The images don't look amazing on this blog as I had too screen shot because I couldn't upload the original file as I created it in InDesign.
At first, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to do film or photography, but either way my plan was essentially the same. I'd document makeup artists at work and ask them a few questions. I decided to go with photography and although I do love the way it turned out, it is very different to how I originally planned. The feel I was going for was quite a plain, straight forward representation of my photographs and my interviews. I think it was the research that ultimately changed the outcome of my project.
I started my research by looking at more traditional photo documentaries, where the emphasis is on the photograph with the text coming after. The text in these wasn't necessarily any less important than the photos, but visually it wasn't the main focus. It was when I started looking for layout ideas that my project really started to change. I used magazines like i-D, Aesthetica and Vogue. My biggest influence was i-D. What I really liked about the layouts in i-D was how the text was important to give the photos context, but showed in a way that wasn't a text based article but more of a caption. This really inspired me to go from a generic photo documentary layout to a more sleek and stylish magazine- type layout.
I felt quite at ease taking the photos. I used to do the makeup course so I emailed my old tutor and asked if she'd mind me taking some photos and interviewing her students - obviously she was delighted. Makeup studios generally have a lot of light anyway, so there wasn't too much of a problem there. The sound recording was fine because I was only using it to transcribe so it didn't have to be perfect but it was a good way to practise and learn more about sound recording.
Editing has been such a nightmare, just because I've never really used any editing software. I started off using photoshop to edit the images individually- adjusting the lighting slightly and making them black and white. This was mostly trial and error; I'd look through all the options and try one, seeing what some of them did and how well I liked the effects. For the most part I only adjusted the curves and made them black and white. After this, I started putting the pages together on photoshop but after a chat with my tutor, I found out it would be a lot easier to do on InDesign. It was a bit of a pain restarting it all and overall I didn't find it too much easier than photoshop anyway. It was easy enough, though, after being shown how to use it.
Overall, I'm pleased with the outcome of this project. Looking at it now, I've realised on the first page that the word 'Focus' is too high and touches the image and that the lower photo on the 4th page looks a little odd as it's smaller than the rest from where I'd cropped it. These problems, however could be very easily fixed so I'm not too worried. Some of the text is a little hard to read where it goes over a white patch. I did try to put a layer behind the text but I really didn't like the look of it. If I were to be really picky and do this again, I'd find a way to maybe darken the background (the image) in certain areas so the image isn't obscured too much. I also think that, after seeing it printed out, I could get away with making the text a little bit smaller so even less of the photos are covered. I think was I really need to focus on is attention to detail, but I guess that after hours trying to learn a new software and re-edit my whole project my mind just went to mush!