Final Reflection

This semester has been filled with an immense amount of new discoveries. I came into this activity wanting to learn more about the inner and outer of workings of the commercial photography world and be able to have a solid portfolio of work before my graduation and I felt I have done just that. I have not only researched photographers but painters, writers and musicians as well to help me better understand how they view art and how those views could better my skilled behind a camera or computer when creating my various projects.

The most exciting things I wanted to speak about during my time with this course is the knowledge I gained from truly combining the worlds of art and commercial advertising. I have always found semiotics to be so interesting in the way humans understand and communicate symbols and signs to one another and across multiple cultures. Within commercial photography, the use of semiotics is key when producing advertising materials that speak to the masses. However, these methods could be seen as detrimental, at times, because they may force an unrealistic perspective onto a viewer. This is most commonly seen with the overuse of Photoshopped people or products found in advertising. I believe there is much more of a realistic and visceral way to reach viewers through the power of photography than simply retouching every flaw out of an image.

The word retouch means to “improve or repair by making slight additions or alterations”. I agree with this in the sense that retouching could add enhanced elements to a photograph or concept but that does not always mean the only way to “improve” an image is by erasing away everything that makes it relatable. I used the process of retouching to further the artistic concepts I came up with for each project. This ranged from color correcting images so they all matched in tone or feeling or cutting into, xeroxing or collaging layers of images on top of one another to build a stronger final image. I believe that by doing this and creating a strong portfolio of work to move forward with, I could be setting myself up for some type of success in the commercial industry because views about realism in advertising are beginning to shift. 

I loved this course and getting the opportunity to work closely with an advisor and get the one on one attention that works so well within an art context. The constructive criticism and constant feedback helped my projects to grow and looking back on them now, I realize how much my views and style have changed in only one semester. I believe this heavily correlates to the idea of change I want to incite in the industry as well as the many artists I studied in order to better understand the power of the image as a whole. I am grateful for this outlet I was able to immerse myself in without the confines of a classroom setting because I was able to really let lose and create work I wanted to see without the fear of letting my peers work persuade my own. I now have a wide range of work to show when trying to begin my journey through the industry and I have gained so much knowledge and tools to continuously create more!

Dream Client (FINAL)

For my final project I was given the task to come up with a concept I could imagine myself receiving from a client. Since I had worked so hard to try and cover multiple facets of the commercial photography industry, I thought it would be fun and interesting to combine all of the lessons I learned from past projects and culminate them into one project.

I imagined a client came in and asked me to shoot lifestyle images of an athletic clothing line. Being a dancer, I knew I would have access to multiple pieces of athletic clothing from either myself or other dancers on campus so I had the styling covered but I still needed to find the models.

I decided to go on the popular model search website, Model Mayhem and see if I could find women willing to work in exchange for portfolio images. I wanted fit looking models that had experience in either dance or pilates because I knew if they didn't, it would read in the images. I was lucky enough to find two women of different body types and skin tones to further achieve my vision for the campaign. One was a little more thin and toned while the other had much more muscle mass.

I knew I wanted to find a location in which I could shoot multiple areas and have the same feeling throughout so I instantly thought about Laguna Beach due to the multiple number of pilates studios around and the obvious beachy vibe it has. I contacted a local studio and asked if I could shoot inside in exchange for marketing material for their location and they quickly agreed.

In order to make the shoot as quick and painless as possible for the establishment owners and models, I decided to bring along two assistants with me. One would continuously hold my reflector while the other had anything and everything ready for me when I needed it like spraying the models with water to make them appear as though they were sweating. In this way, I felt like the shoot was more realistic because a photographer would usually always have a team on hand to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Here is the campaign I was able to create:

I combined all the aspects of my previous projects in order to create this campaign. In project one, I focused on people and portraiture as the subject while trying to show the same person in three different scenarios. This is similar but also differs in some ways. I used different colors and textures of clothing to change the feeling of each image but the models themselves didn't change in any other physical aspect. In project two, I focused on creating product based photography that could be used to sell the product and at first, I focused more on website based selling but upon further research and input gravitated more toward lifestyle settings of products. This is much more a common thing today and I feel the images I came up with properly shows the products in the right scenarios while throwing a bit of fashion in there as well. I also think my eye for the physical really helped me during this shoot because I was able to use my knowledge of dance to pose the models much better. The third project used concept driven photography to tell the story of a musician and I think it is similar to this project as I used the concept of physical activity to drive the styling, model search and retouching of the campaign. 

PROJECT 3

Project 3 began with the idea of creating album artwork for Beyoncé. I drew up concepts that related to her music while still trying to bring my own artistic flare into it. I wanted to create something that people wouldn't normally associate with her because she seemed to have been trying to get away from classic modes of advertising. She left her record label, created her own and began creating very avant-garde music videos to match her sound and lyrics.

