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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High Temperatures Research

RESEARCH AND REALISATION
While googling for images of sweaty makeup looks I noticed that the texture on the skin really showed up when the oil was added to the skin.

I never really thought about this before so need to find a model with good skin that doesn't have any texture and quite small pores.

I decided to google how makeup artists make sweat beads in film and Tv and found a good website that spoke about how they make a mixture of water and glycerin. The glycerin in the water makes it firm enough for the drops to stay in place while filming.
I've worked with glycerin before for a competition where I had the beads running down the neck to look like water.
When the shoot comes about I will add a bit of water into the glycerin so it doesn't look too fake.

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WHERE TO GO FROM HERE -

Find a model with small pores and red hair as this will work with my shoot being hot and temperature rising.

Think about mood board and the feeling I want from this shoot
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Oil Spill Photoshoot

MY THOUGHTS
I completed the oil shoot and used the mixture of both paints and oil.
The shoot went well even on the screen while shooting I was getting the dramatic effect I desired, the model looked like she was struggling to live. I had only tried the fake oil spill out on my hand so didn't really know how well it would work all over the body but thought if it didn't go well it could of just been a test shoot. I booked the studio late incase there was a lot of mess. I thought ahead and brought tarpaulin so the oil would be easily contained. We made sure we had the lighting right before adding the oil. However this did change afterwards due to the shine of the oil and that did take some messing around.

STRUGGLES
One thing I didn't think about and struggled with to start with was the oil having a high shine and the lights showing in it. When we were taking pictures from above the light showed in the oil on the floor.  It took a while for us to re adjust the lights and think about angles.

I also made sure to use vegetable oil as this doesn't cook until under a lot of heat so I knew this oil would be safe on my model. It's also used by a lot of still life photographers when they want to get a good shine.

Below is a few images from the shoot when Edited.

I'm really happy with how these images turn out. The model followed my direction well and was able to contort her body to make her self look like she was struggling.

WORKING WITH PHOTOGRAPHER
Me and the photographer worked so well together, I believe this was because we had spoken before hand about the shoot and I has sent over images I liked of lighting and detailed shots. When we arrived on set I brought an iPad with all these images on as well as poses I wanted to try and achieve so he would get a proper understanding of my shoot. Doing this made the shoot move smoothly as everyone involved understood the final image I was going for. As this worked so well I will defiantly be doing this again for my other shoots.

Inspiration on iPad

REVIEWING THE OVERALL EFFECT

Although I am going to use these images in my book. The only thing I would change for next time is the model wearing no pants. I would hire a professional model who wouldn't mind being naked. I don't think the pants are too distracting as the blend in nicely. If this was to be a professional book going into mass market against makeup books such as Andrew Gallimore and the collection by Brian Smith it would work better if the pants weren't there.

EDITING IMAGES
These weren't originally in black and white, and colour of her skin was showing through, sitting down with my photographer and playing around on photoshop we changed the filter to black and white and brought the tone down a bit to give it that deathly dark effect I wanted.
Below is what the images looked like before we edited them. I remember first being pleased with the images but looking back on them now they are no where near as good as when they have been edited.

After doing this shoot Green Peace contacted me and asked to see a few images from this shoot.

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WHERE TO GO FROM HERE -

Begin a mood board for my next shoot and find an appropriate model.
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Testing For Oil Spill

I managed to find one recipe online but involved ingredients I were unsure would work. So I contacted Green Peace and they gave me a few recipes they use when protesting.

Different Mixtures to try:
- Readymix paint and oil
- Readymix Paint on its own
- Molasses - Green Peace Recipe 
-Oilpaint and Oil - Green Peace Recipe
-Readymix Paint and Oil Paint with oil

The ready mix paint and oil didn't mix well together so caused patchiness. This wouldn't create the drenched effect over the model I desired.

Ready mix paint on its own was good, however it did dry and wasn't as shiny as the first picture. Under the lights I feel this would dry up too fast so I would need to keep applying it to the model which would waste time.

Molasses was so thick! It was hard to blend out and wasn't the thin consistency of oil I was hoping for.

 This was oil paint and oil. This was closer to what I wanted but I didn't want the skin to show as much so thought about adding the ready mix paint underneath.

Perfect!!! mixture of ready mix paint with the oil paint and oil over the top. This create the dark effect I wanted of oil and the slippy shine I wanted that will be all over the models body.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------WHERE TO GO FROM HERE -

I have now found a photographer thats work I think is amazing. He is a first year so has more times on his hands to be able to shoot my whole book. I sat down with him before hand went over my ideas and what I wanted to portray through the book.

I need to book a studio and shoot the oil slick look.
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