This year,for my final major project I have decided to make a few pieces of work instead of one. I have learnt a lot of new things and techniques on this course, so I wanted to show the audience what I have achieved by being on this course.
The first project that I have decided to do was a 'Body' photo shoot.I have always been interested in human body because we are all so different and in our society a lot of people are being judged and bullied for how their body looks and being a photographer, I had a chance to show people that everyone is beautiful no matter how big their arms are,how muscly their chest is or how much you can see their collarbones.
For this photo shoot I have used the dark studio that we have in our classroom.Before doing the photo shoot I have painted the back wall because that was going to be the main background for the photos.After painting that I have found the people that would model for that specific project.I wanted the photos to be black&white and have a lot of highlights and shadows, so for my lighting I have experimented with a soft box but I thought that it didn't give enough shadow to the body part that I was taking a photo of so I have used spot lights instead and then for some photos I have used a little table lamp because I wanted just the silhouette of the body part to be seen. The camera that I was using for that photo shoot was a Canon 650D and as I was doing the photo shoot in the dark I needed to use the 50mm lens but I have also used a 200mm lens to take some photos.
After taking the photos I have chosen the best ones out of them all and I have edited them to black&white in photo shop. When all the editing was done, I have sent the photos off to a printing company called DSColor labs. As I was exhibiting my work outside of my classroom, I wanted the photos to be in photo frames but to buy real photo frames for 30 photos was too expensive so I thought of an alternative and I have made the frames out of mount board and they were all different colors such as light gray,dark gray and black. I thought it was a good idea to represent the colors in the photos on the photo frames.
The next project that I did was a 'Disney' Photo shoot. At first I only did Disney Princesses but then I have also decided to do a Disney Villains as well because I had really good ideas for the way the models could dress up for the photo shoot. I was mostly inspired by Annie Leibovitz because she is one of my favourite photographers and she has done a lot of Disney themed photo shoots with famous people and I just wanted to do something different from what I have done before.
My first initial idea was to do just Disney Princesses photo shoot but when I have finished doing that photo shoot I thought that there was not enough photos to exhibit them so I decided to use the same people that have modeled for other photo shoot and do another one, but this time a Disney Villains photo shoot.For both of these shoots I have used the main studio that we have in our room which has a white backdrop in it.Camera wise, I have used a Canon 700D this time because I have brought it from home. I have decided to use a 200mm for this photo shoot because I really like that lens, I think it's very powerful and the photos taken with it come out to be a great quality.For the lighting I have used two soft boxes, one had a warmer tone to it and the other had a blue tint to it but I really liked how the photos turned out. I have also experimented sometimes and tried to take a photo with just one of the lights on and I found that it has worked really well especially when I was doing the Villains photo shoot,the soft box with a more colder tint to it gave a more tense and scary looking effect to the photo without me doing any editing in photo shop.
After I have finished doing the photo shoots I have also sent these photos to the same printing company as I have the 'Body' photos and it was also too expensive to get real frames for those photos so I have made the frames for them out of different colored mount board and I have decided which color to get by looking at the original princess or villain, so for example Snow white had yellow and blue as the main colors of her dress and I looked at the photo that I took and blue was more suitable than yellow so I have made all 3 frames out of blue mount board and the same was with all the other photos.
Another project that I have decided to do was a 'Half Drag' photo shoot. My inspiration for this photo shoot was a photographer called Leland Bobbe. He has done a photo shoot with men in make up but they only had make up on half of their face. So one side of their faces was their male side and the other the 'Drag' side had wigs on and also maybe they had some earrings on and painted nails or rings.Other thing that has inspired me to do this photo shoot is TV series called ' Ru Paul's Drag Race'. It is about Drag Queens competing in different competitions such as lip syncing,costume making and performing and I think they are all so brave to do what they do and I wanted to show people that it is okay for a man to dress in Drag if he wants to and people shouldn't treat a man any different to what they would treat a normal person like.For this particular project I needed male models so I have asked my boyfriend and his friends to be models for this photo shoot. I have also asked a friend of mine to do the make up for the photo shoot because he does it professionally and I wanted the photos to look really good and as professional as I can make them look.
