Evaluation Of The Project So Far:
My aim in this project was to explore a variety of meanings behind the theme of disguise. I chose the theme of disguise as I believe it can be interpreted into several types of photography. Firstly, I decided to look at the Japanese hobby of "cosplaying" where models dress up as characters from popular books or television series. Firstly, I researched two famous Filipino photographers who specialise in this form of photography. Paolo Panganiban focuses on portraiture with settings that suit the character. His portraits are very vivid, with the use of strong lighting and a heavy use of photoshop to smoothen skin tones and enhance the image. On the other hand, Bryan Vivo approaches portraiture with a more professional setting. The shoot I chose to look at involved the models dressing up as the characters, but the images were in a much more simplistic studio, much more like shoots that would be used for the modelling industry. From these two photographers, I decided to experiment in their styles and I created three shoots, using aspects of their work.
Firstly, I did the Ciel Phantomhive photoshoot. This was based on Paolo's work of using a fitting background and props in order to re-create the character. In order to complete this shoot, I used a chair to stand on beside the model on the grass in order to achieve a unique angle to the photographs. In my vision of the shoot, I wanted to create a scene of the model waiting for someone, with the appropriate emotions behind that. I also intended to utilize a fitting background, much like Paolo does. In this case, I decided to take the shoot on a sunny day for natural lighting and set it outside on the grass. I had the model sit on a blanket, in order to create the idea of her waiting on a picnic, and this is visible in the first photograph of the shoot. In the following two photographs, the blanket isn't visible, however we can see the models face. I wanted these two images to focus more on the models expression than the scene around her. Lastly, I'd like to mention the use of colour popping the blue ring in each photograph. I wanted the photographs to be sepia/black and white so that I could draw the audiences attention to the bright blue ring. I chose to do this because the ring has a big significance in the anime from which the character, who the model is cosplaying, comes from. Overall, I believe that this photoshoot worked really well - and out of all of the shoots so far it is my favourite, particuarly because of the accuracy I managed to achieve in replicating the character.
My second shoot focused primarily on working in the style of Bryan Vivo, who chose to create a much more fashionable style to cosplay photography. For this shoot, I used a proffesional photography studio with overhead lighting, which I purposly set to primarily illuminate one side of the models body. After I had taken the shoot, I was a little dissapointed when I found that the lighting had caused the models face to be in shadow in the majority of the photographs, and thus this is something I will make sure doesn't happen again if I use the studio lighting. During editing this shoot, I found that adding the text like Bryan Vivo had would obscure the models face in some of the images, so I changed the position of it - yet kept the same font in order to mimic his style. Overall, I found this shoot to be surprisingly challenging when it came to correctly mimicing Vivo's style, however I am please with how it turned out in the end.
The last shoot I did, using my style of 'cosplay', was the Luka Megurine shoot. In this one, I attempted to recreate the character from a specific image. In my honest opinion, I dont particuarly like the way this shoot turned out. The lighting in the room had a orange hue to it, and the background was far too busy. To try and make the image slightly less busy, I cropped the background out in order to draw the eye to the model rather than the clutter behind her. This shoot was particuarly difficult due to factors such as the lighting, and background which are explained above. I found that cropping the background around the models hair ended up looking slightly messy, and if I were to do this shoot again I would definetly reconsider the setting.
Following on from these three shoots I decided to explore 'Disguise' in a different way - looking at masks, instead of costumes. Firstly, I looked at Inge Morath's work, which featured Saul Steinburg's idea of turning his art masks into a photographic piece. Although I liked the idea behind these masks, I wanted to push towards a more glamorous feeling in my photography. Secondly, I looked at Christoffer Relander to see if I wanted to experiment further with the idea of creating a photomontage out of two images. I also looked at Mary Raine and Winter Kelly, who both use venetian style masks in order to create glamorous portraiture. I loved how these two photographers used masks in a completely different way, and decided to experiment further.
