Mock-up editorial - title page

Alice Birchmore wanted to submit her work as a mock-up editorial, so i came up with this title page for her. 

Feedback from Alice Birchmore

"I feel very lucky that I had such a great photographer to work with on my FMP. It was sometimes a little stressful but together we managed to create a great set of images.

I really love how Sara came up with different ways of lighting each character, and with various ways of dressing the set, using the props in the museum to her full advantage. 

We did most things together, such as deciding on which characters to create, selecting the models and agreeing on the looks for each character. I also found it really useful to be able to bounce my ideas off Sara and for her to give me honest feedback so I could amend my makeup designs.

The photography really brought out my make-up, and created the exact atmosphere and look I imagined for each character. 

Really happy that we did this as a team, couldn't have done it without her!"- Alice

Final Images

Post Production

In this post i'm going to attempt to explain my workflow in post production, and my own thoughts on the matter. I shoot in RAW format, so everything i shoot gets processed in some way, for this i use Lightroom 2. Lightroom for me, is mostly used for changing colour temperatures/contrast/exposure. I use photoshop to smooth skin, brighten eyes, darken backgrounds and add texture layers if i feel like it. I get the feeling that with retouching, and processing images a lot, other photographers think of it as a lazy and 'i can fix that later' attitude. With me, this is not the case at all, i always try and get lighting, white balance, exposure etc right in camera, but some things simply cannot be done using just a camera. I have my own 'signature' style, and the look of my images cannot be achieved without post-production. I want to be open about how my images are made, and for me this is part of the whole process of creating an image, the end result is the only one that matters. Personally, I am not interested in photographing reality, as Man Ray once said "I do not photograph nature, I photograph my fantasy"

Below is a typical example of my editing:

As said before, i shoot in RAW, in this case - i'm not sure why, the body paint showed up blue when i imported the files, so my first step was to correct this and make it green again like it was in real life. I upped the reds to give some 'umph' back into the red wig, which was looking a little lack-luster in the raw image. I also added much more contrast. I then exported the file into Photoshop CS5, my first step is to remove any blemishes and distractions, for this i use a combination of the patch and clone tool. Next, i duplicate the background layer and set it to mutliply, i then add a layer mask and paint over the background.. this makes the background darker, which in turn makes the subject stand out a lot more. Next i do some more colour tweaking, lighten the eyes and darken the eyelashes. For this specific set of photos i added a Radial Blur filter and masked off important areas, and then lowered the opacity. This creates the blurred look around the edges, i know i could've used my lensbaby for a similar result, but i wanted the flexibility. My last step is to add a texture, i add it into a new layer, and then mask off the centre of the texture (by using the selection tool with a very high feather - usually 250) and then change the opacity of that layer to taste.  

Shoot#6: Miss Argentina

This shoot was an extra shoot, that we were only going to do provided we had enough time when we had finished the other shoots. Miss Argentina isn't a particularly big character, and she only actually appears for a few minutes in Beetlejuice, but we thought she'd be a really good character to portray, and especially good to show off Alice's skills. This shoot was on the 6th of may, Little Sofi was the model and the styling was by me. 

This is Miss Argentina:

Final Shots:

 ISO: 100, f/3.2, 24mm, 1/160sec 

 ISO: 100, f/3.2, 24mm, 1/160sec

ISO: 100, f/3.2, 24mm, 1/160sec

Contact Sheets: 

Shoot#5: The Nightmare Before Christmas

This shoot was on the 27th April, Tanya was the model, and Laura Ruxton Designed the dress (and 'Jacks' tailcoat!) 

Close ups of the props;

 Jack

As before, i used the same lighting as on all the other shoots. 

Final Images

 ISO: 100, f/5.0, 16mm, 1/250sec 

ISO: 100, f/3.5, 24mm, 1/250sec 

ISO: 100, f/5.0, 16mm, 1/250sec 

ISO: 100, f/3.5, 24mm, 1/250sec 

Contact Sheets: