Experimentation

Experimentation with Edits In Photoshop 

Black and White

I experimented with using black and white edit on photoshop with adding the blue and green saturation to the image as well. I don't think the black and white affect shows off the image to the best ability as the main aspect of UV photography is the vibrant colors. 

Gradient Adding 

Adding a gradient is using the gradient tool in photoshop changing the foreground and background color by clicking the blue part of the eye lids and then the pink area of the hands it created a purple gradient. Then add a new layer drag a line across the image and changing the opacity down to 20% which has changed the background color instead of the black its now a purple color. I don't like this as much as the black as the colors stand out more against the black background. 


Hue and Saturation

I have changed the hue and saturation which has added a green affect to the image making it look characteristic. 

Health & Safety

Health and Safety

Using UV lights, paint and the studio being in complete darkness causes some health and safety issues which I need to address. 

Using a UV light meant that I needed to research the affects of the light and what damage could be done and what precautions need to be put in place:

Short term affects: burns, skin dryness and itching, eye irritation

Long term affects: Cancer, Cataracts, ageing of the skin

 

The model will be kept at safe distance from the light an warned to only touch the plastic casing around the uv light to be kept from the risk of burns. I will warn all my models to moisturise thoroughly before and after the shoot so that in case of dry skin and itching it will be resolved. Lastly in the short term affects the model will be advised not to look straight into the light and also the light won't be shone directly into the models eyes. 

When buying the paint i made sure that it was suitable to be applied to skin without side affects i also made sure that i asked my model before the shoot if she was allergic to face paints or has sensitive skin which may react to the paint luckily my models didn't, If however they did then I would have changed models. I also made sure that i brought along make up wipes which removed the paint automatically. Lastly i made sure when buying the paint that if it so happened to get onto clothes it would wash out. 

Finally because the UV light only works when all the lights are off except the UV light and no natural light allowed into the room the hazard is tripping on wires, chairs or on the back drop. I made sure that the models sat down before the house lights went out and didn't allow people to move until the lights were back on this preventing people tripping or falling. 

Final Images Shoot 2 & Evaluation

Final Images Shoot 2 

The 11 images below are my final images I have chosen from shoot 2 that i chose to edit in photoshop. For this shoot i also shot in raw therefore again i edited them in the on page that appears when dragging a raw file into photoshop, boosting the exposure and changing the clarity however looking back i need to more careful with this as I learnt its easy to go to far with this and increase the clarity too much. Looking back i think i had the ISO to high as I think the images are a lot grainier than in shoot 1. 

I have learnt a lot from this shoot especially in terms of the UV light and the technical considerations of boosting the ISO to high. I faced many difficulties while shooting this second shoot which i didn't forecast. The main one being that the light wasn't powerful enough to light up my two models as well as it did with one model in my previous shoot. This meaning that if i was going to carry out another shoot with more than one model I would need to get another UV light a stronger bulb light this time rather than a bar. I also need to make sure that when painting the neck both models had the same amount of paint on the neck as each other otherwise as I found i had to stop and add more paint to one of my models meaning that my focus and camera setting needed to be changed again taking up vital time. 

I have chosen the images below because they are my favourites showing the two models touching and also looking in different directions which was my desired outcome. They also show development throughout with some of images being very graining and further down showing how this has improved also the development of applying more paint to the models to make it equal. I think due to the fact of how close I was to the models I am pleased with the end outcomes and the sharpness of the images and i certainly know what and how if i decided to do another shoot with more than one model how i would do things differently. 

Both my models were in this shoot from the same ethnic background ad blue and the darkest pink colours worked best with there skin tone. This is different from shoot 1 was green was one of the best colours that worked on my model however using green in this shoot meant a lot of over exposing in photoshop to make the green stand out and also adding an extra layer of the green coloured paint. 

The camera settings I used for this shoot were ISO 4000 aperture 2.6 and shutter speed 1/20th these drastic settings meant that any movement and the images would become blurry and the camera would loose focus.  

 

 

 

 

 

Second Shoot & Evaluation

Contact Sheets Shoot 2 

Overall evaluation of Shoot 2 

Once again I felt prepared going into shoot 2 having an image in my head of what I wanted to achieve and an understanding of how i wanted to achieve it. Having my camera on a tripod to cause as little vibration as possible with my models on two chairs with the intentions to in some of my images having the models sat on each other however having trialled this in the end it didn't work because of the camera wouldn't focus properly with one model at a different height than the other. I decided to paint the models face each using two colours only different colours on each of my models this proved to be a success and failure the success being it enabled me to see which colours looked best on the chosen ethnic background compared to shoot 1. The outcome of this is that in shoot 1 green really stood out on my mixed race model however in shoot 2 with a model from a different ethnic background the green didn't work as well as shown below in some of my first images. Which meant before I continued I had to add more paint to make it stand out, and also to act as more light for the camera to focus on. The camera faced more difficulties in that it had two people to try and focus on which meant I found it hard to know what to set the camera to focus on in the end i set the camera to focus on the left hand side models inner eye as this seemed to work best. 

