Personal Shoot 2: Alien

Plans for the shoot:
After my last shoot went so well, I have been inspired to take my idea a bit further.  Still remaining with the surreal makeup looks, I want to explore further the 'alien' feel that I achieved and actually create an alien look.  I want this look to be colourful and bright, therefore I am planning on using VUA paints and florescent eyeshadows.  I am going to embellish the look with glitter and gems as I want to create different textures and elements for the light to catch hold of in the shot too.

As before, the grey background is likely to be the one I use as it always photographs really nicely, however as it is an alien look I am also going to see what the black background looks like as this would add to connotations of the sky and space.

Shoot Evaluation:
The shoot today definitely didn't go as well as I thought it would have done and I don't really feel I achieved at all what I wanted.  I encountered many problems at the beginning of the shoot, and though I was able to partly rectify them it affected the overall shoot and the images that I got.  The first problem was with the lightening - because I'd used UVA and florescent makeup I had to change all the lightening to get this show up and this then affected the rest of the look and the photo, so I have to revert it back to what it originally was loose the bright colours.  I also experimented with the black background too but this didn't work as well as I had hoped and the subject got lost in the background too due to her dark hair colour (so I went with grey instead).

This is one shot from the shoot today - I am not really happy with any of the shots from today but this is one of the better ones.  I have had to really edit the photo so that the colours stand out and become visible and I don't like this  - it looks over-edited in my opinion.  I like the effect that I have put on my eyes.  I changed the colour of them and made the highlights more accentuated and this has added a more alien vibe.  I like the emotion on the subjects face - it looks soft yet mysterious and this is the kind of thing that I wanted to go for.

This is another photo from the shoot today.  This is one that I edited differently to see how I could bring the colours out more.  I quite like the way the accentuated purple tone has brought out some more of the colours on the makeup as this is one of the initial problems that I found in the shoot.  I dislike the expression on the subjects face here - I think it looks bored and though there is eye contact with the camera, the subject isn't really connecting with the camera.  I use myself as a subject and I think because throughout the duration of this shoot I encountered many problems I became disheartened and this then showed through on my face.

I have definitely learned a lot in this shoot, mostly that if the shoot isn't going to plan not to get disheartened too much and let it affect the rest of the shoot, as this clearly affects the final photos.

Technique Page - Animation

Technique Page – Animation

What is it?: Movement created through a series of photos being displayed in a continuous loop of frames.
How do you do it?
Animation is very similar another technique that is fairly easy to create.  It sees you as the photographer using a series of photos to create movement (a little bit like sequencing).  This is how you do it:

1.     Firstly, you need to know what you are going to shoot.  Format your camera and the go out to shoot your subject.

2.     Once you have conducted your shoot download the photos in Photoshop.

3.     Open the first image that is going to appear in the animation and change the levels and curves and any other adjustments that you would like to make.

4.     You can now start making the animation by going to Window in Photoshop and selecting “Animation/Timeline”. 

5.     Make all the changes to the other images that going to be in the animation the same as what you did in the first so that the animation runs smoothly, then place the images in new frames/layers on the timeline.

6.     You can now make any adjustments to the animation that you desire such as the length of time it runs, make it run on repeat or ‘tween’ it to make it run smoother.

7.     Ensure you save this file as a GIF.

Technique Page - Depth of Field

Technique Page – Depth of Field

What is it: depth of field is how much of a photo is in focus based on distance.
How do you do it?
Depth of field has two different kinds – minimum and maximum.  Minimum is when only the foreground to the photo is in focus, and maximum is where everything in the photo is sharp and in focus.  This is how you can achieve these effects (there are three ways for each):

Minimum depth of field

• Get close to the subject
• Make the aperture bigger (a small number)
• Use a larger zoom

Maximum depth of field

• Get far away from the subject
• Make the aperture smaller (a big number)
• Use a smaller zoom

Technique Page - Sequencing

Technique Page – Sequencing

What is it?: Sequencing is a succession, something the follows another thing.
How do you do it?
Sequencing is a fairly easy technique to do and can be very effective as it uses multiple images in the final piece.  This is how you can do it:

1.     You firstly need to decide what you are going to shoot.  An example of something that I did in class was shooting some of class mates standing in a line and they took it in turns to turn around.

2.     Now you have decided this (ensuring your camera is properly formatted) you can shoot your subjects/object.  You want to keep the camera in the same position and distance away from what you are shooting and only change what the subject/object is doing to get the best possible effect.   You can of course experiment with this by changing your position as the photographer, the angle or zoom of the camera etc. it entirely depends on the effect you are trying to achieve and what suits best for what you are shooting.  You want to do this a few times until you have your desired amount of shots.

3.     Once you have your photos, download like normal into Photoshop.

4.     Continue by opening a new blank transparent A4 document in Photoshop.

5.     Open all the images you want to include in your sequence and adjust the levels, curves etc. as well as resizing the photos to make sure they all fit on the A4 document (make sure they all remain the same size).

6.     You now need to divide the blank document up equally depending on how many images you want to place in it.

7.     It’s now time to place the images on the black document starting with the first and ending with the last.  It is up to you where you place them on the document and how you arrange them depending on whether the page is portrait or landscape and depending on how many photos you have.

8.     Position all the images where you want them too be, adjust as you go (use the gird on the transparent document as guide on positioning them the same width apart).

Once you have done this flatten the image and you are ready to print.