Finding A Printing Company

I've contacted a few studios to print my book they quoted me really high prices as I only wanted one book printed. I felt a bit stuck and was worrying I wouldn't be able to find someone to print it for me.

I spoke to Emma and she told me some of the others years had used online printing companies before so told me to go away and look at them. 

Below is a list of printing companies I found which I believe would be able to print my book to a good quality. 

- Jessops

- Photobox

- Vistaprint

- Blurb

- Bonusprint

- Snapfish
- Printed

I read views on each company and looked at layouts they provided. One Bonus Print website I noticed they offered an option for flatlay were the images in a book went flat and didn't crease in. This option really appealed to me as I wanted to put a lot of double paged spreads within my book.
I spoke to them about there page options and what kind of finishes they offered. They said they offered glossy or satin. I was happy with both options but knew I wanted glossy as it would make my images pop more the colours would be vibrant with glossy.

Bonus Print also had an app you could download to make your book on your mac allowing you to add tiff images. For me this was a massive bonus as the images would be better quality and would be able to see the details better.

Pesticide Shoot

PREPPING
This was the last shoot in the day with the same model we did 3 looks that day on him. I showed the model again my idea of what I wanted to achieve on my iPad with poses and the overall mood.

Inspiration from iPad. 

STRUGGLES
When I first added the paint and we started to shoot I realised there wasn't enough paint it just look like a few random spots of paint. it wasn't giving that spray effect I desired. I went in and added more paint and orange to give it more dimension. After that it looked 100x better.

Didn't look right wasn't enough paint

After I had added more paint.

Another big struggle I faced and it left me me feeling deflated at the end of the day was that the pesticide spray stick I had brought didn't spray out product. We did try to spray yellow paint out a water bottle to get the effect but it just didn't work. I was worried without the pesticide stick in one of the pictures you wouldn't understand what it was about.

It was obvious the spray wasn't coming from the pesticide spray stick each time we tried to do it this would happen or the camera could pick up the colour in the air. 

I went home that night not knowing what to do with my idea it didn't work. I spoke to my photographer and he said that they turned out great and I was being to hard on myself but it wasn't the original image I had in my mind. He told me to pick a few I liked and he would edit them and send them me. He told me not to look at the originals and to wait until I got the edited ones.

EDITED PICTURES

MY THOUGHTS
I was so surprised with the end result and what my photographer was able to do with the images. He said from what we spoke about he wanted to make the yellow bright and make it look a bit more toxic. He also darkened the background to make the overall effect pop more.

DO PEOPLE GET THE CONCEPT?
I showed the edited mages to a few people and asked them if they understood what it was about after explaining my book idea to them. They all gave answers such as harmful products, toxic and chemicals. The only picture people didn't really get was the one with the pesticide stick in it. Someone thought it was a microphone. I didn't want the wrong message being portrayed in my book. I didn't have time to reshoot and I really like the way the images turned out with out the stick in so decided to use them instead people understood it and it would be talked about in the preface of my book as well.

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WHERE TO GO FROM HERE - Discuss the other photoshoots I did on the same day with the inspiration I used.
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Researching GMO's

While researching more into GMO's I found out how toxic they can be to our bodies and can cause harmful effects.

"Most plants produce substances that are toxic to humans. Most of the plants that humans consume produce toxins at levels low enough that they do not produce any adverse health effects. There is concern that inserting an exotic gene into a plant could cause it to produce toxins at higher levels that could be dangerous to humans" - http://enhs.umn.edu/current/5103/gm/harmful.html

Again I thought back to Emma's point of rashes on the skin with blood this could work but I lack confidence in my ability to pull it off professionally.

FINDING AN IDEA
I went on to one website an image popped up on the side and it made a light bulb go off in my head. I don't know why I hadn't thought about this before. Pesticides!! With this new idea in mind I wanted to look more at pesticide spraying.

Screenshot from Website - articles.mercola.com

PESTICIDES

I wanted to see what kind of effects pesticides were having on us as well as our earth. I found some very depressing facts which talk about the harsh realities. 