On the day of the photo shoot I have asked everyone to get to college early because the make up was going to be time consuming and also all the details that needed to be added on such as nail painting and putting on the wigs.
After all the preparation for the photo shoot has been done, I have set up the two softboxes that we have in the main studio and have also put a stool in the middle of the set because I needed the models to sit down so I can take photos of their top half of their body.The camera that I have used was a Canon 650D and I used a 200mm lens because it was perfect for the photos that I wanted to achieve.
When I have finished the photo shoot, I have put all the photos on the mac in college and have done a little bit of color adjustment to make the make up on the models stand out a little bit more. For these photos I have decided that I wanted something different than having mount frames and I have decided to print the photos out and put them on the hangers and I really liked that idea.
The last project that I wanted to do was the Gig photo book. Being a photographer and having a boyfriend that is a musician I have a lot of opportunities to go to local gigs and take photos of local bands. I really enjoy music and it is a big part of my life so I wanted to show everyone how much fun the gigs are and I felt like I did that really well because of all the bright colors in photos that I have used in that book. This project didn't take up as much time as others did because I already had all the photos on my laptop and all I had to do was go through them and chose what photos I wanted to put in that book and also see if any of them needed cropping or any editing. After that I have found an online company that do photo books and I had to send my photos of to them so they would put them in a book.
This project didn't require a lot of things doing to it but it still required a lot of thinking because I didn't want to put repetitive work in my photo book. The lighting in most of my photos is artificial because the gigs have been organised at Arden Road or Orange box and there have been a lot of different colored lights set up so the photos that I have took, none of them were the same because of the light change and I really like that. For most of the photos that I have took I have used my own camera which is a Canon 700D and a 50mm lens but sometimes when it wasn't too dark in the room I would use a 200mm lens and also the photos that I have took outside, I have used a kit lens because those were the first photos that I have ever took but I still thought that they were really good so I wanted to include them in my book.
Whilst I was doing all those photo shoots, I have decided that I want to set up a camera and record the photo shoot and all the other things that have to be done before the shoot.On the day of the photo shoot before the model would turn up, I would set up a camera on a tripod and then adjust it to what angle I want it at when the person sat down on a chair to do their make up or nails. I have asked my tutor to change the angles of the camera sometimes when I was doing the photo shoot so the camera would capture me working as well as the model. I decided to do this because I thought it would be really good to make some 'making of' videos after I have finished the actual photo shoots to show people how I have done my photo shoot and all the little details such as correcting the model's make up, telling them how I want them to pose and what direction I wanted them to look at.I think that the videos that I have made turned out to be really good and personally I think it promotes the course that I was on and shows what we do on a daily basis,it shows that before the photo shoot you need to do the research so you know what you need to do and also shows that there is a lot of things that need to be done ,it's not just clicking the shutter button on your camera.
Personally, I am very proud of my work this year and I have put so much more effort in all the projects but especially this one because it was my last chance to show people what I have learnt on this course and who I have become as a person and photographer. I think that this year my work has some meaning to it and I didn't just do it because someone else has or etc but I have done it because some of the projects were very personal to me and also some of them were something that I have never done before but I felt like I needed to try something new not what I have been doing such as horror and music videos. I have really enjoyed doing the photo shoots that I have done for this project and I think that all of them came out to be high standard photo shoots.
The only major obstacle in my work at first was my stress and my anxiety because I wanted my work to look the best it could so I was really worried that I won't be able to finish everything in time but after speaking with my tutor and looking at the things that I needed to do,I stopped worrying about things and have continued to do my work and just make sure that I cover every aspect of the tasks that needed to be done.
The only thing that I would change about my project if I was to do it again would be that I would print some photos out in different formats for example for the body photo shoot I would print a few photos in an A1 format and some as small as A4 but that is the only change that I would do to my work because I think everything else has come out to be very successful.