Getting the models to do different poses which I had planned to do getting them to look in different directions proved to be successful also having the models having there heads together touching also worked well specially when i got really close to them the only problem with this was that the eyes couldn't be focus for the camera as they couldn't be seen as well, so for this pose i decided to change the focus point to the lips which worked well as the camera liked the focusing on the boldest colour in the image. 

The main problem which I faced in this shoot was that the UV light wasn't strong enough to light up both models which made the images a lot darker than Id hoped which meant i had to change the exposure in photoshop to allow the images to be light enough. Looking forward to if I choose to do two models again I will instead of buying a UV bar light i would buy a stronger UV lamp which would allow the images to be lighter and light up the models more. If this wasn't a possibility I could buy another of the UV bars and this would be enough as one would light up one model and one would light up the other. Lastly I would have allowed more time in which to take the images because my models only had a certain time frame and i didn't appreciate how long the paint took to do on two models which limited me on how many pictures I could take. 

Overall I am pleased with the final images which I have chosen and edited i think that the viewer would be able to relate them to my intentions. I have learnt a lot of techniques and practical considerations which i will defiantly plan for next time if i decide to use more than one model. 

Below are all of my images in contact sheets separately will be my final images from this shoot edited and evaluated. (for this shoot i took around 250 pictures in raw)

Second Shoot Plan

Shoot 2 Project Plan 

For my second shoot I will be using models of the same ethnic background as each other to compare and contrast if the paint reacts differently with people of the same ethnic background or stands out more on either one of my models more than the other. The obvious difference between my shoot 1 and shoot 2 is that there will be two models, I will also be contracting not only on the face but also on the neck as well also bringing forward what I learnt from shoot 1 to paint the hand as well and also the eyes to have them as a focus point for the camera. I will be getting my models very close together in some of the images touching with some of them the eyes of the models looking different directions making this a mystery for the viewer as to what they are each looking at and as to why they are looking different ways. 

Below are my inspirational images which I would like my final images to be similar too I love the poses reflecting desperation, sadness and that the models are scared. I like how the paint doesn't just cover the face but also the neck and hands which is what I learnt to do in my shoot 1 this shows development. 

My shoot will be again be in the studio using two chairs for each model to sit on to enable them to be as still as possible however i also am going to try the models sat on one an other to also add different framing to my images not just having two models in the centre of the images with black background either side. 

This shoot I will be doing on the 13th of May and because I will again be shooting in raw like for my first shoot. I will be using a different memory card to be certain that all my images will fit on, rather than taking the images on the same memory card as shoot 1 which could get filled because of how big raw images are. This would one look unprofessional and secondly to change the memory card i would have to move the camera which could affect the focus which is hard to get in the first place in such a dark location. 

Final Images Shoot 1 & Evaluation

Final images Shoot 1

The 12 images below are my final images from shoot 1 that I chose to edit using photoshop. I shot all my images in raw meaning therefore that when put into photoshop an editing page appears which only appears when shooting raw which allows you to change the exposure, saturation ect this is the only page I used to edit my images with only editing them slightly boosting the exposure and sometimes booting the saturation to make the colours a bit warmer. 

I have defiantly learnt a lot from this brief which I will be able to consider and carry forward in my up coming second and final shoots for this brief. Most certainly the biggest part being to use as much colour on the selected areas of the body enables the camera to focus more because the paint was acting as light, making the image quality and sharpness very good. I have developed the understanding of this in my work as shown as starting with just the lips which didn't work well, to developing to painting all over the face to finally adding paint to the hands which added extra light to the image allowing the camera to focus even more. 

I have chosen the images below to be my final section for a variety of reasons, they are my sharpest, they best relate to my research and how I intended my images to look with the eyes being a focus point of the images, they all create a different feeling with not all the poses being the same a lot of the images being scary at first glance but also the added emotion of mystery. I also love the framing of the images with in some of the images having the model to one side of the frame and the other side in complete darkness this was done purposely to add interest. A section of my image containing depth of field in one having the front of the face on one side blurry and the back other half of the face in focus. Another one is the image which has one side of the face showing the paint and is vibrant and the other side only showing the eye in colour the rest of the face in complete darkness. 

The camera settings I used for these images were ISO 3000 aperture 3.2 and shutter speed 1/30th. 

My model from a mixed race ethnic background the blue, green and white stood out the most when I have experimented with models from different backgrounds I will be able to compare and contrast. 

It took me some time to chose and edit my final images but I am pleased with my decisions and believe that I will certainly come back to these images when choosing my final images to get framed for this brief as these images completely related to my research and how I desired my images to come out.  I am motivated for my up and coming shoots where I will be using more than one model. 