I knew this would be fun to play off of so I thought of creating layered images through cutting and pasting to show the multi-faceted layers of Beyoncé, herself. She had gone through so many changes in the past few years from dropping the label and becoming a mother and it was showing in the change in her musical sound so I wanted to create something to reflect that.

On top of all of that she dropped the surprise album Lemonade as I was creating my concept so it added even more to the creative ideas I was coming up with. The album really focused on her loss of innocence through fame and how she felt unapologetic about her husband cheating on her so I knew I wanted to use those as fuel behind the creation of the images.

I began locating models and contacting them for the shoot. I wanted to keep the models fairly close to Beyoncé's skin tone and have them act as a type of "stand-in" for her to see how well it would work. My first image worked with the classic idea of what an album cover would be like and pulled inspiration from her Formation music video. She used New Orleans fashion and lyrics to express her idea of black womanhood so I wanted to expand on that.

In the second image, I wanted to create a very different feel by using illusion and reflection to communicate the multi-faceted life in which she leads. She is an a musical artist, businesswoman, mother and wife so I got the idea to make it seem as if she had multiple arms in order to juggle all of these responsibilities. The prayer pose her hands are in represent certain lyrics in her album such as "I pray to Lord, you reveal what his truth is", referencing the possible infidelity her husband took part in.

The third and final image is the most fragmented of the three and reference that loss of innocence I spoke of before. Beyoncé always speaks about the cost of fame in her songs and how she became a woman at such a young age. I took her identity out of the image by removing the top half oh her face and replaced it with a bouquet of flowers to represent the innocence she longs to have back. By only keeping the lower half of her face, I was also intending to bring more focus to her black features such as her full lips and large flattened nose. 

PROJECT TWO

For project two, I decided to put what I had learned from Joe McNally to the test by creating a marketing campaign to sell a product. I had previously been asked to shoot the product photos for a game my colleagues created here in college called Drunk Stoned or Stupid, but declined the job because I did not feel as though I had nearly enough experience in product photography to make good work. Once I began viewing these tutorials, I felt like I could at least take a jab at it but since it was for a class I told them I would do it pro bono.

I started off by meeting with the creators of the game to figure out what exactly they were looking to do. What they wanted was simple; capture product shots of the game that could be used online and in stores to the sell the product. The video I had watched on F-stoppers was a perfect segue into this as it told me exactly what tools I needed in order to create these shots.

I went to the local Home Depot and bought some reflective foam board to take place of the bounce board McNally used simply because of the cheaper price. Once the word photography is thrown into the mix, the price of items seems to skyrocket and I feel you could get the same quality materials and build them yourself to save money. As for the key light, I already had one in my own possession so I didn't need to worry about that. I got a table from my home and covered it with some of the seamless backdrop paper I already owned and placed the products on top of it.

The initial shots of the game seemed to be exactly what I thought the creators wanted, being clean and straightforward but when I showed them, the reactions weren't so great. They wanted to see more of the product in detail such as an unopened game that still had shrink-wrap as well as an opened game where you could see the layout of the cards in more detail. So, I went back and reshot with these notes and these are what I came up with:

I was really pleased with the way the final products turned out and how excited the creators were to be able to finally have product images of their work. The coolest thing about this product and its outcome was how fast the images were integrated into the selling process. The creators had the images uploaded to site of the popular gag store, Spencer's Gifts, within two days of the finished images. They later told me that their sales increased over 70% once they had quality photos of their game on the site and I was proud to see my hard work actually making a difference. Seeing my work in a real life situation like this really intrigued me and made me excited to see what other types of product work I could see myself doing in the future. 

Sherman and LaChappelle

Cindy Sherman is best known for her self portraiture work in which she creates elaborate scenes to tell a story. I believe her views on photography are applicable to commercial work because of this. She takes these small notions and brings light to them by dressing herself a specific way, putting on makeup to emulate someone or something and building backgrounds and sets to further tell her stories. These exact types of things happen in the commercial industry every day. 

Sherman may not ever be selling a specific product in her photographs but when analyzing a larger body of her work you can see where product placement could actually work really well. In her work Untitled 96 we see Sherman dressed up in the garb of a child, lying on the ground and holding the wrapper to something. Whenever I look at this image it makes me think she could be holding the used container of a Smuckers peanut butter and jelly sandwich or something to that effect simply because of the compositional choices she made with the photograph. The color and pattern of the dress makes me think of a picnic and the types of food that you would bring on one.

She has more recently been seen making work including more products from popular culture. She did an entire series of photographs where she dressed herself up in these fantastic outfits while dawning her face with MAC cosmetics. These images were seen as more of a theatrical take on the wear of makeup and do not appear natural at all. The point of the photographs were to show the power that MAC cosmetics has for more theatrical purposes such as drag, theater or other forms of performance. In this way, Sherman really does take the experience she has as a fine art photographer and the styles and views she has cultivated over the multiple years and really put them into the context of a certain product to further expand on those views.