The first project that I have decided to do was a 'Body' photo shoot.I have always been interested in human body because we are all so different and in our society a lot of people are being judged and bullied for how their body looks and being a photographer, I had a chance to show people that everyone is beautiful no matter how big their arms are,how muscly their chest is or how much you can see their collarbones.
For this photo shoot I have used the dark studio that we have in our classroom.Before doing the photo shoot I have painted the back wall because that was going to be the main background for the photos.After painting that I have found the people that would model for that specific project.I wanted the photos to be black&white and have a lot of highlights and shadows, so for my lighting I have experimented with a soft box but I thought that it didn't give enough shadow to the body part that I was taking a photo of so I have used spot lights instead and then for some photos I have used a little table lamp because I wanted just the silhouette of the body part to be seen. The camera that I was using for that photo shoot was a Canon 650D and as I was doing the photo shoot in the dark I needed to use the 50mm lens but I have also used a 200mm lens to take some photos.
After taking the photos I have chosen the best ones out of them all and I have edited them to black&white in photo shop. When all the editing was done, I have sent the photos off to a printing company called DSColor labs. As I was exhibiting my work outside of my classroom, I wanted the photos to be in photo frames but to buy real photo frames for 30 photos was too expensive so I thought of an alternative and I have made the frames out of mount board and they were all different colors such as light gray,dark gray and black. I thought it was a good idea to represent the colors in the photos on the photo frames.
The next project that I did was a 'Disney' Photo shoot. At first I only did Disney Princesses but then I have also decided to do a Disney Villains as well because I had really good ideas for the way the models could dress up for the photo shoot. I was mostly inspired by Annie Leibovitz because she is one of my favourite photographers and she has done a lot of Disney themed photo shoots with famous people and I just wanted to do something different from what I have done before.
My first initial idea was to do just Disney Princesses photo shoot but when I have finished doing that photo shoot I thought that there was not enough photos to exhibit them so I decided to use the same people that have modeled for other photo shoot and do another one, but this time a Disney Villains photo shoot.For both of these shoots I have used the main studio that we have in our room which has a white backdrop in it.Camera wise, I have used a Canon 700D this time because I have brought it from home. I have decided to use a 200mm for this photo shoot because I really like that lens, I think it's very powerful and the photos taken with it come out to be a great quality.For the lighting I have used two soft boxes, one had a warmer tone to it and the other had a blue tint to it but I really liked how the photos turned out. I have also experimented sometimes and tried to take a photo with just one of the lights on and I found that it has worked really well especially when I was doing the Villains photo shoot,the soft box with a more colder tint to it gave a more tense and scary looking effect to the photo without me doing any editing in photo shop.
After I have finished doing the photo shoots I have also sent these photos to the same printing company as I have the 'Body' photos and it was also too expensive to get real frames for those photos so I have made the frames for them out of different colored mount board and I have decided which color to get by looking at the original princess or villain, so for example Snow white had yellow and blue as the main colors of her dress and I looked at the photo that I took and blue was more suitable than yellow so I have made all 3 frames out of blue mount board and the same was with all the other photos.
Another project that I have decided to do was a 'Half Drag' photo shoot. My inspiration for this photo shoot was a photographer called Leland Bobbe. He has done a photo shoot with men in make up but they only had make up on half of their face. So one side of their faces was their male side and the other the 'Drag' side had wigs on and also maybe they had some earrings on and painted nails or rings.Other thing that has inspired me to do this photo shoot is TV series called ' Ru Paul's Drag Race'. It is about Drag Queens competing in different competitions such as lip syncing,costume making and performing and I think they are all so brave to do what they do and I wanted to show people that it is okay for a man to dress in Drag if he wants to and people shouldn't treat a man any different to what they would treat a normal person like.For this particular project I needed male models so I have asked my boyfriend and his friends to be models for this photo shoot. I have also asked a friend of mine to do the make up for the photo shoot because he does it professionally and I wanted the photos to look really good and as professional as I can make them look.