First Shoot & Evaluation

Contact sheets Shoot 1 

Overall Evaluation of shoot 1 

Having made a detailed plan I felt well prepared for this shoot. I had an image in my head of how I wanted the outcome of my image to be which had me going into this first shoot in a good position. Having seen some images online of having just the lips painted i decided to go ahead and try this, having painted my models lips and sprayed some extra paint around the mouth area I began shooting. I sat my model on a chair on a black back drop using a chair to make sure my model stayed as still as possible as to focus with such little light proved to be difficult. Having my camera on a tripod to also cause as less vibration as possible. I tried positioning the UV light in different positions and also trying different camera setting the camera just wouldn't focus because there being so little light, as seen below you can see my experimentation with this and how the images just came out blurry. I quickly having had multiply attempts scrapped this idea and began putting paint all over my models face splattering it on all over and painting the lips and eye lids in one solid colour so that I had something I could focus the camera with on manual focus. 

Having put more paint on my model straight away i could tell a difference the camera was focusing much better and the whole image just looked exactly how Id desired it to be which was a relief since as the beginning of the shoot didn't start of very well at all. While taking the images getting the model to do different poses however this was hard due to when the camera focused if there was slight movement it would become unfocussed. Using manual focus I learnt that focussing on the one solid bold colour on the eyelids worked best. During shooting I could already tell which sort of images id be using for my final images for this shoot which was a great motivation to continue as I felt the shoot now going successfully. 

Overall I am thrilled with the over all outcome and having chosen a selection of final images which I have edited and will evaluate in the next post. I am certainly motivated to get on with my second shoot which I feel a lot more confident about the settings but also i Know how best to position the light for the best affect and also i know somewhere on the model to have a section of one solid colour which the camera can be set to focus on. 

Below are my contact sheets of all the images taken in the shoot and separately will be my final images evualuated and edited. (for this shoot I took around 400 pictures in raw) 

First Shoot Plan

First Shoot Plan and Camera Settings. 

My first shoot will be on the 11th of May where I will be shooting one model only shooting from the top of the shoulders upwards. For this shoot I have had to order some UV paint this wasn't as easy as it seemed as there are a lot of different types I needed to make sure that it was suitable to be put on my models skin and also that it would wash out of clothes easily without leaving stains. Another difficulty that I faced was I didn't know what size to buy as I didn't know how far the paint would go however I knew that I would be using a lot more paint than the first time I attempted using the UV technique- I decided to go for the medium size bottle with a wide range of primary vibrant colours. I did wonder about just choosing a selection of about three colours and buying them all individually but I decided to get my desired affect I would need at least 6 colours in the end i bought a box set of 8. 

My camera settings as this is my final project of the year I put a lot of effort into thinking about what camera settings to use before going into the shoot this making the shoot more planned and making the shoot as professional as I could. I knew from my experience in September of doing a similar thing that to get the settings right first time didn't happen and because I was less experienced it took trial and error. However for going into this shoot I know that my settings should be some what around this ISO 1600 shutter speed 1/80th and the aperture at 3.6- 5.6. 

I have already got a wide range of selected paint brushes which I will be using to paint the model. Before hand i need to ask the model if she does have any allergies or can't put the paint on the eye lids of eye lashes like I wanted, having asked the model this it was all fine and I could go ahead without having the re think my plan. 

Below are images that have inspired me for this shoot, the image shows the sharpness and the wide variety of colours I want to achieve in my images and mainly how effective painting the eye lashes is. For this shoot I will be using a mixed race model and seeing how/ if there is any difference in which colours stand out best or react differently to people of different ethnic backgrounds. 

Project Plan General

Project Plan in General with detailed individual plans to follow. 

What I plan to do for this brief with the topic heading challenging perspectives is to use UV paint and a UV bar lamp to paint people from different ethnic backgrounds showing and developing how the paint shows up and reacts with the models from different backgrounds. As I did this type of technique for my first studio project I will be showing development of techniques of what I have learnt through out the year. Using more technical photoshop techniques and also in my written work trying to use more photographic language. 

I plan on doing shoots with models from different ethnic backgrounds. When progressing i plan on including different models in the same image, which I will then talk about when evaluating comparing and contrasting, how the paint has shown up and reacted on the different models.  

My first time in doing this UV type of work I found getting the camera settings right hard due to such dark surroundings however this time I am a lot more confident with the camera settings so I will be able to get the images more accurate first time rather then having to do trial and error with the settings like last time. Also I learnt that its vital to use a tripod when doing such images and make sure the model keeps very still, as in such dark conditions the camera finds it hard to focus so even having to press the button can cause some camera shake. 

The patters of paint I used last time were directly and accurately painted on with fine paint brushes or with the use of stencils this time I plan on splattering the paint just throwing it onto the models creating more of a burst of color this is because the colors mixed together will create an even more vibrant tones.

Project Proposals

Proposals 

What I intend to do for this final project and how I am going to go about it. However my initial thoughts may not then develop to my final outcome because at the moment I have many thoughts of what I would like to do, and I haven't finalized my decision of which idea I'm going to go ahead with. These are my initial thoughts for the projects with the brief being either landscape, portrait or still life I have an idea for each or I have an idea to combine either two of the topics. 

My portrait idea is too develop from my first ever assignment which was UV portrait I am going to develop from this comparing my first brief to now my last showing and comparing all i have learnt in the year to help me improve it and show development.