Cakes to celebrate love and life

This was the book i saw the design in for my cupcakes, Although the book's designs look very over the top there was some subtle designs. Although I have searched and searched for the same design of cupcake's which I did I couldn't find the design (copyright i think). Later in the week i will go and find the book in the library or Waterstones and i will take an image of the design i based my ideas on.As i cannot find the image as of yet until monday when i go to the book store i will explain my design:

The design i picked for my cupcake was not over the top like a cake you would find in a confectionary shop I enrolled elements of the research i have done earlier. The cupcake design i choose was whipped meringue (whipped egg white uncooked) on a plain vanilla cupcake, with a slice of like lime placed on the meringue with a fresh leaf of mint on the edge of the cake. I choose this design because it wasn't to over the top it was possible this design could be found in a cafe. It also enrolled the warm tones of green like in the research of the carrot stick food photography shoot by Matt Armendariz and the lovely fresh looking image by Jerry Errico I found these artists backed up my choice of design.

Callender cakes.

After doing my cupcake research i jumped into my ideas head first. I felt like i wasn't skilled enough to make good looking cupcakes, so i went and visited a local cake making shop which i know was meant to be a good shop it was called Callender cakes.

Although i had plenty of research i thought they mite have a better idea of what decorations would typically portray "Cafe". I asked them if they would consider making me 3 cupcakes for my assignment and they agreed they asked me for designs but i was unsure.

So I had a wander around there shop and had a look through there cake making books and i came up with 3 designs which i didn't think were to over the top.

So when i went back to the lady and showed her the ideas unfortunately in the time of looking for the designs i wanted she had taken cake orders which meant she didn't have time to do them for the next week(this week present). So i set to to make my own cupcakes and try to recreate the same design.

Here are some designs of cupcakes i researched before going to callender cakes (images researched on Flikr)

This image above was the image i took my composition inspiration from, I liked the whole cafe theme in the background and i tried recreating this within the studio, but that was unsucsesfull in the end i just went with the flow and what i preffered throughout the shoot and improved the image before.

Christina Peters

These images were taken by Christine Peters i really like her images i find there not cold and commercialized. They contain the kind of homely feel to them i think for my cafe section i will focus my ideas on puddings I.E  cup cakes puddings etc.

Matt Armendariz

This image was taken by Matt Amendariz again this image has quite a cool feel to it, but i think that the oranges and yellows of the melon and carrot sticks warm the composition.I quite like the freshness but i really want a homely feel to my work so i will keep researching.

Jerry Errico

This image was taken by jerry Errico, although i like this image i think it portrays my idea of "cold". I think with food photography it has become a male orientated view on food photography. Women preffer the home made,freshly homely food where as men prefere the new,cool and fresh. I like this image because i think the tones og green slighlty warm the imag but i think this was a good example of cold food photography.

Jean Cazals

These images are by Jean Cazala i love how he has achieved this cracked egg look. I would love to do something like this but at the same time it isn't really cafe style i thought it relevant to include into my research because i really like things like this.

Cafe research-Tim Hill

Rite so after looking at the definition of cafe my ideas were right,they don't sell full on meals so i need to be doing quite light food like coffee , cup cakes deserts and maybe very light meals.Here was the beginning of my research when i was wanting to try country style life food photography i came across a food photographer called Tim Hill:


















This is the work of Tim hill the reason i was wanting to create a countryside feel was because with this theme,it makes you feel at home, all comfy and warm. I think with commercial food photography sometimes it's to cold and commercialized and quite hard with my food photography i want to achieve a warm feeling to it.

Defination of "cafe"

café |kaˈfā; kə-| (also cafe)
noun
1 a small restaurant selling light meals and drinks.
2 a bar or nightclub.
3 a serving of coffee, esp. prepared European-style [in combination ] : an assortment of cappuccinos and café mochas.
ORIGIN early 19th cent.: French

"Cafe"

Rite so when i was looking at the choice cafe I went and did quite a bit of research on full on main meals. It is only now that i realized that "cafe" doesnt mean full on main meals. i was originally wanting to photography big crusty buns with salad and and fillet of salmon in a country style theme so i will still include my research for this idea but i also have research for cafe style as well.

