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Graded Unit Evaluation
For the graded unit we were given full freedom to explore our own ideas and concepts and produce 10 final images as well as at least 5 printed finals. For my project I chose to do portraiture, as this is what I feel most comfortable doing. The theme I chose was the Seven Deadly Sins, I chose this because I felt it would give me a lot of creative freedom between shoots while allowing me to keep my images thematically linked.
While looking into similar shoots done by other photographers, I noticed that the majority of them chose to portray the sins in either a horror style, or a very theatrical style, while both of these styles work very well for the themes they are portraying, I chose to centre my interpretation of the sins around the perspective of a teenage girl. I decided to use the same model for every shoot, because I wanted to show how the same individual can be affected in different ways by different forces.
My first task was to plan out rough ideas for what each shoot would look like, I knew I wanted them all to have the same muted pink/grey tone to them, to keep them visually consistent, for this I bought a large pink bed sheet to use as a backdrop throughout. I also gathered props I would need for each shoot, which amounted to around £50 since I was able to make some of my own props, or use things I already owned. I then had to work out a location I could do all of my shoots, as both my house and my model’s house didn’t have the right amount of space to work comfortably. I ended up being able to use the hall at my local church as we have the keys.
Once I had planned my seven portraiture shoots I decided to have the last 3 shoots be still lifes that went with three of the sins, I chose to do gluttony, greed, and sloth.
I don’t think I would change anything I did throughout the shooting process, I feel I was well organised and that I put a lot of thought into each shoot, the only thing I would do differently is maybe trying to find someone to assist me with moving lights and sets around, as it might have made the process easier. As for the optimisation section I feel that I did everything well, and I wouldn’t change any of the edits I submitted.
I decided to print all seven portraiture finals, as I felt it would make more sense than just choosing five and leaving the other two out. I decided to just submit the three still life shots as digital files. My prints cost just under £60 from Deadly Digital in Partick, I chose to have them printed into a glossy paper, which I feel works well for my images, as I wanted them to resemble something you would see in a magazine spread.
Overall I feel my final images turned out really well, and I am proud of what I was able to produce in the time we were given.
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Seven Deadly Sins- Wrath
Location- Church
Props- Fake blood, fake nails
Lighting- Ringlight
Model- Eren
I wanted to keep this shoot very simple, to keep focus on the model's face and emotions.
All I had her do was dip the ends of her nails into fake blood and scratch it across her face and neck, I really like how this effect looked on camera. Throughout shooting her nails began to fall off, but it ended up adding to the final effect as to me it looks like she has ripped them off on purpose, and that is where some of the blood is coming from.
I asked my model to get as close to the ring light as possible without it being visible in the shot, this created very bright pin points of light in her eyes which I really liked the look of, I chose to emphasise them more in editing as well.
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Seven Deadly Sins- Pride + Editing
Location- Church
Props- Mirrors
Lighting- Natural light + Ring lights
Model- Eren
Out of all my finals this is the one I am proudest of in terms of editing. This shoot took the most time to set up, as I had to find the right stop to put the camera that could see the reflection in all of the mirrors, this ended up being visible in the largest mirror so I had to edit it out, which I think is slightly noticeable but not enough to cause distraction.
There was enough natural light coming from the windows to light my models face well, however I still had the ring light to help highlight her features more.
The editing process wasn't difficult, it just took a while to find images I was happy with working well together, and I think the overall final outcome looks good.
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Seven Deadly Sins- Envy
Location- Church
Props- Mirror, phone
Lighting- Ring lights
Model- Eren
For this shoot I took inspiration from the music video for 'Mrs Potato Head' by Melanie Martinez, as well as some of the lyrics of the song itself. I wanted to keep this shoot very simple, as I feel it needed to show the most emotion from the model herself rather than any props aiding her.
Setting up the right angle for this shoot was difficult at first but once we found the right set up for both of us it was very simple to keep right.
I made sure to do very little editing for this image in particular, as I felt it would have completely taken away from the point of it, the only adjustment made was the overall exposure and contrast of the image to make the plastic surgery markers more defined.
