Posing Inspiration

Posing Inspiration

This is a quick mood board I made to bring to my photoshoot for inspiration and direction for my model on how to pose. I want to convey emotion through my photographs, I want it to be quite dark, so I have chosen serious poses and have also kept to a dark colour scheme. I will use different lighting techniques to make it mysterious.

I will be using low key lighting for my black and white photos as this will give me the best shadows that will really emphasise the emotion in the photographs like the ones seen above and the high key lighting will be used for the colour photographs, and this is where I will show my pop of colour.

I will be using an analogous colour scheme as I will be using a dark red, this will be very close to her hair colour which is also a dark browny red. The makeup will also be very bronzed which will compliment the whole look.

Low Key Photos

For our low key experimentation we tried shooting in front of a soft box and also shooting with the light from different sides.

These two images are our first shots from in front of the soft box, I really like the angelic highlights that are created around the hair like a halo effect. I have included both of these photos because the first one is a little bit too overexposed however i like how light it is, if I was going to edit these photos I would use the second photo and edit it lighter.

After fiddling about with appatures we finally shot these images, I believe this is the perfect amount of light coming into the camera and I personally love these images, the skin looks airbrushed and flawless.

This image was shot in front of the soft box but with the light from the side, as you can see there is increased skin texture which is something you need to be careful of when shooting with side lights.

For these images we shot with light form the side, I do not think these images are very effective for low key as there isn't much shadows apart from on the background.

For these images we shot them by using a direct light from the side on the model, this created really deep shadows on the face under the cheekbones and is definitely something I would like to use in my black and white beauty shoot.

Facetune Retouching

Today we had to team up in a group of 3 and retouch and image on face tune of someone in the group and write down all the steps that we took. This is the image before and after...

1. Smooth
2. Whiten
3. Details
4. Smoother
5. Patch
6. Smooth
7. Smoother
8. Reshape
9. Tones
10. Whiten
11. Reshape
12. Lighter Filter
13. Reshape

To retouch this images it took 14 steps and the photos are dramatically different, i focused on trying to make the skin perfect, and removing under eye circles. I also re shaped the face to make it slimmer, with bigger eyes and lips, and changed the tone of the skin.

I really enjoyed making the changes to this image, I think it is crazy that you can change someones appearance that much on a phone, but i do think that this level of retouching is too much especially for photos. The model was really surprised at how much we changed the photograph, and at the time it did feel a little bit awkward changing a persons face because it was like you are pointing out their flaws. I do not think the model looks better, if anything I think the image looks a little bit creepy, as the skin is too smooth it has the uncanny valley effect. After doing this i would like to experiment with retouching images on photoshop, so if i did this again i would like to retouch a proper image that was shot by me with correct lighting and makeup, as i think this would look more realistic, as you can tell the image above is clearly edited. I will do this for my beauty images for this project, however i will not be doing heavy retouching as this will not fit my brief.

Make-up & Hair Inspiraton

Makeup & Hair Inspiration

For our digital image beauty photoshoot the theme is 'the perfect base' and should include one key colour, this could either be a complimentary colour or an analogous one. The hair also needs to be thought about as this is something that is often overlooked in a photograph.

Makeup Design 1

My first make-up look is based around a really fresh, beachy, bronzed summer look. I am planning to do everything warm toned, to make the skin look healthy. This will be paired with lots of highlighter, I want to team this look with the low key lighting, as I believe it will be such a beautiful way to emphasise the shadows and highlights on the face, and will look gorgeous in black and white.

Makeup Design 2

For my second design I will be introducing my one key colour, I have chosen for this to be burgundy, as I want my photoshoot to have quite a dark feel. I will be applying this on top of the first makeup design, as I want the skin to be the same as the one before. I will use this makeup for the high key lighting, as this will emphasise the colour, if this was to be shot in black and white then the lips would just look black.

Hair Design

For my hair design I simply just want straight hair, which I will use a lot of mousse through to give it a wet look, I will play about with slicking it back and putting it in different partings. I will be using the same hair for both of the makeup designs.



Camera Set Ups (Low Key/ Mood Lighting)

Low Key images are ones where the dark tones dominate the photograph. Small bright highlights punctuate the darkness creating the characteristics of mood/ low key images. The position of light for a low key image is behind the subject or off to one side, so a deep shadow is created." (Child J & Galer M, 1999, p96)


Backlighting is where a subject is back lighted from a dominant source of light from behind the subject. To take a reflected reading of the subject the camera would give an incorrect exposure. A reflected reading of the subject only or an incident reading from the subject to the camera would give correct exposure. The dominance of the backlight can therefore be controlled by exposure compensation. (Child J & Galer M, 1999, p95)

To set up low key you...

