overall evaluation

Although I still have a long way to go with photography, I do feel that my skills and confidence have improved this term. I really enjoyed Chris’s technical lessons as we were introduced to some really fun and quirky studio set ups. We learnt how to create particular moods in our photos, which is something we hadn’t touched on before. However, I still don’t feel confident with studio set ups- I still wouldn’t attempt it on my own. Hopefully this is something I will continue to progress in next year.

 I really enjoyed having a bit more freedom with the make up design this term. At first, I really panicked when I was first given the word ‘Jam’, but then as I thought about it a bit more I came up with some really fun ideas and I loved doing the shoot! 

 I was definitely more excited about the word shoot. I had all these mad ideas that I couldn’t wait to try out. I was a bit worried about the brand shoot as it was very specific, we had to stick to the style of the brand. However, I understand that this is extremely common in this industry, so it was a really good experience and I am pleased with what I have produced.

 Overall, I’m feeling really positive about what I have achieved this term. I know that there is so much more to learn with both photography and post production, but I’m really looking forward to extending my knowledge next year. 

GIVENCHY shoot- final images and evaluation

 Here are a few of my final images for my givenchy shoot with tolly. I was really happy with how this shoot turned out. The studio set up was a black backdrop, black side boards and a beauty dish. I did this as I wanted an image with glowing, flawless skin. Obviously, the make up is the main focus for this shoot, as it is a beauty advertorial, so I wanted a lighting set up that would compliment the make up.

I created this look based on Givenchy's autumn/ winter ads. I really liked their adverts with more of a darker vibe, the make up is generally very simple and clean, often with the focus mainly being a bold lip. I chose to do a very natural and glowing base, as this is something that is very common with Givenchy's ads.

As my jam shoot had an overall mellow and chilled out out feel, I wanted to create something with a similar vibe. However, givenchy's ads are very clean and usually include a bold eye and lip. Their adds never actually involve a huge amount of colour, they usually use deeper tones rather than bright colours. I want    my model to pose with her eyes closed, to look as if she is lost in the music. rather than reggae, this time this look is inspired by soft rock, which is why i have gone for a dark look.


We spent around 30 minutes shooting after setting up. We didn't take long as I knew the exact poses i was after ( demonstrated in these pictures) although, we did play around with some other      poses just in case we found something that worked better.
I have always really struggled with photoshop and i still find it extremely frustrating, but I am really pleased with my progress this term. I now feel that i have a basic understanding of a staple photoshop skills. I look forward to extending my knowledge next year. The image below is my final edited image- all i really did was play around with brightness and contrast, and get rid of blemishes. I also used the paint tool to darken the eyelashes to make them look fuller, this is because the camera picked up the gaps between every lash and you could tell that they were false. This was a skill that I learnt this term which i was really excited about! I also used the same tool to tweak the lips slightly, this was just right in the inside as the lipstick had worn off slightly. The last thing i did was used the frequency separation tool to smooth out certain areas of skin.

Unfortunatley, due to a serious technology related mishap, i can't post my final image with the givenchy logo on my blog, however it is on my PDF hand in.

 When placing the logo and product on my image, i chose not to include a product. I had planned to place the perfume bottle in one of the bottom corners, but when i did i just didn't like it at all. I then tried just the givenchy logo at the bottom of the image and i was really happy with it. There are givenchy beauty ads that just contain their logo, so this is what made my decision final.

I was quite worried about this shoot ( photography equipment still scares me a bit) as it had to be very specific and suit the brand. However, once i got into it and got some good ideas i really enjoyed it. It was a really good experience as i know that in this industry i will be working to a brief most of the time.

Bellow are both the story board for this shoot with the call sheet.

JAM shoot- final images and evaluation

Here are my final edited images from my word shoot. The word i was given to inspire this shoot was 'Jam'. At first i panicked and didn't know what to do with it. After a lot of thought, research and advice from teachers and peers, i decided to do a shoot based on jam as in 'jamming to music'. I wanted to create something that portrayed the feelings that you get from listening to music.

