EVALUATION

I have found Digital Image 2 – Shooting beauty extremely exciting. I have never done anything like this before. I have never been a fan of fashion makeup, but this project has completely changed my view of it. We were giving the opportunity to create something completely designed by us for a brand linking it to a word. My given brand was Illamasqua, which I was over the moon about and my given word was ‘Naked’. Illamasqua is one my favourite make-up brands and I love all of the advertising for the brand as it’s always out there and so original. At first I was stuck with my given word, as it was quite simple, but as I researched more I found different meanings of the word and then I got my brand which I think works really well with the word.

The studio sessions were very fun, and I enjoyed learning new ways to shoot beauty. I get great pleasure out of setting up the studios and experimenting new techniques. Unfortunately, one of the shoots we did in class got lost from my memory card, which was disappointing as I had a lot of fun doing it.

I had a great time during the post-production process. I am a big fan of Photoshop and love editing photographs that I’ve taken and comparing them. I watched a lot of YouTube videos so I could learn more at home. I found a love of Frequency Separation, which Peter uploaded a video about on to the Portal. It makes such a difference and makes the images look so much better and professional.

I think my shoots went exceedingly well. I was so happy with the outcome. My models both had beautiful skin so it was easily to apply the makeup look I created on to them. I think the make-up itself went exactly how I wanted it to. The shoots also went very well. It took a bit longer to set up as I did the makeup first and didn’t want either of my models to sweat or get restless, as it would have shown in the images. Luckily they didn’t. 

The lighting was perfect. I wanted a white background and a beauty dish for my editorial as a wanted a bit of shadow in the background. Whilst researching, I came across a few images with shadows - which are shown in some of my mood and story boards – which looked really good. I wanted a dark background with a bright but soft light for my brand image, which I think I successfully achieved. I wanted a dark background because Illamasqua tend to have black or grey shoots to show up the makeup more. The only aspects of the shoot that I wasn’t 100% happy with was the hair in both shoots and the some of the reflections of light on my editorial models face. I wanted the hair to be a lot wetter than it was but there was limited time. However, I don’t think it looks awful. I was annoyed at the reflections of light on my editorial models face at first but during post-production, they started to grow on me.

Overall I am extremely happy with how this unit has gone. I have loved every minute of it. Unlike the last topic, I paced myself and took my time and didn’t leave everything to the last minute which I think shows in my final outcomes.