My Visual Logbook: March 2017

Third Shoot

16:10

The design for publishing student who I can collaborating with to create my own editorial is currently working on one of her own based on Japanese Fashion. I thought this was the perfect situation as we were both helping each other out.

She had a model in mind but was after a photographer to take the images. Initially she wanted a studio shoot, but after my location shoots last week I was really keen on getting outside more and using my environment to produce some more cool images. She was happy with the idea of a location shoot and had seen my other images and really liked them. I wanted to use lines and form again within my images so we went to two locations, firstly in Boardman House, and then to the top of St. Stephens carpark. My other carpark images came out really well and I love having the combination of different lines as well as being high enough to potentially have a skyline and/or just use the sky especially on such a sunny day. Having the contrasting shadows from the high sun is also something which works really well and playing around with the markings on the ground too.

I really like using the lines available in my locations, like this one in the tarmac on the floor, to help my use of space in the image.

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Second mock up

14:18

After taking more images today I added them to the existing indesign document. I changed some around and added some too. It was interesting shooting them as my aim was to make them look the same as the others and make them look as though they had been shot on the same day. I made sure I shot on a day with similar weather conditions, I was lucky enough to have another warm day close together. I won't send this to the design for publishing student because I plan to shoot more and wouldn't want to waste her time when she has her own work to do too.

I took this to my 1 to 1 with James today and he said my images were strong, but pointed out her skin in the 13th image was a little rough looking and not as smooth as the rest of the skin in the other images. I had noticed this but hadn't had time to change it, and that image will not be used in my final editorial anyway as it isn't one of my best.

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Shooting today

22:19

My focus on todays shoot was on using the lines of the architecture and lines on the floor of the carpark to complement my images minimal feel. I really liked the images I took of the model on the wall of the carpark, but they didn't fit with the rest of the images in the editorial as they had too much going on in the background, and the remainder of them had a very minimal feel to them.

I also took images of the different bits of building and the floor of the carpark to potentially use as solo images in the editorial or for layering underneath images as I have found editorials which do this and I really like them.

This is my favourite image from this shoot, I really like the composition, the way she is framed by the rail either side, and the wall behind her.

I like her pose, but the composition isn't strong, my angle should have been higher so that I didn't get the sky in the shot.

I would improve the pose next time as the model is a little round shouldered.

I was thinking about use of space and the possibility of including text within my images, I made sure I had negative space to think about using later.

My crop could be better here, Ive chopped her second shoe off which isn't ideal for an editorial which would be selling the shoes. However, I really like the high angle and the bold lines against the red and blue of the styling. I needed to be a little bit further back and a little bit higher.

To improve, I want to use a stylist on my shoots, here in this image, the shirt is creased and not laying flat on the model this is something a stylist would pick up on so I don't have to think about styling.

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First Mock up of a possible editorial

18:10

Today I met up with the graphic designer I am collaborating with and mocked up a very quick spread for the editorial I want to make using my initial images. I wanted to get an idea of what it could look like and I think knowing how I want my images to sit on a page will help when I visualise what I want to shoot and especially how I frame the shot. I plan to shoot over the weekend as It is supposed to be sunny, I want to produce similar looking images with a different model to be able to work together in the same editorial.

I'm really happy with even the very first possibility of how my finished editorial could look, these are my initial images and I've got a lot of time to shoot and refine my idea down.

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Harper’s Bazaar Kazakhstan November 2016 by Louis Christopher

12:30

Photography: Louis Christopher
Styled by: Anna Katsanis
Makeup: Fumiaki Nakagawa
Hair: Takuya Sugawara
Models: Alena Nurgaleeva, Nastya Abramova & Nicole Atieno

I have found looking at whole editorials really helpful when finding inspiration for my work. Seeing out they were put together, how many outfits were used, use of space on a page etc. I really like the high key lighting against the blue sky, the choice of model works well too. I really want to start working with signed models as this will make such an improvement to my portfolio.

All of these images are shot from below looking up at the model. I have been making a conscious effort to work the shot more, from as many angles as I can, to try something different. I am so used to shooting in the studio being able to move round the model and shoot from any direction, and making the most out of the location is something I need to remember is something I can do. I love shooting from below and having the sky as almost a complete background too.