Experimenting with soft lighting

Today me and my group decided that we wanted to play around with soft lighting. We put two white boards next to each other and shot through the small gap that we were left with. Whilst giving an overall soft look, the reflection of the two boards actually created a 'cat eye' effect which I loved.

We then tried lighting from behind- for this we had the lights set up behind the model facing the backdrop. This meant that the lights bounced off the back drop creating soft lighting again. I really liked both methods but preferred the first as I loved the definition in the eyes.

Here is a couple that I took today using the first technique:

Playing with facetune and uncanny valley

After discussing retouching and ‘How far is too far’, we got into small groups and played with the facetune app. I took a simple, face on picture of Tara. We then all looked at it and tried to change as many things as possible without it looking completely fake. Tara felt really uncomfortable being the model and we all felt really uncomfortable adjusting her facial features.

I honestly think she looked much better in the original image- she didn’t look human in the final edited picture. We began by smoothing out her skin, then went in on top with the smoother, raised her cheekbones, whitened her teeth and thinned out her nose- that last one was her request! We made these changes because these are the areas that are edited most frequently. 

Her face looked relatively normal at this point, but then we got a bit excited and sharpened all of her features and changed the colour of her hair. She now looked like an animation- a completely different person, actually quite scary. If I was to do this again, I would direct my model and ask her to pose in a certain position with the intention of focusing on enhancing this area when using facetune. This way, I wouldn’t be going in and randomly changing bits of her face and ending up with something that didn’t look human. And I definitley would not change the hair colour!!

This leads on to the  ‘uncanny valley’ concept. This is the idea that you can edit an image to make it ‘beautiful’, but you actually end up with an image that does not look human and is actually quite creepy. Apparently, beauty is all about being symmetrical, but it actually looks so weird when you take a normal face and make it completely symmetrical. But this made me think, if everyone is freaked out by these ‘perfect’ symmetrical images, does this mean that our idea of beauty is individuality, quirkiness and imperfection? 

 The image on the left is the original. Bridget Bardot was considered one of the most beautiful women of her time and yet the machine still corrected her face to make her 'beautiful'. I feel like all character was completely lost from her face, the sparkle has gone from her eyes. She just doesn't look human at all,she doesn't look alive.

Women in fashion advertising

Even today, women are still being portrayed as sexual objects in advertisements. Models are often asked to pose in suggestive positions wearing next to nothing, even when it has nothing to do with the product being advertised. These intimate photos turn the woman into an object and often make her look vulnerable. It’s quite shocking that in 2015, where feminism is discussed and pushed more than ever before, that companies are still using sex to sell their products.

‘The male gaze’ is a theory devised by feminist Laura Mulvey. This is the idea that visual arts are structured to please the heterosexual male viewer. Although its very common for adverts aimed at men to contain women in little clothing, this is a common feature in adverts aimed at women too. For example, here is an ad for tom ford’s fragrance. Obviously, the aim of this is to sell the fragrance, but they have used a naked woman to do so. The woman is squashing the bottle of cologne between her boobs (which is obviously appealing to men). The advert is basically suggesting that the ladies love this fragrance, and you will be very popular with them if you wear it. This is a perfect example of how sex is used to sell products.   

 Although it is very common in adverts aimed at men, it is just as common in adverts aimed at women, too. For example, this coco Chanel mademoiselle advert. You can see here that Keira knightly is posed seductively with just her brace covering her nipple. This advert is suggesting that if you wear this perfume, you will look just as sexy as Keira does in all of these photos. The caption at the bottom of the advert says ‘feminine and sexy, young and exciting’- but do you have to be naked to be all of those things? That is what the advert is suggesting. Although this advert is predominantly aimed at women, they have managed to create something that looks like it’s aimed at men. 

David Bailey

David bailey made fashion photography sexy in the sixties. He completely revamped the fashion photography world- in the fifties, portraits and fashion magazines were quite polite with little variety. This suddenly all changed thanks to Bailey. Fashion images were bursting with life and personality, women were liberated and allowed to be sexy. Most of the iconic images you associate with the sixties are down to Bailey- he was a huge part of creating the ‘swinging London scene’ of the sixties.

Bailey’s passion is infectious. Just watching documentaries about him made me feel so excited and motivated for this project. He has the ability to make people feel sexy and confident through complimenting and encouraging them. I was watching an interview that he did with Mark Lawson and he said that the key to capturing these wonderful moments is speed. He doesn’t like the shoot to take too long as this means the model will end up looking bored and this will be reflected in the images. Spontaneity is very important to bailey and his work, he says that some of his best shots have come from when he wasn’t trying ‘too hard’ or when he has caught the model completely off guard.

Before starting this project, I had heard of David Bailey but I couldn’t believe how many iconic images he is responsible for. I absolutely love the series of photographs that he did of Twiggy. I love how his portraits can be serious and simple, whereas others capture his silliness and spontaneity as an artist. I think my favourite portrait he has done is of the queen- it is so different to every other stern image I have seen of her, he really managed to capture her personality. I don’t think I have ever seen her smile so hard!