Final evaluation

So sadly study wise the Final major project has come to an end, however I know sometime soon I am definately going to continue with these amazing Film Noir style images. Over the short time I have had being able to create some work which I believe looks pretty amazing I think it would be such a shame not to try and create something more from it.

Confidence has always been something that I have lacked within myself and I don’t believe in myself as much as I should do. The Final major project has brought a bit of confidence out in me as I actually went and tried something new, which I am so proud of.

I did not change anything within the project from what I discussed in my project proposal, the only things what changed was on my final shoot I didn’t get my MUA as I was let down, however I over come this and did the best that I possibly could to ensure I still got the images that I new I wanted.

The best thing about this project was gaining new skills and feeling as if I have achieved something for my self for once,  I have actually been creative and thought out of the box, I am so pleased that using Film Noir as a project base I have now created some amazing images with lots of high contrast and detail.

The aim for me was to create some amazing work that I could be proud of to exhibit but also to start building a model based portfolio rather than just children and families what I have been sticking too. I deffinately think that the images I have created are portfolio standard and I cant wait to create some more Film Noir style work,

The FMP process was a struggle for me to be honest as I was not completely sure at first which path I wanted to go down, I did not know weather to go in to self portraiture, continue my product photography project or to try this Film Noir glam, Once I had finally came to the decision with help from people from my class I had already used a lot of time up with out realizing. Before I knew it I only had 3 weeks to organize and generate my practice shoots and then of corse the final images.

I have based most of the project on the images rather than the research simply because I was worried about how my images would turn out.

As a part of the college at the end of each year students get to broad cast there work in a exhibition which is amazing, let alone being able to create an exhibition in Solihull touchwood where loads of people can see it and partcipitate. I think that it is super beneficial to create an end of year exhibition to show case the amazing work that you have produced that year but to also network with other artists if possible.

The exhibiton!

Unfortuantly I could not be at the exhibition space to put my work up as I was on holiday, originally the exhibition was meant to be the week before or the week after which is why I booked my holiday.

I was just happy to know that my work was in safe hands and that my work would be looked after.

There was a technician at the exhibition helping people put there work up, making sure they was all level, had the right gaps in between each image etc, they used spirit levels for this.

When I returned from holiday I went to view the exhibition space and my work looked fantastic, so thank you for all the people who made sure it would look good.

As apart of our final major project we all had to work the exhibition at least once, I worked it twice, one wednesday evening and then the following thursday morning, I really enjoyed sitting the exhibition as it was nice for the general members of public coming in and praising work of yours and others, it was lovely them asking about work and making general conversations of art work.

Whilst I worked the exhibition I had a lot of people who came who were aspiring artists themselves.

I am really happy with how the exhibition turned out and I am so thankful that all us students where lucky enough to have an opportunity like this to exhibit our work in Solihull Touchwood shopping centre.

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https://www.defycomplacency.co.uk - Here is the website that the BA honours students created for our exhibition.

On the website all students have an artist statement about them selves and here is mine, it just explains what I normally do for my photography practice, and what I am aiming for within the exhibition.

FMP - How am I going to exhibit my work?

Hey guys, I am now at the stage of deciding how I am going to exhibit my work.

Me and my Lecturer was thinking 4 images would work really well together, 2 images of Sophie and 2 of Editiya.

Our Uni group has a group on facebook where we give pear feedback etc and I had some great feedback from another student. 

I have been looking at articles about triptychs and diptychs : 

http://bashooka.com/inspiration/25-amazing-examples-of-triptych-photography/ 

From what I have been reading on the internet, Triptychs are 3 images put together from the same series usually with just a plain border around them, A lot of modern commercial photographers use Triptychs to display there work. 

Could I take my modern version of Film Noir and show it in a more modern way? 

Class mates and My lecturer think it is best to exhibit just three images as they appear a lot more stronger and work better as a series.

I have found some photo frames on amazon for 17,00pound each which will cost me 51.00 pound + 8.00pound delivery to get them on time = 59.00 pound.

The frames are very basic, they just have a basic black border which will work perfect, what do you think?

FMP - THE FINAL IMAGES.

So after a week of trying to decide how I want to display my images I worked that out but then it was the process of working out what worked best next to each other. 

I was always going to use two images of Editiya because I love the shadows that I managed to get on her face/neck from the blind technique that I used. 