I previously explained on my blog that I listened to reggae when doing my face charts for this shoot. I used certain colours to show the way that the genre makes me feel. I used several different blue tones to show how the genre makes you feel chilled out/relaxed and then i used orange to express the positive/happy vibes it has. When i listen to reggae it automatically reminds me of being sat in the greenfields at glastonbury festival- one of my favourite places in the whole world. These images are a representation of how that genre makes me feel, and how it takes me to a certain place/memory. I loved doing this look because it was so personal to me, something that i have never done before.

I hadn't really planned anything for the hair, apart from slicking it back and pulling it off the face. But when i started shooting i felt that it didn't look right and needed something extra to tie it in with the make up. I had a gold leaf style product in by kit- but it silver, and i sprinkled some in her hair to finish it off. This was very spontaneous and could have been a complete disaster as its a nightmare to get off but I'm pleased with how it looked! I feel that it tied the make up and hair tpgetehr.

I used a black back drop, soft box and a silver reflector. I knew that i wanted a set up that would make the skin look radiant, but i was worried that it wouldn't compliment the make up. I wasn't really sure if it would work as i haven't had to photograph this kind of make up before. I played around with the brightness of the light and the placement of the reflector and i found a set up that worked.

I didn't have to do much in post production- all i did really was used the frequency separation tool to smooth the skin out slightly, as georgia had some eczema on her arms. I also altered brightness and contrast.

I'm really proud of these images, i loved everything about this shoot. I loved the planning and designing, the shoot was really fun and i actually enjoyed the post production for this, too. I loved the freedom that we had with this brief.

Givenchy add facechart

I have created a relatively simple look for this shoot. I plan to create a fresh, glowing complexion. Starting with Illamasqua's radiance veil and satin primer, then covering the face, ears and neck with a mix of foundation from the krayolan foundation pallette. I will do a soft contour and highlight to finish off the skin (as well as powder,obviously). As I am doing this shoot inspired by Givenchy's darker winter ads, the main focus is going to be a dark lip and it will be advertising a lipstick. As the focus will be the lip, i will compliment this with a soft brown smokey eye. I am using tolly as my model, who has short dark hair, i plan to slick it back as this is very common in Givenchy's ads.

How have i related this to my jam shoot?
As my jam shoot had an overall mellow and chilled out out feel, I wanted to create something with a similar vibe. However, givenchy's ads are very clean and usually include a bold eye and lip. Their adds never actually involve a huge amount of colour, they usually use deeper tones rather than bright colours. I want my model to pose with her eyes closed, to look as if she is lost in the music. rather than reggae, this time this look is inspired by soft rock, which is why i have gone for a dark look.

givenchy beauty ads

I've had a look at some of Givenchy's beauty ads for inspiration for my upcoming shoot. I anted to see if there was a common theme, that i could maybe try to include in my image. I actually found that their ads seem to be very versitile, changing depending on season etc. Darker colour used to winter ads, and light/fresh colours used for spring/summer.

One thing i did notice is that the images are very plain, with no background distractions. Models are often shot in front of a plain backdrop. The ads very rarely contain any words other than 'Givenchy' and then small print underneath stating the name of the collection and the season. Sometimes the ads dont even feature pictures of the products that they are selling, its as if 'givenchy' and the make up on the model are enough of a statement. This is definitelty something to think about when doing my shoot.

I really like their darker, almost gothic inspired adverts from their autumn/winter collections so i'm hoping to create an image inspired by these. Most images feature a model with hair slicked back or pulled off their face, so this is something to consider.

Here are a few that inspired me:

images:

http://www.glamcheck.com/fashion/2011/04/26/jacquelyn-jablonski-for-givenchy-beauty-fall-2011-campaign/jacquelyn-jablonski-givenchy-beauty-fall-2011-1-jpg/

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=givenchy+beauty&biw=1366&bih=657&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjak5_kjZ3MAhVlI8AKHRvKBm4Q_AUIhAIoAQ#imgrc=w5gL_G9jjNEq1M%3A

 http://chicprofile.com/tag/givenchy/page/5

Facecharts for JAM shoot

As this make up is inspired by make up and the way it makes you feel, I needed to choose a genre of music to narrow it down a bit. This is important as I feel that different types of music provoke different emotions, which are associated with different colours.

