Photoshoot

Photo shoot

1.      Why was a photo shoot essential to carry out

One of the reasons why it is important to carry out a photo shoot is because for one of the ideas for my digi-pack, and advert I decided I wanted to have a model on the front so that I could then conform to the dance genre of my music video. So to avoid having hassle with copyright issues I found someone, which might be willing to pose for a few pictures so that I could then pick the best one and use n with in my work. I think that this will help me to develop a little trademark for my artist so that when this woman is seen people know that its is for my artist. I found someone who was willing to pose for the shots; this was the other member of my group who said that she didn’t mind posing for the pictures so we decided to use her.

    Another reason why I decided to carry out a photo shoot is because I think that it was better for use to use my own images as I would then be able to take as many as I wanted and then pick the best one out of the lot. This would also make the situation a lot more easier as I wouldn’t have to surf the web for hours looking for the right type of image, as I would be able to just take the images which I want and pose the character the way I want her to look in order for me to get the most effective shots, I would also be able to take as many pictures as I wanted to get the most effective shot, and choose the ones which I want to use.

2.

This is the first picture which we considered using. The reason for this being because I found this to be quite a dance related pose. I did also consider the other places where this image could be used for example on both the advert and the digi-pack. But then when this image was compared to the other images taken we found that some of the others were better.

This is another picture which I was going to use as well. I planned for this picture to be used on the front of the advert. Of course any of the pictures which I was going to use were going to be edited and changed a little bit so that it is more of a silhouette of the woman. To try and capture the theme of the dance conventions as well, as I have chosen not to show the artist so I thought that it could be important to make sure that I don’t just use an image of the woman on the front as she is not the artist, and I don’t want to confuse people. 

This is the final image which I have decided to use. This is also the image which I plan to use on the digi-pack and the advert the reason for this is because I think that this is the best image taken and it conforms to the conventions of dance and I found that it fitted into the idea which I had for the digi-pack and the advert and I could edit this image a lot and make it look really good. I also think that this is just the best image which was taken.

3.This first image, which is chose to use, was the image which I have chosen to out on the front cover of my album and might use of the advert. This is the image of the girl posing like she is dancing. She is made to look like she has been caught in the middle of dancing, and she doesn’t know that the camera is taking a picture of her. This will go on the front cover of my album, the reason why I have chosen to have this image is because it conforms to the dance theme, and I think that if someone were to see this album then they would probably be able to guess that the album is promoting dance music. I think that this will also help me to connote that the girl is dancing and that this would be good music to play at a partying or to connote good clubbing music.  

    For the second image, which I decided to use, was a similar picture to the picture, which I used for the album, this is the image of the same model, striking the same pose, which looks slightly similar to the model on the front. The reason why I have chosen to have the same model here is so that I could then establish a little narrative as part of the digi-pack, so that it can then tell its own little story. I story which is will be telling is very simple as it will just e of the model dancing and how she is dancing through the digi pack. I think that this will then help me to connote that the someone having a good time when they go out, the reason I will only be using on is so that I could then connote that the woman and the motions and the feelings which she is going through when she is having a good time. I think that this narrative will also help so that the more that the people open the digi-pack the bigger the party will get, so I will try and illustrate this by the more that people open the digi-pack the more the of the girl partying they will see.

    The third image, which I will be using, will be of the same model, but this image will be used on the magazine in stead. The reason why I have chosen to use the same model its to keep the theme of the party and the model going as I think that people may have seen the similar image of the model on all of the digi-pack. Therefore I think that this then helps to carry the theme of the dance genre and the party-clubbing scene, which I have tried to create on the digi-pack. I have tried to make it so that the model is striking a similar pose so that when people see the poster they may recognise the model straight away from the digi pack providing that they have seen the digi pack. I wanted to use a full body pose of the model so in order for me to do this I had to take a long shot of the model. I then decided that I didn’t want to use the whole of her and that I wanted to just use her from the knees upwards, so it is like the camera has just caught her in her element dancing having a good time. For this reason also I had to make sure that the model was not looking at the camera and that the angle at which I took the image was so that she was looking away and like I had just taken by chance and she didn’t know that there was a camera there.

        4. Include a before and after to show your Photoshop skills 1. Advert 2. Digi pack

Skills learnt

Adobe Photoshop is a very powerful program and is one which is used a lot by professional design companies to create effective and appealing graphics. It is often used for manipulating images, but can also be used for making something scratch. When used the right way some really professional graphics can be created.    

