permitted). I done some research in to this and thought the Necropolis Graveyard in Glasgow would be perfect for it.

This brief says you have to use location lighting so I will therefore be using flash and I will be doing this in a way to make the photo look mysterious and almost creepy as that’s the vibes I want to give off to fit in with the witch theme.When doing the post production for this shoot I would like to make it look eery so not have much colour in it, maybe by bringing the saturation down, I may even consider putting it in black and white to give it a dramatic feel.

Before doing this I plan on doing a test shoot at my chosen location to decide on the lighting and pose I want. A friend will be modelling and I will get an assistant to help out to make sure everything goes smoothly. I want to know what kind of image I want to achieve with this shoot before getting my actual model at the location so there is no messing about and wasting time.

[daria--azodi-blog]

‘Paper Movies’ Research Task;

1. What is the significance to us of the ‘Photographic Journey’ in three decades from the 1950’s

- The significance to us would be that the photography industry is changing in the way people take photographs and also the way they look at the things they are going to photograph.

2. Joel Sternfeld is seen using what type of camera? Why would he be using this as opposed to digital?

- He uses a large format 8x10 camera. He seems to know this camera very well as he has probably been using it for a long time so is used to shooting with it and feels more comfortable shooting with this as oppose to digital.

3. Why has Robert Frank’s book ‘The Americans’ had such an impact on modern photography.

What ‘narrative’ is pervasive throughout his book?

- It was ‘One of the foundation stones of modern photography’. The photo book never went down well in America, it was badly received as he was photographing negative real life things people did not want to see and this spoiled peoples perception of having a good life in America as they had always thought. The way the book was laid out was so the viewer was only focused on one image at a time to take in that image with nothing surrounding it.

4. William Klein had one particular photographic outlet for the expression of his photography – How would you describe his attitude to photography?

- He was said to have anarchic energy and he was offensive and aggressive as he tried to provoke situations when photographing, he is fearless. His attitude towards photography is he wings things a lot and thinks accidents are a good thing as that’s where many of his good images have came from. He’s not interested in the image more about the way way it can be framed or cropped, raw material. He won his first camera in a card game at 18 and seems to not have much respect for photography as he was originally an artist. He is a very laid back guy and does not really care about making things look perfect he just wants to capture what is going on.

5. What made Joel Meyerowitz reject Henri Cartier Bresson’s decisive moment concept for his New York Street Photography?

- This was because he thought New York was sizzling with energy, it’s dynamic and full of beautiful possibilities and he wanted to capture this. He likes shooting close to people without them knowing.

6. Iconic NY Street Photographers Garry Winogrand, Diane Arbus & Lee Friedlander oand English Photographer, Tony Ray Jones who was heavily influenced by the above noted the key pointers to being a successful Street Photographer………

Can you list them….

- Be more aggressive. Get involved, talk to people. Stay with the subject. Be patient. Take simpler pictures. Don’t take boring pictures. Get in closer.

7. Why have British ‘street photographers’ gravitated to the beach as an ideal location for their subject matter?

- As this is where the ‘nation reclined and bared its soul’. Here there are family dramas, explicitly, dreams of love and disappointment of everyday life and this gives photographers opportunity to capture moments like this. They said at the beach people reveal themselves more than they would normally do.

8. ‘Surface rather than soul’. What does that mean to you?

- They said ‘The taken for granted backdrop which the drama plays out’ and to me this mean it’s not about the people in the image it’s also about what goes on behind those people in the image, they also said ‘Things rather than people’.

9. The Road trips of Stephen Shore & Joel Sternfeld

Your observations…….

- Stephen Shore photographed everything, to the bed he slept in, people he met, food he ate, buildings that he saw, streets that he walked down and anything else that came his way, it was like a visual diary. Where as Joel Sternfeld done quite the opposite as he said he shot only two negatives a day as that’s all he could afford.

10. Why would William Eggleston be regarded by photographers as ‘King’?

- He was well known for the coloured photographs he took within his home town. Some may refer to his work as ‘Strange baffling beauty’. He also once described his work as ‘Democratic’, he was at war with the obvious. His images were very unreadable and they were powerful colour images, he used colour to twist the content of an image. It was difficult for people to talk about his work as he doesn’t talk about it.