I decided to lay out my favourite final images in a virtual gallery here:

Evaluation:

Overall, I think this montage of images does a good job of presenting classic masculine ideas. With the colour grading and high contrast, It makes each image stand out. However to improve on this next time I will need to organise this montage better (e.g. diamond cameo) And I feel like the top middle photo does not match any other photo so I will need to take more specific body part photos. I had a little bit of inspiration from Claude Cahun (with the camera work and editing), but I feel like I should of stepped more into her style of bold, outgoing photos.

I think this image links very closely to Duane Michal’s work, by showing the insecurities of a person with there identity. It shows how modern masculine expectations can make a person insecure in themselves. I feel like the foreground model isn’t in frame enough to make it obvious to the viewer that there are 2 different photos.

I think this image links fairly closely to Cindy Shermans work linking to the male gaze. However, I edited my photos to have a rosy red colour grading to them, breaking the norms of gender identity with a feminine colour. The bright, glossy lips of the subject take the viewers attention away from the ‘manly’ body in a strong looking pose. By taking the viewers attention towards the lips you are making more ‘feminine’ traits a focus in the photo, conflict the binary opposites of masculinity vs femininity.

Photoshoot 1

For editing I decided to use other photos from photoshoot one, This Image below I tried to capture Cindy Sherman idea of the “male gaze”, but complete flip it so I’m capturing images of men instead.

The characters in Sherman’s photos are often an exaggeration of widely represented female identities. Since this exaggeration and masquerade is visible through heavy make-up or distinctive clothing, the works appear to reveal the artificial construction of what is supposed to make a person female, such as wearing clothes typical for a housewife or the extensive use of eyeliner:

So for this image I made a very traditionally “masculine photo” with my model where he has no t-shirt, and holding a breath case with a strong intimidating pose. I have cropped this image to keep the eye area away from the rule of thirds to make the body the dominating feature of this image. Keeping the eye area and the posing (of the breath case) high, which further increases the intimidation that this model creates for the viewer as he is looking down to the camera so to the viewer. :

To confuse the viewer I have edited this photo with some colour grading often associated with feminine traits like rosy red, to remove the line between masculinity and femininity. This take away a lot of the intimidation that I talked about above:

After this, I noticed that the background, not being completely black, could distract the viewers eyes from the subject and a easy way of mitigating that is by using a vignette. A lot of old photos also have naturally occurring vignettes due to incorrect camera equipment (e.g. lenses with large apertures or barrels) But adding it digitally can make your images pop and guide the viewers eyes to the subject:

I repeated this process with other photos:

Here I tried re-arranged the first photos I took to make it look more clean:

Photoshoot 2

For this image I didn’t want to overdo it in editing so I kept it simple and just merged 2 images together. One being confident and the mirror one being more insecure. It almost looks as if the foreground image is going to punch him inside the mirror, suggesting he’s insecure about himself.

For this Image below I really tried to replicate Duane Michals images with mirrors. I got my subject to hold a mirror looking into it, I also increase the lighting to create a hazy look:

ANOTHER ONE G

COMBINED:

For this one I used Images I took a while ago and was inspired by Cindy Sherman’s latest exhibition, here are some examples:

They are all very ‘ugly’ looking, giving a almost humorous effect on the viewer.

The exhibition showcases the artist’s individual series and also presents works grouped thematically around such common threads as cinema and performance; horror and the grotesque; myth, carnival, and fairy tales; and gender and class identity.

Cindy Sherman Inspired Edit

Edit 2 – masculinity

This is a before and after of the four images I used in this second edit.

These are the final four images once I had edited them in Lightroom, I put all the images in monochrome to refer back to the artist Sam Contis, Sam Contis also focused on the male body like I did with my photoshoot and his images are in black and white so I took inspiration and did the same. With these final four images I put them into an A3 canvas/document in photoshop in which I created this:

I really like how this edit came out, this edit really portrays the theme of masculinity. I used a technique I have used in the past , multi exposure so for this image I took inspiration of Sam Contis and Muhammed Faread who gave me stylistic inspiration for this image. Here is a few pictures taken by Muhammed Faread which inspired me :

Muhammed Faread is a talented Egyptian photographer who is recognised for his multi exposure/ double exposure work. Muhammed Faread said that he sees double exposure as a form of poetry. I like the concept of Fareed’s images and i really like how they turn out therefore I took style inspiration from him.

