A big inspiration and hobby of mine is makeup. I enjoy watching makeup videos, doing my own makeup, and doing others makeup. In terms of photography, beauty portraits are also my favourite types of portraits. I am aiming to create my own series of beauty style portraits using different styles of makeup and different props. I will be photographing women in this idea as women are typically seen in beauty shoots and glamour shots. I will be working in the style of Rankin and taking influence from his work. Rankin Rankin is known for being one of the world's leading photographers with his highly recognizable and influential fashion and beauty work. Rankin often works with famous celebrities and his images show the essence of their personality. Despite his work constantly being new and different, he is recognized by his extravagant and glamourous style in his images. To help create his outgoing and elaborate shoots, Rankin has the help from multiple assistants, makeup artists, stylists and editors that all come together to create his iconic work. I have been inspired by Rankin’s work in the past and wanted to work in his style. I chose images which were very natural which I could use for an advertising style shoot. I was inspired by the way he uses female models with coloured backdrops and coloured products which complement their skin tone. These images were very fresh, gentle and soft. I created portraits using coloured gels in the studio. I enjoyed working in this style and I was happy with my outcomes. However, Rankin has a wide variety of styles, and I want to try a different type of his beauty work. Often, he created elaborate portraits using a lot of makeup and vibrant colours. Images like these you would see in magazines or an exhibition. As my Final Major Project is something that is going to be displayed in an exhibition, it is important for me to ensure it does not look like it belongs in a magazine or for an advertising purpose. I will do this by trying to make my images over the top and unusual. It seems Rankin’s makeup artists for his shoots use a range of materials such as makeup, paints, glitters, flowers and jewels. I will plan a shoot where I work in the extravagant style of Rankin’s beauty shots but ensuring it is still my own work by changing aspect such as the props, colours and composition. I will use female models for one shoot as Rankin commonly uses females for his beauty work. I was also intrigued to see Rankins portraits of men which are equally as unusual and elaborate. I scrolled through his menswear section and found some images which inspired me. In beauty images, you often see women modelling. However, I wanted to see similar styles done with male subjects. In my work, I often shoot female models as I understand lighting and angles better for flattering the subject. I had the idea to do similar types of makeup/looks on a male model also. *see idea 2* Due to COVID19, the college has closed and the country has been put on a lockdown. This has massively impacted my work as I no longer have access to the studio or the darkroom, which are needed for all of my ideas. To try and ensure I can carry on working efficiently from home, I took home some lighting equipment and gum bichromate. I will be limited to use these minimal materials in my testing and potentially my final shoot. A factor which will also impact my work is not having the access to hire models, nor shoot on location. This again really limits my work. However, to get through these challenges, I decided to use my sister who I live with as a model. I will use plain backgrounds in my house, or a plain side of a reflector to help create a "studio" set up. I will also try shooting out in my garden to get a variety of lighting/locations. This is not my ideal situation, but I will try my best to work with what I have and what I can do. As well as being inspired by the work I have seen my famous artists and photographers in books and galleries, I am also highly influenced by the work I see on Instagram. I commonly see smaller pages which do beauty style shots and makeup just for fun, and just for the aesthetic purposes. I consistently see original and unusual work on my explore page, and on the pages I follow. The images commonly do not have a title to them, and often are trying to advertise certain makeup products. As I use Instagram daily, I see these types of images very often. As they inspire me in my work, I save them into a folder every time I see one I like, which I can then use as reference/inspiration during a shoot/during makeup process. I take influence from the colour combinations, the props, the poses and the type of crop. Due to COVID19, many photographers have taken to posting their work on Instagram for people to see, so I may see more of these styles of portraits in the close future. TEST SHOOT 1I plan for this shoot to be very similar to my male portraiture shoot as it will also be in the studio, using the same materials. However, due to COVID19, I am having to make my own studio in my room, so therefore, adjustments will need to be made. Equipment I had initally thought to photography both digitally and with film in the same shoot to compare materials and see what I preferred. However, due to lockdown, I would not be able to go out and develop my film anywhere or make print, so I planned to just shoot digitally.
