Colour Independent Shoot

–Definition and Theory
This the same the previous post on colour. 


–Photographer Research 
Rankin is a British fashion and portrait photographer. He studied at Barnfield College Luton and later the London College of Printing. It was here that Rankin met Jefferson Hack and in 1992 the two went onto produce the magazine Dazed and Confused. Rankin has 49 bibliographies ranging from 1995 to the present day which include but are not limited to; Visually Hungry, Tuulitastic, Sofasosexy and Beautyfull.





Everything within Rankin's photographs are well planned out to give the highest contrasts. With reference to the last image the skin tone of the model the gloss over the black lipstick and the vibrant red used for the chilli are all highly contrasting image and make for a striking photograph.
I particularly like Rankin's use of props in the mouth, the gum ball and chilli both have quite sexual connotations one connoting something quite sweet and fun about it and the other with a sense of danger.
In my own images I would like to similarly send across my messages from  the positioning and use of props and this has been inspired by his images.

–Image Bank




I believe I can capture these types of images in my home with a makeshift studio. These images are very similar to those of Rankin's and i like the change in expressions and the manipulation of the lips.

 (AO:1.  You must ensure that several of the visual ideas/inspirations within the image bank are pursued. )
–Contact Sheet

I was pleased with the result of my shoot however, in the early stages there were still a few out of focus shots but on the whole the outcome is exactly what I wanted.

–My Best Images 

–Images That Require Improvement

 I chose these images as the ones for improvement as the framing is not right and the use of wrong camera settings has led to the shot being out of focus.

The first image was shot using automatic focus and because I was so far zoomed in this made it difficult for the camera to pick up a specific area to focus on. I did change this setting during my shoot to manual focus but if I were to reshoot this specific shot I would make sure that I am using a manual focus.

The second image suffers from the same problem as the first although this was were I decided to change the setting to manual focus and was able to produce a better image but I did not think it was good enough for my best images.

The third imaged lacked the right composition the models face was off to the right and not facing forward to the camera. The poor composition was somewhat down to my choice of prop as the rose was not small and I wanted to frame it where by most of the rose could be seen. If I were to reshoot this image I would cut down the rose to a size that could fit within the frame.

For this shoot for colour I wanted to express how colours convey emotions through the expressions of the lips. The red connoting- love, white- purity, black- anger etc. This was inspired by my research of Rankin as he does something similar with his fashion photography, which gave me the idea of using lipsticks. I had to pay particular attention to the shutter speed as to not make the image over exposed.

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

With reference to my best images I had all the compositions so that my model was central so that her lips were the point of focus.

The first image I used the red lipstick and asked my model to stick her tongue out the side of her mouth. This was used to connote a sexual type of love as if she is about to lick her lips. This was inspired by Rankin as similar sexual connotations can be seen in his images.

In second image I went for the black lipstick I wanted to create the contrast that can be seen in Rankin's image with the chilli and so I set the exposure a little bit higher by increasing the shutter speed. I believe that I got the desired effect despite the fact the lipstick did not come out as well as I would have liked. I will continue to improve this image within editing but if I were to reshoot I would buy a decent lipstick instead of buying a cheap one.

The third image was shot using the pink lipstick. I wanted to create this cheeky, playful vibe that the colour has connotations for. I liked how this came out and was influenced more by the image bank that I had created beforehand where in one of the images a baby pink was used.

The idea of playfulness was carried over into the fourth image where again I used the pink lipstick. This was my favourite image as I really captured what I was seeing in my minds eye. I like the use of the straw prop and there's something almost sensual in the way it is hanging out of her mouth, the use of prop to convey a message was influenced by Rankin's use of props.

Within image five I have used the white lipstick. This was create this idea of purity and to further cement this message I used to prop of a white rose. Roses have romantic symbolism but they are also viewed as pure and I wanted that innocent vibe. I really like the way that Rankin uses and correlates his props with the makeup he has used and I tried to incorporate that here.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

When shooting I used a Fuji Finepix S9600 for all the images. I shot the images in F8 and ISO 200 as that was the closest I could get to the setting used in the college studio (F11 ISO 200).  This was perfect as the images I had taken were extremely close up and therefore I needed the widest depth of field possible as to keep most of the image in focus. These were the settings I've used for all the images taken in this shoot.

To improve my images further I've decided to import them into my photoshop. The aim was to further cement the messages I was trying to send from the photos. In some cases this meant creating a higher contrast.

The screen grabs show how I kept the colour in the image to get a contrast between black and white and colour. I started off by using the cloning tool to smooth over some of the blemishes in the photo. I used the magnetic lasso to select the lips and straw and used the selective colour to exaggerate the colour of the lips.  

–Before 

–After

–Before

–After  

–Before

–After 

–Before

–After

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

My artists research was useful as it gave me inspiration as to what sort of shots I wanted to take. Not only this but it gave me an idea of what sort of props I should use. The research on colour meaning was useful was it allowed me to instruct my model in a way that I could create emotions these colours connoted. 

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements. 

I like how my images have come out and I feel like I have produce a good set of images inspired by Rankin. The composition and props from my images were similar to that which are found in his. For most of the images the editing consisted of exaggerating the colour of the lips, and smoothing over any of the blemishes. From this shoot I've have seen first hand the moral issues within the editing of models, as there is this need to create this image of 'perfection' with smooth and spotless skin.