I frequently use magazine themes as a source of inspiration. When I can shoot anything I want, sometimes I find it hard to make decisions because I have so many ideas whirling around in my head. When I have a concrete direction to move it opens up creative possibilities.
The theme for this issue of Papercut Magazine was "Tomorrowland", and to me I interpreted that as a futuristic editorial. But what does futuristic mean to me? I could take this any direction. I could use futuristic hair, makeup, wardrobe, props, etc. What is so wonderful about fashion editorials (particularly for Papercut Magazine) is that you can take your ideas and inspiration ANY direction you want. I could do a beauty editorial perhaps where she was wearing only futuristic eyewear. I could do a fashion editorial composite where she looked like she was in outer space. I could take 'Tomorrowland' in endless directions.
After studying the model and clothing I had for the shoot, I decided I wanted to make the model slightly cyborg like. In photoshop I completely smoothed out her skin using Imagenomic Portraiture (FB me if you want a discount code) and then pulled the reds and yellows out of her skin. This leaves her have creamy, pale skin, and looking slightly robotic. To push this concept even further, I made sure that all the poses in the shoot contributed to this same feel. She needed to appear cold, ridged and robotic. Her eyes needed to stare off into space or straight through the camera, I was not aiming to have an audience-model connection through my lens. To catch the behind the scenes process and a bit more about my lighting and experience, check this behind the scenes video below:
Ania for Papercut Magazine Photographed by Lindsay Adler from Lindsay Adler on Vimeo.
If the link above doesn't show for the behind the scenes video, check out Ania in Papercut Magazine's "Pixelate" by Lindsay Adler here!!
So far I have decided upon dark and structural clothing (structural says 'future' to me), porcelain skin, and robotic poses. The next elements were hair and makeup. Working with my incredible team, I requested avant garde makeup (meaning something feeling a bit surreal and not 'glam' makeup) and also structural hair. I love my creative team, and think together we selected some looks that were very effective to the feel of the shoot. Finally was the lighting. I decided to use a purple/pink gel to help enhance the mood of the shoot. In many successful cyborg photos/illustrations I have seen, there is often a color light source in the scene. The lighting setup was as follows: A 22in white Broncolor Beauty Dish to the right, two Broncolor light bars to the back 45 degree angle of the model on either side (to give separation from the black background), and a purple/pink gelled light to the front left. Because of how I position the light, wherever there was a shadow cast by the beauty dish, the shadow would pick up the hues of the gel. I hadn't really understood how I could use that fact to my advantage until this editorial, and will be playing with gels for that effect more in the future. Let me share these images with you now (as they ran in Papercut Magazine), and if you read to the end I will discuss the retouching and creative effects in Photoshop in more detail!
The day I shot this editorial I did two back to back, but it was a long and successful day. After looking at my images on my monitor at home, I began my post processing. I had known from the start how I would smooth out the skin tones (as discussed above). What I didn't know, however, was what additional effects I would add. As I've said so many times before, I do not treat Photoshop as a cop-out, but instead the next realm of photographic creativity. After looking at the images I had taken, I remembered a Terry Richardson shot I had seen. The shot had been made to look as if shot through a pixelated surveillance camera. I thought it gave an intriguing voyeuristic and futuristic (almost "Big Brother") feel to it. To me this pixelation represents the future in the digitized age.
I didn't like the effect exactly as in, but it inspired me to try something different. As photographers we never want pixelated images. Or do we? I decided to ahead and break a major rule, and pixelate the image, on purpose in Photoshop! The first thing I did is make small selections of the images (like columns of a selection) and then shifted them around using the move tool. This process broke up the image and made it disjointed. The next thing I did was go to Filter > Pixelate > Mosaic... I started playing with different settings and seeing which one fit my vision.
So how did I learn about this pixelation and distortion effect? I didn't! I just messed around in Photoshop. Many great effect and techniques I have learned have arisen from a creative need. Sometimes they arise from mistakes! In the end each and every image had three versions: disjointed, pixelation with large blocks, small pixelation. I couldn't decide which I liked best, and in the end the magazine decided to run them side-by-side to add additional impact and graphic effect.
There was also another thought that crossed my mind. If there were truly cyborgs out there, truly, they would be are vision of perfection. We could craft them to our ever desire and interpretation of beauty. I thought that fracturing the image (as I did in the first sample) would also be a statement on the fact that perfection cannot be achieved and coexist with reality.
I love when I can try something new that I have never experimented before, and this shoot allowed me to do so in several realms. Hope you enjoyed!
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