Organising of another shoot-23rd Feb

After the trouble of the second beauty shoot i had and the model canceling on me i found it really hard to keep the will of keeping going with this course because there is so much work and it hard at the moment. It took a couple of days but i regained the will and set to re-organizing i roped i my friend from a shoot which i did with but did not use her work her name is Emme Shafto and i know her through my work. I negotiate a day with her when we would shoot and we organized and booked the 23rd of February. I know my deadline is for the 12th of march and it will be a close shave but with my mac at home i was thinking i should be able to get my images edited and ready in time. I think my best bet is now to go on and do my food photography research until my beauty shoot next week. So from now on the next research will be food photography for my 3rd image.I will come back to my beauty once the shoot has been done.

Shoot organized for today.

Well i woke up early with my bags packed and everything ready this morning, started to get ready and about to set of to pick claire reed the "model" up when she rang me saying she had woken up late and cud we pick her up at 8.30 i said yeah thats fine. We then received another call at 25 past 8, it was her mum saying claire was ill and couldn't do the modeling today. Well it was safe to say i broke down in tears so much planning and organizing down the pan in one easy sweep. At that point i really felt like i didn't want to continue with this course any longer. Every Idea i come up with something goes wrong or I'm not abel to do it. I was really fed up, but i needed to go into uni and i needed to get the technicians to look at my mac, fortunately the technicians and paul had me laughing again so i felt much better after that. Right now I'm at home reluctantly organizing another shoot with another model when i find one i wont be using claire as a model again lesson learnt. I was so exhausted today because shoots take so much organizing and I've lost a lot of sleep recently for nothing, and have been so stressed with the whole module as well as being ill it was the worst move claire could have done to me but move on. Get a new model and shoot again. I'm going to go on doing some food reserach i think ive spent a lot of time organizing these beauty shoots.  

Makeup Ideas -black and gold

Over the weekend I went and shopped for the bits and bobs i would need well it was safe to say that Darlington had nothing which i needed. My original idea for the makeup was black and purple, but ive had an idea change. When looking for purple dots everything was gold. I found a ribbon with 3 different size glitter circles all over it,so i spent saturday night cutting out lots of gold circles i also have black glittery circles. I have plenty of black and gold eyeshadow thank goodness. I also found it very had to find net as Darlington only sold dress net(smaller squares) so i resorted to buying big fishnets and i will be forming it to Claire's face after help from my mum laying it across my face it looked quite alike the net(problem solving). I know i wanted to go along the purple and black theme but i think the black and gold theme would be more flattering.I have a gold material so i will be using it in the background and with claire having brown hair i think the composition would be more fetching that using the idea i was thinking about using before.

Sketched makeup ideas to use in shoot on tuesday.

I really like this design This idea came from the research i recently did for the next shoot i really liked how the models makeup was so striking with the black in this design i added purple to the makeup, the circles on the models face added a touch of individuality and the netting adds the to beauty. This makeup design i will definitely be using as my first makeup if i have time after the first makeup change i will be using the second makeup change.

This idea was again a mixture of designs researched earlier on in my blog. The ideas came from the vivd black,green and pink design in the research section as well as the ethnic image of a model with red and orange design down the side of her face. I really like this design if i get time i will use this as a second makeup change in the shoot on tuesday.

This sketch was taken from the maori Design that i researched earlier on in my blog(red Maori face design) further down in my blog. I enrolled the traditional colors of black and i mixed it with a vivd turquoise with a slight tint of green in the background. Although i like this design i think it's to harsh and does not show the main aim to the shoot the cosmetic(makeup).

Makeup Ideas

Hair styles to use in shoot

Here i have done some research on the hair style i want Claire to use. I think when shooting beauty and from the research i have done i have found that the models have the hair out of the face. It defines and brings out the beauty so you simply concentrate on the makeup,and also reduces the risks of shadows on the face from the hair.

