Personal Shoot 10- Contact sheets

Mid project action plan for personal project

What are my plans for the remainder of the project?
I plan on focusing further on the physical aspects of beauty photography, especially in female models. This is because female models are the most popular gender show cased in beauty photography, therefore I want to include this within my own work. For one of my shoots I feel it would be a good idea to experiment slightly with an idea that relates to beauty photography without being beauty photography. This will allow me to look at different aspects of beauty and how it can be changed and influenced through photography. I would still like to carry on editing the photographs in the traditional way of removing blemishes and spots while highlighting the physical aspects of beauty such as smooth skin, white teeth and perfect hair.
I would also like to influence colour more into the photography to create a lighter and happier vibe to the images, instead of a depressing state.

Overall project evaluation

Overall I believe that my project of photographing beauty was successful as I feel that my work showcases beauty in different ways throughout. I am also extremely happy with the evolution of my skills throughout this project, I have learnt so many different skills in both the act of photographing as well as the editing stages to the images and I feel that this can be seen throughout my work.
The few experimentations that I performed in some of the shoots have helped me to learn and develop as a photographer, to see what influences beauty in positive ways and highlights my theme further. I also learnt what doesn't work so well with my theme for example over feathering the images whilst editing because it doesn't create the idea that the model is beautiful, just that she or he has been over edited.
I am pleased with how my photography work has evolved and developed during this project and feel that I have learnt many new techniques and rules about photographing beauty. I know that certain images don't work as well as others but I was able to move on a create other ideas from these mistakes to show beauty in a better way.
Therefore, I am happy with the work that I have produced throughout this project and can see how it showcases my learning curves within my theme.

Mid project evaluation

What you intend to do as part of the project, has the idea changed?
I intended on showing the physical and aesthetic beauty aspects within images, due to the fact I felt that this was what an audience and myself would be able to connect to the most as beauty photography is already strongly influenced into our lives. When I was first thinking about what types of shoots I would be photographing images of strong makeup and colours was an initial thought, however once looking at other beauty photography I realised that the simplistic images, for example black and white images were a popular choice within the beauty photography. Due to this I started off my shooting with a black and white photoshoot to try and duplicate the effect. I did also use a lot of colour in different ways throughout my unit and experimented with the different ways in which I can manipulate the colours to highlight the beauty further. The idea of photographing aesthetic beauty stayed my main goal throughout the unit, although I didn't try a different angle for one of my shoots. I wanted to show the effects of physical beauty on some ones mental state of mind. I felt that it was a nice change from the other photographs I had produced and showed how the idea of photographing beauty can develop however decided to carry on with the physical beauty photography. My editing skills also developed throughout the shoots and I learnt a large amount more about how beauty photographs are edited o include within my own work.

What shoots were most successful?
Personally, I would say that my most successful shoot would be shoot six where the use of a projector on the model was implied to add texture and colour to the image. I think the photographs show beauty in the way that all beauty photography intends, however while adding a difference and uniqueness to the images. Also I am extremely happy with how the editing looks because of the removing of blemishes and spots and how it looks flawless.

What aspects of the work require improvement?
I feel that within my work I photographed the majority of my work within the studio, I feel that my location photography skills could be improved and worked on. Another aspect that I would like to improve on is the use of techniques within my work, I feel that only having used a couple throughout all of my shoots was a waste and that if I had used more techniques then my work would show a wider and more diverse set of photographs.

Where do you see your work progressing?
Personally the shoots that I enjoyed the most were those that included colour to brighten the images and create and happier overall emotion to the photographs. Therefore, in the future I would like to carry on photographing beauty within colourful settings so that the brighter view on beauty can be shown. I would also like to shoot more on location within the future shoots and feel that this would pair nicely with the influence of colour within beauty photography. I see my work progressing into photography that would easily and popularly be seen within magazines that religiously showcase beauty photography.

Multiple exposure- Work diary

Studio and location set up-
In the studio I used a white background and two light boxes to ensure that the model was in an extremely bright set and had a lot of light. I then also took photographs outside of trees, bushes and flowers mostly for my second image.

