Orme's empowered approach to photographing the world of fashion is most definitely something to be admired. She sees the moving world around her and has a free approach which enables her to bring out the life of her subject no matter what the situation. She keeps up with trends, stays true to herself and is savvy in her approach to business.
For this response I wanted to look at two things:
1) To create a light tone at a shoot - using movement and laughter
2) To 'grade' the images in lightroom - something Orme discussed several times in her guest lecture
Research
Laughter and Movement are often used in photographic fashion campaigns - particularly those aimed at young women. I personally prefer this style instead of image after image of female models being far too cool for school. At least these women seem like they are having fun.
Glassons Imagery:
Young Women Fashion Store - NZ based
Richard Avedon Fashion:
While Orme didn't mention Avedon as someone who has influenced her, it's easy to see that Avedon's transformative use of movement in fashion photography would have had some part to play at some point. He brought to life to fashion photography before everyone else. Orme's work has more of a down to earth quality, seen her choice of models, locations and poses.
Sara Orme - Location Fashion Photography
Orme's fashion style feels very real in comparison to the recent Glassons campaign. Her work captures a youthful and playful spirit that is key to her style. There's something about her work that is slightly gritty even, perhaps this is the locations and her seemingly more limited approach to retouching (unless it's absolutely needed)
Experimentation: The Shoot
Model: For my photographic response I decided to use my friend Ema who I've used before as a model. We get along really well and I figured together we would be able to generate the energy needed to create the images.
Location: Locations in fashion shoots seem to either be country/city specific or ambiguous. Generally they lean on the more ambiguous side, with only small details giving away the place in which the images were taken. I opted to pick a location which reflected the style of playful and light energy - the school yard. But the school could be anywhere.
Energy: For the shoot Ema and I wandered around the empty school finding spots to play or lie around in. Thankfully it was a sunny day (one of the few) and the school had loads to offer in terms of sun spots and nostalgia.
Concept: Ema is clearly an adult and not in a school uniform so her very presence in the location is almost a piss-take - she's having light-hearted fun. The collection of images tell you where she is and show her almost reminiscing. Even the under the tree shot harks back to 'trying' to be cool rather than actually being cool. Obviously this is also due to Ema not being a model and me not being that cool but you get the point.
Before Images:
Image 1
Image 3
Image 4
Lightroom
Orme mentioned grading images in Lightroom. I've had Lightroom on my computer since I bought the Creative Suite with Photoshop earlier in the year but never even opened it. I figured this was a good time to have a play.
After using Camera Raw it doesn't feel as intuitive, although after a few youtube tutorials its incredibly similar. The big difference is that Lightroom has 'presets' similar in use to a filter on instagram. I used 'Old Polar' for these images as well as playing around with exposure.
After experimenting in Lightroom:
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Evaluation: Lightroom/Laughter and Movement
Lightroom definitely enabled the images to be exposed correctly and offered an easy way of correcting colour and making the colours match so that the images could easily go together. It lifted brightness effectively and brought out the greens and blues to make the images feel more alive. I would definitely use this again especially if I needed to create a large number of images that needed to match colour wise. However I still need to experiment more as I managed to somehow loose image 2 as a RAW file when I moved it into and out of Lightroom, thus why there is no before image for number 2.
Laughter and Movement was harder to gain during the shoot than expected, at least genuine laughter and movement that is. Even though we were having a good time it was difficult for Ema to let go of the camera being there and smiles/laughter became slightly forced. Looking around the location I think I experimented well to find spots that created the feeling of reminiscing in a school grounds with the library image being the give away of the location. I looked for a mixed of diffused light and played around with framed in shadow. I think the most successful image is number 2 because it captures adventure, movement, laughter and lightness - my goal of the response.
Lightroom definitely enabled the images to be exposed correctly and offered an easy way of correcting colour and making the colours match so that the images could easily go together. It lifted brightness effectively and brought out the greens and blues to make the images feel more alive. I would definitely use this again especially if I needed to create a large number of images that needed to match colour wise. However I still need to experiment more as I managed to somehow loose image 2 as a RAW file when I moved it into and out of Lightroom, thus why there is no before image for number 2.
Laughter and Movement was harder to gain during the shoot than expected, at least genuine laughter and movement that is. Even though we were having a good time it was difficult for Ema to let go of the camera being there and smiles/laughter became slightly forced. Looking around the location I think I experimented well to find spots that created the feeling of reminiscing in a school grounds with the library image being the give away of the location. I looked for a mixed of diffused light and played around with framed in shadow. I think the most successful image is number 2 because it captures adventure, movement, laughter and lightness - my goal of the response.
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