My Jonathan Saunders Catwalk Look

This is my final Jonathan Saunders cat walk look for his spring/summer Neo-Oriental collection. I love how I have incorporated 2016 spring/summer trends, along with traditional oriental aspects to create this very on trend catwalk look.

Photography
I wanted the image to look like a photographer at the catwalk show had taken it, so I wanted the model to look like she is walking past him. I wanted the model to look like she was moving so I asked my assistant to fan a bit of cardboard in her face gently to make it look like the natural breeze was pushing her hair back slightly. I tried to take the photo when she was actually walking; however I soon found that I couldn't keep the model in focus and I found that the image would come out at different exposures because she wasn't in exactly the same place every time. I used a light meter to guide me on what aperture to use and what power to put the light on; however I made them slightly over exposed to give the bright look I wanted. I originally tried using a beauty dish as the light source and I positioned it above the model on an angle down to make it look like they were the lights from the ceiling; however the light wasn't harsh enough and didn't give the dark shadows that I wanted. I therefore decided to use a spot light over my light to give a very harsh and direct light onto my model and I really liked how it turned out! I wouldn't usually want such harsh lighting in my beauty images; however I really like how this lighting actually makes it look like a catwalk image. I wanted the focus of the image to be the makeup and hair, but I still wanted to include some of the clothing into the image to show how the makeup and hair would look like with the collection.

Beauty dish light

Spot light (chosen lighting)

I didn't want the background to just be all white or all black because I don't think it would look like a catwalk image because it would make it obvious that it was shot in a studio. I therefore decided to use a white back drop and then position two black polyboards next to each other with a small gap in between them to make it look like either sides of a runway. I really like how this turned out when using a beauty dish; however the background looked too dark for it to be noticeable when using the spot light. I found that the background looked very dark when using the spot light so I made sure that the parts of the background with the spot light light on was in the frame to brighten up the image and to make it look like there was something going on in the background.

Makeup
I am really happy with how the makeup turned out; however some of my model's imperfections were made more obvious when using the very harsh lighting so I will need to look at that when editing my images. I like that I only used cream products on the face because it gives a very dewy and fresh look and the skin looks very natural because there is no visible powder; this follows the predicted trend of dewy skin for 2016 spring/summer. I like that I didn't contour the face as I think it would have made the face look too gaunt and not traditionally oriental looking. I decided not to put any product into the eye brows because they were already full looking and I didn't want them to be a dominant feature in the look. I also really like how natural the eye brows look with all the visible brow hairs. I only added a few individual eye lash clumps because I didn't want the lashes to look full, I just wanted them to look very long and wispy. I like how sparse the eye lashes look because they look slightly avant-garde, especially with the long lashes on the lower lash line, which I think makes the look more high fashion and on trend as dramatic eyelashes are a predicted 2016 spring/summer trend. I am really happy with the clean shape of the oriental shaped lips because they look very defined. You can see where the fake eye lashes are stuck onto the natural lash line; however I think this gives the look a more relaxed and fun feel and it adds to the avant-garde look. I used a matte red lip as it is a 2016 spring/summer trend and I think it is traditionally what Chinese women would wear. I like that they are shaped in a tulip shape because it reflects the floral patterns in some of Saunders' collection and it will be recognised as oriental.

Hair
I really like how glossy the hair came out! I used a hair oil heavily on the top section to smooth down the hair and then I combed it through the loose section to give a shiny finish to the hair. I really like that I straightened the model's hair because it made it look more glossy and neater. I like that the hair was pulled all off the face because it gave a more fresh and clean look and it put all the attention on the glowing makeup. I am happy that I incorporated the wet-look 2016 spring/summer trend into my look by adding the oil to the top half of the hair; however I love how the rest of the hair flows to easily and looks like silk because it reflects the beautiful floaty materials used in Jonathan Saunders' collection.

Improvements:

-I noticed that the skin on my model's face and neck did not have the same texture which I think makes the image look unprofessional and unfinished. The face looks very dewy but the the neck looks more matte, which is not the look I was going for. I made sure to blend the foundation all down the neck to make sure it was the same colour as the face, however I forgot to apply the highlighter to her neck, giving the face and neck a different texture. I will re-shoot the image and this time I will make sure that I used the same products on the face and neck. 

-Another thing I wanted to add to this look was a highlight on the model's brow bone as I don't think the matte brow bone compliments the dewy look. 

-I did not feel like the image reflected Jonathan Saunder's very bright catwalk show, so I want to make the background brighter and add more lights to reflect the sunny location of the catwalk.