Products used:
- Kryolan foundation palette
- Illamasqua translucent powder
- Illamasqua sculpt powder duo (contour)
- TheBalm Mary-Lou Manizer (highlight)
- Illamasqua liquid metal palette- copper shade
- Miss sporty black mascara
- Mac honey love Lipstick

- Backcombed in sections and hair sprayed so that the hair had a wet look and was combed backwards so that the hair was off of the face.

My inspiration on my mood board consists on images of poses, makeup, hair and colours.

For the poses i wanted to include poses that would involve the hands, chest and back. I wanted my model to wear a strapless top to give the illusion in the images that she wasn't wearing anything because i wanted the focus to be on the skin. I think in the right lighting the skin looks beautiful just bare. For the colour images i chose to get my model to wear a nude jumper to change up the look of the different images.

For the makeup i wanted the skin to look airbrushed but not heavy, as if the model was wearing no foundation and it was her natural skin with a glow. The skin needed to be contoured and highlighted in the correct places and i also wanted to highlight and contour the collar bones to accentuate those. For the hair i wanted it to all be off the face so that the image focused on the skin and not the hair. I decided to go with a sleek back, wet look hair style which is very popular with celebrities on red carpet events and catwalks.

For the colour in my image i wanted to have a deep burgundy colour that i incorporated by painting the models nails and using poses that involved the hands. I think that the burgundy colour went well with the glowy skin.

I have really enjoyed this project in Digital Image. Throughout the whole process i feel like i have gained a lot of knowledge and understanding around lighting, photography, post production etc. At the beginning i had very little knowledge on taking pictures, different types of lighting and settings on the camera, but now i feel comfortable with how to change the lighting and effect of an image using different settings on the camera and different types of equipment.

I wanted my makeup and hair for the shoots to be very minimal. The makeup needed to have airbrushed skin and to accentuate the contours and highlights of the face. I used a copper on the eye to bring some colour to the face for my final images (colour). I painted the nails a burgundy colour and used poses that involved the hands so incorporate the colour into my images. For the hair i wanted to create a very sleek look that was off the face because i wanted the images to focus on the skin. So i decided to backcomb and hairspray back all the hair to create an almost wet look.

When is came to postproduction i didn't have much idea about how to use photoshop as i had never used it before. It was explained well by my lecturers and it was easier than i thought. I wanted to make sure the makeup was as perfect as i could get it so that i didn't have to make any alterations in photoshop. To ensure this i made sure i gave myself plenty of time to achieve the look i wanted before the shoot and still giving me time for touch ups. I found that i didn't have to edit my images a lot at all which was easier for me, but i was really happy with how they came out. The lighting worked better than i thought it would considering my situation in the studios, meaning i didn't have to change a lot of the contrast. highlights etc. I just made the overall look of the images a lot softer bringing down the highlights and shadows.

When working in the studio during practice i felt like i progressed a lot and got more confident with what settings the camera should be on and also how to set up the studio. I found that if i had any issues with lighting and certain parts that i wanted to change to make the image look different Chris was always there to help and give his input which helped me develop my skills. I now feel a lot more confident with setting up a studio and changing the lighting and settings according to what i want the outcome of my image to be.

Overall, i am pleased with my images and how they turned out. Liv was a really good model to work with as we had practiced so many times before it was very easy to get her into the poses that i wanted to. The only problems that i had on the day were to do with the lighting. If i did this shoot again i would make sure that i used a studio with a white wall parallel to the backdrop. The face that i had a black curtain instead of a white wall when i wanted to bounce the light off the wall really effected the lighting to how i thought it was going to go.

For this shoot i also used a beauty dish, however i used a white background and reflected the beauty dish off of the white wall next to the model. Again, i used a different studio to what i had practice in and the white wall wasn't as effective as i thought it was going to be so i had to use a reflector to help bring light into the photo and turn up the lamp.

I wanted to create a very soft and simple look, i think that i achieved this even though the shoot didn't go how i wanted it to as i had issues with the lighting and reflecting the light off of the wall.

In post production i turned the image to black and white and also softened it so that the shadow and highlights were less harsh. In photoshop i again used the smoothing tool and got rid of any spots and pigmentation issues on the skin. This shoot was heavily focused not the skin not just the face but the shoulders and chest area too so i wanted them to be as even and smooth as possible.

For the lighting in this shoot i used a beauty dish and a black background. I placed the dish directly in line with the model and slightly above. At first i didn't think the lighting was how i wanted it as it looked better in a studio where there was a white wall directly to the sides of the model and in the on i used to shoot my final images in had black curtains, this seemed to affect the image but i did use a reflector to try and brighten up the side closest to the black curtain.

I wanted the copper in her makeup to stand out and using a white background this didn't work as well, so i decided to use a black background which made the colours in her skin and clothing stand out a lot more. The highlight on her cheekbones was also emphasised by this lighting which is what i wanted to achieve, this can be seen in my mood board.

I didn't change much to the colour and lighting of the image in post production as i was very pleased with how the lighting looked from the images i took.
However, i did use a tool in photoshop to smooth some of the skin where there was pigmentation issues.

For the image on the left we kept the light in the same position however we positioned my body so that i was facing the light on the wall, this made my skin and the colours of the image a lot brighter, however if we were doing this again i would get my hair back off my face to see the real difference.

The image on the right was using the same light but it was pointed close to us on the wall, this really brightened up the image maybe almost too much, but this can be edited in post production. We also used a white light reflector in this image which is probably why it was a lot brighter.


I think going onto next week using the beauty lens and finding a light that is low key and soft but also captures the colours and shadows within the makeup will be our task. I think that for a first lighting test shoot this went really well and we all learnt a lot from it. Recognising the difference in brightness from using a light reflector and also the way in which the light is positioned can affect the image a lot.