Work Record April 8th 2013

Preparation;
The aim of this shoot is to do a “mock up” of the shoot and editing I plan to do for my exam piece with the topic being Contrasts. This shoot will show the contrast of dead/undead and inside/outside of the body by creating an effect that my face is being unzipped. One of the reasons I chose to do this idea is because it means I can use myself as the model, therefore I would not have to find an available model, and also because it links in with my work where I have focused on the idea of horror and used myself as a model
 
 

This image on the left gives me inspiration on how I am going to do my makeup. This is the most crucial part to get right, as if it goes wrong, it will mess up the entire shoot and the edits will not look as good either. Although it does not really go with my idea, I have chosen to include this image on the left as I like the way it is lit. Up-lighting is something I want to experiment with in this shoot as I like the eerie look it gives the images.

To Prepare I need to;

·         Decide on the lighting

·         Book studio

·         Decide on what background

·         Plan poses

·         Plan/do a practice run of the makeup

·         Decide on any specific editing I want to look at

What I hope to achieve;

From this shoot I hope to achieve shoot giving me a clear indication of how I am going to do my exam shoot, including things such as whether or not this shoot is a good idea, lighting, backdrop, and edits.

What I actually achieved;

I am really happy with how this shoot turned out, and not I have a clear idea and plan of what I am doing foe my exam piece. Due to the fact I feel this was a successful trial of this idea, I am going to continue with this idea. When it came to shooting, I got a range of images with different compositions and poses as well as different lighting. I chose to use the grey background for this shoot as it is not too dark, but with different lighting and editing I have the option and it worked really well. When it came to lighting that is something I am really happy with how it turned out as I experimented with having the light coming up to give the images a darker, more horror style feel. With the editing, I had to use the clone stamp tool, spot healer and paint on them all to smooth out the zipper so it appeared as part of the skin and looked realistic. This was something I was not sure would work out too well and one of the main reasons I wanted to text my idea, but it worked out a lot better than I thought it would.

This is one of my favourite images from this shoot as it was done with the lighting going up. It makes the image look more sinister and evil, which is different to the rest where I have tried to make them seem more innocent. I also like the composition with this as I am central and looking up above the camera which I think looks good.

 

 

What I like most about this is how it looks quite bright and normal – except the zipper area which is what I was going for as it shows the contrast well and in a natural way. I also like this as it is quite close up and you can see the zipper in more detail,  and it smoothly goes into the skin.

 

 

I decided to make this one black and white as I think the fact that it has quite a bit of shadow and shows a lot of form goes well. To get this lighting, I stepped closer to the camera and just beyond where the lights were which turned out to give a halo type of effect which I think works well. When editing, I used the dodge tool on the hair to make it a bit brighter and enhance the halo effect.

 

 

 

 

What I am going to do next;

As I am really happy with how this shoot has turned out, and how the editing went, I am happy to go ahead with this idea for my exam as it is goes with the theme of Contrasts and during the editing process, there are quite a few ways I can enhance the idea and images.