OUGD503: Monotype Tattoo Photoshoot

When deciding roles for the collaborative brief, we looked at our strengths and delegated accordingly. As Rob and I have the most experience with photography, we took joint roles as photographer, as well as everyone assisting with lighting and back drop set up along the way. 

We booked the large Studio A, as space and negative space was something we wanted to experiment with. The focus was to get shots which will work well with post production, animation and poster collateral.

The shoot went really well, with everyone working cohesively in a group for one overall aim. We all gathered a range of models to best represent the characters in our concept. When shooting, both Rob and I tried to focus on the skin in order to digitally edit the tattoo designs onto the characters.

We tried drawing some tattoo's on ourselves in preparation for the shoot, seeing how that would work as an alternative way to get the designs and typography onto the body. We also looked into getting some Monotype Letraset packs in the chosen fonts, one of particular interest being the Fraktur family. Previously I had spoken to James in the print room, and he said printing on tattoo transfer paper was possible, however the ink would not be water soluble so may stain the skin. 

Models

Cultural awareness is important with this brief so we wanted to incorporate as much diversity as possible through the models, with everyone having different backgrounds. We had 6 models, 3 males, 3 females for equal diversity. We decided to use real people as models to highlight concept about being yourself, as well as taking away the heightened sense of beauty often featured in half naked photoshoots.

Tomi Opilade - Fine Artist and 'the creative'.

We wanted to represent Tomi as free thinking, independent creative. His styling is natural from that day in uni, a natural and representative touch. It is interesting that Tomi does not have any tattoo's. We asked him and he said "its just not something [he's] got around to", but he doesn't oppose tattoo's in any way.

Rhiannon - 'The Extreme'

Highly tattoo'd who we scouted on the day of the shoot. Her tattoo's are all personal to her and she likes having the power to express that on her body.

Sam - 'The Professional' v1

Some tattoo's. Muscular in build reflecting older body representations (adults appealing to adults).

Hannah - The alternate/ creative/ empowered woman

Some tattoo's and room to add more. Feminine in body shape and positioning. Subtle light reflects the lighter side to Hannah's personality and ink.

Did not manage to get any shots with the black background, meaning if the black is the chosen route then consistency across the board.

Alec - The professional/ The academic?

No tattoo's, clean and relatively traditional in his appearance. 

The photoshoot was a rewarding experience as Rob and I had charge of the shoot, which was a good collaborative experience. The whole team worked well and Rob and I took turns in art direction and pre-planning shots, which was much more challenging then I thought it would be. The shots which we have got are perfect for the purpose we want, however I would of liked to get more versatile shots to expand the breath the campaign could reach.

When shooting video both Rob and I had trouble stabalising the footage so the current idea of a video panning along skin may no longer be fiesable.