Contemporary Edits

Below are the re-touched images from the 'contemporary theme shoot'. The shadow created on the back drop I think can work well with the theme of movement photography as well as trying out the staggering technique available on Photoshop. 

This re-touched image has good and bad aspects. A better aspect of the photo is the composition, its in keeping with the theme, the positioning is intended to display a strong correlation between the models to suggest flowing dance movements.  

However, the front model's lips do not look as bold and shapely as intended so this could be a reason not to include this particular shot for the book. Further editing may come in use and revamp the overall outcome. 

Lip colour experiment:

After analysing the faults in this shoot I wanted to attempt to change the lip colour to see if this would revive the intended outcome. The brightly coloured visors set the colour scheme off and I thought brightly coloured glossy lips would perhaps work better than the first attempt of two tone purple lips, so I gave it a shot and this is the finished product. 

After another feed back session my tutor agreed that the change of lip colour improves the image a great deal and rounds off the vibrant and modern feel to the shoot. 

This will be one of my final images for the book and I am pleased I went back and changed certain aspects of the look further to get to this point in the final stages of editing and choosing final images to print. 

Re-shoot on Contemporary Look

The contemporary dance themed shoot was carried out on the same day as my 'jazz' inspired shoot. Being lucky enough to get hold of a camera and professional lights this allowed me to experiment with composition. 

After a feed back session before Easter, my tutor advised me to perhaps interpret a photo shoot into the book that involves two models. This idea could work well with the chosen theme to this project so I decided to give this idea a go and contacted two models to contribute to this dance genre of 'Contemporary'. 

Here are some of the shots: 

With this idea I explored various ways of positioning the models to get as many strong double shots as possible to express the sense of dance and connection to movement. 

The styling was completely revamped as I wanted to create a whole new look. The black leotards are intended to make the models look smart and bold whilst drawing attention to the coloured visors. The aim was to display an extremely modernised look and with this theme in mind I decided to scrape the hair back into a tight pony tail and wrap the hair around the join to finish the style in a clean and effective way. 

I wanted to create a fairly simple make-up look as the first attempt at the contemporary theme, I found I was trying to add too many styles into one look and almost over complicated what should of been a bold and simple design. 

With this in mind I decided to keep a simple eye liner design as the eyes were to be covered by the brightly coloured visors. I wanted to focus the make-up look on the lip and did this by creating a two tone lip. 

However, after looking back at the images the purple lip colour has not turned out as brightly as I would of imagined it to look so after going through this issue with my tutor I want to attempt to edit the colour of the lips on Photoshop to see if I can create a more brightly coloured finish to make the look flow and stand out.  

Re-touched images are to come...... 

Re-shoot Contemporary Inspiration

Various fashion brands have caught my eye throughout this project and in particular House of Holland has been one brand that I enjoy looking at and taking inspiration from. 

The picture below has specifically attracted me due to the sense of movement displayed within the picture and also the added effect of there being two models. Their composition and positioning creates an interesting photograph and the use of make-up, hair and styling finish the look. Its fun, modern and playful style I think can reflect the idea of 'Contemporary dance' and I would like to interpret this into my re-shoot. 

Taking on board direction from my tutor, including a 'duo shoot' in the book would express diversity to my images and a change of pattern throughout the book. I would like to take this advice and see how I manage to direct two models and come up with hair and make-up designs fitting with the chosen theme. 

Pictures of the re-shoot are to follow........ 

Re-Shoot of Jazz Dance Theme

I decided to organise a re-shoot for the ‘Jazz’ theme during the Easter holidays and revamped the entire idea of make up, hair and styling bringing an improved make up look and colour scheme of black, gold and bronze into play and complimenting this new look with additional styling ideas to create a better image. 

The following images are the outcome of the re-shoot. They will need further re-touching to polish the image to make it suitable for printing in the book. 

In the re-touching stages I want to darken the background to a grey/black tone to compliment the gold shimmer and shine of the make-up and styling. Feed back session also helped a great deal as I received pointers as to how to present certain images from this shoot. 

A two page spread with two pictures on each could look effective and add to my aim of representing a sense of movement through the photography by using the images below to do this: 

I plan to use the same technique previously mentioned to edit these images to best display colours lighting and theme of this shoot. 

Further Reflection & Quotes

In the begining I was originally focusing my ideas and plans for the book more towards hollywood films and how I could interpret make-up designs and looks from the film industry. However along my journey the direction of the book has changed slightly. Research and inspiration has been laregly focused on art works and work of other make-up artists.

I have been inspired when thinking about my chosen dance styles and what mood each style portrays when being performed. When delving into moods and feelings of dance, colour becomes a huge aspect and can be used to compliment certain dance styles and the message I am attempting to display.

