#hnd2a

For my project, I'm doing a documentary series based on my relationship in order to desexualise lesbian relationships and present them as natural and normal. 

Portrayals of lesbians in the media suggests that society at large has been simultaneously intrigued and threatened by woman who challenge feminine gender roles, and fascinated and appalled by same sex female relationships.

For this project I took major inspiration from Nan Goldin, who's work explores LGBT lives in the 80s. Goldin once said that her work “gave permission” for people to “show their lives as valuable and valid as everyone else”, which is something I am going to present. Another artist who I am inspired by is James Pfaff who's natural presentation of his project “Alex & Me”, gave me the confidence to present my work in a natural way in order to represent my flow-of-conscious approach to my project.

These are the five images I will be choosing my final 3 from for my Italian Vogue story. After being so worried about the fashion briefs we were given for folio two, I feel I have created something quite interesting and I think these images work well for the brief. This shoot definitely helped my confidence not only in relation to fashion photography but with working with others. I now feel ready (to an extent) to work with a full team and I'm actually quite excited about the prospect of more fashion shoots. Something I thought I’d never enjoy. 

For the shoot I borrowed a 6D and a 24-70mm lens from college. I also took my Nikon d330 with a 40mm macro lens so I could work between the two. This proved useful as I used my Nikon for the close up of the models face and the lens being a macro helped me to ensure a crisp close up. 

In post I converted to black and white and fine tuned the colour tones in each image individually. There was quite a lot to tidy up on the models shirt and glasses. I used the clone stamp tool and I feel I have manipulated the images in a way that goes unnoticed mostly (?) unnoticed. I bumped up the clarity and slightly dehazed as well. 

The location is a go to place for my photography and I feel it works perfectly with the theme of the shoot. 

Colour Grading.

An interesting video about colour grading using luminosity masks.

So I followed the step by step guide to make this, it was good to learn some new photoshop skills.