Location Lighting

Yesterday we as a class where given the task of learning how to set up location lighting. The location lighting kit that we used consisted of; 2 light tripods, 2 light heads with modifiers, 2 reflective umbrella's, and battery pack with cables so you can attach it to both of the lights. We also included sync  connectors in our set up, so that if a picture was taken there would be an automatic flash off the lights sent from the camera. Location lighting can be set up either inside or outside, and can be connected to the mains, or charged off a battery pack.

Firstly you adjust your light tripod to the hight that you would like it making sure that the stand is secure and will not wobble of fall over if left un atended. 

Once you are happy with the hight of your tripod and are satisfied that its secure, the next thing you will need is your light. This is what the light looks like.

Next you have to secure your light on to the tripod stand, making sure that it is safely secured and tightly screwed on to ensure that the light will not fall of the stand.

Now to enable me to eventually use this light I need to remove the black bulb cover and replace it with the wide angle reflector

The next stage is to then add the reflective umbrella. We use this to add softened light. In a normal studio we would have a soft box, but as this is a location set up we use the umbrellas instead.

This is then simply attached to the light ready for use. Baring in mind that you can change the position of the umbrella depending upon where you would like the lighting to be and also on how strong you would like it to be. 

Next we have to add the battery pack, without this all of our setup would be unable to work.

You simply just have to use these wires to connect everything together. The double plugged side goes into the battery pack and the individual plug goes into the back of the light. 

This light is nearly complete, there is only one more thing that we have to do to enable that it works.

We then add the sync connectors placing one on the hot shoe on the top if the camera, and then plug the other one into the back of the light. You then need to synchronise the sync connectors so that when a picture is taken on the camera it will automatically set a flash off from the light.

Next you just have to do the same again to set up the second light, and then you will have set up some location lighting ready to shoot. 

Proposal

After doing a couple of mini tasks and relating them back to the themes of my work I now have a more clear idea of exactly what I would like to do for each of my promotion pieces.

For my beauty advertisement I know that I want to advertise make-up. I’ve decided that instead of advertising a specific item of make-up, like a lipstick or mascara I’m going to promote a brand, such as Barry M b or MAC.

This way the model can have a full face of make-up and it will all be being advertised, instead of the eye shadow distracting you away from the lipstick. I’m going to ask Marissa to be my model for the make-up section.

As she is coloured eye shadows and brightly colored lipsticks will stand out better on her, showing them off more.

Contrasting to the bright and colorful, with October coming up next month I was also thinking I could do a Halloween inspired make-up shoot. Using all dark colors like blacks and reds. I think that this is a good idea as we would be able to have a bit more fun with it, there would be a theme and the make-up would be more visual and eye catching. I know that MAC did a maleficent make-up collection, so I’m going to aim to advertise this.

For this photo shoot I am going to have to think about what set up I’m going to have in the studio. This will be a portrait photo shoot, so I’m going to be using the beauty dish, this will produce a good even spread of light across the models face. I will also be using soft boxes, one on either side to soften the light and the shadows. I may also use a reflector so I can reflect softened light onto the models face. I am also visioning a black backdrop to go with the Halloween theme.

MAC face charts for the Maelfecent Collection
2012-2014 

MAC Maelfecent Collection

For my clothing advertisement I know that I want to advertise a statement piece of clothing. A statement piece is an item of clothing that is really interesting, attractive and eye catching; this should be the first thing people notice about your outfit.A statement piece is usually quite bold and unique, but a statement piece doesn’t necessarily have to be brightly coloured, and oversized; they are often, but not always. This is also a portrait photo shoot, so when I take my photos in the studio I will have a similar set up to the one for my make-up shoot; but instead I will use a white backdrop and I will also use a fan to create some hair movement.I’m currently not sure who is going to model this photo shoot for me yet, I have asked a girl I know called Grace, I’m currently waiting on a reply off her. This photo shoot won’t be the most bright and colourful as the statement piece that I am planning to use is an oversized black and white dogtooth scarf, or a black and grey faux fur collar. I’m going to see witch one suits the model more.My models make-up will be quite neutral in this, just like day-to-day make-up. I still want her to look pretty, but I don’t want so much make-up on her face that it distracts you away from the clothes. The rest of the outfit prior to the statement will also be quite dark, probably black skinny jeans, and a nice, but not distracting top. This is because around this time of year all the brightly coloured summer clothes go away and your darker winter/ autumn clothes come out. I’m planning to lay this out like a magazine advertisement.

Black and White Dogtooth Scarf

Black and Grey Faux Fur Collar

With jewelry advertisement I’ve noticed that the model is rarely wearing only one piece of jewelry, as the companies aren’t just trying to sell one specific item like a ring. The model is usually wearing quite a lot of jewelry, and looking glamorous, this then advertises more jewelry and shows you how it can complete an outfit; everywhere you look, people are wearing a vast variety of jewelry - necklaces, bracelets, and earrings are just the beginning. This is because jewelry isn’t always an accessory; jewelry has always been an important part of human cultures, serving several purposes that are deeply significant to each individual. For an example, wedding and engagement rings.

