Beauty Ad Evaluation

I have chosen to advertise this beauty advertisement for Moschino's perfume Fresh. I found this picture whilst flicking through Elle Italia. I found  this really interesting because they have used colour to attract the readers attention, the use of complimentary colours orange and blue really make them stand out as they contrast each other, this is because they are directly opposite on the colour wheel. The use of these colours together makes them more vibrant and the tones pop, so this draws the eye and makes the advert look more attractive. This colour scheme is also mirrored in the product, so the whole ad has strong cohesion.
I feel the eyes follow a route through the centre of the ad, starting from the face down the neck, round the arm to the hand where the product is placed. I think this is a simple but effective way to get the customer to look at the product.
I don't so much believe that this ad so much fits with a cultural trend, but more that it enforces a cultural stereotype which is one of the reasons that I picked this advertisement. The makeup in the picture to me slightly resembles 1950's makeup, during this time there was a large influence of the 'happy housewife' it became glamourized for women to stop at  home and do the cleaning/cooking for their husband, she was seen as being made up perfectly for the whole day and doted hand and foot on her husband. This image was often depicted in advertisements that targeted women which showed them cleaning, cooking or in the kitchen. I see a relevance to this in the advert as the perfume is shaped as a cleaning bottle and she also looks like she is holding a cloth in one hand to wash the window. So I do believe this advertisement is based around the stereotype of women being housewives and that it is a modern take on a vintage image, it could in some lights be seen as gender biased and sexist. However the use of having cleaning products could be a play on words, fresh and clean hence why the bottle is shaped like a cleaning product and that she is cleaning. I believe the way they have put this advert together is very clever as the theme runs through all aspects of the image, even keeping a clean colour scheme (blue, orange, white, black) so the image doesn't look messy or cluttered from excess colour.

Feedback Evaluation

A very detailed and well presented research blog, really pleased to see your lighting diagrams, these would've definitely benefited with their corresponding photographs immediately next to them for reference, this is something you can add for the future. Photographs are well exposed and really sharp, there's a few little details that you can improve on - e.g the middle colour image has a big hair going down the face, that's a really quick fix on set, but much longer in post production. I really love the central monochromatic image, lovely tones, really strong composition and very nice lighting it suits the subject really well. It's a shame the image to the left is so different, posing/composition is really strong, but the lighting being so dark, It doesn't flatter as well as it could. I really like your approach to this brief and I wish to see you continue this into your next one.

I was extremely unhappy with my feedback from the prior unit, I have worked out my mark to be in the B section, as two aspects of my work met the A3 - A4 box and the other hit the B1 - B3 box. The aspects where I failed to meet a first was in cognitive skills and practical and professional skills. However after reading the comments I do understand why I have been marked down. When doing my project I focused on an editorial spread called (Place name here) so I deliberately made one of my photos very dark as I thought this would mirror my research, so I shot my low key shots with 2 different set ups, I can see how this didn't fit the brief as we were only asked to show one lighting set up, and the photo does just look really dark and underexposed and does not fit in with the 2 other images so I can understand why my work has been marked as unfamiliar and unpredictable. Another aspect I think I failed on is Photoshop, I should have researched Photoshop more actively to give myself a better understanding of it instead of expecting the skills to be given to me. However I am extremely happy that they liked my approach to the brief as I wanted to make it a little bit different, and I am also really proud of my posing/ composition as I myself do believe it is very strong.

What I need to work on

• Take time looking at images to see if there is anything I can correct on set, for example if I had moved the hair on the face on set the image would have looked a lot better, I need to slow down look and think about my images.
• I need to really understand the brief, and make sure that the changes that I am making will still fit the brief.
• I need to make sure that I am shooting on the right aperture, or at least an aperture that will be flattering for the model and evaluate changes if I do any.
• Practice, practice, practice!! I think my work would benefit A LOT from just taking the time to practice shooting, posing and camera set ups.

Introduction

For the second unit of digital image production we will be looking at shooting beauty advertisements. During the course of this unit we will be drawing on some of the skills that we learnt in the initial unit but refining them and learning some new shooting techniques. During this unit we will be given a key word to explore to be the concept of our shoot, then we will be picking a makeup brand to create this shoot for.
I am really looking forward to this unit, I like the creative freedom that we have been given for the brief as for one makeup we can go all out, but then go back and refine it to make it match the ethos of the makeup brand. I think this unit will be a very useful insight into how things will work in industry as the theme of a shoot will be determined by the creative director not the makeup artist.
I plan to use my feedback from the previous unit to better my skills as I will detail in the next post.