Bibliography

1. Dior & I
2. thegoodlifefrance - (Chosen Brand: Dior): http://www.thegoodlifefrance.com/history-miss-dior-perfume/
3. queensofvintage - (Chosen Brand: Dior): http://www.queensofvintage.com/christian-dior-retrospective-the-story-behind-his-miss-dior-perfume/
4. Wikipedia - (Chosen Brand: Dior): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Dior_SE
5. Wikipedia - ("Real Beauty"): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove_Campaign_for_Real_Beauty
6. Wikipedia - ("Real Beauty"): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove_(toiletries)
7. adweek - ("Real Beauty"): http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/5-reasons-why-some-critics-are-hating-doves-real-beauty-sketches-video-148772
8. in-mind - ("Real Beauty"): http://www.in-mind.org/article/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-the-dove-campaign-for-real-beauty
9. Wikipedia - (Celebrity): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Factor
10.  Wikipedia - (Seasons): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revlon
11.  Independant - (Seasons): http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/how-revlon-created-the-scarlet-woman-7606558.html
12.  Wikipedia - (Medical): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinique
13.  theboah - (Medical): http://theboah.com/feature-article-the-clinique-story/
14.  aquabeautygem - (Medical): https://aquabeautygem.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/the-story-behind-clinique/
15.  scootermydaisyheads - (Rain): http://www.scootermydaisyheads.com/fine_art/symbol_dictionary/rain.htm
16.  Wikipedia - (Petrichor): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor
17.  medialit - (Beauty Advertising History): http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/beautyand-beast-advertising

Evaluation

   Overall I have really enjoyed this final unit of digital image as it has gave me an insight of what it would be like to work on a brand shoot, but also how you have to work when you are doing these shoots which has made me a better designer by changing the way I view my own work from feedback from my tutors which has helped me push myself to be the best I can be in these units. I also feel like my overall knowledge and understanding of photography and postproduction has improved since last semester due to my practical and technical sessions and finding them very beneficial in helping me learn new techniques, but also combine old methods into my current work.

  During both my final shoots I didn’t experience any issues when shooting, however, during my brand inspired shoot I did receive feedback on a few things I should change which was all manageable in post production. That in mind, I do wish throughout this semester I had attended more tutorials to get constant feedback rather than only seeing my tutors a few times over the whole semester as these final postproduction problems could be avoided. None the less, I’m so happy with both my final outcomes and also feel much more prouder of my word after receiving my brand feedback and acting upon it as the outcome is so much more stronger than the pervious images I had originally shot.

Final Edit For Brand Image

   After receiving feedback from my tutors and also wanting to change a few of these problems anyway, I decided to add some finishing touches on my chosen brand image. As you'll be able to see compared to my previous brand images, there are a few changes that I'm actually super happy with now that I've changed/got rid of them. My first task when changing this image was my models smile, or lack of one. I took the image into Photoshop and manipulated the shape of her outer corner of her smile to give it a slight lift, whilst also editing the other slightly and her overall shape of her lips. Once I had achieved my desired smile I then had to blend the edges into her natural skin texture as due to the manipulation, I lightly lost some of it. This is where the clone tool came in handy in taking a section of her skin and applying it to the areas I needed to fix. My last task was to fix the creases in the umbrella, which had bothered me when I first looked at these images and I used the same technique as blending the edited smile into her natural skin tone. This step took the longest, however the finished result is so worth it! The umbrella and overall image looks so much put together and professional compared to my previous images and I'm so happy I edited the creases out of the umbrella, although it would of been ideal to have shot with an already none creased umbrella, I sadly couldn't avoid it. Overall I'm very happy with my final image and am glad I went and made these final changes to my brand image as it has really finished off my final and made it look 100x better!