Edit 3– femininity

For this edit I used this photo of the model holding a flower in the mirror and I put the image into black and white changing the temp and exposure until I got the right tone I wanted on the image. Then once I had edited it in Lightroom I thought that making the flower in the image the only thing in colour was a great idea as it changes the focal point. So then I put the image into photoshop, duplicated the layer, made it monochrome and then selected the flower to keep the colour.

Edit 4 – femininity

For this image I did a simple edit in Lightroom, I turned the image into black and white and I played around with the exposure, highlights, temp and etc until I was happy with how the photo looked. This photo was inspired by a photo on my femininity mood board which is the image on the left of the mood board.

edit 5 – Femininity

For this edit I put a filter over the natural image and adjusted exposure and shadows on Lightroom, Once that was done and I was happy with the overall photo I then opened the photo in photoshop ,duplicated the layer, made the new layer monochrome and selected her lips as it is associated with femininity and removed it so that the lips would be in their normal colour.

edit 6 – Masculinity

For this edit I thought that this image was too overexposed and that the body was too white so in Lightroom I played around with the exposure and added filters to it until his body was clearer.

I was inspired for this photoshoot by some of Cindy Sherman’s mirror images, especially Untitled Film Still #2 by Cindy Sherman . She almost seems insecure about herself and the qualities that men have expected upon her. I will replicate this but for men instead with my images. Another artist I got inspiration from was Duane Michals. Her magic mirror of uncertainty shows a woman looking into a skewed mirror. This constant change of position in the mirror represents her uncertainty. It almost represents self consciousness which I will try to replicate in my work, where the uncertainty of masculinity is at its peak right now.

These B&W sequence of images, all with different image skewed, could show a story of self consciousness, and how her appearance is always changing. The last photo she looks directly into the camera almost like she has given up on trying to match the feminine look that people have put upon her.

Here I told my model to stand in different poses while I kept the camera at the same location. This is so I can montage them together and create interesting photos when editing. Here are A few that I liked:

The Idea for this photoshoot was to focus the image on the reflected subject from the mirror, showing the true reflection of the subject. I will need to edit them so the real subject is different from the virtual subject, since I kept the tripod the same Hight and length away it should be easy. The camera settings used are; f/4.5 (creates blurred foreground keeping the focus on the virtual subject), exposure time of 1/360 as I used 3 flash lights with a box diffuser on to light up the subject, ISO of 100 to reduce noise, and a focal length of 18mm.

Butterfly Lighting

Butterfly lighting is when there is a shadow on the face just below the nose shaped like a butterfly. It is a technique used by many photographers to achieve a very elegant and sophisticated image.

As you can see in this image, Butterfly lighting is achieved by placing the studio light above the photographers head pointing down toward the subject which is the model in this case. The reflector needs to be below the models face to allow the light to reflect upwards to which will create a more defined shadow underneath the nose.

My butterfly lighting portraits

Rembrandt lighting

Rembrandt lighting is where there is a triangle of light seen below the eye. Photographers use this lighting because it creates a dramatic yet natural image.

As you can see from the image above, to achieve Rembrandt lighting the studio light needs to be at one side of the model in this case the right side and the reflector needs to be facing the model at an angle on the opposite side. The model must also be facing the studio light slightly to achieve the triangle under the eye.

My Rembrandt lighting portraits

I reall

Chiaroscuro Lighting

Chiaroscuro lighting is a high-contrast lighting technique that utilises a low-key lighting setup to achieve contrast between the model and the dark background. Photographers use chiaroscuro lighting to highlight the model and create depth to the background.

As you can see in the image above, to achieve the chiaroscuro lighting the subject needs to be facing straight in front of the camera and there neds to be a fill light on the right of the subject and a key-light to the right of the subject.

My chiaroscuro lighting pictures

I really like how the chiaroscuro pictures came out. I like how the model in the picture is highlighted and the background is extremely dark. However if I was to do it again I would aim to make the models face slightly brighter to really create the contrast between the highlights and the shadows.

Photoshoot 1 – Inspired by Hannah Altman

Contact Sheet/Image Selection

These are a combination of my photoshoots inspired by Hannah Altman ‘Indoor Voices’. I took these in various places around my house using a tripod and my camera with a 10 second timer.

Image Sub Selection

I have decided to go back through my most successful photos and colour rate them to determine which ones to edit. Green is yes, yellow is unsure and red is no.

Edits

Edit 1

I found that the original image for this edit was very pixelated and not the best quality so I edited it by, firstly, making it darker by lowering the exposure, contrast and highlights. I then increased the texture so things are more defined but lowered the clarity and increased dehaze so everything appears smoother.

