Evaluation

Digital Image Production was actually my favourite unit this semester and even
this year. I didn’t love as much the Gothic Horror unit this semester as I loved
this unit! I feel like this year I’ve learnt so, so much about photography, as I have
never ever shoot in the studio before neither did use Photoshop, Adobe Bridge
and InDesign. All the technical lessons helped me so much and I want to learn
more about photography in the future because now I feel just as interested in
photography as I am in make-up. This unit, even though it had some rules I had
to conform to, gave me the freedom to be creative and experiment with makeup,
lighting, Photoshop, everything! I can not tell how happy I am that now I
know how professional photographers work at the pictures and that sometimes,
the post production “makes” almost everything, including the make-up! I feel
like now I know not only how to do make-up in real life, but how to make people
beautiful in the digital “life” as well!
I loved doing the brand shoot the most, because I’ve wanted to try low-key
photography and some techniques I have researched further this year like the
Rembrandt Lighting. In the final image I have submitted I tried to recreate that,
but I forgot to ask for feedback about this particular thing and I don’t really know
if I made it or not. I would be more than happy to get to know at the project feedback
sessions. For the brand shoot I’ve used only one source of light, alternating
between the softbox and the beautydish. In the end I liked more how it looks
with the beautydish and chose one of that series of pictures. To make the background
and the shadows even more dramatic. I’ve used two reflective pannels to
block the light. What I also loved about the brand project was that it gave me an
impulse to research more into brands, especially Yves Saint Laurent, and when
I started I couldn’t stop because he was such an amazing artist and inspires
me a lot! What I have noticed in the YSL adverts is that they tend to use low key
lighting and words like “rebel”, “addictive”, “edgy” etc and also their make-up
is pretty edgy and graphic too so that’s what I have imagined to do: a graphic
eyeliner and glossy lips to reflect the word I’ve been given too (gleam). The RAW
pictures were a bit underexposed but overall I didn’t encounter any problems
with this photoshooting.
I did the brand photoshoot first and then the editorial one, because I thought to
leave the most creative stuff at the end to work better at them, but it wasn’t like
that. Because the make-up was so dark but with glitter that should have popped
and the background black too, it was quite dificult for me to get the good lighting
to shoot in lowkey (again - I love this photography style!). I tried to get a good
shot several times and changed between a bix softbox and beautydish, and the
beautydish proved to be the most effective. Also, for some of the pictures I have
used a HoneyComb or something like that over the main lighting to get a very
dramatic effect, but the beautydish was the king. I struggled a lot with changing
the lights because I haven’t got any assistants as I’ve done the shoot in the Easter
holiday and I’ve also struggled with making the lights work because sometimes
after I changed them they wouldn’t turn on again, or the flash didn’t work...
I have managed to get a few good pictures to submit though, after very much
Photoshop work with lighting, shadows and saturation.
Overall I am quite proud of the final results, and Photoshop is a life-saver!! If
I had to use minimum editing like last term I think I would have failed to be honest,
or get a really bad grade. But the final result is what matters, right?!
I still have to work a lot at time management and planning of the shoots to stop
being so stressed in the day of the shooting, and get myself some assistans, because
is really hard to do everything by my own.