When considering the books content I want to try and include quotes which are in keeping with the theme of dance. I think involving quotes into the pages of the book will tie the theme together and give an artistic edge to the layout without having to describe too obviously what my book is based upon.

Here are some examples of dance quotes by famous dancers, philosophers & writers:

‘’Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire’’ – George Bernard Shaw

‘’ To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak’’ – Indian Proverb

‘’Dance is the poetic baring of the soul through motion’’ – Scott Nilsson

‘’Great dancers are not great because of their technique: they are great because of their passion’’ – Martha Graham

‘’Everything in the universe has rhythm, everything dances’’ – Maya Angelou

‘’It’s not how you move its what moves you’’ – Pina Bausch

‘’Dance is the movement of the universe concentrated in an individual’’ – Isadora Duncan

‘’Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery’’ – Martha Graham

‘’Dance is a song of the body, either joy or pain’’ – Martha Graham

‘’The movement moment itself, its content, meaning and relationship to the human spirit’’ – Rodolph Laban

‘’There are times when the simple dignity of movement can fulfil the function of a volume of words’’ – Doris Humphrey

‘’The dance : a minimum of explanation, a minimum of anecdotes and a maximum of sensations’’ – Maurice Bejart

‘’Dance is like life, it exists as you’re flitting through it, and when its over its done’’ – Jerome Robbins

‘’Ballet is a dance executed by the human souls’’ – Alexanda Pushkin

‘’Let us read and let us dance – two amusements that will never do any harm to the world’’ – Voltaire

‘’Dance are athletes of god’’ – Albert Einstein

‘’Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul’’ – Plato

Reflection so far...

I want to write a reflection post so far, to note down any thoughts or worries I have regarding images and preparation for the printed book.

I am pleased with many of my shoots planned and created so far however there are a couple that I think are not to my best ability.

I had a nightmare on the day of my 'Jazz' themed shoot and ended up with no photographer which then put strain on a lot of other aspects of the shoot ending up in me compromising time in hair and make-up to set up the shoot and hire camera and all other necessities in order to take the photographs. Because of this problem I had on the day I am not happy with the overall final images for 'Jazz' and I want to plan a re-shoot in the holidays. I will hire a camera and set up a studio from home as I am lucky enough to have access to leads and lights to borrow from local film studios at home in London.

The other shoot I am also entirely pleased with is the 'Contemporary' shoot. After having feed back from the tutors I am concerned about the standard of the shoot. I don’t want to include a shoot that isn't one hundred percent right and fitting to my book. If possible I am going to re-shoot this theme also in the holidays and use models I am in contact with from home in London to hopefully create a stronger shoot to use in my FMP.

Time is my main worry at the moment and how I’m going to put the book all together in InDesign to be sent off to print on time for submission. I have begun playing around with layouts in InDesign and using a template downloaded from Blurb which is 12x12 square book.

I will be printing my book with Blurb as their service is reliable and I have had various emails back and forth with Blurb concerning my book and what I will need to do to have it printed in time, paper type, thickness and pages and sizes.

I am planning on having 50-60 pages if not more if possible for the final product as I have aimed to complete x10 photo shoots. I would like to have glossy pages inside the book and perhaps a wrap around glossy cover also on the outside.

Time is ticking now and its time for me to focus on finalising my shoots and edits and getting these re-shoots I need done in order to move forward and finish the layout of my FMP in InDesign.

Wish me luck!!

Edits from Contermporary Shoot

Here are a couple of edits from the contemporary shoot. 

The green stripe that goes through this image below creates a sense of movement without using the staggering technique on all the final images. Also it is matching the colour pallet of the makeup deisng and styling. I do think this image gives a modern feel and mood to the audience however some of the shading on the face does seem to be lost which is an issue for developing this image further and potentially using it in the printed book.

Feedback :

Another meeting with my tutor took place and I was able to show the images from this shoot and also these edits to see what the thoughts were on the whole shoot, make-up, fashion, hair and theme.

Feedback I recieved was that the photo's are in danger of making the model look like she has bags underneath the eyes and some of the shading could also be mistaken to look dirty on the face. This was no way my intention for the shoot but looking through the pictures afterwards, I do see where my tutor is coming from. I do not want to display makeup designs that in any way look dirty or not in keeping with the theme.

This edit below in particular, you can see what my tutor's point is even though some of the shading has been blended on photoshop it could be mistaken to look dirty.

I need to sit down with the pictures and analyse what needs to be done in editing to pull the picture and idea back to look professional or whether it is a case of re-shooting to get the perfect image for the book!