Lighting in Fashion Photography/Advertising

Lighting in Fashion Photography

  Lighting in Fashion Photography and Advertising is very important as it has to make the model stand out as well as the product which is being advertising. This means the detail on the image has to be very eye catching, which is done by the lighting in the Photo-shoot. The lights used will mainly be used to separate the model from the background, in order to make her stand out which is the most important part of Fashion Photography, as I said earlier. Also, a low aperture will create a blurred background and will make the picture just look better in general. This could also create Bokeh, which will make the background look more appealing to the audience, this is particularly used in Fashion Street Photography, to emphasize the movement in the background. 

  As, above you can see the reason why Bokeh is used in Fashion Photography as it creates a 'stunning digital photograph'. It focuses the attention on to the model by creating an even background that does not capture much attention from the human eye. By decreasing this background sharpness, the image has a nice texture and look to it, and does no look edgy. This would work well in a photo-shoot, if the background was very full and had lots of detail as it would put the attention on the model, while also having a nice textured background that would not ruin the image. The Bokeh is simply just the lights in the background of the image which have been blurred by the decrease of the aperture. 

  This Levi advertising is very interesting, as it advertises for unisex and so cleverly it has been edited by the women standing there in jeans by Levi and then a man's hands have been Photoshopped into her back pockets. In which, it meets the stereotypical view of women being the image for men as she stands with no top on and her bum centered in the image. However, the most important part of this image is in fact the lighting, the strong highlighting around the female body stands out to the human eye making the advert almost jump out at the audience. This type of lighting gives the effect as if she is holy, like the light from God, which gives her power and control. Furthermore, if you read into this you can see that the lighting has been put there to make the target audience believe that if they wear these unisex jeans by Levi, then they will have power and control. Also, the way in which the lighting is especially highlighted on the bum of the lady, could express how the jeans will make you look good and emphasize certain aspects of the body, even for men. 

  Furthermore, another Levi advertisement uses extreme lighting techniques to highlight the physic of the model as it also highlights the sky and the city behind him. These lighting techniques have been used to make the advertisement stand out as a whole, not just to make the model or the selling point stand out. This is made obvious if you read into the text on the advertisement which uses the works 'Button fly jeans', and from this I realized the connotations of how the company are trying to say these jeans will make you fly, rather than just telling us the denotation of the fly on the jeans is buttons not a usual zip. Maybe it is not ought to be thought of as acting flying(like the model is almost doing in the image), but yet to feel as if they are and to get that feeling of 'being on to of the world'. However, these connotations all link to the fact of how the city and the sky(maybe the water too) have been highlighted for the image to be seen as a whole.

Vogue Advertising

Vogue Advertising 

 When looking at this magazine front cover the first thing that is noticed is the women and her chest as they are in the center of the magazine cover, yet the images are fitted around the women to make her 'the center of attention'. It is almost as if this is done for the extreme purpose of making her chest stand out, as the word 'wardrobe' ends right on the edge of her chest. Furthermore, typography such as 'slick' and 'glamour' are used around the model as these are used to describe her. As her hair blows up, her arms both go up this slick style seems to be an extreme vertical view. The texture on the magazine cover, but also strongly across the image has a very 'slick' and smooth look to it, as the model looks quite modest and nature, with no bright makeup or clothing. Yet this is juxtaposed with the idea of the revealing top, as she fits with the stereotype of Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory. Despite the fact of Vogue being a women's magazine, the image does highly fit the male gaze theory and therefore will attract men to look at the cover, but maybe not buy the magazine. The feeling given off from the image, is a very summer feel with the revealing clothes and the orange typography. However, from other magazine it is easy to see that Vogue did have seasonal magazine, which has now become mainstream to make sure that the product will sell well to the target audience. As the magazine has moved towards the idea of celebrity news, and news across the world and not a fashion magazine like used to be. This is because the audience of Vogue are now more aware of celebrities, due to the media being more easier to conceive, bringing in more audience which is more of a reason to have them in their magazine. However, this tone may not be as noticeable in this particular magazine cover, yet will become clearly in further adverts and covers.  

Here is a big comparison to the above image, as here we have Naomi Watts in lots of colour and 'full in Bloom'. This is also a seasonal cover, as it is obviously talking about the bloom of spring when all the flowers begin to come out and the trees become full of blossom. This is signified in the background of the cover, as there is lots of different colours of flowers which is a big chance to a usual Vogue magazine in this time as it has become a 'norm' to have a plain white background, which ensures the model/s and writing of the cover stands out more than the background. Yet, this is a opposite as I feel the background stands out just as much as the green which Watts wears. Furthermore, this cover is obviously newer because as Vogue has become more popular around the world since the end of the 1980's, the typography of the title now goes underneath the model, showing how it does not need to show all its title to be recognized.This links to how the times have also changed, as vogue magazine have changed their camera angles and shots as they have to fit in with  the modern time to attract their audience. They have done this by giving a more full body shot of the model on the cover, to give emphasis of the fashion/nudity aspect in the image. This is because many more people have become comfortable about talking about sex and pornography has become much more popular towards the middle of the 1990's, causing people wanting to aspire to have these 'perfect bodies' which now have to be shown on the covers of modern and popular magazines, such a Vogue. Yet, they used to use camera shot such as medium close ups of face/shoulders/breasts as that was the 'norm' in them times. 

