Experiments

I decided to have a play around with some face paint, and lighting to see what I could experiment I could come up with which will help me get a starting point for the final Envy shoot. This is what I came up with; a neutral face with a green gradient and jet black thick eyebrows, using these techniques helps to show the envious side as in the eyes you can see that I am staring + fixed on someone. Also green is a colour that is associated with Envy. Using the green has helped to define the Sin as the framing and pose used could've easily indicated Wrath. I think using an Extreme Close Up on this shot is too severe and next time I would like to have the girl covered in green from the shoulders upwards. I will use a white/cream background to take the photo on as I want the power that the sin gives to come through the image. I like the lighting in this shot though as it's quite dark and mysterious, especially as the sides of the face are darker. This is down to the flash as the flash would've been hitting the top of my head and gradually coming down to the end of my nose. 

Here I have experimented with the lips for my Gluttony shoot, and also the shutter speed on the chocolate image below. Firstly I have the image of the lips. For the Gluttony experiments I have decided to take seperate photos rather than one whole image as I want the final image to be messy and look unorganised, like the girl has just gone and bought a lot of food and gone crazy with it when she gets home. With the image of the chocolate sauce, I had to experiment with different shutter speeds to make sure that I got the chocolate dripping at the correct time. In the final Gluttony photo I don't think timing will be an issue as it would be good if the chocolate looked messy. It will also take a long time to run down the girl because of the consistency.

These are a few experiments from the Lust shoot. I shot the experiments and final image at the same time, because I thought it was better to experiment with lighting and positioning whilst I was on the shoot. I thought that experimenting on set would look more natural and spontaneous, rather than planned out. The lighting in all of these images is natural and the images were taken around 3pm in November, so it was just starting to get a bit darker, so I had to manipulate the lighting to correct the highlights and shadows. I ensured that the model's face was in the light at all times, so she could connect with the viewer. I made sure that she was positioned in a seductive way without it looking too sexual, for example the only images where you see her legs is the bottom one, in the rest minimal amount of flesh is shown.

This is the final image from my Envy experiment. I used a close up of her head to give an emphasis on her eyes. The angle of the image also suggests that the person she is looking up at is more superior to her, as images of from this angle make the subject look less important. I have used Photoshop to create the black background, as  this was originally taken in my dining room. As you can see the edges of the girl aren't that crisp as this image was only an experiment. After experimenting with this I can decide on my angles and choice of shot. 

These are 2 images from the Gluttony shoot. Again, like the Lust photos, I decided to do these on the same set as the final image, just because this was an incredibly messy shoot. In the 1st image I chose a big close up so that you could see the emotion in her face. There as no flash used in this image, and I had to change the shadows just slightly to get a bit more darkness in the image. On my camera when I use the no flash setting, movement sometimes tends to blur and not look as crisp, but thankfully in this image you can clearly see her chewing the sweet. I wanted the image to look like she had just had a bath in confectionary, indulging on things that she shouldn't eat.

The difference with this image is that it is an extreme close up of the girls mouth and nose. I chose this image as one of my experiments because of the colour scheme and the way the sauces have been captured just dripping. This was down to the shutter speed of the camera. It had to be taken very quickly otherwise I would've lost the dripping effect. When I was editing this image, I chose a filter that has a 1960s effect on it, giving it the feel of a image taken by film.

Review of Experiments

I thought that my experiments went very well and I used various different props and techniques and editing techniques to create my images. I have decided that I am going to carry the green theme of the Envy photo into my final image, changing it slightly to make it look a bit more aboriginal. Whilst conducting my Gluttony experiments, I have found that I have to use my shutter speed carefully because of the consistency of some of the confectionery I am going to pour over my model. I also had a quick go at editing another Envy image, and with this I found that I'd rather leave the background the colour it is, instead of editing it on Photoshop. I think it would have a crisper, sharper edge if I didn't edit it.