SHOOT 5 - PROGRESS

This shoot is to show the models progress after so many weeks of diet and exercise which has been demonstrated in previous photoshoots. To create the illusion of the models muscles looking bigger and 'pumped' (when a muscles fills with blood to look more vascular) I made the model do exercises to get a pump. To do this the model does more reps of lighter weight, and by doing so, created the illusion of bigger more vascular muscle. The photoshoot was a success and also showed improvement from the last shoot in terms of the models progression but also my organisation in creating a more suitable environment for shooting, and my ability to match the lighting and camera settings to how I want the model to look. The model himself has more interesting properties in this shoot. With my idea to make the model look pumped caused the veins to be more visible and the muscles to look more define, also this shoot is a few weeks after the first progress shot after more dieting and more training.

I believe this shoot was more successful than the first progression shoot. I believe this because the lighting is more suitable and makes the highlights and shadows more effective and shows definition more. Editing the shoot to black and white created one spectrum of colour/tones and when the contrast was edited helped to show definition of the body. Adding the weights into the images was an idea that came from artist research of Benjamin Von Wong and Tim Tadder. One image in particular that I found to be very interesting and effective is the image on the bottom right of the grid (the model with his head in his hands) I feel this is a fantastic representation of my 'Power' theme. The model was exhausted after his day of dieting and training and after I asked him to do more than needed in his regime.

The images below were the ones I found most interesting. Similar to something Tim Tadder had done, I layered a blue-filtered images with a red filtered image. I feel that these images look distorted and distressed as if representing the feelings of the model at that moment in time. Josh: "When I work out my heart beating faster, I can feel the blood moving faster, my breathing feeling heavier and my body feeling heavier but that's when you know it's a good work out and you know you've worked hard, you've got to just power through it".
I felt these edits were fantastic representations of how his work out must feel. Again, I wanted the images to look intense and I believe I achieved this. I also think this fits really well with his description of the blood through his veins, the colours of veins and blood in the images made this more effective and the two images layered reminded me of a pulse that we feel from a vein or heartbeat. But I also believe the images are more effective because they are layered it's harder to focus on them and more difficult to make something of the image. This is how I imagine the work out must feel, dehydration and exhaustion to cause a dazed state - like what I am trying to portray here.

To the left are the contact sheets of this soot.

Like the previous shoot, I was limited to lighting and a shooting area, however this time still had better lighting and shooting environent than the previous shoot. I feel this is is the most successful shoow so far in terms of portraying the physical side of the training process and 'power' lifestyle.