I went home recently and i was sat with my friend and i was telling her about my ideas. we listened to a few types of music and then started to listen to one of my favourite genres, reggae. I love reggae as it just has such a chilled out, happy vibe. I started to mix a few colours together on my hand, based on the way it was making me feel. I then started a face chart and kind of just went with it!

I knew that i wanted to use supra colour, to create a sort of painted face/collage of colour effect. This is what I came up with:

It is very rare that i will do just one design and go with it, but I feel that for my idea i need to go with my initial feelings and designs. Obviously, this is not a particularly precise design, and like with any design, i may play around and tweak certain bits when i do it on my model. I'm looking forward to whacking on some reggae and having a play with this design in the studio!! It's really different to anything I've ever done before.

my brand: givenchy

Givenchy is a luxury french brand, founded in 1952 by Hubert De Givenchy. As well as making Haute couture clothing, they make perfumes and cosmetics,too.

Hubert's first line was a hit straight away with the critics, with vogue describing his first line as 'wonderful'. His work was extremely popular with some of the greatest fashion icons of all time. Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor, to name a few. Audrey and Hubert became great friends when thy first met, and he went on to dress her in Funny face, Sabrina and breakfast at Tiffany's. This is how she described his work- "His are the only clothes in which I am myself. He is far more than a couturier, he is a creator of personality'. Having such an icon of the time being completely obsessed with his work definitely played a part in his success.

Givenchy was very popular for its ladylike styles. In 1957, they released the revolutionary 'sack' silhouette - up until this point, all dresses were figure hugging and accentuated the waist. This was revolutionary as it created a 'mystery' surrounding the body underneath. Givenchy created several iconic pieces around this time, and he became one of the most influential designers of the most daring decade in fashion, the sixties. He encouraged women to show more leg by raising hemlines on many of his designs.

He went on to have many more successful collections as a designer, but decided to sll his business to Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy in 1988, and then completey retired from fashion in 1995. Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Julien Macdonald all had stints at Givenchy after his retirement, but it is now overseen by Ricardo Tisci, who is the creative director for both the ready to wear collections and the Haute couture.

http://www.vogue.co.uk/spy/biographies/hubert-de-givenchy-biography

my JAM moodboard

Above is the moodboard that i created to present to the class. As you can see, the images on the left are from my initial thoughts on the word 'JAM'. playing with texture, using sticky products and perhaps having product dripping down the face. Even though I had moved onto a different idea completely, i still wanted to include my initial thoughts as i wanted my classmate's opinions on both. Altough I was swaying towards jam as in 'jammin' to music, i was a bit worried that it was a bit out there and i was going too far with it. However, I explained all of the images on the moodboard and all of my ideas to my class and sharon and they loved it! They really liked my 'jammin' idea and sharon loved my references to Kandinsky. This lesson gave me the confidence boost i needed and now i know the direction that im going in so i can start planning!

Kandinksy research

Kandinksy was a russian painter, born in 1866 in Moscow. His parents made him attend music lessons, where he leanrt the cello and piano at a young age. As well as this, he had a private tutor and attended one to one art lessons. Despite his creative upbringing, his parents insisted on him becoming a lawyer. This lasted for ten years, and then he decided to devote all of his time to painting. He described the way that painting made him feel- "I remember that drawing and a little bit later painting lifted me out of the reality". 

I have chosen to research Kandinksy as several of his paintings were influenced by his love of music and the way it made him feel. He played with the boundaries of visual and sounds and created a series of 10 compositions. Unfortunatly, the first three were destroyed in world war one. Altough, there are plenty of original sketches that were saved which give us an idea of what they looked like. These compositions included irratic bursts of shapes and colour, covering the page in chaos. They were titled composition I to composition X- composition is a word relevant to both music and art.