For my first piece of experimentation, I decided to continue looking at Christoffer Relander's work - with the use of overlaying two images. For ease, I used a image that I had stored on my camera, and a stock photo of tree's. The aim of this experiment was to test how effective the techniquer was, rather than taking my own images. On photoshop, I erased the outlines and pasted the tree image over my portraiture image, before reducing the opacity. This is a very simple and effective technique, however I didn't feel that it represented my theme of Disguise as much as I'd hoped it would. I do like the image that was created, however I decided that it definetly wasn't something I wanted to continue with any further.
My first shoot, 'Valkyrie' was based on Mary Raine's style of using mask portraiture with a simple background - and the suggestion of nudity (which shows primarily on the second image.) In order to achieve this shoot, I used a media studio which had a white wall that would be perfect for what I wanted to achieve. The only problem I encountered was that the skirting board that seperates the wall from the floor was visible in my first image. However, the second image turned out much better and didn't feature the accidental skirting board. My aim for the second picture was to mimic what Raine had done with her images, and suggest nudity by only featuring the models bare shoulders. Overall, this shoot was fairly easy to complete and didn't present too many problems. The only other aspect I would like to mention is the use of colour popping the purple gem in the middle of the mask. I did this to draw the eye away from the model and on to the mask instead, further emphasising the disguise rather than the subject. I am pleased with how this photoshoot turned out, and would like to use mono-tone colours more often.
The second shoot, 'Autumn' was primarily based on Winter Kelly's use of a overall colour scheme - in this case, autumnal reds. I also decided to do self-portraiture, in order to experiment with how Mary Raine takes her photographs of herself. I used a mirror to take the photographs, turning the camera to point at myself whilst looking at the live view on screen through the reflection on the mirror. The only problem I encountered with this shoot was making sure that the bells on the mask didn't get in the way of the main photograph - this took many attempts which can be seen on the contact strip. Overall, I like the final look of this shoot, and especially love the particular mask I decided to use.
My latest shoot, 'Carnival' was shot in the media studio with the use of overhead lighting. Using the same mask as the previous shoot, I decided to focus my theme of 'disguise' on the fact that you couldn't see the models expression behind the mask because of the way the lighting was positioned and the angle that the model had her face at. I wanted it to seem as if the mask was empty, or hiding something (possibly emotions) beneath. The only difficulty I encountered during this shoot was that the rafters on the roof were visible in some of the photographs and also that the lighting could cause the mask to be far too illuminated in the photographs. Also, some photographs featured the models hairline and ears, which couldn't be easily cropped out. Despite all this, I did end up with a small selection og photographs that I could edit further and perfect. In conclusion, I am delighted with how this photoshoot turned out, and would definetly like to continue further with the use of masks.
Firstly, I did the Ciel Phantomhive photoshoot. This was based on Paolo's work of using a fitting background and props in order to re-create the character. In order to complete this shoot, I used a chair to stand on beside the model on the grass in order to achieve a unique angle to the photographs. In my vision of the shoot, I wanted to create a scene of the model waiting for someone, with the appropriate emotions behind that. I also intended to utilize a fitting background, much like Paolo does. In this case, I decided to take the shoot on a sunny day for natural lighting and set it outside on the grass. I had the model sit on a blanket, in order to create the idea of her waiting on a picnic, and this is visible in the first photograph of the shoot. In the following two photographs, the blanket isn't visible, however we can see the models face. I wanted these two images to focus more on the models expression than the scene around her. Lastly, I'd like to mention the use of colour popping the blue ring in each photograph. I wanted the photographs to be sepia/black and white so that I could draw the audiences attention to the bright blue ring. I chose to do this because the ring has a big significance in the anime from which the character, who the model is cosplaying, comes from. Overall, I believe that this photoshoot worked really well - and out of all of the shoots so far it is my favourite, particuarly because of the accuracy I managed to achieve in replicating the character.
My second shoot focused primarily on working in the style of Bryan Vivo, who chose to create a much more fashionable style to cosplay photography. For this shoot, I used a proffesional photography studio with overhead lighting, which I purposly set to primarily illuminate one side of the models body. After I had taken the shoot, I was a little dissapointed when I found that the lighting had caused the models face to be in shadow in the majority of the photographs, and thus this is something I will make sure doesn't happen again if I use the studio lighting. During editing this shoot, I found that adding the text like Bryan Vivo had would obscure the models face in some of the images, so I changed the position of it - yet kept the same font in order to mimic his style. Overall, I found this shoot to be surprisingly challenging when it came to correctly mimicing Vivo's style, however I am please with how it turned out in the end.