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Seven Deadly Sins- Sloth + Still
Location- Church
Props- Phone, clocks, test papers
Lighting- Ring Light, phone screen
Model- Eren
For sloth my goal was to show the effect phones can have on someone's sleeping habits, and how it can effect their lives in other ways. To show this I had my model create very exaggerated dark under eyes using makeup, we then wrote out lots of fake failed tests to scatter on the ground.
I had my model lie down and look sadly into her phone, which we just had set on a white screen, so it wasn't the main focus of the image, I tried to angle the ring light towards her face to give the impression that the light was only coming from the phone, however I think you can still tell the light is coming from another source.
I placed the clocks around her head all set to different times to imply that she has lost all track of time, and the failed tests to imply that this is negatively impacting her education, which is something we have both experienced before.
For the still shot I got my dad to drill a hole into one of the alarm clocks so I could easily break it and fill it with fake blood, all I wanted from this image was an interesting and linked filler image, I really liked how it turned out,
Again editing these images didn't take long, as all I had to do was adjust the levels and darken any burnt out stops where the ring light was slightly too bright.
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Seven Deadly Sins- Gluttony + Still
Location- Church
Props- Cake, knife
Lighting- Ring lights
Model- Eren
For gluttony I chose to do a portraiture shot and a still life shot. For this shoot I went and bought a cheap birthday cake from Morrisons, and found a birthday hat in the church, I took inspiration from the music video for 'Pity Party' by Melanie Martinez.
All I asked my model to do for this shoot was crush up the cake in her hands and pretend to eat it very enthusiastically, which I feel she did very well.
For the still shot I just took pictures looking down onto the cake as it got more crushed, I decided that the ones where the cake is still mostly intact looked best.
I really didn't have to do a lot of editing in either of the final images, the most I did was lower the brightness of some burnt out areas on the bottom corner of the still shot, as well as bringing out more definition in my model's eyes.
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Seven Deadly Sins- Greed + Still
Location- Church
Props- Fake money, costume jewellery , fire
Lighting- Ring light, Fire
Model- Eren
For this shoot I wanted a sort of 1920's old money look for my model, so I had her do makeup inspired by the time, we also found a black furry jacket that went with the theme nicely. My original plan was to use fake printed money, but my printer wouldn't let me print fake money, so instead we wrote $100 onto lots of bits of paper, which actually ended up adding to the look of the images for me.
We had to make sure we had a bucket of water near by to drop the paper in if the flame got too close to my model's hand, we also kept all the windows open and kept out of the way of the fire alarms. Since the space we were using was so big we didn't really have to worry too much about smoke filling the room.
For my final image I didn't have to worry about editing too much, all I had to do was adjust the brightness and exposure levels to make the flames brighter.
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Lust- Editing + Final
The editing process for all of my images was very easy, as the raw images looked almost exactly how I had planned for them to look, although for some shoots I had to use photoshop to create effects I couldn't create in real life.
For this shoot I needed to create the effect that there was a hole cut into my model's chest, which petals spilling from it into her hands, this was a very quick and easy edit to do.
I had originally planned to take a couple shots of the petals in a jar to make the perspective of them line up more, but I didn't have enough time when it came to printing images.
Final
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Seven Deadly Sins- Lust Plan
Shoot 1- Lust
Location: Home
Props: Fake flowers/ petals
Lighting: Ring lights
Model: Eren
Lust is usually described as overwhelming sexual desires and thoughts, however it can also be described more broadly as an intense passion or longing for something. For this shoot I want to portray lust as a longing for any kind of love and look at the idea of a “teenage heartbreak.” To do this I have investigated the fictional disease, Hanahaki disease, which affects those who are experiencing a strong and unrequited love towards another, it caused flowers to grow in the victims’ longs, growing larger until they are no longer able to breathe. The main symptom of the fictional disease of coughing up or vomiting flower petals, sometimes shown as full flower heads in some artwork, this is the part of the story I will be using in my shoot.
I will as my model to have simple, light makeup, and wear pastel colours.
For lighting I will use ring lights for the main base lighting, and I will be using a large pink bed sheet as a backdrop.
My original plan was to have my model coughing the petals up, however I decided to photoshop a hole into her chest and have petal spilling from it, as I felt it looked better.
