Experiments
This blog post is a recording of all the experiment test shoots in which I have done. Firstly I decided to create a mood board showing the main colour palette and aesthetic I am to make my magazine based on. It is a small collection of magazines,photographers and items in which all closely link with the theme I am creating this fashion magazine upon. This gives everyone reading a good idea of the type of look and aesthetic I am going for and was also more research for my to do, which in all helped me really decipher the look I want.
After acknowledging I wanted to experiment with lighting I went into the studio and did some test shots. This is a collection of 'Behind The Scenes' photographs I took which showed my set up.
For this shoot I did not have access to a backdrop as it was currently in use, so I decided to use the wall of the studio which gave me a black background in which I could work with. You can see I used a soft box and a stronger more specific light. We draped coloured plastic over the lights to give the blue and red effects as you can see above. I also used a tripod for this shoot and only got head shots. The reason for this being that without the backdrop I didn't think it would work/be necessary for my test shots anyway. We were able to change around the lighting direction and colour film/ sheets giving it different effects which I really liked the look of, especially as I know I am able to enhance the light in post production (lightroom & photoshop)
During this shoot I was able to discover any difficulties I might come across, for example getting all the lights close enough but not in shot, as the cables are very short, and other practical things like that.
Editing
Although I have created a separate blog post on editing ( here ) I also wanted to use this blog post to show my own photographs and the way I was able to edit them. For my test shoot I specifically used the lighting techniques available, my magazine will not just consist of these types of images, however I am confident taking the other images, the lighting was something in which I had not experimented with before so chose to specifically spend my time altering this. As mentioned before I used different colours and took head shots, I edited them using Lightroom to enhance colours as well as the highlight and contrast. I also used the spot healing tool briefly as they were very close up shots and had not used this tool yet properly. I have inserted a few images below of my results.
As you can see I focused the colours to have 50/50. Upon editing I realised I should have also just had one colour being used at once as I did not get a result of this. However by doing these shoots I was able to get familiar with the equipment and how they look in comparison with the model and my over all aesthetic. These give a very dramatic look to them and I think they look really interesting compared to an 'ordinary' magazine cover and inside. I intend to merge these types of images with ones that have normal lighting too. In addition to this I also realised in the editing process of how dark they look, meaning I will need to alter my title and text colours if I use the black backdrop in my shoot. This made me realise I also want to use the white backdrop and see what the lights look like against that, as it will look better an emerge better with my colours too.
As you can see I focused the colours to have 50/50. Upon editing I realised I should have also just had one colour being used at once as I did not get a result of this. However by doing these shoots I was able to get familiar with the equipment and how they look in comparison with the model and my over all aesthetic. These give a very dramatic look to them and I think they look really interesting compared to an 'ordinary' magazine cover and inside. I intend to merge these types of images with ones that have normal lighting too. In addition to this I also realised in the editing process of how dark they look, meaning I will need to alter my title and text colours if I use the black backdrop in my shoot. This made me realise I also want to use the white backdrop and see what the lights look like against that, as it will look better an emerge better with my colours too.
Review
By undertaking test shoot experiments I was able to put into practice what I researched. This is paramount as it allows you to use your knowledge and put it with what you have researched and are then able to come out with a product - such as the above- which I have never done before. I discovered some issues along the way, one I didn't mention was the orientation in which I use the camera. Upon editing I discovered I kept the camera on the tripod, meaning I got steady shots at the perfect height, however when it comes to my real shoot I know know I want to use the camera off the tripod, this will give the images good variety. As well as this I also shot only head shots and close ups, I didn't do a full body or from a different angle, again this is something I will do in my real shoot. This is why undertaking the test and experiment shoot was important as it made me realise the things I want to change and improve, therefore producing a product in which a lot of research, thought and passion has gone into.
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