Ad Experimentation - Veils

As part of my experimentation for my advertisement campaign I wanted to see if material could be used as a method of creating a soft focus, ethereal bride effect. The best way of doing this was to create a test shoot whereby I created the makeup and hair that would be used in my final shoot and developed its presentation with different lighting techniques. Overall this shoot was not very successful in regards to producing quality images that reflected my makeup, however it did allow me to explore another route within the concept for my advertisement images and understand why certain fabrics won't work alongside beauty makeup and lighting. That being said this is a method that I would like to reattempt within the project on my final model and using different lighting methods to see if I come to a more successful solution. The first lighting method I attempted was one that we had been shown within our technical sessions which involved lighting both the foreground and background of an image. Trying to achieve this by myself was rather challenging as I was only able to gain a small studio space for this test shoot, that being said I still wanted to attempt to create this effect. Due to working in a smaller studio space than desired meant that finding an appropriate balance for the backlighting was difficult, often resulting in the model being overexposed as visible within these images. The effects of this caused the makeup to become washed out dramatically behind the fabric as the camera focused on the background instead of the model. In addition to this was the influence of the fabric which was made of a sheer irredecant material, due to this it also acted as another source for bouncing the light and in turn pushed the reflection further away from the models face. This was a problem that only occurred with the sheet as without the makeup was significantly clearer, despite the backdrop still being slightly overexposed. In addition to the bad lighting I'm also not to keen on the makeup within these images, in particular that of the eye makeup which comes through incredibly pink on camera but instead was more of a gentle peach tone, I feel this may have been a result of not checking the makeup before going onto camera however I do know not to use this shadow in future for this particular set of work. That being said the complexion (from what is visible) I was happy with, in particular the highlight on the cheek which still manages to translate through the over exposure and fabric. 

My second attempt at this was significantly more successful in regards to the background not being over exposed but instead, this time the image appears rather dull as there is almost no light reflection at all in the background. This image although pretty is more of an art based image in my opinion as opposed to one that could be used for advertisement purposes as part of the Givenchy beauty aesthetic. Due to there being little light coming from behind the model the saturation of the makeup has been dramatically lost making the overall tone of the photography grey, the most noticeable loss within the beauty element is that of the cheek highlight which has completely vanished. As my advertisement for this look is focused around th

at of a highlight powder loosing this element renders the image rather useless. Having some form of backlight was most definitely beneficial to the photography and I feel that maybe by using a white polyboard as a backdrop I will achieve a better image. Polyboard acts as a means of bouncing light so will give me a slight illumination behind my model without creating too much light. In addition to the photography not working out I feel that the model choice for this shoot is wrong as she looks to child like on camera. Although Givenchy advertisements are very youthful they still represent a woman, my model is far too doll like and therefore translates as child like in the images.