1. Pesticides are killing our Bees - Since most insecticides target an insect’s nervous system, more and more of our bees are dying from unintentional exposure. Bees are some of nature’s biggest pollinators, so a weakening bee population means a weakening global agriculture.
2. Pesticides are polluting the air - Fumigants are a particularly nasty class of pesticides that are, unfortunately, par for the course when it comes to strawberry production. They’re sprayed onto the berries and produce lethal gas as a byproduct, so it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that they’re polluting our air. 
3. Pesticides are affecting pregnant women -  recent report found that ET could affect brain development in an unborn child. Exposure isn’t that difficult, either. Mancozeb is sprayed on bananas, watermelons, and potatoes and other common fruits and vegetables.

I have realised these chemicals are bad for our body I wanted to portray this by spraying my model with a substance to look like pesticides. I would also need to research on colours that represent toxins.

I wanted to ask Emma what she thought about this idea. 

CONVERSING WITH EMMA ON IDEAS 

COLOUR MEANINGS FOR TOXINS

Using red wouldn't work it would look like they were covered in blood. I think yellow could really work though I would need to get it really bright so that it would stand out on the skin. 

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WHERE TO GO FROM HERE - I have already done a photoshoot before on paint splatter so knew the best way to achieve this is with a paint brush and flicking it. I just need to find a model. 

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Feedback From Presentation

After speaking to the teachers they really understood my idea and love the pictures I had already shot.
I spoke about the GMO shoot and told them how I wanted to spray the fruits different colours.
Jane one of the lectures brought up a valid point that all my other photoshoots have been with the impact and effect on the body so this image would look out of place in a book.

She was right I could see what she meant and it just wouldn't work. They told me to go away and really research into GMO's and what are in them.

Researching Sprayed Fruits

GOOGLE
I first went to google and put in spray fruits it came up with a lot of still life images of fruits in different colours cut up or added to another fruit. When looking at the original source these were mostly done for blogging or Instagram purposes. Something to look cool and quirky.

http://dailycandy.tumblr.com/post/55136949848

CONSIDERING THE MEANINGS
These images weren't created for an important topic. They were made as a visual aid for their sites. It's just a bit of fun. There is no hidden meaning behind it. Mine would have to be different in some way so it doesn't look too similar. I will have to consider the colour I pick as I don't want it to look fun I want it to be disgusting and something you wouldn't want to put in your mouth to represent the chemicals

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WHERE TO GO FROM HERE - I want to see what the other teachers say about my work and ideas at my presentation and go from there.
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Tutorial With Emma

INTERVIEW WITH CLIMATE CHANGE COUPLE 
After speaking to a couple who were into climate change (INTERVIEW FOUND HERE) I realised this is such a big topic to address so I want to touch on as many points as possible. The couple spoke out chemicals and GMO's so I sat down to discuss this topic with Emma.

We spoke about different avenues I could take this down and I thought about the model surround by fruit but sprayed different colours and different textures. Emma told me to go away and research this a little more and see if there was already shoots like this.
Emma also said to consider showing the effects these chemicals could have on our body with boils and body transforming. I thought this was good but too different to my other shoots this was relying on special effects which i'm not good at it.

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WHERE TO GO FROM HERE - Research more on GMO's and look to see if still life weird fruit shoot has been done before. I also need to prepare for my presentation.
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Carbon Gases Photoshoot

PREPPING BEFORE HAND 
My photographer brought two cameras with him to make sure we get at least one photo. He was also nervous about shooting this as we both hadn't worked with smoke before, we didn't know how long it would last and whether the camera would pick it up.
We had one camera on a tripod in a set position connect to a wireless button and my photographer also was carry one to get in for close up shots.
I showed my model poses before hand off my iPad so she would know what to do before the smoke started.

Inspiration from iPad. 

SUCESSES 
The smoke worked really well. It was a good thickness where the model was able to hide behind it. Exactly what I was trying to achieve. The smoked lasted for a good 3 minutes and I brought 3 cylinders, so with continuous shooting we managed to get a lot of shots.
The model really understood what I wanted and just kept moving she knew how to work her body and what would look best with her body shape.


STRUGGLES
The smoke cylinders worked great the first two times however when we went to do the last one it fell over so the smoke blew in the wrong direction I tried to run in to move it but none of the images turned out great. The poses in these images were also more awkward compared to the other two shoots.

EDITED PHOTOS

EDITING PHOTOS
The photos turned out well and I really liked the natural light in some of pictures they had a glow to them. However the ones of her on the tree did turn out quite dark so I wanted to brighten them up a little so you could really see the detail.

Cropping In
There was one image that really stood out to me because the smoke was all over her body and one her face it looked like she was inhaling it in. This was a full body shot we got and my hand is in it holding the cylinder. I wanted to crop in to show how the smoke was crawling up her body.
This image works so well to capture how carbon Gases is harming our bodies.

Before Edit Left - After Edit Right

Removing Tattoos
There was one image again I wanted to crop into I told my photographer which one he cropped in and sent it back to me. I noticed the tattoo straight away and it drew my eye away from the smoke. I knew then the tattoo would have to be removed as that is that you looked at first.

MY THOUGHTS
These pictures turn out better than i had imagined in my head. The ones where she is in the tree brach are breath taking and such powerful images. The way the tree bends round is just beautiful and I was lucky to find it. I like the white smoke better as it represents the actually gases and pollution being pumped into our air. I'm annoyed the blue smoke didn't work as it would have been nice to have a variety of different colours of smoke within the book. Working with the smoke was a lot easier than I thought. I did my research beforehand with safety and not to buy ones that you light as they burn really hot. I also googled laws about using them in public and tried to find a spot far away from roads and people.

REVIEWING THE OVERALL EFFECT
Using real smoke makes the images more real if I was to have edited it in afterwards I think they would have looked quite fake and not had the real raw effect I'm hoping to get from all of my images.
If I was to do this shoot again I would defiantly buy more smoke cylinders, I wouldn't get different colours are I think these colours worked really well and any others would have looked more like a pop video. It would be good to have smoke coming from different sides.
If I was to do this again I would get assistants on set to help the photographer but also to help with the smoke. Within the 3 minute slots we had they were quite stressful to do all of it and direct.

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WHERE TO GO FROM HERE - I would like to have a meeting with Emma and discuss some more ideas I was thinking about.
I want to talk to a few people who are into climate change and see what their thoughts are for the impacts and effects of climate change.
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Research And Inspiration for Carbon Gases

The beginning of last year I remember seeing a series of images that were produced to show how the pollution China is pumping into the air is weakening their own immunities and especially the children's.

This video was impactful with how they projected it directly onto the clouds and also the fact they were using children. It really brought to light the true horrors of what is happening.

FINALISING IDEA 
I knew within my shoot I wanted to portray this feeling and mood but in a different way I was thinking about the smoke completely covering the model but you could only see her arm a leg in each shot. Below I've quickly put together an image of a girl and smoke on the idea I have in my mind.

MOODBOARD

NOT BEING ABLE TO TEST
As I want to use real smoke I can't test these images before hand because the smoke bombs are expensive. I've spoken to my model and we discussed how we will shoot some images before so she knows what kind of poses I would like from her. This does make me anxious about the shoot incase it doesn't go to plan, or the smoke doesn't work and i've wasted my money and time of me and my photographer.

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WHERE TO GO FROM HERE - sort out a day where the weather forecast looks good and find pictures of poses for my model to put on my iPad.

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Scorched Earth Photoshoot

PHOTOSHOOT BRIEFING
As I used the same model from my High Temperatures Shoot we quickly spoke through my plans for the next shoot before going back to hair and makeup. I showed the Photographer my inspiration for the lighting which was a halo of light around her. We also spoke about what background would go best. I spoke to my model how this was going to be a strong look shoot so her poses would have to be quite bold.

Inspiration from iPad. 

WHAT WENT WELL
The lighting worked perfectly for this shot and directs your eyes right to the model. The fullers earth mixture mixed with the orange and created that cool effect I had got from my testing stages. We had the big screen so we were able to zoom in on the pictures and work out little details.
I was revealed with how easy the fullers earth went on as I was worry it wouldn't set right and create the effect I wanted.

STRUGGLES
The shoot as a whole there were no struggles the model really understood the look I was going for and the lighting was perfect straight away we didn't need to play around.
The only thing when shoot I realised the shape of the models face wasn't exactly how I imagined it in my head so we stopped the shoot and had a quick play around on photoshop to liquify and pulled her jawline in a bit. The liquify tool instantly brought the image to life and made them more powerful this  is just what I wanted.

REVIEWING THE OVERALL EFFECT
This shoot turn out well and I liked the pictures once we had sharped up her jawline. If I was to shoot this look again I would maybe find a different model who had a sharper jawline although this wasn't a huge problem for me. I wanted the model to be the same as the high temperatures shoot.