I have loved kandinsky from a young age and remember learning about him throughout GCSE and A level art. I feel like anyone can relate to these series of paintings. I feel like he was an appropriate artist to research as I am hoping to do my design based on music and the way it makes you feel. Although his were inspired by classical symphonies, so i will be taking a different approach. I am unsure of the genre yet.. but Im thinking reggae would be fun!!

my word: JAM

Today i was given my word to inspire my editorial shoot: JAM. At first i thought 'What the hell am i going to do with that? An actual pot of jam? strawberry?' Then I realised the word 'jam' actually has several different meanings, so i looked it up in the dictionary and also on urban dictionary. 

1.

squeeze or pack tightly into a specified space.

"four of us were jammed in one compartment"

2. push (something) roughly and forcibly into position or a space.

"he jammed his hat on"

 

3.  improvise with other musicians, especially in jazz or blues.

"he had the opportunity to jam with Atlanta blues musicians"

4. a sweet spread or conserve made from fruit and sugar boiled to a thick consistency.

"strawberry jam".

 

urban dictionary- 

 

a song that a person is particularly fond of, sometimes to the point of being their personal anthem or theme song. derived from the expression "jamming out".

"say mang, turn the radio up, this is my jam!" 

 

After researching all the different meanings for the word 'jam', I initially thought about doing something with texture, something shiny and sticky, like the preserve. Then i thought, no thats boring! I want to go down the root of jam as in music- 'jammin' or 'this is my jam!' perhaps something inspired by music and the way you feel while you're jamming.  I will put both ideas forward to my class when i present my mood board, but im pretty sure they will prefer my second idea anyway. I just feel that there is a lot more a can do with that meaning of the word.

 

 

Lesson with chris: filters and gobos

In this lesson with chris we looked at using colour filters and gobos.I found it really interesting as i had always wondered how to create a wash of colour (or several) over an image. I think these skills will come in handy for my editorial shoot. We leanrt several different techniques that help to create a wide range of moods.

We first played around with holding just a single colour filter over the spot light, then we layered them to create different colours. We also held them next to each other to achieve a blending of colours. We played around with several colours in the first image, but in the second we just used a blue filter and then gently breathed on the lens, which creates a hazy effect and leaves you with a really soft image. Something i never would have thought of!

We then moved onto gobos- for our set up we used a black backdrop, two black reflector boards wither side of the model, a beauty dish behind her and a spotlight on the boom in front of her. There was a ladder next to the boom and we took it in turns to climb up and hold different filters/gobos in front of the spotlight.

Gobos are pieces of metal with patterened holes in order for light to pass through, creating different shapes and patters on the model/object. They are brilliant for creating a more dramatic and theatrical look. I really enjoyed this lesson as we were taught how to create some really quirky images, rather then just standard beauty shots.

The final image we took used both a colour filter and a gobo- i loved this effect! I love the mood it created.

Lesson with Chris: Filling a space

In our photography lesson with chris, we learnt how to effectively fill a frame, which will be particularly useful for this beauty advertising unit. As usual, we all had a chance to take the photos and to be the model. However, we found Marianne to be ridiculously photogenic, so she ended up modelling for most of the lesson!

Bellow are two of the images that we produced as a class. The studio set up included a black back drop, two black reflector boards either side of the model and two beauty dishes behind her and a regular boom light infront of her. This created a soft glow behind her and a nice flattering light on her face. She stood around two metres away from the camera and then we played around with 'filling the space'.

 I was so impressed with the results, i think both of these images are practically flawless, and this is just achieved through good lighting. We used a silver reflector to get rid of dark areas and to create the natural glow that you can see on the face. I think this is a perfect set up for beauty advertisments/editorial images and is something i will remember for the future. I think it was extremely flattering as the skin looks flawless, her eyes are bright and bone structure is defined.

After taking these pictures and taking notes, we discussed what the would be a good advertisment for. We all agreed that Marianne has amazing plump lips and had applied a clear gloss which immideiatley draws attention to her lips. We agreed that if we were to chose a brand for the images that we took today it would be mac, as mac's images are usually very clean with little back ground distractions- they often fill the frame with the model and choose one part of the face to draw attention to, depending on the product they are selling. In the case of these images, that product would ither be a lipstick or lipgloss.

