Organizing of the shoot beauty shoot 26th January

Previously to this assignment i asked my friend to model for me when the opportunity came up her name is Claire Reed and we've been friends since we were babies,and I personally think she's quite Pretty.I approached her and asked her to be my model and she agreed. I booked the studio well in advance for the 26th January(tuesday). (after previously looking in my local library to see if they had back copies of vogue which they did not!)I went to see Claire and we got our head together and looked through her many many copies of vouge, to try to come up with ideas for makeup. Although i had done so much research i was still very vague as to what i wanted to achieve but something along the lines of August Bradley ( I personally think i did to much research and therefore had to many ideas hens the reason i was still a little undecided). I also went down and visited her gave her a list of things she needed to bring along and things i needed to bring along.

When beginning this assignment me and my friend on this course felt a little unconfident in the studio so we both decided to work together. My friend had agreed that we would pick claire reed up with her belongings ( because i cannot drive yet)and travel down to Hartlepool and we would both help each other learn from the shoot. Unfortunately my friend canceled on me so i was left in the lurch i had to ask my mum to help drive us down and watch the shoot and fortunately it all went well problem solving to a T :). in my next post i will publish my edited images from the shoot and previous research (the last of it finally...too much.....) 

August Bradley

Right so now we have reached August Bradley he is a fashion and beauty photographer and i love love love his work. His work are almost like paintings i especially love his fashion but lets concentrate on his beauty which is where my main research lies. So lets begin here are the images from his work which influenced me to want to do a fashion shoot along the lines of his work:

Right so where do i begin with his work a big big influence of my work has come from august bradley and here are the reasons why:

*with his images i love how he has left empty space, which leaves space for customers minds to wonder what's on the other side of the image. It also allows for titles or text if needed(with advertising cosmetics)

* I love how he has edited sections of the models hair and makeup to be bight and colorful and to make the colors so much stronger using Adobe.

*I like how he has used a black background Im not a fan on white backgrounds.

* And i also like the lighting on his models i think it works well with the choice in makeup and the model.

Those were some ideas that i wanted to carry on with my photo shoot.

Umbar Shakir

Whilst doing my research i came across Umbar Shakir, on first impression the entrance to his website i thought his images weren't going to be to great his website entrance seemed a bit simplistic but when entering his website i change my mind. I really liked some of his work, he has some really unusual ideas and a different take on beauty and fashion which i liked. Im not keen on the predictable. Within some of his Beauty images i Found a nice design i thought of to include into my beauty images seeing this image gave me ideas to decorate the models faces with designs but yet with the cosmetics. This idea then led me on to thinking about henna tattoos maori tattoos etc but this research will be included further on in my blogg.

These image bellow here were taken by the same photographer i choose to include these images because i liked the brightness on the eye shadows these are the tones i was wanting to create but on large scale makeup i also liked the decorated hand and peacock feather as decoration this also had more ideas going through my head.

Again these images bellow had my mind going over time to unfortunately i have a soft spot for jewelry, so when i saw these images bellow which were named the deadly sins (7 sins) i was starting to think about including large jewelry into the composition to add a little jazz. When doing the photo shoot this was one idea that i carried through(will be explained in more detail further into blog)

Steven Eastwood

Also whilst looking through fashion and beauty photographers in first year i came across stephen Eastwood. I do like some of his work but some of it is very hit a miss the pictures bellow i have choosen to inlcude because i like the lighting within these images:

Within this image i love how he has used strip lights to light the subject i think the strip lights really bring out his features and they light his eyes and make them look meaning-full.

Compositions?

When thinking of compositions I've thought many ideas up here is one idea which i liked the idea of and also included adobe skills of merging 2 images together. With this image im not all that keen on the make up but simply the composition this image was taken my Richard Milles.

Justin grant.

Right so lets begin with justin grant. Now justin grant I came upon in first year when

 researching fashion. His beauty images are unusual and not as predictive as some photographers going with the natural look when seeing this image i really wanted to involve a composition with flowers within it, as flowers are represented as a natural beauty sometimes and can also make a great composition. (and also involves high skills of adobie to add flowers and make them look convincing. Looking further through his work i came across another 2 images which also influenced me.                      

After seeing this image i Loved how her eyes seemed so "soufull" and bright. This again is another tip of adobe photoshop that i wanted to use. I have been trying to use this technique for sometime but have been unsuccessful due to the reason i haven't found a model with such vivid eyes bellow you will find some advice my friend sent me via e-mail a year ago to help me adjust the eyes.

When thinking about ideas after seeing this image this also had my mind going into over drive. I was thinking of subtle but nice layers to include into my image to enhance the "beauty" of the image. This image also demonstrated the technique of layer masks, and several layers justin grant did have a good influence upon my ideas.

My view of cosmetics

When thinking of cosmetics the word that comes to my mind straight away is makeup. Now how would you interpret makeup within photography. 

My view: Beauty,

 it shows the enhancement of features with make up (as defined bellow) it sells the product and can be classed as advertising photography. Over the past few weeks i have been continuously researching beauty. I went to my local library Darlington library within the town centre and went through several vogue books, makeup advice books etc, Because when looking through the net (my preferred method of research) i found that in the Photography retail "Beauty" is very dulled down. simplistic designed to show natural beauty. But with me wanting to focus on cosmetics i needed big makeup big hair lots of adobe bellow you will find several photographers i researched and what i liked about there work

Definition of: Cosmetics

Definition of cosmetics: Cosmetics are substances used to enhance the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care creams, lotions, powders, perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and gels, deodorants, baby products, bath oils, bubble baths, bath salts, butters and many other types of products. A subset of cosmetics is called "make-up," which refers primarily to colored products intended to alter the user’s appearance. Many manufacturers distinguish between decorative cosmetics and care cosmetics.

The manufacture of cosmetics is currently dominated by a small number of multinational corporations that originated in the early 20th century, but the distribution and sale of cosmetics is spread among a wide range of different businesses. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which regulates cosmetics in the United States^[1] defines cosmetics as: "intended to be applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance without affecting the body's structure or functions." This broad definition includes, as well, any material intended for use as a component of a cosmetic product. The FDA specifically excludes soap from this category.

2 ideas Decided

I know i haven't posted any posts within my blog for some while the reason for this was because i was so unsure with what i wanted to do. I had relatively decided on cosmetics but i wasn't t sure where that was going to lead me. The reason why i haven't been putting much posts upon my blog was because i wanted to get a fair idea of what i was doing rather than posting many things. Over the period i haven't been posting my work i have done tones of research and have defiantly come up with one idea, done a shoot for it and may have one final print sorted with lots of adobe photoshop usage.

Over the next few day i will post all my photographers i have found and reserach

Decisions Decisions

Rite so we received the brief and right now I really haven’t got a clue what to do(subject matter wise).I have done some research but with all dew respect some of the commercial photography for advertising (taken by some photographers) I really wouldn’t rate.

 I had a look in the library and asked the librarian to help me find a book with high quality advertising images but what we came up with was very old fashioned with not much adobe Photoshop use-age. I think this weekend I will have a look in my local library and see what I can come up with if anything. I found that when researching advertising on the Internet there is such a vast range that when looking, you don’t really come up with much but I will pursue with my ideas.

 Right now I know we have to produce 3 images and I feel like I’m being pulled towards, cosmetics and maybe interpret that into beauty with cosmetics also including makeup with some cleaver adobe Photoshop-I have an idea for that. And again I feel my self being pulled towards fashion again and the third I am going to leave to my research and see what tickles my fancy.