I chose this cover as my next analysis as I thought it showed the comparisons of the change in Vogue over the years. As this cover is from the Vogue of the 1980's, the title of the magazine is over the top of the model which shows us that Vogue was not extremely popular at this particular time and still needed its full title showing for people to recognized the magazine. Also, the camera shot used here is a medium close up of the model, as the audience can only see to just above her chest. Also, the model is very much fitting the frame and fills it to make her stand out again the blue background as her outfit is different shades etc. This shows the extreme change in time, in just 30 years as people become more open about talking about sex, their own sex life's and that of others(e.g. pornography). Pornography becoming a 'social norm' has changed the times into making all models into this 'perfect women' that has to be slim and glamorous, yet her the model is very natural in what she is doing. Another change we can see from the above images, to this is the fashion change. In the above images, their are lots of colours put all together to look good, yet here the model is all in blue. The model wears a blue top, blue swimming cap, leans on a blue towel, has a blue telephone next to her ear, against a blue background and even has blue eyes! This shows how colour has become more expressed and mixed together, and people do not colour combine now. Another magazine change, is the typography has been much more 'squeezed together' in the current Vogue, compared to this title where the typography is very spread out and bold. Again this is to make the title stand out to the audience, as the magazine is not all that popular as the time this was made.

Finally, this image from the 2000's shows extreme nudity of a singer, Robbie Williams, and 'The New Sexy Chic'. These two models are both very iconic, as Robbie is iconic to the British Vogue being born here. Yet, it is typical for him to be with a model who is described as 'The New Sexy Chic' as singers and stars are known for their appearance with good looking women, who may not always be in the media eye. However, this image is almost hinting at the fact that the fact she is with Robbie will make her famous and in 'the media eye'. Furthermore, the way she wears Union Jack underwear makes her iconic to the 'British Vogue' and also fit in with the white background and the red writing of Vogue, as it all fits in with the colour of the flag. Again, the white background making the models stands out more, as well as the typography used around the image. Another aspect which could show how Robbie is a famous celebrity could be of the fact that he fills the frame at his side of the image, yet the women model does not, showing how Robbie would probably hold much more power. The target audience of Vogue did used to be for older women, maybe around the age of 35-55. However, I cannot see that age range reading the magazine above, just simply because of the nudity of the image and after the introduction of Teen vogue, it would be more likely that 25-45 year olds would read this magazine now because of the change in society and times, and the magazine has become much more modern.

Opinions on airbrushing

Airbrushing is most commonly used in the media industry, to create what could be known as a 'perfect image'. Airbrushing is used for a variety of things, such as, removing spots of models, to just simply smoothing out the skin or even enlarging muscles.

However, these images do not reflect on reality and are forcing the younger generation to want to look this way and that is why there is much debate over the fact of airbrushing.

 

Here is an image which I found off the internet, of a girl who has had a normal photograph taken which has then been airbrushed, to create a lighter smoother looking skin, whiter teeth, blonder hair and lighter inside of the eyes compared to the contrast of the darkened eyeshadow around her eyes. However, airbrushing is also used to emphasize curves and differ skin tones. 

    For example, this image of Kim Kardashian  has been airbrushed to emphasize her curves. As on the first image, we are able to see her tummy sticking out about which looks totally natural. However in the second image we can see this 'lump' has been toned down as well as her legs and boobs to put her body into proportion of how the magazine/company want it. Also, another aspect of this image which is really obvious is the airbrushing of her skin tone, her skin is a term what may be described as 'Olive', yet in the second image she has been airbrushed to make her skin lighter, and basically more white. According to some scientist, who look into the measures of airbrushing, have expressed that this airbrushing of the skin tone is blatantly  for the audience. As in Britain, the majority of the target audience are white and supposedly this will make us more intrigued to buy the magazine, or what the advert is advertising. However, this is very wrong and could be seen as racism against Black people. 

Yet, this 'wrongness' of airbrushing is continued highly as a nurse consultant at Newbridge House, Rachel Matthews, talks about airbrushing as she is a specialist in eating disorder clinic in Sutton Coldfield. Matthews said: "We find that although younger girls are exposed to many different types of media and images, these younger girls are not usually able to tell the difference between normal photographs and air-brushed images. This means that over time, young women are increasingly seeing and comparing themselves with images which are neither realistic nor authentic."

Airbrushing

In my first lesson of photojournalism, I learnt how to airbrush on Photo shop. Generally in advertising, airbrushing is just to get rid of any spots or wrinkles that might be on the model, however airbrushing may be used in other photography on objects etc.

I was first demonstrated how to airbrush by my tutor and then had a go myself. 

• I opened up my image of Bruce Willis into Photo shop
• I then duplicated the layer of the picture, which I then added a surface blur to in order to soften to the image overall
• After adding this surface blur, I then completed a layer mask with the use of completely black brush which I used to paint over the areas I wanted to keep the detail of. These areas where such things as the eyes, and the hair etc.
• I then zoomed into the area around his left eye, and removed the wrinkles by using the clone stamp with a very small brush. I cloned the area of skin which looked the best, to create a nice skin tone around the eye 
• Next, I created a new layer of the image and took the brush tool. At this point, I knocked down the opacity and flow to 40%, then I held alt to sample parts of the skin tone colour and brushed the face with this same colour to even the skin tones out.
• After, I then used the blur brush to create a smooth skin tone around the eye so that the image would look less fake, as using the clone stamp made the area look flat and out of shape. 
• I then decided to make the teeth and eyes of Willis whiter, in order to make them stand out even more from the skin. I did this by creating a new layer of the image, of which allowed me to use a bright white in order to colour over the teeth and the eyes. By creating the new layer this allowed me to reduce the opacity of the white paint brush tool and so the teeth would not look that fake in comparison to the rest of the picture. 
• After finishing my airbrushing, I decided to apply higher contrast and some highlights into the image, to give the model a more tanned skin tone as in the original image he looked rather pale.
• I then saved my image as a JPEG on Photo shop, and inserted into my blog. The image is below, also with the original image before any editing took place.