Fashion PhotoShoot

Recently I did my fashion photo shoot with model Grace in the studio. Callum also came to model for a few photos as well as Grace, because often in advertisements there are more than just one model. The aim if this photo shoot was to advertise the black and white hound-tooth scarf I wrote about previously.  For these photos I used two soft boxes and a beauty dish. The use of the soft boxes varied as I was trying to achieve different shades of grey and white on the background.  Wanted to use a grey colored background as I feel that it looks more professional than a white background, and also with the scarf being black and white, the grey will suit it nicely. 

Here are my contact sheets... 

Overall I'm really pleased with the outcome of my fashion shoot. I experimented using loads of different angles, and even jumped between using 1 or 2 models. Out of all the pictures that I took these are my favourite... 

I think this is a clean strong image. This clearly shows off the scarf and has been taken at a more interesting angle than normal. The model has quite a natural face in this picture,  she isn't very posed. With good space around the edges to add text. 

I really like this image, I like the way I have a male and female model posing together in this one. Just from looking at the image I see fashion. Its cear whats being advertised, although I don't like how you can't see all of the males face; and there wouldn't be much room to add text around the edges. 

I really like my models pose in this image, she has really strong eye contact with the viewer, and with her being topless it's a bit more sexy. (You know what they say, sex sells) There is a nice border around the edge allowing room to add text, but this image could have been taken at a more interesting angle. I think it clearly advertises the scarf though.

Once again I think that my models pose in this image is really strong.  Especially with her being face on and making clear eye contact. From this image I cant help but get more of a military feel coming trough, with the crossed scarf, bandanna and khaki coloured jacket. Unfortunately my male models pose wasn't as strong in this image, and I cant help but feel that he looks out of place in this image. 

Out of these four favorite images I'm going to use number 1, I'm choosing this picture over the others because I think that this one advertises the scarf the most. You can see more of the scarf in this image compared to the other 2 scarf advertisements and I feel that it also looks like more of a NewLook advertisement too. This is because in the 1st one she isn't topless, but still stylish therefore making it more teen friendly. I think that the topless images are still good advertisement but just not for a shop like newlook, these would be more suited towards a brand like Gucci for example, but this isn't much of a Gucci scarf. 
Now I have decided on what picture I am going to use for my poster advertisement, the next step is to edit the image and add text and a logo, to make it look like an actual advertisement. 

Firstly I went online to the NewLook website and got my self a large image of the NewLook logo, I would later need this to add to my picture. 

Fortunately the logo is written up on a plain white background, therefore making it easier to select the background with the magic wand tool later when editing. Then I can simply delete the background to leave me with only the black lettering, that I can then drag over to my main image when ready.  

This is my final image before, in-between and after editing... 

Original final image before any editing.  

This is my final image part way trough editing. So far I have used the frequency separator to basically soften her skin without losing any texture. I then also used the spot healing brush to eliminate any spots. I have also enhanced her hait using the clone stamp and liquify. I used curves to contour her face, and to also to add some definition to her stomach. As well as that I aslo darkened her eyebrows and eyelashes, and brightened her hair; once again using curves. I used the sharpen tool over the scarf to try and add a bit more definition. And the most noticeable change I made to the image was changing the background colour to blue. It took me a while to decide what colour to change the background to, my 1st instinct was a soft pink, as this is what was used in the boohoo and MissGuided advertisements that I researched; but I didn't think that the pink suited the image. I tried all different colours, red, purple, green, orange. Non of them quite fitted though, I thought the orange looked good but right. I tried a pale blue, as my models eyes are this colour, so I know that the colour suits her, but also goes nicely with the 'blue eyes, blond hair' look. When I tried the blue I just thought it popped, I though that the colour really suited the image, made the scarf stand out, and also made the whole image look more professional than just the greyish colour background that most studio images have. 

My next step was to add text on to my image, this is the point where my picture turns into an advertisement.  The first thing that I did was add my saved image of the newlook logo to photoshop. I then selected the background with the magic want tool and deleted it leaving me only with the lettering. Then I simply dragged the logo over my photo and placed it where I thought it fitted. The next thing I then did was create a text box, and typed out the name of the scarf and the price, from what I found on the website. I then selected a font that I thought matched the newlook logo font, and then placed it where I thought it looked good.

This is my final newlook advertisement. There may not look like there is much difference between this image and the one above, but I wasn't fully satisfied with how the font on that one was looking. I thought it was too dark, and thick. It was too bold next to the newlook logo, and you could clearly see it wasn't the same font. So I just scrolled tough the font list trying several different ones until I came across this one, Oriya Sangam MN. I though that this font suited with the newlook logo nicely, and that the font wasn't too think or bold looking. Finally to make the font match even more nicely I changed the font colour, but used the colour select tool, and clicked on the newlook lettering to achieve exactly the same colour.