Camera set up-

Photoshop-
I started with my image from the studio of my model, I began by clipping out the model and I used the pen tool around the edge of the models body. I then right clicked and pressed make selection from the menu and changed the feather radius option to 0.5px. Next I wanted to make sure there was no stray hairs that would make the image look messy, therefore I went to select then refine edge and begun to alter the edge detection radius and shift edge options so that her hair line was within the selection. Then I changed the brush to refine radius tool to paint around the hair line to get rid of any stray hairs. The selected image I then copied as a new layer with a blank layer in-between to isolate the portrait. Next I copied and pasted the landscape image into my working document. Now I pressed CMD and clicked the thumbnail of the portrait to load its selection, then I clicked add layer mask icon to clip the background to the outline. Due to the fact that I would want to be able to move my image independently from the mask so that I would be able to find the best composition, I unlinked the image by clicking the chain icon between the thumbnails. Next I duplicated the portrait cut out layer and dragged it so that it was on top of the other layers. I then needed to darken the image which I done by opening up the levels adjustments by pressing image- adjustments- levels and moved the input and output level sliders. Next I needed to render all the dark areas transparent by changing the blending mode of the new portrait layer to Screen. My next adjustment was to add a layer mask to the portrait and use a large brush to get rid of certain areas. I decided to leave the colour in the image because I felt that this is what looked most pleasing to the eye, which is what beauty photography is about. Then I added a layer adjustment layer to edit the contrast of the image by clipping the highlights and shadows.

The overall image that I created are good and I am happy with how they turned out, due to the fact this was my first try. I feel that this technique would be very interesting paired with my theme of beauty.

Animation- Work Diary

I planned to photograph for an animation during my eighth shoot. Therefore I used the same studio set up and camera set up as what was used for that shoot.
The process to editing the animation however was completely different;

I started by uploading my images into Photoshop, I did this by pressing file, scripts, load files into stack. Once selecting the file that I needed to be uploaded I opened up a timeline window, I did this by pressing file on the top bar and then timeline. The use of the timeline was to allow me to turn different layers on and off for various amounts of time, which would then turn my image into a GIF. After the timeline window appears at the bottom of Photoshop I changed the create video timeline to create frame animation. Next I created a new layer for each frame by selecting select then all layers, next I pressed the menu icon and create new layer for each new frame. After this I pressed the same menu icon however next selected the make frames from layers, this was to make each layer a frame of the GIF. Next I had to change the individual speed of each frame, I chose to go with the quickest time of 0.1 sec so that the flow of the images was smooth and looked like one motion. I then decided on how long I wanted the GIF to loop for, which was forever. Now that my animation was complete I just had to save it in a format that was able to upload onto the internet.

I think that the overall outcome of my animation is decent for my first try, however there are ways to improve on the stability of each shot that would make it look better. I intend on using these extra measures the next time I intend on creating an animation.

Connecting essay 5

This is a photograph by Milenko Dilas that conveys the theme of beauty. In this image we can see an attractive female model looking straight down the lens, as if looking at the viewer. It appears as if she has had her make up professionally done and to a standard that helps illuminate the beauty in her face. The background in the photo is black with a small lighter glow emanating from the centre of the image, which is also around the model. The use of this background allows the viewers eye to focus on the model, in particular her face because it is the area with the most glow. The models skin is extremely smooth and her hair looks smooth also, I expect that this was touched up in the editing stages to make sure that everything appeared as perfect because thats what the normal standards for beauty photography are.

This is  a photograph that I took within my beauty series. I have used a mid shot of a female model, she is wearing makeup and looking down the lens of the camera. I chose to use a black background because I wanted it to feel as if the darkness was surrounding the model, which would somewhat draw the eye onto the model. I edited the image, changing the colour of her skin to a pinker complexion to add in a slight amount of colour. I also used photoshop tools to add in certain elements of her makeup, for example the eyeliner. I did this too heighten the elements of beauty that had been included in this image.

There are many similarities between my own beauty image and Dilas's. Firstly, we have both decided to use a black background so that the viewers eye is focused on the model instead of any other part of the image. A difference with this however is that the lighting I paired with the background drew the darkness around the model, where as Dilas's model is completely lit and has a slight glow to the outer edge of her body. Another similarity is the model they are both looking into the camera and have similar traits of the beauty style.
I am really happy with the image that I got from this shoot and I think that it clearly shows beauty and how beauty is usually shown in photography.