Work Record Thursday February 13th 2014

Preparation;
The aim for this shoot is to do a studio shoot showing the idea of fantasy through the topic of princesses shown in a classic and historical way - such as dress and high hair.

These two images above both give me inspiration for dress and poses to use in my shoot. Both show elegant, beautiful dresses and high light blonde hair which is typical of the princess genre. The above image I chose to include as I like how bored she looks, giving a contrasting view to how Princesses are usually perceived. The bottom image of a painting I included as it shows a very formal image in terms of composition and pose which is something I want to look at. 

To Prepare I Need to; 

• Get a model
• Plan an outfit
• Plan hair and makeup
• Decide on background 
• Decide on lighting
• Plan specific poses, angles and expressions

What I Hope to Achieve; 
From this shoot I hope to gain images showing the idea of fantasy through the use of a the idea of Princesses and classic "royal" style.

What I Actually Achieved; 
I am really happy with what I achieved, and if anything the shoot exceeded my expectations. As well as using the studio like I planned I also had time to go over to a forest and shoot there which really helped add extra depth to my images and tell a story. I also found that shooting at the location fitted my ideas and showed them better. From using both the studio and the location I got to experiment with a variety of lighting such both inside with the softbox lights and outside with natural light and the trees casting shadows. I also got a range of compositions and poses fitting to the locations and emotions/ideas I was trying to get through in the images. Although I prefered shooting in the forest for this shoot, the studio allowed me to create images in a similar style to classic portraits - both painting and photographs.

This is my favorite image from the shoot. What I like most about it is how dramatic the model looks in terms of both emotion and pose. I also like how the setting makes this allowable as something like this would not work in the studio, but outside it makes it seem like she is looking into the distance for someone.
When editing, I experimented with recolouring and makeup touch ups to add more drama and intensity to the image. I also played around a lot with colour and saturation with inspiration from Annie Leibovitz' work in relation to the link between colour and fantasy. If I was to change this image, I would desaturate it even more to give it a more dramatic look.

This is another photo that I really like. This one was done in the studio and the aim was for the image to appear off guard as though the subject was caught looking bored and tired - out of character. What I like most about this is the models pose, how she looks quite small and slightly curled up. This along with the fact she looks slightly bored indicates that at the moment the photograph is being taken is inferior and bored. Her expression also makes her look like she is dreaming.
When editing, I kept it very basic for this image, just using levels and curves and experimenting with colour and desaturation. If I was to do this again I would make the colours more dramatic.



What I am Going to do Next; I am really happy with the way this shoot has turned out, and am going to leave it as it is. However, I am going to continue developing the idea of Princesses, and the use of location to expand the image and make it more dramatic.