Photoshoot

I replicated the harsh and soft studio lighting on a model to have the same effect as Andre Brito, with the high contrast of shadows and parts which picked up on the light. I used the manual setting on my camera so I could really focus on the exposure of the image whether it was too dark or light so I could adjust the ISO, they turned out just how I wanted them and I could alter them on Photoshop by seeing if I could increase some of the highlights and change them to black and white. I then thought about my topic and printed makeup onto a piece of acetate and scanned into the computer then layered over the top. By choosing multiply it only picked up on the makeup and discarded the white background, by creating two more layers I moved them to the left each time then rubbed out the harsh edges. My overall image works really well and has a strong message by you are naturally beautiful but having a mixture of makeup could distract that away from the natural beauty.

With this final image I started to think about structure and the studio lighting, along with the scanning and layering of the makeup. I introduced a new technique using the lines on the face to enhance the structure of the face, Andre Brito used lines in one of his images to make it look more interesting and modern, I wanted to replicate this idea but by making them softer so I chose each line and lowered the opacity on the rubber and started to rub out a side which is closer to the bottom of the face, this worked well and made it less graphic and fake, it looked more realistic. I decided to change the image to black and white except the makeup on the sides to make it stand out to replicate that personality and natural appearances get lost behind bold colourful makeup; this is a strong and powerful story which relates to Andre Brito's work. Studio lighting made the image softer and not as harsh and vibrant but some highlights I decreased to make the makeup stand out more also.

 

 

Changing the concept of structure I started to look at the whole overall image rather than a specific section in the image. By fading the saturation of the model it uplifted the vibrant and sharp white lines on top but this didn’t distract from the main image overall, it worked well together but I decided to soften the edges of the image so it wasn’t so sharp and didn’t start to distract from the model and emotions. Using the lines was inspired by Andre Brito, although they may look random they build up the structure and create a composition as you're drawn to the face because there are more lines and sequences over the top and near the body. Using studio lighting and manual setting on my camera I could control the exposure and how much light reached the model by creating interesting shadows and soft light.