David LaChappelle's work combines aspects of commercial and fine art to create intriguing and colorful works that is sure to influence photographers for multiple generations. His work usually includes a cacophony of colors and textures accompanied by celebrities and elaborate set designs to either sell a product or tell a story. 

Some of his most famous work was created for commercial purposes and I believe more people respond to these simply because of their straightforward nature. Even though the photographs themselves are not simple by any means, the way he makes consumers want to buy a product is intriguing. An ad that comes to mind, is one that features Amber Rose dressed in these glorious gowns made to emulate the new “flavors” of Sminoff Vodka. All she is doing is standing there holding glasses of each specific flavor but the makeup and set design along with the composition and lighting make her appear as she is a “tall drink of vodka” and the clarity sells to consumers. 

Some criticize the work of LaChappelle for furthering the stereotype of women as objects and using an immense amount of retouching in his work but he really seems to enjoy using these aspects to his advantage when creating advertisements. He also like to use the aspect of spectacle as a tool to draw in the attention of viewers and play to his own unique style. His work may be over the top, oversexed and oversaturated but this distinct style he has created will definitely be taught and analyzed as a way to sell products in the foreseeable future. 

Learning from Video

I watched two 1 hour tutorials on F-stoppers about composition and lighting. Here is what I gathered from watching:

When viewing another person set up a product shoot, you can really notice all of the equipment it takes to make one little thing look its best. One of the tutorials I watched took place outside and featured Joe McNally with a model holding a product. The point of the video was to show how combining natural and artificial light can create a nice effect while still "shedding light" on the most important part of the image, the product.

He was shooting into the sun to create the natural flare effect into the camera and had to somehow light the front of the model and product so he brought in one reflector and a main key light to create the light he needed. This type of lighting setup aims to make the model or subject look at crisp as possible while still having the natural feeling of the sun setting in the background. The photographer has to pay attention to the light meter in the camera as they are setting it to get the ambient light of the sun and not completely light the subject (the lights and reflectors do that).

In this tutorial, he also focused a lot on the composition of the photograph. He completely cropped out the model's face and only showed the hand holding the product. I believe this put more emphasis on the product rather than the person and would give consumers the ability to place themselves within the role of person. By taking away the complete identity of the model, McNally allows for viewers to understand the context in which the product should be used and lights it to create a calming effect that coincided with the colors of the product.


The second tutorial I watched had to do with lighting a product in the studio. This one was much different from the first because it dealt with only using artificial light and it took out the inclusion of humans in order to sell the product. McNally stated that this type of photography is mostly used when adding images to sites to sell because it shows the products in harsh light and doesn't allow room for the imagination, which is the point. This is used to simply show the product exactly how it should look when you receive it, given consumers peace of mind when purchasing.

He used a table with white paper overtop, bounce boards and strobes to achieve the look he was going for. The table acted as a simple backdrop for the products while the bounce board down in front of the product was used to shift light from the key back into the product. By doing this type of lighting setup, you can really achieve crisp and clear images because it allows you to bring up the shutter speed on the camera. The faster the shutter, the more sharp the images look and that is exactly what you're going for in product photography. Even though these inanimate object wouldn't shift or move like a person would, a high shutter is always favored.

The composition of these images were much more simple as the shots were only composed to show the detail of the product. His camera stayed on a tripod the entire time and the shifting of composition came from moving the products themselves around on the table. This showed all of the angles of the products while showing details as well.


The second tutorial will come in handy for my next project where I will be shooting a game product for a colleague so I can't wait to put what I learned here into action.

Answers from F-Stoppers

While reading multiple articles on F-Stoppers.com I came across many interesting opinions on what commercial photography really is. There are those who believe it to be as simple as shooting images for commercial use and others who use it to tell compelling visual stories in order to sell products.

I always believed it to be the latter. The broad umbrella of commercial work extends past simple images and reaches into a realm of storytelling in order to place people and products in a real life setting in which consumers could possibly place themselves within.

In one of the articles, the author speaks about the power that photography has in the world of advertising because of its wide range of applications. Commercials are a great way to reach an audience about a product but they are very expensive to make and can only be accessed on certain platforms. Images can be seen almost anywhere which makes the creation of them much more applicable. Billboards, signs and posters can be seen really anywhere you go and photography is obviously the main sources of these images.

This is why the world of commercial photography is so lucrative. The need for educated and talented photographers is astounding because there is always the opportunity for continuous work. With the constant advances in technology, more and more people are getting access to cameras and applications such as Photoshop. However, commercial works stays one of the leading areas in photography where true professionals are the most hired due to experience in either marketing or advertising and the true eye they have for it.

One of the biggest things that sets the amateurs apart from professionals in the understanding of the equipment and the way photographers compose their shots. You can tell when someone has years of experience under their belts due to the way they know how to light and compose a shot. They know exactly how to light the subject, capture the main aspects of the product and make sure it looks the best in its end product.

I will be watching some lighting and composition tutorials by Joe McNally to see what he says about these ideas.