I have struggled with getting my head around the photography side of the course but i am feeling a lot more confident and inspired after this lesson.

Analysing a modern beauty advertisment

When we were talking about how brands use celebrities to sell products, i automatically thought of estee lauder's recent collaboration with Kendall Jenner. I always thought it was a bit of an odd combination, as I always thought Estee lauder to be a brand aimed at older women. By making kendall jenner 'the face' of their brand, they are trying to appeal to a different audience. kendall is twenty years old and is very popular with girls of a similar age and younger. Altough she is one of the kardashian sisters, I feel like she has a whole image of her own. She is a very sucessful supermodel in her own right, she has very classic and naturally beautiful features. Whereas the rest of her family have had countless plastic surgeries and fillers. The rest of the kardashian clan are seen as quite trashy, and wouldn't be appreciated by Estee lauder's customers. I think it was a brave move to use kendall, but it definitely worked.

Estee lauder are a brand that have always advertised quite classic looks, nothing too adventurous like illamasqua or mac.  Kendall is extremely popular, but has never been caught in any controversy like the rest of her family, a rose among thorns you might say. She has always been very classy, despite her surroundings, and is actually a great role model for this reason. I feel this may be part of the reason she was chosen to be the face of Estee Lauder.


The advert is subtly sexy, kendall is looking into the distance with one finger placed on her lips. Drawing attention to the lips automatically makes it sexier. The background and her outfit are monochrome, with the red lipstick,nails and products being the only splash of colour. The chosen colour is red, which is very prominent against the black and white. Red is a colour associated with danger, excitement, love and sex. This theme is carried on by the lexical cluster of words 'driven, desire, envy, potent'. These words all provoke similar emotions, and are words associated with 'wanting'. They claim that their lipcolour will have a 'potent' effect. It seems that they are trying to portray a strong woman who knows exactly what she wants! I think they have created a powerful,yet subtly sexy advertisment to entice women of all ages.

pic - http://warssawajunior.pl/category/uroda/page/2/

A history of beauty advertising

In our first lecture with sharon, we looked at a wide range of beauty advertisments and explored their history and how they have developed over time. There are several factors that influenced changes in beauty advertising- technology development, beauty trends and ideals always changing and the way women are perceived in the media.

Beauty ideals are forever changing, and make up brands are constantly altering their advertisments and coming up with new designs to convince the customer that they need these products in order to rock this new beauty trend. These days, you don't just see these advertisments in magazines, they are absolutely everywhere. Billboards,TV, Instagram and they even pop up on the side of the screen when you're trying to shop on ASOS. I feel that instagram has a huge influence over young women. Beauty brands are now paying celebrities to advertise their products on their instagram accounts. These women are always very beautiful and influential, so young girls/women feel like they need to buy the products in order to look like them. (even though these celebrities very rarely actually use these products.)

The media plays a huge part in these ever changing beauty trends. For example, people went absolutely mad for the contouring trend when the Kardashians brought it onto the scene. 'Contour kits' have only really been available for the last few years and are already a beauty must have in most women's make up bags.

I feel that beauty advertisments have always been sexy and playful- some more outrageous than others. Obviously the models are always made to look beautiful and sexy as this makes the viewer think they will look the same way if they use that product. I think that some adverts are empowering, everyone wants to be sexy, but then some are borderline sexist. Tom ford is notorious for his risque advertisments. Sex always seems to be the main theme in his adverts, often containing both men and women, with the woman sometimes looking quite vulnerable.

I found this beauty advert from 1942, published in cosmopolitan. It is advertising palm olive soap and is titled 'just for him'. The advert shows a beautiful young woman, longing for her husband to return from war. She is holding a letter in her hands, it reads 'I can almost feel your soft smooth cheek against mine'. Then underneath the letter it says 'When he comes home, will he find you as lovely as his heart had dreamed you'd be?' The whole advert is all about the woman prepping herself for her husbands return. She is to use this soap for her husbands enjoyment, rather than her own. This something that you would never see in advertising today. Women are want to be sexy and confident for themselves, not to please a man.