Blog address: http://marthaleeb.blogspot.com/
Website: http://marthaleebirks.carbonmade.com/
Overall I am really happy with my work for this assignment, I feel that my final images are really strong and that I had developed my ideas significantly throughout this project.
I love the aesthetic of my final images, they are just what I was aiming for. All of my research has successfully contributed to my final outcome, I feel that one of my strengths in this assignment has been my attention to detail. In particular my test shoot really helped make my final outcome successful as it made me realise all of the things I needed to do, or not to do in order to make my final shoot a success. In my test shoot I figured out the lighting so that I could recreate the set up in my final shoot, I also realised that I needed to work with a makeup artist and hairdresser.
I am really happy with the model I chose for this shoot she is really confident in front of the camera and is really good at taking direction. I also think that her look works really well with my theme particularly her smile, which is quite a crucial element for this shoot in particular. Looking back on my final images I am really happy that I used her for this shoot.
The pose was crucial for this shoot as they are studio portraits, the focus is entirely on the model. When researching poses there was a limited number to choose from but I think my model did them really well. On the other hand it might have been better to have more of a variety, although I feel that it does show how through the years pose has stayed the same. With the poses being so similar I had to make sure that they were perfect, for example in some of the initial images the smile just isn’t enough or the arms look awkward. However I think that I gave the model relatively good direction and in the end she got the poses spot on.
Getting a make up artist has really impacted on my final images, they look much more professional and suit the theme better than when I did the makeup myself. The makeup artist was really professional and worked well to the brief, she paid attention when I was talking to her about what I wanted and made sure that the makeup suited the theme. The makeup was exactly what I wanted and looks great on the photographs. She created two slightly different looks to suit the colour scheme of the dresses, for the pink and lilac dress she used very pink makeup whereas for the coral dress she used more coral colours rather than the bright pink.
The hair also works much better in these images than in my test shoot, it is in a common beauty queen style and much bigger than in the original shoot. However if I had been able to afford it I would have got a hair stylist to do the hair as they would possibly have been able to get it to look more over the top and bigger.
Originally I was quite worried about the backgrounds, I used several pieces of different pastel coloured card and some pastel textured wallpaper. However I think that they work really well, the colours really add to the images and compliment the dresses and makeup. The magnolia coloured card didn’t work as well on all of the images as the other colours.
I wanted to edit my images quite significantly for this assignment as I wanted the model to look false and almost plastic. At first I wanted to really over edit the images and make her face completely air brushed, on the other hand I really liked the aesthetic of the original images and didn’t want to edit them too much. I decided to edit any really noticeable blemishes and fine lines. In particular I removed laughter lines under her eyes, this made her look quite odd because they are lines that should be there. I really like this idea of her looking not quite right in a similar way to Loretta Lux although not quite as extreme. I also adjusted the levels and curves to improve the images. Later on I then decided to edit the images quite dramatically to make the model look quite plastic and blemish free, I really like the effect the editing created and I am glad I decided to edit them this way.
I am pleased with my final prints, I got them printed using a 12 ink printer so the colours were accurate, and I had a glossy finish which I am pleased with.
I wanted my website to be quite simple and easy to use so that and visitors wont get confused or overwhelmed. I decided to use Carbonmade.com to create my website as its easy to use and I really like the layout. I am happy with my final website its easy to use and not cluttered.
Although I am really happy with my final images if I would have had time to do another shoot I would perhaps have made sure more of the dresses was seen by doing longer shots, which was difficult to do using the card backgrounds. Despite some of the problems with getting equipment my final shoot went well and I am really happy with my images for this assignment.