Luckily my class mates and lecturer have a fantastic eye and helped me to decide to only use three images, two of Editiya on the outsides and one of Sophie on the inside. 

The photoshoot I did with Sophie there was a wide range of poses etc, some using cigerettes and guns etc. Me and my Lecturer decided that the images with the play gun would not be a good idea to exhibit because of what is going on in the world right now with all the awful attacks that are going on. 

So I decided to use the image below of Sophie as it then adds the Bad girl feel from the Film Noir style. 

I think these three images work really well what do you think? 

To edit these images I used photoshop Silver Efex, I can not tell you how thermoninol this editing program is. When you open the program up it has loads of presets on the side to choose from, I used one from the Film Noir section, I then added some pin points to lighten or darken areas that I felt needed doing. To top the images of I wanted to add a slight grain which I decided to add a film filter on top. 

                                         

FMP - Final shoots - Editiya & Sophie.

Well its finally come to the day which I did not think I would make it too, scared is an understatement as these photoshoots need to go perfect so I can exhibit my finals in a few weeks.
The reason I decided to use one day to get both models in was because I was running out of time with days I could shoot on and also both models have little girls and needed child care, worked out well really!

The only fault from this day was being let down two days before shoot by a MUA, I then tried to find another, they wanted 50pound per hour, which I would of needed for two hours so 100pound and the "MUA" could not even send me a portfilio of work, therefor I would not waste 100pound and not know what to expect. Me and my friend Kirsty did the hair and Makeup on model Sophie, and Editiya decided to do her own makeup as she would prefer this and Kirsty did her hair.

EDITIYA

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SOPHIE

I really enjoyed this day and I generally think it turned out really well considering I got let down by the MUA, for these two shoots I went to Argos and spent 10.00pound on some PVC blinds to create the lovely shadows on the models faces, I also brought some cans of pop and crisps etc for the models and my assistant Kirsty, which cost me next to nothing, so all in all these two photoshoots cost me around 17.00pound bargain or what.

I shot the photographs of Editiya first as she had to leave early to get back to her daughter, but unfortuantly the makeup and hair and also setting up the studio took around 2 hours we then only had 30 mins to get the images I needed, this was not long enough so I only managed to get some face shots of her. Luckily the images I did get turned out amazing!

I then went on to taking the photographs of Sophie which took around an hour to get every image and pose that I wanted.

For both of the shoots I used the same equipment,  for the blinds I got two tripods out and balanced the blinds on the top, throughout taking the photos of Editiya I learnt that The higher the tripods where with the blinds on the better shadows I gained, I also had to play around with them to make them semi shut etc to actually see the blinds on there faces. I really enjoyed using this as an idea as the blinds really did create beautiful shadows on there faces. I used a snoot behind the blinds to get the sharpest shadows that I could.

for all images I only used 1 light at a time, I wanted to only illuminate the faces mainly, so I switched from the snoot and Honey comb.

What do you think of these shoots? Let me know in the comments if you think I could of changed anything.

FMP - third practice shoot

Hello guys and welcome back, here are some contact sheets from my final practice shoot. This was in home environment with my boyfriend just to try and generate some more ideas. This does not show film noir in any kind of way so I cant really class this as anything to be honest. 

The backgrounds on the images are way to light and they look more "peaky blinder" than anything. 

I am just going to class this as a learning curve, So I now know that I need to be in a darker environment. 

 

FMP - second practice shoot.

Hi guys. I have now done my second practice shoot, the shoot went okay I guess but I know full well I could of done much better. This photoshoot took place at the models house which perhaps is the reason why it never went so well?
The equipment I used for this shoot was, a Black muslin cloth (Not very good quality what so ever) it had loads of crease marks all over it and there was no way of ironing these out. I used two tripods with the pole going across for the muslin cloth to sit on. The reason I had to use a muslin cloth was because I do not own a black back drop. I only own a white and pink one which I didnt want to have to completely edit the backgrounds on them.
Even though the technical side of things did not go so well, the poses went well which I could counteract the bad side of things with.

 

I have selected three images from the contact sheets that I liked and edited them with silver effex, I think the silver effex has worked really well on these images, the only let down was the background I had to work with.

Thanks for reading about my second practice shoot, what did you think? let me know.