Edit 2

My aim for this edit was to make the colours of my hair and my Mum’s face look less orange, therefore, I lowered the exposure, highlights and vibrancy. Similar to the previous edit, I also increased the texture and lowered the clarity.

Edit 3

I edited this photo by cropping it then lowering the exposure, highlights and texture. I also increased the shadows and clarity. Finally, I lowered the vibrancy and saturation to make the colours less bright in the photo and make the image more tranquil.

Edit 4

I edited this by, firstly, cropping it then lowering the exposure, highlights and vibrancy. After this, I increased the shadows, texture and clarity to make the lines in the photo more defined.

Edit 5

I started off editing this photo by cropping each side then lowering the exposure and contrast slightly and increasing the texture and clarity.

Additionally, I used the brush tool to increase the exposure of the bottom half of the window so that it can’t be seen through.

Edit 6

I edited this by lowering the exposure, contrast, highlights, whites and clarity then increasing the texture. I did this to make the image just a little bit less bright and more defined.

Edit 7

To begin editing this photo, I started off by cropping the sides. After this, I lowered the contrast, highlights and exposure and increased the shadows, texture and clarity. Furthermore, I attempted to use the brush tool to get rid of the glisten in my eye, however, it just made it look worse so I kept it how it was.

Edit 8

I personally think that the original photo doesn’t need editing, however, I decided to try edit it anyway which I actually prefer the outcome of. To edit this photo, I decreased the exposure, contrast, highlights, whites and vibrancy and just increased the texture.

Edit 9

I edited this photo by lowering the exposure and clarity then increasing the highlights and texture. After this, I lowered the vibrancy to give the photo a bit less warmth as it makes it look better quality.

Edit 10

This was my last edit to represent a mother and daughter relationship and I edited it by lowering the exposure and whites then increasing the highlights. After this, I increased the texture and clarity to make everything more smooth yet defined. Finally, I finished off by cropping it then lowering the vibrancy and saturation to make the colours less lively to fit the sense that we are in pyjamas and look tired.

Photoshoot 2 – Inspired by Justine Kurland

Contact Sheet/Image Selection

Image Sub Selection

I have decided to go back through my chosen images and create a sub selection of the specific ones that I am going to edit, shown in green.

Edits

Edit 1

I only subtly edited this photo by lowering the exposure to make it more vibrant, increasing the highlights, decreasing the shadows and then increasing the blue and yellow hue.

Edit 2

I edited this by, firstly, cropping it then lowering the exposure, increasing the highlights and texture and increasing the yellow and green hue.

Edit 3

I edited this photo by, firstly, cropping it then lowering the exposure, whites and texture and increasing the clarity and highlights.

Edit 4

I personally think that the original photo was too dark so I edited it by increasing the exposure, whites and vibrancy and decreasing the shadows and clarity. Finally, I slightly cropped the bottom.

Edit 5

I edited this photo by cropping the bottom then increasing the texture, clarity and contrast to make shapes and lines more defined. I then lowered the exposure, highlights, shadows, vibrancy and saturation because I think that the original photo was too vibrant.

Edit 6

I edited this photo by decreasing contrast, shadows, clarity and exposure and increasing highlights and texture. Finally, I finished off by cropping the bottom of the photo.

Edit 7

I edited this by slightly cropping the top of the image then increasing the exposure, contrast, texture, clarity and vibrance then decreasing highlights and whites to make the image a little less bright.

Edit 8

I edited this by cropping the bottom then making small adjustments to the exposure, contrast and clarity.

Edit 9

To edit this photo, I cropped it then increased texture clarity and highlights and lowered the exposure.

Edit 10

When editing this photo, I attempted to remove the orange tint in my friend’s face and hair. I did this by lowering the exposure, highlights, vibrancy and saturation then increasing the contrast, clarity and texture. After this, I finished off by experimenting with the hue and saturation of green and blue to make the grass a bit more vibrant.

Edit 11

I edited this image by slightly cropping the bottom then decreasing the exposure and highlights to make the photo less bright then increasing whites, texture and clarity.

Edit 12

This is my final edit for this photoshoot inspired by Justine Kurland’s ‘Girl Pictures’. I edited this photo by just slightly adjusting the exposure, highlights, texture, clarity and vibrancy. Finally, I finished off by cropping the top and bottom, as well as a little bit off the left.

