New model Shoot: Fleur

Recently I have been searching on Model Mayhem for models and came across Fleur Gascoigne's profile. Fleur is a 17 year old student based in Fareham. I was really keen to approach her to model for my agency as she has a very strong and distinctive look about her and as she is mixed race, would add some diversity to my agency. Her profile picture on the site was what first struck me:

This is an image a college photography student took of her a little while back. She has never modelled for much more than this and I could tell from this image that she would be good infront of the camera, I just hoped she had the confidence to go along side it. 

I contacted Fleur and she agreed to model for me. I then started to plan the looks for my shoot and the styling, keeping to the same structure of three different looks for the shoot. Fleur was rather difficult to buy for as she is a very small size six or a size four in clothes. I had to work with this as best as I could and managed to find some really good pieces that would not only fit her but compliment her also. 

The shoot was shot in a studio at university by a good friend and fellow student Hannah Farrell. Once fleur arrived we got started on the makeup. For the first look I wanted to just go for some thing natural and simple to compliment her skin tone. As she is quite young and also looks it, I kept the makeup for the other two looks quite simple, I just added a striking red lip for some shots and bright purple for others. I wanted a statement look for the styling chosen but nothing too dramatic on the eyes. 

As the shoot went on it improved by the minute and Fleur was producing some amazing shots. She became very comfortable infront of the camera and oozed confidence.

I am really happy with the images produced from this shoot and am really looking forward to laying them out in InDesign for Fleur's profile. I feel the shoot over all was very successful and well planned out, making it much smoother to shoot. If I was to re shoot Fleur at some point I would love to take a wider variety of beauty shots, perhaps to add to her portfolio as an aspiring model.

Layout updates

Over easter I have been Placing my images into my InDesign layouts more and experimenting with composition of images. 

I decided to change the first page of each model's profile. At first I had the model's head shot image as the first introducing image and then another one on the opposite page, usually full length. I have now changed my mind and decided to have four small polaroid shots on the facing page to the head shot. I feel like this will present the client with a first hand comparison of how the model looks naturally and also how she looks when made up.It will give a fast view of the model and show her diversity and adaptability when shooting. 

I have also started on some of the other girl's profiles such as Hettie. Here is a copy of the first double page of her profile:

I have tried to keep the layout fairly simple as I don't want to distract too much from the images with graphics and text. I am really happy with my choice of head shot as it is a complete extreme to the polaroids and I think they contrast really well side by side. The polaroids however aren't the best. I don't mind the close ups but I am considering re shooting the full length ones as I would prefer to have a solid white back ground,I feel they don't look professional enough yet. 

Also for each model I have decided that I am going to include a story in each profile, so that each model looks like they have had a published editorial even if they are all advertised as the new faces in the industry. 

I have started experimenting with this in Alexa's profile:

 I feel like this editorial is still missing something but I will  keep working on it and am going to add some text to it also, possibly an interview with Alexa or with the photographer. I am unsure yet. 

I also want to start adding my own sketches and drawings into the magazine. For example I was thinking of roughly sketching up some flowers in white ink on black paper and adding them to the images of Hettie for editorial:

I havent't decided on the name for this story yet but I would like to add the flowers down the side of the first page, maybe on the right of hettie going onto the start of the other page. There will be further experimentation with this later on in my journal. 

I am happy with how the magazine is coming together and am really enjoying placing all the images together. 

Model:Beth. Shoot analysis

Last week I did a shoot with a model I scouted in Starbucks, Beth. The shoot was conducted in Re:So and was planned to have a photographer and stylist helping me as part of my team. 

I had really high hopes for the shoot when planning as everything was in hand and organised. I had planned three looks for Beth the same as I had for the other girls, a natural look, and two more stylized looks.  

The shoot sadly didn't go to plan at all how I had hoped. As I wanted to shoot in the Easter holidays all of the team who had agreed to work with me weren't available on the day so I tried to conduct the whole shoot single handed. To add to the drama of the day, I arrived at Uni to rent out a location lighting kit and they were all booked out. 

So I went on to style the model, do the hair and makeup and shoot it myself using natural light. Once we began to shoot I noticed that Beth wasn't very comfortable in front of the camera, making it difficult to direct her. After showing her multiple images of pose inspiration and shot styles I had collected she got into the shoot a little bit more. 

When looking over the images at the end of the shoot I decided that they were not suitable to be used in my magazine and weren't to a high enough standard that I needed. I don't feel this was all the model's fault however, I just think the shoot became very unorganized and was too much for me to take on as one person. I am not confident enough with camera technicalities and knowledge to shoot in natural light and made an informed decision to scrap the shoot.