During the shoot As I was very limited to the space I had available, I had to be extra cautious that me or my model did not trip over any wires or the legs to the stands. I had my model sat on my bed, which the reflectors white side propped up behind her to act as a backdrop. The beauty dish light source was then directly in front of her, slightly higher up. I had my camera on a tripod just below the light source. However, as I was using a fixed lens, I struggled to move my camera closer to my models face as my bed was in the way. As space was causing an uncomfortable issue for me, I chose to take my camera off the tripod and put the tripod to the side. This made it much easier for me to shoot with. I started off by photographing my model with normal shots of her makeup. I chose a range of distances to get variation on my contact sheets. I tried to focus on main details of her face such as eyes and lips. I then incorporated some flowers from my previous shoot as they complimented her outfit and makeup. I put a few of these in her hair as a background touch, as I still wanted the main focus to be her face. I did notice the reflector was creased in the background, so this would need to be something I edit out of the images. I then applied some eyeshadow on her face as if she was crying a rainbow. As my sister/model is an NHS worker, I thought this was an interesting touch to add due to the current situations. I got the colours as vibrant as I could, but I plan to touch these up on Photoshop. I still felt like the images were missing something a bit more. Therefore, I then went on to using stick on gems as tears on her face. This added much more detail and something more interesting to look at in the images. I photographed from a variety of angles to ensure I could see all details. I did try to use the gold side of the reflector as a background but it was too creased and took away the attention from my model. Once I had taken all my images, I created contact sheets so I could narrow down my best images which I could upload to my Instagram as a series. Also, it helps me to see which images need editing and where. These are the 3 images that I chose to use a series. To edit the images, I first began with the camera raw filter where I increased the clarity and reduced texture as I wanted her skin to appear smoother. I then made slight adjustments to the exposure, contrast and highlights/shadows to improve the overall look of the image. I then opened the image onto photoshop and used the spot healing tool to cancel out any small imperfections which could be distracting. Using the clone stamp tool, I then eliminated any stray hairs which fell over her face. Using the blur tool on a very low opacity, I shaded this over her skin to reduce texture further. I did because as a result of the image being very tightly cropped, small details became very obvious and distracting. Minor imperfections such as eyelash glue, excess powder and makeup imperfections could also be seen so I ensured to fix those. I then used the sharpen tool to bring back the clarity of her eyes, the gems and her lips. What I found was that the colours smeared on her face still appeared quite dull. I did try to increase the vibrancy and saturation on those areas but it just made them appear orange and almost neon looking. Instead, I picked each individual colour, and using the brush tool with a low opacity, I shaded the colours back in. I tried my best to keep this looking seamless and well blended. This improved the image drastically. To finish off, I made slight adjustments to the levels to fix the contrast and then I was done. TEST SHOOT 2A style of photography which I have wanted to play around with but have not been able to due to lockdown is location portraits. I wanted to experiment with different lighting, and different backgrounds. However, the weather in the UK has been very bright and sunny which is perfect for outdoor photography. I had my model do their makeup in a gold/glowy/sparkly way as I thought that this would look the best in bright sunlight and show up nice on camera. I had limited equipment with me. I was working with my DSLR, my 50mm lens and my reflector. I used my 50mm lens as this is perfect for portraiture. It given a nice detail in the foreground and blurs the background. I then also used my reflector. The reflector was useful as I could use the gold side to create a warm bounce of light, the silver side to create a cooler light, the white side to diffuse the light, or the black side to absorb excess light. The reflector could also be used as a background. When taking my images, my family had the washing up on the line which could be seen in the background of the images. A pink and orange towel could be seen. However, this worked great as a backdrop as it adds to the colour, and makes the image more playful, bright and summery. I had my mom hold the reflector for me. This proved very difficult as she did not understand how to hold it and where to direct the light. However, I managed to make use of the reflector in some images. I took the images quite close to my models (sisters) face as I wanted to show her makeup. I also prefer the look of tightly cropped images. I was limited to time with this shoot as the sun was about to go behind a big cloud and it looked like it was about to rain. However, I quickly tried to photograph a range of different poses, angles and distances. I managed to get a good variety of images which I will edit in my usual way, but also use for experimenting with. While photographing, I noticed the shadows caused by my subjects lashes was quite big and obvious. I tried to get her to tilt her chin up to avoid this, however it may need to be something I edit out. I then also was struggling with the exposure as the sun was constantly going behind clouds. This caused some images to be over/under exposed. This will also need fixing through photoshop. Another issue with photographing outside is the background. As I wanted the background to stay as the pink or orange towel, it was an issue when you could see the edge of the towel/the hedge. I will use the clone stamp tool to erase any unwanted areas. Once I had annotated my contact sheet and chose my best few images, I began editing. I used Photoshop again to edit the images as I find I get the best outcomes by using it. I edit all of my portraits in a similar way. I start by using camera raw filter to adjust the contrast, highlights, shadows etc... As the image was taken very close up to her face, a lot of texture and pores on her face was visible. I reduced the texture very slightly and then increased the clarity to give a better quality image. I then open my image and begin making other adjustments. I used the spot healing tool to blend out minor imperfections, and then the blur tool to smooth the skin out slightly. To bring back details I may have skimmed over with the blur tool, I use the sharpen tool to add detail to her eyes, lips, nose and jewellery. Where it was needed, I used the clone stamp tool to make the background one solid colour. This was needed where the towel had moved, or I had changed angles. To improve the glow on her skin, and bring forward the high points on her face, I used the dodge tool which helped to lighten certain areas. Once I had made these subtle retouches, I made one final touch to the levels of the image to create a better depth and exposure after editing. I did not crop my images on Photoshop. This was because I knew that I would be uploading the images to my Instagram, and I wanted to have more room to adjust the position of them when uploading. Here is the series I created: The end series of images create a beach/summer style. Due aspect of the world seeming gloomy and negative, I am happy that I managed to create something which works in contrast of that. Often in photography lately, I have been seeing a lot of empty streets, empty shelves, closed store and other things which makes the world seem lifeless. I am very proud of these images as they bring some warmth and colour back into photography, and also the fun of it. I made the most of natural lighting, at home photography resources, and working without an assistant. When the weather is good again, I will try to create more shoots like this. Experimentation with editing (Photoshop)For the last few months, I have been editing my images in a very basic, generic way where I fix the exposure/contrast and bring back some vibrancy to the colours. However, in my previous years at college, I have done lots of experimentation with Photoshop and the fun edits I could create. Taking images from the shoot above, I had a play around with Photoshop to create some images which I do not usually create.
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