After looking at research I’ve decided that I’m not going to try and advertise one specific item of jewelry, but I will do several items. I’m thinking from head to waste my model can be wearing jewelry. This involves, earrings, necklace’s bracelets, rings, and maybe even hair accessories. For my jewelry poster I want the picture to be quite zoomed in so you can clearly see the rings, necklaces and so on. I’ve noticed that in most jewelry advertisements the models are often posing with their hands neat their face, to clearly show off rings and bracelets that they are wearing. So to help make my jewelry advertisement look legit I’ll ask my model to do similar poses to ones that I have researched. My studio settings will be quite similar to the ones I’m planning to use for my fashion shoot. I don’t know who I’m going to ask to model my jewelry for me yet, I don’t have anyone in mind. I might just end up asking someone in my class. Unfortunately I don't have any images of the jewelry I'm going to use yet. 

Mini Task 2

Sandwich board mini task. 
This morning my class was given the task of creating our own sandwich board to advertise the product we had advertised in the previous mini task. In my case this would be the Marc Jacobs perfume. For this task we had to work in pairs or in a small group of 3 or 4, so for this mini task me and Marissa teamed up. 


Firstly we had to decide what we wanted our sandwich board to look like. We decided to advertise the perfume by only showing the bottle, instead of creating a standard A3 poster to place on a sandwich board. We printed 2 of the same A3 image of just the perfume bottle, and then glued each of them on to a piece of card to make them a bit thicker, so they weren't so flimsy. 
Next we cut out the perfume bottle, so that was the only shape we didn't want any frame around out image. We thought having the sandwich board in the shape of a perfume bottle was a bit more exciting, and eye catching than just an A3 rectangle. We now had our 2 pictures ready, one to wear on the front and one for the back we just needed to decide how we where going to attach them and make them wearable. 
We didn't know weather to use string to attach them and then wear them hanging over our shoulders. We had a look at what materials we had in class to use, and we saw a roll of pale flowery wall paper. 
We decided we wanted to use this, as the colours on it match well with the colours on the perfume bottle. So I went to the guillotine and cut 2 long thin strips off the roll. I then stapled the ends together to make a sash, like you see in beauty pageants. I then did the same to the second strip, and then placed them on marissa, one each side to make a cross over effect.
 Once the sash's where in place, we attached the perfume bottles to the front and back, with staples and glue where the cross section is. Now our sandwich board had been created, you could put it on, or take it off like a t-shirt. 
Now that it had been created, we had to go out and take pictures wearing it on location. We thought that boots would be a good location to photograph our sandwich board as they have a perfume corner and all the different perfume bottles in the background would look really good and make it clear that it's perfume being advertised. 
So we walked to boots and asked for permission to photograph in store. Luckily they said yes, and we snapped away. 
This is our contact sheet of all the images we took... 

When we where taking our photos in boots, we knew that we wanted images from the front and the back seen as the sandwich board advertises on both sides. We also decided when we where there that we wanted the images to be portrait not landscape. 
We then looked trough our image, and chose our favourite two, one facing each way. I then uploaded them to PhotoShop and enhanced the colour and changed the exposure, just did basic editing on the images. I then put them together on a plain white background to make it like a magazine double page spread. 

This is our final image. I'm pleased with the result of this, I like how bright and full the image is, theres a lot going on in the background without it being distracting. I really like how bold and eye catching Marissa's dress is, and how the blue in her dress matches the blue flower on the lid of the perfume bottle. When we where making this we where advertising it for young to late teens. I think this is shown with all the bright colours, and also with Marissa modelling and being in that age range. I like the angle that the image on the left was taken at, and I also like the eye contact being made trough the image. 
If I where to change this image, I think I would have the right image showing of the back of the sandwich board a bit more. So marissa would be facing away from me instead of side on. I would also crop the off the draw in the bottom of the right image, it would look good if it where another shelf of perfume, but its just this large area of white. 

Jewelry Research

For Jewelry I am thinking about advertising: earrings, rings, necklaces, or watches. 

These adverts seems to be more sophisticated as they are mostly aimed at adults and not children. 

I like this Dior fine print jewelry magazine spread. I really like the models pose on the first page, how she is staring straight down the camera, and holding her hair out the way so that we can see here earrings, and then she has a large bold ring on each hand. In both the images the colors are quite neutral, and then the rings that the model is wearing in the second image are really bright and colorful creating a contrast meaning they stand out. 