• Set camera to manual mode
• Shutter speed of 1/160
• ISO 100
• Set aperture to low
• Soft box on light
• Use light from the side, back or underneath the model.

Child J and Galer M (1999). Essential Skills Photographic Lighting. Oxford: Focal Press. p2 - 135.

6 Poses I Find Inspiring

As a response to how women are seen in fashion imagery I have chosen 6 images/ poses that I find inspiring from I-D magazine, Vogue, Love and InStyle.



Photography by Willy Vanderperre, I-D

 For my first pose that I find inspiring I have picked the I-D wink, I find this inspiring because it is fun and cheeky and is shown on every cover of I-D magazine. This is the Generation Z  the activist edition, and this makes this image more inspiring as it is about young activists trying to make a difference to the world.


"If you wont let us dream, We wont let you sleep."

This image was taken by Willy Vanderperre.

Image by Naomi Yang, InStyle, Nov 2013

 I found this image in an editorial spread in InStyle November 2013. The image has been shot by Naomi Yang, I think this image is so inspirational because it has been shot by a female photographer, this means that the model will not be shot in the ways that American apparel models are.
This pose makes me think of the 1970's trend of power dressing, during the 70's there was a huge feminist movement which makes the pose all the more inspirational











Image by David Sims, Love, s/s 15

This pose I found in I-D magazine the image is by David Sims and the spread shows a portfolio of images that twists the traditional ideas of female beauty photography and bends the convention towards something less familiar and more abstract.
I found this pose inspiring because of how raw the images are and how it isn't conventional natural beauty.




Image by Mario Testino

 This is a pose I found in Vogue June 2014, it is part of an editorial spread about Kate Upton. The spread was shot by Mario Testino. The reason I found this pose (and the whole spread) so inspiring is because it focuses on feminine beauty, female sexuality and is also quite empowering. I like how she is average sized and curvy, so this is very inspirational as it promotes positive body image.

Image by Steven Klein, LOVE s/s 15

 Prada did an exclusive project for LOVE magazine (s/s 15) , where Kim Kardashian wears the new spring collection with the intention being 'I like to see my clothes worn in a different way on someone unexpected." - Miuccia Prada.
The images were took by Steven Klein, I find these images so inspiring because it just shows female sexual empowerment.

Image by Richard Burbridge I-D Spring 15

I found this image in I-D magazine the photograph was taken by Richard Burbridge, the images are about wearing your beliefs where you can see them. I find these images inspiring because it is a light-hearted way to address serious issues.















I-D  (Spring 2015). The Activist issue No.336.
LOVE (S/S 15). Miuccua on Kim.
InStyke (November 2013). Drew Barrymore.
Vogue. (June 2014)..

Post Production - How far is too Far?

For this digital image brief we have been given the theme of natural beauty, so our images will have minimal retouching, but this is not the case with the beauty industry at the moment where images are heavily retouched. 

"The best retouching is to trick someone into thinking that nothing has been done at all."

Retouching started as early as the 1860's, Abraham Lincon used to get edited into pictures to make it look like he had posed for the image, George Hurell retouched his pictures very subtly to make the stars look glowing and elegant. 

Retouching has become such an issue that some adverts have been banned this included images of twiggy for Olay even a Dior and Lancome ad, these images are heavily retouched to the point that they do not look like the celebrity or model anymore, this has become a problem because young girls look up to these images that they see in magazines and they aren't real. it becomes a question to think if this is a product of what the consumer wants or what the celebrity wants for example un retouched images of Beyonce were released where you can see a noticeable difference in her skin in the two pictures, you have to think if the images were that heavily retouched because Beyonce wanted them like that, or if it is due to consumer need.

Personally i think retouching is a good thing although it can be very deceptive, I am very fond of looking at perfect images in magazines because it gives you something to look up to and at the end of the day it does sell products, however people especially young girls need to be educated that the things that they see in magazines are not real. I do not personally believe in heavy retouching though, it can look fake it has the uncanny valley effect, this was a concept identified by Masahiro Mori, Moris original hypothesis states that as the appearance of a robot is made more human, some observers emotional response to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathetic until a point is reached which is beyond the response and will quickly become a response of strong revulsion. However, as the robots appearance continues to become less distinguishable from that of a being, the emotional response becomes positive again and approaches empathy levels. 

*Mori, M. (1970/2012).
The uncanny valley (K. F. MacDorman & N. Kageki, Trans.). IEEE Robo'cs & Automa'on Magazine, 19(2), 98–100.