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Graded Unit Plan- Seven Deadly Sins
For my graded unit I have chosen to do a series of portraiture images based around the Seven Deadly Sins, I have an interest mythology, and I feel the Seven Deadly Sins would be an interesting concept to follow. When looking at similar bodies of work people have produced with this idea, I have found most either go for a horror-based approach, or a very theatrical approach, which works well however I want to try something different. My goal is to show how the concept of each of the Sins could be shown in the life of a teenage girl, I will use the experiences of myself and my model to create the concept for each shoot.
To meet the required number of final images I will have still life shoots to accompany some of the portraits.
I enjoy doing narrative or story-based shoots, they allow me to have the most creativity, and I find I can build new ideas as the concepts of the different shoots bounce off each other. My hope is that this project will play out in a similar way, although I already have plans for each individual shoot, I have left room for alterations in my plans in case inspiration appears.
My target audience for this project would be women aged 16-25, as I feel they would be able to resonate the most with the themes I am going to be portraying, however I would hope that anyone would be able to interpret the final images in their own way, which feels connected to them.
My Inspirations
Petra Collins
Petra Collins is a Canadian photographer, artist, and fashion model who gained popularity in the early 2010s. Her style in photography is characterized by a “feminine, dreamlike feel.” She has directed several short films, including music videos for Carly Rae Jepsen, and Selena Gomez.
Collins uses coloured lighting to further show emotion in her photography, as well as various framing techniques, and use of close-up shots.
She has done work for many mainstream media outlets, such as Vouge, and promotional shots for HBO series Euphoria. Her work continues to be colourful, while having a deeper meaning about the truths of femininity and sexuality. She has also worked on music videos, as part of the creative team.
My Inspirations
Petra Collins
Petra Collins is a Canadian photographer, artist, and fashion model who gained popularity in the early 2010s. Her style in photography is characterized by a “feminine, dreamlike feel.” She has directed several short films, including music videos for Carly Rae Jepsen, and Selena Gomez.
Collins uses coloured lighting to further show emotion in her photography, as well as various framing techniques, and use of close-up shots.
She has done work for many mainstream media outlets, such as Vouge, and promotional shots for HBO series Euphoria. Her work continues to be colourful, while having a deeper meaning about the truths of femininity and sexuality. She has also worked on music videos, as part of the creative team.
My Inspirations
Petra Collins
Petra Collins is a Canadian photographer, artist, and fashion model who gained popularity in the early 2010s. Her style in photography is characterized by a “feminine, dreamlike feel.” She has directed several short films, including music videos for Carly Rae Jepsen, and Selena Gomez.
Collins uses coloured lighting to further show emotion in her photography, as well as various framing techniques, and use of close-up shots.
She has done work for many mainstream media outlets, such as Vouge, and promotional shots for HBO series Euphoria. Her work continues to be colourful, while having a deeper meaning about the truths of femininity and sexuality. She has also worked on music videos, as part of the creative team. I admire her photographic style, and hope to be able to recreate this style with my own twists throughout my project.
Josh McKie
Josh McKie is an Australian photographer and director, he has done work for Netflix’s “The Crown,” mental wellness app “Better Help,” and Cartier. He was also the director of photography on the 2019 film K-12, by singer Melanie Martinez, for the release of her album by the same name.
I thought this film was consistently very visually pleasing, and an interesting aesthetic, it was very whimsical and “girly” while keeping a darker and more serious undertone when necessary. This is something I also want to achieve in my final images.
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a Mexican artist, who suffered from many physically debilitating illnesses throughout her life. In the time she spent bed-bound, she produced some of her most well-known and impactful work. Her work was most often a representation of her state of mind at the time, with the work being very heavy in metaphorical imagery, causing the viewer to really think about the work they are seeing. Her work was almost exclusively self-portraiture.
A lot of Kahlo’s work is classed as surrealism and uses a lot of smaller details to tell a story across the canvas. Her work has also been heavily associated with feminism, and women’s rights.
In my project I want to try and take inspiration from Kahlo’s more subtle imagery and add in smaller details to some of my shoots, to help tell a story.
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Lost & Found- Potential Finals + Edits
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Lost & Found- Studio
Lighting set up
I tried my best to recreate the walls of the buildings to easily recreate the lighting.
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Post Production- Highland Spring
Edited after feedback
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