Brief1

Fashion editorial 

For the first set of images for CPP unit I decided to do fashion editorial. I research inspiration photographs from fashion magazines (vogue, harper’s bazaar, love, dazed and confused, british journal of photography) following by searching for the portfolios of photographers from these magazines. I choose to the fashion editorial portraiture because that’s what I want to concentrate for in my next projects. I believe research and preparation for shoot is very important. Important is also to choose the suitable model for each photo shoot. Over next year I would like to take different approach to fashion editorial portraits by choosing models which are not stereotype of today’s industry. For this project I choose a plus size model.

Inspiration 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French Impressionist Painter, 1841-1919) Jeanne Samary

This painting of Jeanne Samary by Renoir inspires me in choice if my model. I would like to photograph my model the same way. I really like the shape of her hands and the ways how her dress shows her arms and her chest.

In the early 1900s, women and girls never wore trousers and women kept their legs hidden with long dresses or skirts, but I would like to use dresses which fits the figure of the model and try to make her look taller by showing part of her legs.

I choose my model with fuller figure, she is a plus size model and she won a competition Miss Scotland in plus size category. She is very charismatic and she will be perfect for this style of photo shoot. I asked the model to change her colour of her hair to red, as I thing the two coloured fringe wouldn’t fit in my brief.

              

Both images as personal gallery of model, selfies by Kirsty Colquhoun

Research starts in Impressionism and Post-Impresionism 

Georges Seurat Biography (1859–1891)

Painting By Seurat of people, very nicely dressed up inspired me for choosing the location for the shoot. Place the dressed up model in outdoor environment with nicely colourful background. The clothes which I decided to use is very colourful and have a different colours print on it. I will try to match the colour of the dresses and hair pieces with the colour of the environment and background.

VAN-GOGH-Vincent-Olive-Trees-with-Yellow-Sky-and-Sun-1889

Painting of olive trees of Van Gogh with lovely orange colours make me think of autumn and late summer. In Edinburgh there is my favourite place, which I like to visit in this period of the year and its a Botanic Gardens. Every time this year you can see a variation of colours and this will be perfect for the location of this photo shoot.

I went to the gardens to see if there is enough colours and environment I need and I took some photos with my mobile to see if the colours are matching with the dresses which I will use for this project.

                        

During my visit I contacted member of the reception regarding the permission which I will need for this shoot. She gave me contact details for Sandra Donnelly in the head office. I phone Sandra and she emailed me back Student Filming Guidelines with instruction how to work in this environment. On the day of the shoot I have to report to the reception desk and sign couple of documents.

The Clothing 

Dresses been ordered from this website http://www.pinupgirlclothing.com/jenny-dress-neverland.html.

Dresses belong to the model which she ordered specially for this shoot. Model will also wear a hair pieces which are going to matching the colours of dresses and colours of environment.

      

Research of photographs 

During my research I found Harper’s Bazaar magazine fashion editorial Photographed by Eric Madigan Heck and styled by Leith Clark called “Such stuff as dreams are made on”.

After closely observing this images and looking for what type of lighting photographer used for this editorial I can see ambient light been used here. On some images, where is some sun light in half models face and background I would say he used reflector to fill in light in models other half of her face. There is no catch light in her eyes visible. I prefer the images where there is soft light without hard shadows. Composition different on each image. There is some close ups, wide angle and half body, unusual crop portraits.

For my project I will do half body crop for close up with bigger space above models head, with colourful leafs of the trees with the same colour like prints on models dress.

                                                

I researched Erik Madigan Heck work on line and found editorial who he did for the same magazine (Harper’s Bazaar) in September 2014. Very similar editorial.

I really like this editorial and these ideas. Very like the combination of models dress on the second image and the environment. These combination makes dress dress look so stylish and expensive. Also like models skin and skin tone here, very pale and elegant. This pose does make the image look interesting.

The third image is very creative use of camera lens. I believe that photographer used slow shutter speed and twisted the lens during the exposure. However the model is not sharp in the face and I would like to have my images sharp on models face.

This image set the idea in my head using slow shutter speed and catch the movement of the leafs around and catch movement of the dress, but keep the models head sharp.

Only ambient light was used here also.

Katrin Thormann by Erik Madigan Heck for Harper’s Bazaar uk September 2014

Heck also did fashion editorial again of Harper’s Bazaar in April 2015 of similar theme, colourful dresses in natural environment. 

Antonia Wesseloh by Erik Madigan Heck for Harpers Bazaar UK April 2015

Lighting and Equipment 

For this project I will use ambient light. I planed the shoot on the day when wether forecast is cloudy and partly sunny. I will take reflector with me and speed light just in case the weather condition will change. If its too sunny I can use the speed light as fill in flash of the face of model and sunlight in the background. I will have assistant for this shoot help me to carry the equipment around and hold the reflect if needed.

The changing room will be public toilets. Model will have 3 different dresses and variety of head accessories with her so I can style her up according the colours of environment.

Editing photographs 

Here is some tutorials about editing fashion images and how to manipulate colours in photoshop by Lindsay Adler.

Posing tutorial :

Retouching and colouring image:

I want to have a full control in post processing about depth of field to add extra magic, dreamy atmosphere to the images and manipulate the blurriness. For some images where model is standing close to the background I will blur the background with the blur filter “Tilt and shift” in photoshop.

Result 

 

Evaluation

For this project I planned to take an assistant with me, but she cancelled in the morning. I have difficulties with holding reflector and a lots of shots are missing light in models face. I tried to hold reflector myself for close up or use speed light but couldn’t do it for wider shots, because model was so far. I am not very happy with the result. I future i would improve few thinks. I will concentrate more for depth of field next time and will do more variations of the images. More wider shots as well. I will ask model to pose less and don’t look into the camera.