TD Part Six- Fashion
For this Fashion Photography assignment as a class
we looked at a documentary on the photographer Rankin, we watched how he tried
to recreate seven photographs that change photography these included
photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Erwin Blumenfeld, Richard Avedon and David
Bailey. Personally with a lot of the images he recreated I didn’t like; he
missed a lot of the key elements that made the original photos like the
compositions and framing.
With most things that are new
to me it can be quite intimidating, and that is how I felt about fashion
photography, to be the one that controlled the models that I have never met
before and having to communicate and to make a relationship with them did not
seem possibly because I lacked confidence. What helped me to gain back
confidence was when in a recent assignment I had to approach the public again
people I didn’t no, so I knew it was not impossible and that once I got into
something I would feel comfortable and relax more. Also I had to keep in mind
that the models may also feel intimidated with the bright lights and everyone
around then taking photos so this made me relax more.
I did not no what to expect and I got told that
anything could happen and that using my own initiative and to improvise would
be wise as not everything will go to plan as I found out with my first client,
she was an older women and her stylist was inspired by an image that featured a
younger model so there was my first problem of how to make her look similar to
the image.
I used a simple light set up of a soft box and a
black back drop to recreate the image, for this assignment I used a standard
50mm lens this lens is best for portrait photos, once I was happy with the
photos I had taken I then had to edit one in Light room and Photo shop, on both
software’s are a variety of tools and techniques that are great to edit images
and make them look professional. Personally my opinion is the stylist did not
do a great job on the make up so it was up to me to a least fix it up and make
it look half decent.
I started by using the spot-healing tool to remove
imperfections and wrinkles on her skin, then the clone and liquify tool to
reshape her eyebrows and lips to the same shape as the photo they were inspired
by. After reshaping her lips I then painted over the originals using colours
that relate to the image then using highlights to create a realistic finish.
Dodge and Burn tools are nice to work with as they
can add and change little aspects to the photo such as lightening up the eyes,
I would use the dodge tool and click on highlights this would then brighten up
any white areas such as teeth and eyes.
Burn tool would do the opposite and darken areas I
wanted.
By turning down the clarify tool on Light Room to
-100 then paint over the face were it may still be uneven, the clarify tool
will smoothing out the skin washing out any detail this was one of the last
steps to finishing my photo the last step was cropping the portrait to resemble
the same shot as the photo I had be referring back to.
When retouching and editing my photos of the models
I used basically the same techniques but I also was looking for other
alternatives to use so I could widen my skills, Stephanie the model below was
great to work with I found she was very photogenic, as the photographer I had
to make her feel comfortable so by talking it doesn’t make the atmosphere
awkward and then the photographs will happen naturally.
I noticed with the images of Steph the main focus
were her eyes, the colourful makeup and her crimped hair these combined
together tight would make the photo strong, so I cropped down the photo to a
close shot of her face, instantly the photo was stronger and had no
distractions. I then started to refine the image by using the clone and
spot-healing tool to remove blemishes on the skin, as she has nice blue eyes I
retouched them with the dodge tool to brighten them up slightly but not to
harsh it looks unnatural. The photo was very warm so by turning down the
temperature on light-room I was able to create an even realistic tone
throughout the photo.
Photo-Shop has a tool in adjustments called replace
colour using the pipette I was able to select a colour then increase or
decrease the hues and saturation, as I wanted to make the makeup bold and
striking I increased them some what until I was happy with the out come.
What drew me to this model was the
makeup and how I could use coloured gels together to help enhance the makeup
making it look more alien like, by placing two tungsten lights slightly behind
her on either side with coloured gels over them I was able to project pink and
purple to both sides of her head, this helped to light up her hair and define
her cheek bones and jaw line.
Arranging a soft box directly in front of her face
meant I was able to light the rest of her face up without washing out the
colours from the tungsten lights.
I had to place myself right under the soft box to
get close as possibly to the model as I was using a standard 50mm lens.
From the photos I had taken I chose to edit a side
on portrait image because I liked the composition and how the coloured gels sat
around her head and body. I started by using the healing brush tool to remove
stray hairs from around her head, which are a distraction, to remove hair from
her shoulder I used the patch tool, which replicates a selected area of the
skin and removes the area I want. To remove imperfections I used the spot-healing
tool, I liked using this tool as it cleans up small areas of the skin without a
lot of effort.
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