EDITING
As I previously spoke out I wanted to liquify the models face for a sharper jawline. We also played around with the sharpness tool to add more definition into the cracked effect on the neck.

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WHERE TO GO FROM HERE - My next shoot I want to do is my shoot on carbon gases I have been speaking to the photography department and they said with real smoke I won't be able to shot inside. This is something I really wanted to do to keep my photos as realistic as possible. He told me a few great locations to shoot in. I decided to chose the common as it would be contract against the smoke.
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Testing For Scorched Earth Shoot

I knew for the scorched earth shoot I wanted it to be with texture to show how dry to earth was.
My first idea I had was to try and create this using bandage material and rip it apart.

TESTING WITH BANDAGE MATERIAL

I started off by ripping the bandage and painting it an orange colour. I first thought the bandage would look effect however when I put it onto my face it just didn't work. The material didn't fit right and want to go back to it's original form all the time so I was constantly pulling it apart. I knew this wasn't the direction to go down.

BACK TO PINTEREST

As my originally idea didn't work I wanted to go back and look at other images I had put into my board for inspiration. I came across one image by Alex Box. It was everything I was trying to achieve, it looked dry and cracked just like the earth would when the temperature is rising.

My Own Pinterest Board

I believe this product to be some kind of clay or fullers earth. I remember from 1st year Lottie Davis telling us about fullers earth and how it can be used in a variety of ways. It's good for the skin and hair and creates that crackled effect when dried. I knew this product would be safe to use on my model.

TESTING WITH FULLERS EARTH
When working with the fullers earth I thought about adding a colour of enrage underneath so would could see the definition of the crack from the fullers earth. I first tested it out on my hand as I was unsure where I wanted it on my body. The overall effect worked really well it looked like earth cracking with the colour of bright sand showing underneath. the next step was to try it on the face.

I decided to add the fullers earth effect onto the neck I thought this would be the most dramatic place to add it. I also thought adding it to the face would make it look like a horror makeup for tv. Keeping it low on the neck would cause a big effect without over powering the whole image.

MY THOUGHTS
I liked how this turned out however the underneath colour of orange was too high up for me. When it came up onto my face I thought it made the skin look like it was a little burnt. So I decided trying it again but with the orange lower.

MY THOUGHTS

This way worked out so much better I also added the fullers earth quicker than before and it mixed with the orange colour underneath. The effect it created looked amazing. It captured the effect of the scorched earth I wanted. 

I also added fullers earth onto the lashes and into the eyebrow hairs I believe this pulls the look together. 

TESTING FAILS 

I thought about adding a dried effect onto the lips as I imagined this would be a part to dry up just like the rivers would. I decided to use liquid latex as we were taught in 1st year to use this to create a scabby effect. With everything else on the face being completely different with the lips as well it looked more like fantasy makeup. Keeping one element normal brought it back down and gave it a more editorial feel. 

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Booking the studio rooms and shooting. 

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Research and Inspiration for Scorched Earth

INITAL THOUGHTS
I want to do a look where it's based on the deserts and how they have dried up due to the rise in temperature. I would like to use a lot of texture within this image to show the dryness of the ground.

"In the face of warming temperatures caused by climate change on top of increased demand, some of the world's largest lakes, rivers and seas are growing smaller with every season." - Shea Gunther on Jan. 25, 2016,

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/photos/7-lakes-and-rivers-that-are-drying-up/lake-poopo#top-desktop

TURNING TO PINTEREST

My Own Pinterest Board

When looking at the pictures I was immediately drawn to the ones of fabric and paper that had holes in them. I thought this would be an interesting way to represent the earth cracking and drying.

FILMS SIMILAR TO SHOOT
One film I knew that would be very similar in where the set was the second Maze Runner called 'The Scorched Trials'. This film is based in the dessert where it's a waste land there is no water everywhere is sandy and dried up. the heat is unbearable.
Below is still shots from the film to show how the conditions are the same on what i'm hoping to achieve in my photoshoot.

http://moviepilot.com/posts/3694762

http://www.totalrihal.com/scorchtrials/

Another film that's set was a real inspiration for my shot was 'The Book Of Eli' the film is about a post apocalyptic world where a man is fighting his way across the desert to protect a book. Within the film there is one scene where he walks across some land that is completely cracked and falling to dust. This really inspired me to create this kind of effect on my model.

