Equality & Diversity Final Image

Due to unforeseen circumstances I was unable to carry out the original shoot plan. Instead, I created an image that wasn't one of my original ideas, I was inspired by my daughters pencil case and its contents. I was sat colouring with my youngest when the vision of the final image just popped into my head. 

Here is my shoot plan:

Shoot Plan

Photographer   Leanne Tipton-Clark

Brief Description of shoot: A mans hand, preferably large and aged holding a bunch of coloured pencils which are of different shapes and sizes. A black background.

Location: My studio

Date and Time: 27/06/2013

Date and Time of reshoot:

Team Models, assistants etc: Father

Has the team been notified with all the relevant details? Yes

Equipment Required:

• 1 models
• Coloured pencils
• Black paper backdrop
• 1 KEY LIGHT
• 1 snoot
• Camera dslr
• Computer
• Photoshop cs6

Cost of shoot- ie film, make-up, props, processing etc 0

Total cost of this shoot £0

The shoot itself was relatively simple. I adjusted my cameras settings and key light to ensure I had the correct exposure. I purposely wanted a fall off in the background and I also wanted the key light to fill the object and no harsh shadows. Once I was satisfied with the exposure I then took several shots from various different angles to ensure the composition was just right. I found that shooting from straight on, with a slight tilt upwards was most affective as it highlighted the shapes of the pencil tips.
There wasn't much post editing to do but to create the final image I had to do some slight editing on Photoshop, my version is cs6.

• I first saved a second copy of the image I was to work on. I then opened both of these in PS. On both images I used the unsharpen mask to add more clarity and to defog.
• I then converted the 1st image (hand image) to black & white, added an overlay fill layer in black @ 27%, I then adjusted the curves and levels on the image to create more texture on the skin and highlight the different skin tones. Flattened image to finish.
• There was no work needed on the 2nd image (pencil image) so I dragged the 1st image onto this, reduced the opacity to make sure I aligned the two images perfectly.
• Once aligned I simply erased the top layer with the eraser tool on 100% with the hardness increased to about 50% on a soft edged brush. Zooming right in, I carefully erased all of the pencils on this layer, allowing the coloured layer to come through. I softened the erased edges with the blur tool and then flattened the image.

Below is my final image and a brief description on what it represents.

The task was to produce an in studio image representing the Equality Act 2010 and the diversity of mankind. The hand signifies the equality act, holding all the pencils which are of different shapes, sizes and colours. The pencils signify the people protected by the equality act.