Wednesday 24 February 2010

Masculine Identity

The distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity. Everyone seems to be judged on their appearance, whether it's a sense of arrogance, to kindness in someones personality. Or an offensive stare to a cheeky wink to attract attention. We tend to hide emotions within us to prevent our weak points from being identified, in these images I've aimed to release these emotions we have inside of us that sometimes shouldn't be hidden as everyone is different and why shouldnt we be proud to be who we are.



Image title - Confidence


In this image I wanted to produce this powerful glare into the camera to create this strong confidence to flood into the frame. His hands locked together on his head accentuate this force of stress pushing his identity away from others, but with this deep trancing stare he wants to reveal his personality.

To create this image I used a high key set studio with a digital SLR camera and a fairly wide sigma lens. I wanted to make this a close up shot so we can have a dramatic look on the eyes. To increase a higher level of contrast around the eyes I have used photoshop to locate most contrast around the eyes. Even though the whole subject has a deep depth of field, I've soften the subjects body apart from the face with the use of post production.




Image title - Torso

For this image I became inspired by the strong heroic statues of masculine greeks. To reveal this I set the main focus of the frame to attract attention to the muscular torso. However I've used the subjects head position to emphasise this great movement of anxiety in the image. I wanted to stress the fact his head is looking down to dramatise his lonely personality, but his masculine body provides him with strength to fight through his weaknesses.

Making this image I used a low key set studio and a digital SLR camera. To add contrast to the subjects hair and abdominals I worked with levels, burning, dodging and lowering the saturation. Decreasing the saturation helped to provide the image with a more natural look and to express this loneliness in the subject. To have a higher level of light on the left side of the model I used a large soft box high camera left to diffuse the light across the body.

Feminine Identity

Image title - Masked
A sexual desire is something to be kept perhaps in the bedroom, but some people say that love makes the world go round and if so whats the correct answer? In the making of this image I wanted to create full attention on the unzipping of the corset to fill the photo with power to reveal this sexual need in this identity. However the face creates a mysterious look and I've used this to just show an uncertainty in her idenitity but the eye becomes dominent against the black on the face and prevails to show confidence in herself.
To make this image I used a high key set studio with a digital SLR camera. To get this mask effect on the face I used face paints to give its dramatic contrasty look. I also used constrast on the mask and corset using photoshop to force strength into these areas. To make this look I wanted to give innocence to the subject with a bit of a tilt on the head with the glare into the camera to provide desire, with the corset reveal a sexual sense. To light the subject I used a large softbox slighty high camera left, this allowed the hand to be smoothly highlighted along with the corset and face.
Image title - Revealed
I really enjoyed working on this image as it has a great form of beauty involved with it looking natural with an interesting contrast on the hair. In this image I wanted to use this idea of the hair being pulled back to reveal her personality/identity. The face not being completely visible to the camera allows the subject to provide the image with this need to expose the whole identity, but becomes more of a forbidden feel. This secrecy shows a great example in what I'm trying to present in how we hide our emotions sometimes and we feel forced to hide what our real identity is.
To make this image I used a low key set studio with a digital SLR camera. The hair became a great use of inspiration to my shoot and once I had the shot I knew I would use it, as it reveals powerfully the message I am trying to give. I worked on photoshop to provide a soft look on the back and to provide contrast on the hair, hand and the face. The soft lights high camera right used in the studio helped to give a subtle effect on the subject and this works greatly with the subtle pose.