PHO5598: Final Assignment

The final assignment for my Lighting Techniques course was to produce a Magazine Cover. We were allowed to make any sort of magazine we wanted, from wildlife to animal based or even crafting or carpentry. I however, chose to do a Fashion Magazine and am so happy with how it came out. Chris was my model and I was able to use my Bowens 400/400 lighting kit for the first time. Chris and I took the photo using the Bowens kit and then I manipulated the background and text in Photoshop. Slap in a fake UPC and create some clever/interesting article titles (thanks to Chris and Dave for the help there) and you have yourself a magazine cover. This can be found on Flickr as well.

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Mirrored Beauty

Another image from the shoot with Jenn and Alli. I am so incredibly happy with how this photo came out. The idea was to have Jenn and Alli mimicking each other as if one was the mirror image of the other. I love it!!

This photo was entered in Best Face Photo 2010 contest at iheartfaces.

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Motivation Monday - Kirsty Mitchell

I haven't done one of these for a while now and that is partly because I haven't had the time to sit down and write about someone (and their work), but also because I haven't been looking at too many other photographers' work lately. That being said, there is one UK-based photographer I have been following for quite some time now and I find her work to be absolutely amazing. I show Kirsty Mitchell's Flickr site and now her website to people in the office whenever she releases a new photo and I honestly can't get enough of her work. It is so original, creative and breathtakingly beautiful. Her work has gotten many new ideas flowing through my head like no one else recently. Warholian.com just finished a fantastic interview with her and I feel that is pretty much sums up everything I would want to say here so I strongly suggest you check it out and then give her work a look too. So amazing!!

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Jess' Photo Shoot

Over Christmas Dave's sister, Jess, asked me to take some shots of her playing the guitar for a class assignment she has. Essentially she wanted some shots of her playing, some of her writing some chords/music and some closeup shots of the guitar, etc.My setup was pretty basic, but I was able to use almost all of my new lighting equipment; the Gary Fong diffuser for my on-camera flash, Nikon umbrella kit and SB-600. I took about 500 shots and quickly edited that down to 300 and then later down to 25 or so edited ones (+40 when you include the fact that I converted some into black and white). I am really happy with the outcome of the photo shoot and I will obviously be uploading a select few shots to this blog, but I have uploaded all the edited and signed photos to Flickr, if you would like to view them all now.

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Motivation Monday - Peter Lindbergh

"My feeling is that for years now it has taken a much too big part in how women are being visually defined. Heartless retouching should not be the chosen tool to represent women in the beginning of this century." Peter Lindbergh on the overuse of retouching in fashion photography.

Peter Lindbergh (born Peter Brodbeck in 1944) has been called "the worlds greatest fashion photographer" (Ian Phillips, 1997). He has been taking fashion photographs since 1978 and has created some absolutely amazing photographs since. He has shot several television commercials and ad campaigns for some of the biggest companies and with some of the biggest stars (e.g. Tina Turner for Hanes). He has even directed a short documentary, which received great reviews and awards. He has shot some of the most famous fashion models such as Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford (photographed together in 1990, below). One would think, as a fashion model, being photographed by Peter Lindbergh would be not only an honour, but also something you would definitely include in your portfolio.

His photographs have been published in almost every fashion magazine in existence including Stern, Harper's Bazaar (Fashion Olympics article, below, featuring Lucy Liu) and Vogue.

His first book, Ten Women, was published in 1996 and has sold over 100,000 copies. It is a collection of black and white photographs of ten top models of the moment. He has been given award after award and many photographic honours throughout his career.

One of the things that I find most inspirational about him are his views on Photoshop and digital retouching (see quote at beginning of post). From what I understand of his views, mine are similar in that, retouching should not be a photographic tool as it is. It should take less of a role and the photographer should be more aware of their subject and have the abilities to create a flattering, and yet still honest, image without relying on digital assistance. Lindbergh definitely has the skills needed to create not only flattering images of his subject, but incredibly interesting and unique ones.

(images found through Google)

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