Cosmetical Work Diary

In this lesson I did a shoot of makeup cosmetics as it is heavily associated with makeup photography, because without it there would be no field of makeup photography. I used a boom light over the top of a white backdrop as it illuminated the backdrop nicely. I didn't bring in all my makeup, I just brought in the cosmetics which are used daily and which are nice coloured. I really liked this shoot and i think I came out with some really good straight images. This shoot also allowed me to again use techniques which I have studied with the class, for example, multiple imagery and animation. I found animation was the most time consuming however the most interesting and aesthetically pleasing to look at. I found that some of the images, like one of my ones using blusher and a brush, was very soft and looked subtle, which demonstrates the texture of the brush and the feeling the powder leaves on your face. Editing took me a long time with this shoot however I felt it was worth it. In this shoot I tried to achieve to show the products of beauty and what people think we need to be beautiful, and showing beauty in more of a literal way. I think I achieved this as I took multiple pictures of the make up separately and together and I think it worked really well.

In this image I used my eyeshadow palette as the subject of the picture, In this image the initial image has been cropped as it was too big and the animation of the changing colours were very small which I didn't like. I like how I have made the animation of the changing colours on different shades of pink as opposed to choosing random different shades, I think the animation shows progression of colour which I really like. it seems to get brighter and brighter as the animation continues. I drained all the colour from the rest of the image to make the animation of colour stand out more, which makes it the focal point of the picture. If I was to not drain the colour the animation wouldn't even be noticeable. If I was to do this shoot again, or simply edit this again I think I would make the colours flash up scattered as the audience wouldn't know where the next one was coming from, which would draw more attention to the image. What doing this image has taught me is to not be so organised it beauty isn't always organised, e.g. being natural.

In this image I have put 9 pictures of various cosmetics into one image, making the technique of multiple imagery. When using a white background it is very difficult when doing levels and curves to make the backgrounds all the same colour for the grid, and in this picture it is evident that they are not all the same colour background however despite this fact I still really like this image. I like how the middle picture has no background in it and it works as a very nice centre piece. This didn't take me very long to do because I have done this a lot now so I feel it is very easy now. If I was to edit this image again I would put the images in a different order because I am not happy with the way I have two pallets next to each other as I don't think it has the scattered vibe that I wanted it to have. Looking at this photo it has taught me that I have to be more careful with the editing as I am not happy with the different shades of background as it doesn't produce a constant and to me its suggest imperfection which I suppose could be related to my project title however due to the fact that this shoot was on make up, I don't think any imperfection within the picture suggests the message for my shoot. 

By doing this shoot it has made me think of shoots I can do in the future, for example, I could do a shoot of more make up to explain how make up is used in mass by the youth of todays girls to achieve an image of beauty. I could also use a model in this shoot as I could show a young girl to be holding two big handfuls of make up, I could also make her look vulnerable to show how she is almost a victim to the suggested image of beauty.