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-book-of-eli-2010

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WHERE TO GO FROM HERE - I need to play around with materials I could use to make the effect of cracked earth.
I like the idea on pinterest of using paper or fabric with holes in it. I thought about maybe using bandage material and pulling it apart.
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High Temperatures Photoshoot

BEFORE THE SHOOT STARTED
Before the shoot started I showed the model and my photographer my inspiration images on my iPad before hand so they would know what kind of mood, lighting and poses I was going for.
I managed to find a model with ginger hair as I wanted it to go with the overall vibe of heat and temperature rising within my photoshoot.

Inspiration from iPad

STYLING PROCESS
I was thinking about plaiting the hair but when I started it made the whole look, have a tribal appearance about it and I didn't want that at all. I quicky thought on my feet and how I would have my hair if I was on holiday or living in these conditions.
A messy bun, I would want it off my face but still slightly stylish. I added fabric about the headline as I thought about how women might wear this in hot conditions to soak up sweat from their forehead. For me I thought of the women in Mad Max when I added the hair band which worked for me as they also lived in the hot dessert with no water.

http://www.businessinsider.com/mad-max-fury-road-wives-rosie-huntington-whiteley-riley-keough-zoe-kravitz-2015-5?IR=T

STRUGGLES
One problem I did face while shooting was the glycerin dripping down into the models eye. We had been shooting for about 5 minutes and the glycerin must have been slowly dripping down and it went into her eye. We manage to sort it straight away and solved the situation with the model having baby wipes on her lap and I made sure if I was adding any more it was far away from her eye and didn't go any lower than half way down the forehead.

MY THOUGHTS 

The skin turn out really good you can see on her skin she looks sweaty more than just oily. I thought about where i sweat on my body when working out. I wanted it to look as realistic as possible. On the close up image of the model me and the photographer sat down on photoshop and changed the texture of her face. We didn't have to do much photoshopping as we decided to use a light to create a bit of a lens flair to create the effect of sun beams shining down on the model. This light also helped emphasise the shine of the glycerin.  

TESTING OUT IDEAS AND LIGHTING 

We did try when shooting to spray water infront of the light with gel on(see above). Although the effect turned out amazing and added a different aspect to the image . I personally felt it looked like fire and wouldn't work for the overall effect of being hot and bothered. It did take us a while to find the right lighting that represented sun and didn't look too face. Below is a series of images of lighting set ups we tried before getting one I like which consisted of a cone lighting from one side of the model with an orange gel over the top. 

1st Picture - Lighting was very simple and the orange light was directed straight at her hair so it made it look illuminous. I didn't like how dark it was on her face as well.
2nd picture - the whole image had a peach tint to it, although it looked warm it didn't look realistic. 

3rd image - We were getting that sun glare I wanted but the light was washing her out and you couldn't see the shine of the glycerin.
4th image- The sun glare was just right and her face and body was lit up well but it definitely needed that orange gel again to give the element of sun. 

5th Image - We managed to get it all right. the orange gel works really well and puts an element of warmth to the picture which I really desired. 

REVIEWING THE OVERALL EFFECT

These pictures have turn out amazing in my eyes. The headband really worked in the end and I think if it wasn't there the picture would look a bit flat. adding the headband adds another element of texture. With the close up shot of the models face we did have to edit her skin a little as the pores showed up quite a lot. I wanted to use this image so we played around on photoshop to smooth the skin a little.  I wouldn't change anything if I was to do this shoot again it all ran smoothly and i'm so happy with the end result as my model really portray the feeling of being hot and bothered by the temperature. 

Below is images before they were edited. 

With the half body shots we were didn't do much editing. Just made it a little brighter around the face. and cropped in but I wanted to keep them as raw as possible.
I felt this would really show what the skin would be like and there was no point getting of bits of hair as in the humidity your hair would be all over the place anyway.

This picture had a lot of post production done to it. we cropped in the face more as I wanted to focus on the beads of sweat.  We got rid of her spots and smoothed the pores a little on her cheek. I also wanted to brighten up the image so you could see her eye a little more. I liked how the hair stuck to her skin and wanted that to be an element within the picture as well. Below is the edited picture for comparison.

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WHERE TO GO FROM HERE - 

I had another shoot planned on the same day with the same model. Based on the earth being scorched and drying up because of the temperature rising. The next blog posts will show my inspirations and how the shoot went. 

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