Maori body art and tatoo's

Rite this is the section where i was considering using maori style design used within the makeup. As i stated earlier on in the blog i started that i wasn't to sure about doing these designs, because it takes the focus from cosmetic makeup to Ethnic designs. Although the designs are lovely and sometimes really suit the contours on the face. It takes the main aim to another subject.

Beauty shoot organised for 9th Febuary

After having a tutorial with richard we decided that i needed to do another shoot so i organized another studio shoot yesterday for studio one on Tuesday the 9th of February, the research after this post will be relevant to the shoot coming up and the ideas that i come up with.

Tutotial with Richard Whitehead about shoot.

After doing my shoot with Claire Reed and editing the images,i felt i needed a little feed back on my images, at the time i felt they were good enough quality to hand in but after the tutorial we came up with a few problems. The lighting upon Claire's face had fallen wrong she had a big shadow coming from her nose across her cheek. We also decided that the combination of red edited hair and a red background was to much.
Also we had decided the makeup was to minimalist for a "Cosmetics shoot" we needed big makeup. Unfortunately because i was so strapped for time we only had chance to do one shoot with one makeup change. I then mentioned my idea of maori and there designs and Richard seemed very keen on the idea. Whilst being in uni yesterday i did some research on Maori designs, but when returning home and chatting with my mum this may be the wrong route to go along. When looking at the basics of cosmetic advertising the model is wearing the product or holding it.
Where as if i started to concentrate on a maori design it takes it from the cosmetic to ethnic.And i think the main aim is to advertise the product. So i have now decided to choose a full face,half face or almost mask makeup style i have research to back this idea up. After this tutorial i went home a started my research again so i have more research to back my maori idea up and the makeup idea.
We also decided that the colours in claires hair were the wrong tones for the red background as well as the lighting. So i booked the studio as soon as possible for next Tuesday for a morning slot and to use the lesson slot(because it take me more than 4 hours to do a shoot).

Beauty shoot

Here are the images from the beauty shoot with the image bellow.I have edited this image quite a lot like the brief wanted. Here i changed the color of her hair to red, i made her lips "reder"and i also lightened her skin as i wanted a light skinned effect, like the research i did earlier (on the phone uploads) the image with the 2 models in the composition with light skin vivid makeup and fake eyelashes i like how they have achieved an almost porcelain doll effect.

Here i have adjusted the color of Claire' hair to being blond i also again adjusted the color of her skin to a lighter shade as described above.

With this last image this is where i have enrolled the idea of Justin grants work of the material involved into the composition within the background. I achieved all these adjustment in adobe using hue saturation,selective color and

layer masks.

Research that i found in the library and internet previous to shoot.

This image(make upwise)influenced me with the shoot i will post after this post.I liked the obvious 1950's  make up when organizing the makeup i asked claire to do her makeup the same as this model but she didn't do it as vivid, next time we do a shoot i will be doing the makeup.

Here is a design that i was thinking about using on claire's face (maori design)

I like how this model uses her arm to fill the composition.

I really like the vivd eyeshadow on these models cheeks and eyes and i also love the over the top eyelashes there really effective.

Again i liked the eyeshadow on the models cheek's and the design.

I like how this face is decorated with makeup to make a peacock feather.

I like this henna design.I thought this design down the side of the models face may be nice.

I like this 

Design around the eye 

Again i like 

the eyeshadow design.

I really like the eyeshadow design in this image i also thought that this design may suit claire's face.

I like how this composition is filled with flowers. I saw this image and liked the idea of it when i was considering including flowers into my composition like in the justin grant research.

I liked the idea of close up beauty shots of lips,eyes involved with something creative.

I liked the idea of a tryptic involving 3 different images,this would involves high adobe work.

I like how the model's hair is backlit.

I really like the neck piece in this beauty shoot plus the makeup. I think it adds to the beauty shot.

I love how this design travels down the models face and neck.

 Again i like how this model has 1950's makeup and her hair is back lit.