To begin my editing process I started with this photo, it was already a good photo and I felt it gets the point across quite well, that being that a largely feminine thing is too claim ‘beauty is pain’ when doing painful or uncomfortable things on the premise of social expectations and stereotypes. I didn’t dislike the photo in colour but I feel the high contrast black and white makes the photo as it has a moody, emotive feel to it. This also benefitted some of the props like the tiara before it wasn’t overly noticeable but now it has added highlights to the photo and contributes to the overall look and feel of the image. The highlights now being a lot more visible also helped the lip gloss sheen to show up and balance the models overall complexion.

I decided to make another image black and white before moving onto trying different techniques. This allowed me to get a feel of what the shoot required in terms of editing as the lighting and composition is relatively similar throughout the shoot. I actually think the photos largely benefit not only compositionally form the change to black and white but also emotively as they appear a lot bolder and stronger in black and white as well as complementing the models look.

This is a photo I edited, inspired by Cindy Sherman I used the lasso tool to cut out certain areas of the photo and bring the colour back, I loved the original image and it was a strong image however this only improves the idea of the shoot. Having the bulk of the photo in low contrast, black and white allows the highlighted bits to really be noticed and focused on when looking at the image.

This is the final edit I did and was heavily inspired by absurdism. This was the most creative edit I did in the controlled conditions and I don’t dislike the final outcome but I think it has strayed quite far from my original intentions.

I have posted my presentation of my best final outcomes in a separate blog post.

Angela Marklew is a photographer who mainly focuses on portraiture, in particular the headshots area of it. Marklew was born in Canada however she now takes residence in Los Angeles. Besides portraiture, Marklew also takes beauty photographs and photos for advertisement. Marklew has a feminine look to her photographs which is created by the soft colours and the way in which her subjects are posed in her photographs. One of Marklew’s collections called ‘skin in the game’ really represents femininity as it shows how women feel the need to fit into society standards even though the process of it is painful.

Marklew’s work is also just based on women models, often wearing brightly coloured makeup, mainly eyeshadows, which adds to the aspect of femininity that is displayed throughout her work.

Skin in the game

I am choosing to base my response to Angela Marklew’s work on her collection ‘skin in the game’. This is because I feel that it truly shows how difficult it is for women to feel the need to use cosmetic surgery to look good in today’s society. In the photo above you can see clips and tape pulling on the models face to create a lifted look, however this is only one side of the photo. This shows how easy it is to create a false look when taking photos for things such as magazines and social media. Many women are unaware of the fact most of these images are altered whether its using photoshop or other things which makes them feel like they need to look that way too.

Analysis

 

The photo above is a portrait of a woman with a syringe on her cheekbone with blood pouring down her cheek. The expression on the woman’s face suggests that she is in pain however the hand on her chin is keeping her in that state. The gloved hand makes me think of plastic surgery and fillers, the needle also supports the idea that the photographer was trying to give the viewer the impression that the model is getting some sort of cosmetic surgery done. The blood dripping down the models cheek suggests that the injection is painful and reminds me of the expression ‘beauty is pain’. The photo shows how many women feel that they must look a certain way to fit the social standards that are set from things such as magazines and social media which all tend to be extremely unrealistic versions of people. This photo is from Marklew’s collection ‘skin in the game’ which represents that beauty comes with a painful price.

Photo #1

This idea came from the artist Lewis Bush and Idris Khan. Two artists that have very similar work which involves multiple exposures overlapping one another to create and end result photo.

I started by importing one photo of my model into photoshop.

For this photo, I used artificial lighting by using a black background with no studio lights above, but I used a flash light with box filter over it. Positioned model in the centre, flash light directly on the right side of model, with my model slanted at the light at about a 75 degree angle.
F-stop = f/11
Exposure time = 1/160 seconds.
ISO speed = ISO-100
Focal length = 22mm

Then I added all of the other photos I wanted to use which was 11 photos in total. Put them on top of each other, all in the centre of the grid. Changed of all of them apart from the base picture to 50% opacity, and made sure that even though they were mostly all 50% opacity, I wanted to make sure you can still see a clear image of my model.

This is my editing process of adding a few in, then some more, and then some more and below.

Which then created this final photo of all of those masculine pictures overlapping each other, which is called Multiple Exposure.

Photo #2

For this photo, I used the artist reference, Cindy Sherman. Sherman uses this way of editing to deceive the audience into thinking that her style is ‘immature, young, funny maybe even considered ugly’. But I used this way of editing on my photo because I like how different body sections are bright and coloured, and the rest is black and white.