Just by looking at this image and shadows, it's clear to see that the lighting is coming from above, and flashing down on the model. I think that the photographer used front lighting for this picture. This is a good technique to use for portrait photography as it can help conceal wrinkles and blemishes.  

This watch advertisement is quite sophisticated as there isn't any text advertising for it. For example there isn't a price to tell you how much the watch costs. There isn't a watch 'name' so you wouldn't know how to search for it on the internet or what to ask for in a store. There is simply a picture of the model Charlize Theron wearing nothing but a light colored coat, and the watch being advertised. Then there is also a close up larger image of just the watch, so you can see what it looks like in detail. But this advert does show off the watch, showing you what it looks like when being worn. I like the colour scheme to this magazine advertisement, I think that the coal grey backdrop goes well with the creamy/ white clothing, watch and text. 

From looking at this image I think that the photographer may have used a technique called rembrant lighting. This  is often used as a fashion photography technique.  

This is a vintage 1992 Chanel advertisement with models Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington, taken by Patrick Demarchelierln. I really like everything thats going on within this image, and the older style of the scene, vintage chairs, mirrors and chandeliers. I also like how this photo doesn’t look completely posed, and how the two women look like they are in mid conversation. But then at the same time you cant help but question if she is looking in a mirror and we can see both her and her reflection. There is a lot going on in this image, with the foreground and the background, but I still cant help but notice how much jewelry these two women are wearing, I cant help but take my eyes off them, looking at all the jewels and pearls. I also feel the women's over the top hats and matching outfits really complete the image. 

Mini Task

For this mini task we have been told to work in pairs to create an advertising poster for anything we choose. I’m going to be working with Jess and our first initial idea was to advertise something cosmetic, like make-up or perfume. 

Research of makeup and perfume advertisements for inspiration to make our own poster. 

This is an advertisement for Clinique’s ‘Cheek Pop Blush’ I like the pattern in this image, with the three rows of three flowers in all different shades of pink, but then in the center instead of there being another flower there is Clinique’s blusher.

This advertisement for MAC make up products displays a clear message through the use of a photo intermixing pink make up products with cupcakes and colourful sprinkles. The ad makes viewers associate the make up company’s line of products with sweet desserts, promoting the line’s delectable looking colour scheme and sugary scents. The use of colour is important in the ad because it visually connects the cupcakes with the makeup.

This is a Marc Jacobs advertisement for a perfume called Daisy. I like this poster because I think it’s simple but effective, with just a plain white background so there aren’t any distractions from the bold and brightly coloured perfume bottles, then the text on the bottom of the poster matches the text on the bottles and the border made of flowers are the same colors as the flowers from the perfume bottle lid. I think that this would be quite an easy advertisement to recreate.

After looking at our research me and Jess decided on advertising a perfume, as we thought that the Marc Jacobs poster for the perfume 'Daisy' was simple yet effective. We did think that it was a bit too simple to re-create though, as there isn't really any background, so we would simply just have to photograph a perfume bottle. So instead we decided to add different types of brightly coloured sweets to create more of a background. We where inspired to do this from looking at the MAC Sugar Sweet collection advert. We did also want to add pretty pink flowers to match like what was shown in the Clinique blusher advertisement, so that there was a little something more and would also match the perfume bottle lid. Unfortunately we where unable to find any nice fake flowers in the shops and we couldn't pick any because it's the wrong season for flowers to grow.  

This is our contact sheet of all the images we took in the studio... 

After looking trough all the images, me and Jess agreed on one that we thought would look good as a poster. The image was then edited, to add more sweets in to the background and we also enhanced the image to make the colors brighter; as well as adding a white border, the Marc Jacobs logo and our own slogan for the perfume. This is what our poster turned out like... 

Looking at our poster I am pleased with the results. I don't think that its obvious that not all the sweets where originally on the image and that they have been clone-stamped. I do think that this looks a magazine advertisement witch is what we where aiming for. I also think it looks like an actual Marc Jacobs poster. We have created ours from looking at examples of theirs, with the big white border and the image in the middle. When we where creating this advertisement we where aiming it at young to late teens, and I think this comes across in the image. This is shown with the sweets, as they would appeal more to a teenager than to an adult. If I where to make this poster again I think I would make a few changes. Now looking at the poster, although the image is still good, I think I would have used a better one that would fit the poster better, maybe a portrait image instead of a landscape one. Also with the choice of sweets, all of them are quite lightly colored, with pink standing out as the main colour, so to improve the image I would take out the refreshers as I don't think that they blend into the image as well as the other sweets do. I would then replace these with more gummy bears. I would also choose an image where the perfume bottle is standing.I would prefer this, and think it would look, better because then you wouldn't have that large air bubble floating inside the bottle. One last thing that I would change is that when editing the images would have added some gamma correction, this would have made the image a bit lighter and give it a white musk, witch you often see in other  Marc Jacobs advertisement.