Exam Plan

For my unit 4 fifteen hour exam I am going to be conducting four photo shoots.  The exam topic that I have picked is 'Representation of the Human Figure', and for my exam I have given more thought into how I can accurately represent this in different ways.  I have chosen to do this by looking at 3 main categories that I have identified within this topic; culture, animal and death.  I will be using myself as a subject in all of my shoots and all shoots will be taking place in the studio.

Looking at culture I am going to be conducting two different shoots with a similar idea, one in which I am looking at the Chinese culture and creating a Geisha girl, and another where I look at Native American and create a girl from a tribe.

With the animal theme I have decided to create a fawn/doe/deer inspired look and photograph it as if it were hanging on the wall on a plaque.

My final idea of death is going to be looking at a zombie/ dead girl inspired look, making it a darker shoot in comparison to the rest.

Winking Doll Animation

Photo Shoot 1: Skeleton

Plans for the shoot:

In today's class I am going to be conducting my first photo shoot for my unit 4 project.  I have chosen to look at 'Representation of the Human Figure' a thought a great way to start the project would be too look a the human body in a literal sense and photographing a skeleton.  As I love using makeup in photo shoots though I have decided to create the skeleton on the body itself using makeup.

During the shoot I am planning on using the boom light to light my subject from above and create a more dark and shadowy look.  I want to create and eerie feel in my photos I feel this kind of lighting will help my achieve this.  I am also going to experiment with my subject lit using more regular lighting and see the difference in effect this gives.  I think the black background is going to work best for in this shoot as I want everything to be dark, so only really the skeleton features have be seen clearly - therefore I am also going to ensure that my subject is wearing all black too.

The focus of this shoot is really going to be lighting and how I can use it to my advantage and create different effects in my photos.

Shoot Evaluation:

I am really happy with how today's shoot went.  I am pleased with the feel all the photos have and the way the lighting definitely had an impact on this.  The makeup look I created, though slightly difficult to do, photographed really beautifully and I think this overall made the shoot better as opposed to if I used a literal skeleton - it gave it an edge it otherwise wouldn't have had.

These first two photos from the shoot are when I used the boom light.  I really liked the effect this gave in the end, even though I had a struggle getting it right in the first place.  For example, at one point it was too dark and I had to reposition the subject and where she stood in correspondence with the light, and then I had a problem with getting flare.  To eliminate this I clipped card around the the edge of the light so it was only in contact with my subject and not hitting the lens on the camera.

After this the shoot ran really smoothly.  I was able to get a variety of shots, including these ones.  I really like the way the subject is looking away from the camera but is still connecting with the viewer really well - I think this is due to the strong makeup look and the way I have really accentuated in the light and putting it against a dark sterile background.

This next photo is from when I changed the lighting to using regular modelling lights set out in an ordinary fashion.  This photo has given a different overall feel - I don't think that it's as dark and eerie as the other photos.  It's softer, but this compensated for with the connection the subject has with the camera and the eye contact they are making with the viewer.














This shoot has really made me think about my lighting more in future shoots and how I can use in different ways to get different effects - it can completely transform the overall vibe a photo has.  I am also really happy that I have continued to carry on using makeup in this project (carried over from my unit 3 personal project) as this has given such a nice effect and always photographs really beautifully.  This is something I am going to continue in all future shoot.

Best Work

Best work so far from Kate-Anna Smith