Feedback

   Today I had a tutorial with Sharon to discuss my final images and digital image blog. I was clam and collected when I went in, however I came out in a completely different state of mind. During my tutorial I had received some amazing feedback which I'm super happy about, however I also received some critical feedback that wouldn't have bothered me so much, if deadline was in two days. One thing that Sharon commented on was how she really enjoyed my photography in both my brand and word inspired images, which I was super happy about as photography isn't really a strong point for me. However what stuck with me the most (as expected) was the negative criticism I was told of my brand images. I was asked to remove the creases from the umbrella and also that my model looked "very sad" and to try and fix her smile as well, there was other small modifications that I was told about my images that I need to look out for when I shoot in the future, for things like looking out if the top the model is wearing is straight and looking perfect in the images, and also looking for fly away hairs that can make the images look a lot less professional. Although I was agreeing with Sharon on what she was saying, I guess you can't help but feel a bit soul destroyed hearing things about your work as for me I'm one of those people that like to get it right more or less within the first time doing something. And for the first half an hour of leaving Sharon's office I was running in a blind panic around the photography studios and staff rooms trying to locate my IT lecturer until I found him and I could somewhat relax. After discussion what needed to my changed with my images he told me how to make these changes and it was a lot easier than I had thought!
   Overall, I have learnt to make sure you're very prepared before doing a shoot, and make sure you look at every aspect of an image to look for anything that could be out of place or imperfect that can effect the overall image. Looking back I'm actually very happy with the feedback I have received from Sharon today, as if she or anyone isn't critical of you or your work then how are you meant to improve as a designer? And thanks to her, my images are a 100x more better than my original images and look so much more professional.

Final Images For Dior Brand Shoot: With Templates

    After editing my final chosen images I then opened inDesign and started to add my templates to the images. I decided to create a few different templates but using a few of the same images to give myself more variety when I decide my final image. As you can see from these images, each template varies in font sizes, placement and also product placement. My inspirations for these changes on each image came from original Dior adverts, I looked at popular placements of text and products and applied them to my final images. As you can also see I did not always use the image of the product, purely for variety but also due to how I felt the product image didn't also work with my final images and I personally enjoy the simplicity of having a lovely image and the brand logo on the advert.  

Final Images For Dior Brand Shoot: Without Templates

     Here are my final chosen edited photos for my brand shoot. Like I have perviously said about my lighting set up, I used two soft box lights pointing towards my model but facing the camera along with a soft box on a bomb light looking over my model and above where I was shooting. I also had two boards on either side of the camera to keep in the light from the two soft boxes.
   After taking these images and seeing them on a larger scale, I noticed that the lights had create a very soft, radiant look to my images which is exactly what I wanted to achieve and as you'll be able to see by my chosen make-up, I kept my model looking very dewy and fresh due to the inspiration from my chosen word.
   For the styling of this shoot, I decided to put most of my focus on this shoot with the styling due to the restriction on doing creating make-up looks to fit with my brand that is known for being very classy and elegant. I decided to style my model in a simple black top, paired with a black skater skirt (although in these edited images you're unable to see the lower half of her body). To also top this look off I used a simple black umbrella as a prop to fit with my inspiration word which involves rain, so I thought including this prop would work well in representing my word. This prop was also mainly the main centre piece, so deciding poses to make my images look more professional and elegant was a slight issue that arose when shooting these images. Although I found coming up with original poses for my shoot a struggle, I also found that these more simpler poses and angles worked a lot better with my brand.
   I'm rather happy with these final edited images, however, looking at some of my images I found that the label for the umbrella was present in a few of these images (yet some was easily hidden when using inDesign and using my brands template) along with some annoying creases in the umbrella that ended up making these images look a lot less put together. When also editing my models skin I noticed a few stray hairs around the face, which some was easy to remove but sadly not all could be removed from my images so this is defiantly something I'd change if I reshot these images, but also something to take into consideration for future shoots.

Word Inspired Final Images

   Here are my final images from my word inspired shoot. When shooting these images, I kind of went a bit off track and didn't technically stick with my original face charts, but more took them with a grain of salt and did something completely different than what I had set out for. I started by doing a very fresh, 'natural' make-up by perfecting the face and bringing out features of the face, such as my models eyes, bone structure, brows and lips buy simply making these features brighter and more intense, however when it came to stick the flowers on my models face, I decided against it and went with wet hair placed roughly over the face. I went against my face charts, due to I thought by having a fresh faced model and having a contrast on the face such as the wet rugged hair would really represent my word well, considering petrichor means; "the fresh smell after rain" I thought having a natural and fresh looking model would be a nice twist on incorporating smell into a shoot. And as for having the wet hair across the face, it represents the rain and that it has just fallen as it is a lot more fresher. Overall, I am happy with my final decision with changing my final design as I felt like this idea really fits my word well compared to my over designs I had previously done.