I learnt a whole range of different skills while using Photoshop.  Adobe Photoshop is a program, which I am already familiar with as it is one, which I have used many times before. Therefore I found that a large range of the editing, which I was doing I already, knew how to do from my knowledge of the program. I edited most of the pictures the same way, but just used the pictures in different ways. One of the first things, which I had to do after taking the pictures, was to put them onto the computer. To do this I just put the images on a memory stick and then made a folder on my desktop and dragged and dropped the images into there. I then opened the first image up in Photoshop; I had to think about how I wanted to edit the image. To start with I opened a new document, which was around 12cm by 12cm, I also made sure that this background was transparent. I then went back to the image again, I selected the ‘quick select’ tool and then selected the body of the model, for the time being I just selected her whole body. One of the main aspects which I had to change was the size of the brush, to do this I had to edit the size of the brush I used a relatively medium size brush for the main part of the body, then for the edges which didn’t get selected I made the brush much smaller and then went around the edges. I was careful when going around the edges of the model that I only detected her body and none of the background, and the smaller the brush the less tolerant the brush is so that it is less likely to detect the other colours only the very similar colours, this helped me to get a better finish on the model. Once the whole model was selected I went to the black arrow at the top of the tool bar and then dragged the image of the model over to the transparent page which I had made earlier so now she was just on her own. I then decided that I wanted to change the angle of the models body to do this I held down, ‘Ctrl’ and then ‘T’ then creates a black box with 8 squares around the outside of my model. I then went to the edit button at the top of the tool bar and went down to transform, I then clicked on ‘screw’ and then tilted the model the way I wanted her to stand I had to be careful not to change the original image too much, so I had to make sure that the model still looked realistic and like a model. When I was happy with that I then pressed entre, this applies the transformation to my model. I didn’t stretch the model to much just enough; I stretched her from the top so that it appeared that her head and body was more forward.

    I then went to change the position of the models body to do this I had to split her body in half, to do this I went back to the select tool again (which is located on the vertical side in the tool bar) I then only selected the top half of the model. Once I had selected the amount I wanted I got the black arrow and moved that part of the body this was just so that I could see that I had the right amount. It’s easy to see when there is an area selected when using the quick select too as it will have a dashed line running all the way around the area and will be moving constantly. I then pressed ‘Ctrl T’ again just like last time and this time I moved the body so that it was a till more straight. This helped me as it then made it look like the model is slightly forward and twisting her body. I found that this help to make my model look a little bit more like she is dancing. I then had to also move the top of the body back so that it matched up with the lower half of the body, of course the body wasn’t going to match exact now because of the angles of the body so in this case I has to then join the body up so that it looked realistic, fro, one side of the body, I chose the left side. It is important to now bear in mind that both half’s of the body are on two separate layers, so now  I had to make sure that I watched the layers which I was working on, otherwise it could cause problems later. To fill in the gap of body which is now missing I made a new layer by just going to ‘Layer’, ‘New’, ‘New Layer’ I then just called it middle. I know had to judge myself the width of the models body and what should go where. So I clicked on the ‘Clone’ which is on the side in the tool bar this looks like a little stamp. I then held down the ‘Alt’ key, this made the arrow look like a little target, I did this on the part of the body which I wanted to use, for example I cloned some of the stomach which I wanted to use to cover the gap and I then started to colour in the gap where the stomach should be, I also did this for the black t-shirt as well which she is wearing. I find that this is a process of trial and error, as it takes time to find the right skin tone and to continue the light and shade all over the body, and to make it look realistic.

But once I had finished that and I was happy with it, I then went on to edit the model further, I decided that it might look a little better if we made the model have a little more hair to make it look like she is swaying her hair, again to create that dancing effect. To do this I just used the same concept I used for cloning the body, but this time I was much more selective and I used a much smaller brush one which was almost hair stand thin, of course I didn’t have this for all of the hair I used different shades from the hair and different size brushes. Again I done this until I was happy with the finished product and I added enough hair.

From this point I was happy with the structure of the model and I could now go on to being more creative with the editing. To start with I merged all of the layers to do this I held down the ‘Alt’ key and selected all of the layers I then right clicked on the layers and then selected merge layers. I then went to the filter gallery and click on the ‘Artistic’ tab, I then clicked on a few to see that they looked like, but I then found one which I liked this was the ‘Cut Out’ effect. I think this because it gave me a nice silhouette of my model. Once I done that I didn’t play around with the amount of the effect which I wanted because if felt that it was fine, so therefore selected ‘Ok’ once I had done that, and then cropped the image leaving a bit of a bleed around the outside, and saved my model, of course it is important to save work throughout when working, just in case. Now this model was free to be used on any of graphics which I was producing being the digi-pack and the advert.

 

    These are all the pictures, which I used on my digi-pack and my advert. I have spoken about my reason for using them, where I plan to use them and the effect, which I would like to create with the use of these pictures. I have also added images, which illustrate show, the image I will be using.