On the day of the photo shoot I have asked everyone to get to college early because the make up was going to be time consuming and also all the details that needed to be added on such as nail painting and putting on the wigs.
After all the preparation for the photo shoot has been done, I have set up the two softboxes that we have in the main studio and have also put a stool in the middle of the set because I needed the models to sit down so I can take photos of their top half of their body.The camera that I have used was a Canon 650D and I used a 200mm lens because it was perfect for the photos that I wanted to achieve.
When I have finished the photo shoot, I have put all the photos on the mac in college and have done a little bit of color adjustment to make the make up on the models stand out a little bit more. For these photos I have decided that I wanted something different than having mount frames and I have decided to print the photos out and put them on the hangers and I really liked that idea.
The last project that I wanted to do was the Gig photo book. Being a photographer and having a boyfriend that is a musician I have a lot of opportunities to go to local gigs and take photos of local bands. I really enjoy music and it is a big part of my life so I wanted to show everyone how much fun the gigs are and I felt like I did that really well because of all the bright colors in photos that I have used in that book. This project didn't take up as much time as others did because I already had all the photos on my laptop and all I had to do was go through them and chose what photos I wanted to put in that book and also see if any of them needed cropping or any editing. After that I have found an online company that do photo books and I had to send my photos of to them so they would put them in a book.
This project didn't require a lot of things doing to it but it still required a lot of thinking because I didn't want to put repetitive work in my photo book. The lighting in most of my photos is artificial because the gigs have been organised at Arden Road or Orange box and there have been a lot of different colored lights set up so the photos that I have took, none of them were the same because of the light change and I really like that. For most of the photos that I have took I have used my own camera which is a Canon 700D and a 50mm lens but sometimes when it wasn't too dark in the room I would use a 200mm lens and also the photos that I have took outside, I have used a kit lens because those were the first photos that I have ever took but I still thought that they were really good so I wanted to include them in my book.
Whilst I was doing all those photo shoots, I have decided that I want to set up a camera and record the photo shoot and all the other things that have to be done before the shoot.On the day of the photo shoot before the model would turn up, I would set up a camera on a tripod and then adjust it to what angle I want it at when the person sat down on a chair to do their make up or nails. I have asked my tutor to change the angles of the camera sometimes when I was doing the photo shoot so the camera would capture me working as well as the model. I decided to do this because I thought it would be really good to make some 'making of' videos after I have finished the actual photo shoots to show people how I have done my photo shoot and all the little details such as correcting the model's make up, telling them how I want them to pose and what direction I wanted them to look at.I think that the videos that I have made turned out to be really good and personally I think it promotes the course that I was on and shows what we do on a daily basis,it shows that before the photo shoot you need to do the research so you know what you need to do and also shows that there is a lot of things that need to be done ,it's not just clicking the shutter button on your camera.
Personally, I am very proud of my work this year and I have put so much more effort in all the projects but especially this one because it was my last chance to show people what I have learnt on this course and who I have become as a person and photographer. I think that this year my work has some meaning to it and I didn't just do it because someone else has or etc but I have done it because some of the projects were very personal to me and also some of them were something that I have never done before but I felt like I needed to try something new not what I have been doing such as horror and music videos. I have really enjoyed doing the photo shoots that I have done for this project and I think that all of them came out to be high standard photo shoots.
The only major obstacle in my work at first was my stress and my anxiety because I wanted my work to look the best it could so I was really worried that I won't be able to finish everything in time but after speaking with my tutor and looking at the things that I needed to do,I stopped worrying about things and have continued to do my work and just make sure that I cover every aspect of the tasks that needed to be done.
The only thing that I would change about my project if I was to do it again would be that I would print some photos out in different formats for example for the body photo shoot I would print a few photos in an A1 format and some as small as A4 but that is the only change that I would do to my work because I think everything else has come out to be very successful.