Fashion Cover Process During the Constructed Photography module, varying photographic briefs were presented to four different groups. Being located within group four, our brief was titled “Maximum Sparkle”. With little additional information, individual interpretations were therefore allowed to form. Wanting to match the connotations the word “Maximum” can provoke, as a collective we thought the more sparkle, the better. Independently and as a group, we began to explore different avenues into what such a brief could entail. Predominantly digital research, various images were collected including those that can be viewed on the following page. High fashion soon became the common theme alongside body glitter, which would create our needed sparkle. As a group we frequently discussed ideas and concepts which subsequently developed our theme. Within this group time, we also created a Power Point Presentation explaining our initial ideas and inspiration. This PDF can be viewed to the right of this ISSUU link. Some example slides can also be located on the following pages.
Faint Magazine As mentioned within our Power Point presentation, Faint quickly became our chosen publication. A high-fashion, art magazine, Faint is highly innovative and experimental. By choosing Faint, we therefore knew it would provide ourselves with the creative freedom to attempt a number of ideas. Exploring past covers, the headlinea are distinctive with the model featuring heavily. Alongside this, a issue title and contibuting photographers are too listed on the cover, something I plan to mimic. Another striking characteristic is the headlines complementary colouring. Using the image below as an example, the title matches the models makeup, creating an impacting, interesting magazine cover.
Studio Practice In preparation for the photo shoot, we frequently hired out the Leeds Beckett studio to conduct practice shoots. Focusing on makeup ideas and potential lighting, this time helped us work together as a group, similarly to how we did on the final photo shoot. The contact sheets for one of those sessions can be located on this double-page spread alongside three edited, example images. Through this practice, we knew we wanted to go for dramatic, impacting makeup; hence a makeup artist was booked for our photo shoot. We arranged meetings with our makeup artist Emily in order to fully explain what we wanted and to know how doable these ideas were.
Fashion Shoot Due to the complexity of our models makeup, group members were due to arrive at 9am to prepare for the photo shoot. Upon hiring out the studio in advance, the set up process commenced. The makeup took over one hour to complete which gave us enough time to complete practice shots alongside ensuring the props were ready to move in and out of each persons slot. Such props included jewellery, a tinfoil background and paper rolls to diffuse light jells. My own shoot involved a blue backdrop to complement the blue and purple tones of the glitter and the employed light jells. Also purple, the light jell was attached to an impact light diffuser which created an ambient glow. For the majority of my photographs, the settings were made up of an aperture of 2.8, time of 1/1000 s with a 100 ISO. This was accompanied by two Bowens 500w lights, which were set to 1.5 (with soft box) and 1.4 (with Impact light diffuser). This specific set up is represented with the Photoshop diagram that can be seen below.
Overall I found the photo shoot to be a success both in terms of ease and photographic quality. No major problems occurred to hinder the successfulness of the day, ensuring each individual to capture their own images with good time and to a sufficient quality.
Post Shoot Process During the editing stage of this assignment, various changes were conducted to heighten the images overall impact. A wide variety of images were initially altered via Photoshop, allowing one photograph to be later chosen to feature within the poster. This image then went through more Photoshop adjustments, some example print screens can be viewed on the following page to document this process. For the chosen image, the background was darkened through employing the Burn tool on Photoshop. I believe this created a more dramatic image whilst also emphasising the models colourful and contrasting makeup. Alongside adjusting the images levels and contrast, text was added to accommodate the magazine cover brief. Once ensuring the images dpi was set to 300, the images size was adjusted to 10�x 12�. This sizing meant the image had to be either cropped or adjusted to add additional space. As I did not what to loose the space above and below the models face, I used the Photoshop clone tool to add additional space to the right and left sides of the poster. The finished cover can be accessed via the next page alongside a text-less version. The final cover can also be accessed via my Wix website page.