Previous work...

I have just been looking around my old blog, and found some old work that id like to share with you all, its stuff i did last year and even one or two things before I even started uni.


End clothing brief
This first set is from last years final project, for +End clothing, set by sam brown, i chose a brand called +DOLLS KILL and with 2 fantastic models i created these images, i went for a typical grungey look, but it was the first 'fashion' shoot id ever seriously done, which was good fun! i really enjoyed this shoot and these two ladies were wonderful to work with, I styled the entire thing, and ended up spending around £200 on the clothes, which i took back in the end because i am unfortunatly not a size 8! haha

 Banner for brief.


Environmental portrait

These were also taken for Uni last year for a brief called environmental portrait. This is where we had to photograph a person with an unusual occupation on location in their environment.
I chose a boxer, he is a local boxer who has won a lot of local titles. And he was more than happy to do this for me, we spent a good few hours in the gym, i just photographed him training and guided him to do certain things, but i liked the outcome of my images, i wasn't able to get out any college equipment so this set up was made with a home made set, i just used a constant light.

Older personal work

Before i started Uni i hadnt had any experiance at all in photography so these images i had taken simply to build up a small portfolio so i could get on the course i am currently on now.

These first set were taken with natural light in an abandoned orphanage in gainford near where i live.

This image was taken on a beach, was a natural shot and wasn't an intentional shoot, i just had my camera on hand but this image is still one of my favourite kind of natural images i have taken.

Finally.. these two were taken with 3 multiple exposure shots of my friend Emma when i was doing my foundation degree in art and design, we were always told to think outside the box, and i hadn't ever done anything like this before but i really loved the effect it gave. I only used a old speed light for these images and the white background was a white board. i would really love to redo these images but in the studio with a better knowledge of photography i think i will be able to do something a lot more interesting. 

Anita Corbin Portrait

So a couple of weeks a go i wrote about our visit in uni from photographer Anita Corbin. She wanted us to create a image of a leading person in our community or someone we look up to. 

I wanted to do my Yaiyai (Grandma) for my final hand in, but i will also be photographing my other grandparents, the reason for this was because i find her stories really interesting, she has had a hard and fulfilled life as she has raised 7 children who have all grown up successful and she's just someone who i look up to. 

She is greek, was born and raised there, and during the second world war, she worked for german soldiers who had occupied greece at the time. There she met my Granpop (grandad) who she would later on marry and have 7 children with. After the war she moved to England with him to start her new life. Im not too sure which image i will submit yet, but these are a few of them, she was shy to get her photo taken and didn't really like it but she was a good sport in the end. 

Contextual studies stuff

SO! Its that time of year again.. contextual studies essay is due in by the end of the term. Luckily this time its a lot more interesting as its about a photographer of our choice, and also a little bit about how photography has changed over the years ie. from analogue to digital. But mostly i am excited because we get to recreate a image in the style of our chosen photographer. After hours of searching for someone unique who really inspires me, i came to the conclusion of choosing Kirsty Mitchell. I wanted to do someone who is similar to Tim walker, in the sense of the set and prop design etc. And when i found her i was overwhelmed with the amount she goes to to create the beautiful unique images she does.

Growing up, art became my sole passion. I studied until I was 25, taking courses in the history of art, photography, fine art, and then on to train in Costume for Performance’ at the London College of Fashion. Having graduated and worked for a short time in the industry, I decided to further my education, and returned to university, completing a first class degree with honours in fashion design, at Ravensbourne College of Art in the summer of 2001. During this time I also completed two internships at the design studios of Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan, both of whom have affected me greatly.

 www.kirstymitchellphotography.com/biography.php 

So her background is not entirely in photography, but is the explanation as to why her photographs have so much depth in them using the props.
I will be recreating (or at least attempting to create) images from her set "Wonderland". They are probably some of the most captivating images i have ever seen and I would really love to create something to that standard, I personally think you can't help but look twice at them, and the further you look at them the more detail and beauty you find.

Here are some images from the set, (all images taken by Kirsty Mitchell)

                            

So as you can see they are very amazing, and a lot of care has been put into the props and set. Its going to take a lot of crafting to get there but I'm looking forward to this task!

hotel event number 2

+Annabelle Brown and I once again got to photograph the hotel awards event over at the lifestyle academy. This time it was a lot more laid back, and relaxed i suppose. We knew more about what we were doing, what to expect and how to go about it. We were more familiar with the surroundings, so yeah it was ok, Its good to get all the experience you can. 

Final image and advertisment! pwl

After about 5 hours of post production, changing colours, overlaying exposures etc here is my final image! Although im really bored of looking at it right now, i am happy with the final outcome. I think there could of been a lot of improvements but then again i can see an improvement in myself with this technique of painting with light and i think i have came a long from the beginning of the project. Its all about practice and trial and error with this i think. Practice makes perfect!

As for the in situ image, i'm still on with editing it onto a billboard or something but i edited it too look like a lime crime advert, i'm no graphic design student so its not great but it will do!

Shooting and Editing!

Yesterday i shot my final image for painting with light. I used Vivian again (the same model for incident room) because basically i wanted someone with good lips who knew what they were doing!

Maxine Cunningham was my MUA, and she did a lovely job of it!

The studio was completely pitch black which is always strange, because even the slightest bit of unwanted light can totally mess up the shot! So if you ever plan on doing something like this keep it as dark as you can! 

As for lighting, I only used one light to light my model. I used a flash head on a boom arm which hung over the model and it had a gridded soft box on it. 

It gave the smooth diffused light i wanted and wasnt too intense. I also had a reflector under neath the model to try and avoid shadow under the chin as much as i could and make it spread more evenly. 

Here is an image without any light painting of the lighting. I really liked it and may even use it again in the future for simple beauty shots. 

As you can see its quite even, but has a lot of depth. Without the reflector, under the chin was very dark and it was too severe. 

As for the light painting i got some really effective shots, i once again used , glow sticks, led inspection light, blue led light, and a smaller white light. 

I wanted to make it more exciting and vibrant than last time so i spent more time using the glow sticks and thinking about where i was going to place the lights. 

These are some of my favourite from yesterday, The one im going to go with is the 3rd one down, Im going with the lime crime, Candy future colour pallet so i will be changing up the colours a bit in post production. and hopefully making it look like a advert! 

Editing trial

I wanted to edit a few of the images i took today, so i could get a overall feel for the colour scheme and the type of thing i want. Here are 3 edited images ( I have edited the make up quite poorly so i apologise, but hopefully you'll get it)
Im quite happy with them now and i feel better about how they look after post production. Now to find my model and hopefully a MUA!

Painting with light studio trial and update

I have decided i'm going to advertise Lime Crime's lipstick, because its vibrant and i really wanted to do portrait rather than a product!

So today I was in the studio practicing for the final shoot. I used one flash on a boom arm over the top of my model, which was enough to light her up. I used a LED inspection light, small torches, and some large safety glow sticks that last up to 12 hours. I was worried the glow sticks wouldn't really work but they created a really cool effect. It was such a fun/ confusing and frustrating day. There were mostly only people from my course in so it was pretty much pitch black but half way through some people came in and turned on the lights! which is a major no go when your doing this kind of stuff because it can just destroy it! also my cell on the light kept flashing off when the shutter was opening making it blury BUT ANYWAY. it was a really good learning process and i have a very clear idea of what im actually going to do now. 

Here are a few images, imagine them blended together with a professional model and neon bright make up with slick back hair.