But for my photo, I wanted to use it on a body part instead of the models face as Cindy Sherman did. So, I started by using this photo of my models arm that involved his bicep, tricep, shoulder, forearm and upper back.

I then edited it to look more masculine, increasing the contrast, lowering the exposure, lowering highlights and shadows and increasing the whites and blacks. Then, increased the texture and clarity to show more detail and definition.

Then for the final photo, I wanted to put the same picture but in black and white over the top of that photo with cut out parts in it to reveal the coloured masculine photo underneath.

Which then lead to the final result to be a combination of the two with the black and white photo on the top covering most of it, but shapes cut out in it revealing the coloured photo underneath.

Photo #3

My third photo idea came from the artist, Kensuke Koike and this is because I love how he uses 1 picture to create such a bigger photo by either swapping parts of the face around with other parts. Or, having 3 of the same photo, one lighter, one normal, and one darker all in the same position, and then cutting out parts to reveal lighter parts and darker parts too.

So just before I did this style and reference, I thought why not have two layers a blurred one and a clear one as-well, so I used his editing style but made the main photo blurred, and in the cut-out parts, where it reveals the non-blurred lighter photo underneath, another lighter blurred boarder round the cut-out.

I have chosen to use this photo because it resembles femininity a lot with the use of makeup, a female stereotype and involves a necklace and bracelet which are considered feminine. Also, her green with a ring of hazel round the middle eyes, being the main focus of this photo really brings in the audience and could also be considered a feminine idea.

Then went into photoshop and had the idea of having a blurred photo of my model and then a brighter photo underneath with cut outs revealing parts of the photo. But I blurred both of the photos, the darker and the lighter one, and then cut out parts so that there was lighter revealed parts, still blurred though. So, after I did that I wanted something else to add to it, so I also, cut out the same shapes in a smaller form of the lighter blurred photo to reveal no blur and just the brighter photo, creating my final photo.

Photo #4

I have stuck with the same editing style for this photo which I really like from Lewis Bush and Idris Khan which involves multiple exposures overlapping one another to create end result photo.

I started by using this photo I took, similar to photo #3 but different style.

This is my editing process of importing each picture in slowly with 50% opacity overlapping each other, which eventually created this full final picture.

I am really glad with how this photo ended up being with all the different multiple exposures on top of each other and how each photo is different but you can still clearly see what’s happening and the full photo.

Photo #5

Very similar to photo #1 and #4, I am really glad with my multiple exposures that I have done and so in this one I tried a different idea.

I started with this photo of my Model and was thinking of adding the different angles and positions he was in on top of it.

Started to add the different poses and angles of him over this photo.

After doing that for a few of the photos it came out to looking like this, but I thought why not add some colour in some of them as-well so I added one blue one on the left, and one yellow one on the right, but off-centred to add to the confusion and exposure look.

Having the exposures at different heights and sizes really creates depth for the photo because they are each individual separate photos all showcasing different things, but all also relate to the same thing.

Photo #6

This photo inspiration came from Cindy Sherman again where she uses the different eyes over different faces, but I didn’t want to do that exact idea so I freestyled and came up with the idea of a male model with makeup on, eye shadow on the inner of the eye, glitter on the upper cheek bone, and mascara on the eye lashes. But in the reflection of the pupil/iris was a female who ‘typically’ would be wearing this sort of makeup.

Started by using this photo.

Thought it was a bit dark and so I increased the brightness, increased the exposure, decreased the contrast, increased highlights ever so slightly, decreased the shadows and so it made this photo.

Which I much prefer as it is brighter, warmer, more friendly and helps the ‘feminine’ aesthetic look. But I wanted to use Cindy Sherman’s style by using someone else’s eye over mine, but I thought why don’t I put it in the reflection of the eye, so I got this photo of another Model.

So, after I cut her head out and put it on top of the pupil/iris, I lowered the opacity to 25% and cut around the outside of the face so it fitted the eye, and so you can still see the eye ball behind it ever so slightly and her face doesn’t stand out too much.

This is my photo gallery of all of my photos being showcased in!

For my first photoshoot I was experimenting with coloured gels and lighting. In some of the photos the lighting wasn’t that good as we were only experimenting however some photos turned our really good.

A collection of my favourite photos from the shoot

Outcomes for my next photo shoot

For my next photo shoot I want to try and focus on three things:

• Taking more photos for the shoot
• Taking photos in a different place
• photos with a different person