The last shoot I did, using my style of 'cosplay', was the Luka Megurine shoot. In this one, I attempted to recreate the character from a specific image. In my honest opinion, I dont particuarly like the way this shoot turned out. The lighting in the room had a orange hue to it, and the background was far too busy. To try and make the image slightly less busy, I cropped the background out in order to draw the eye to the model rather than the clutter behind her. This shoot was particuarly difficult due to factors such as the lighting, and background which are explained above. I found that cropping the background around the models hair ended up looking slightly messy, and if I were to do this shoot again I would definetly reconsider the setting.
Following on from these three shoots I decided to explore 'Disguise' in a different way - looking at masks, instead of costumes. Firstly, I looked at Inge Morath's work, which featured Saul Steinburg's idea of turning his art masks into a photographic piece. Although I liked the idea behind these masks, I wanted to push towards a more glamorous feeling in my photography. Secondly, I looked at Christoffer Relander to see if I wanted to experiment further with the idea of creating a photomontage out of two images. I also looked at Mary Raine and Winter Kelly, who both use venetian style masks in order to create glamorous portraiture. I loved how these two photographers used masks in a completely different way, and decided to experiment further.
For my first piece of experimentation, I decided to continue looking at Christoffer Relander's work - with the use of overlaying two images. For ease, I used a image that I had stored on my camera, and a stock photo of tree's. The aim of this experiment was to test how effective the techniquer was, rather than taking my own images. On photoshop, I erased the outlines and pasted the tree image over my portraiture image, before reducing the opacity. This is a very simple and effective technique, however I didn't feel that it represented my theme of Disguise as much as I'd hoped it would. I do like the image that was created, however I decided that it definetly wasn't something I wanted to continue with any further.
My first shoot, 'Valkyrie' was based on Mary Raine's style of using mask portraiture with a simple background - and the suggestion of nudity (which shows primarily on the second image.) In order to achieve this shoot, I used a media studio which had a white wall that would be perfect for what I wanted to achieve. The only problem I encountered was that the skirting board that seperates the wall from the floor was visible in my first image. However, the second image turned out much better and didn't feature the accidental skirting board. My aim for the second picture was to mimic what Raine had done with her images, and suggest nudity by only featuring the models bare shoulders. Overall, this shoot was fairly easy to complete and didn't present too many problems. The only other aspect I would like to mention is the use of colour popping the purple gem in the middle of the mask. I did this to draw the eye away from the model and on to the mask instead, further emphasising the disguise rather than the subject. I am pleased with how this photoshoot turned out, and would like to use mono-tone colours more often.
The second shoot, 'Autumn' was primarily based on Winter Kelly's use of a overall colour scheme - in this case, autumnal reds. I also decided to do self-portraiture, in order to experiment with how Mary Raine takes her photographs of herself. I used a mirror to take the photographs, turning the camera to point at myself whilst looking at the live view on screen through the reflection on the mirror. The only problem I encountered with this shoot was making sure that the bells on the mask didn't get in the way of the main photograph - this took many attempts which can be seen on the contact strip. Overall, I like the final look of this shoot, and especially love the particular mask I decided to use.
My latest shoot, 'Carnival' was shot in the media studio with the use of overhead lighting. Using the same mask as the previous shoot, I decided to focus my theme of 'disguise' on the fact that you couldn't see the models expression behind the mask because of the way the lighting was positioned and the angle that the model had her face at. I wanted it to seem as if the mask was empty, or hiding something (possibly emotions) beneath. The only difficulty I encountered during this shoot was that the rafters on the roof were visible in some of the photographs and also that the lighting could cause the mask to be far too illuminated in the photographs. Also, some photographs featured the models hairline and ears, which couldn't be easily cropped out. Despite all this, I did end up with a small selection og photographs that I could edit further and perfect. In conclusion, I am delighted with how this photoshoot turned out, and would definetly like to continue further with the use of masks.