by Eugénie Besson
Media Studies Blog
Being an Armenian writer
Literature is an art I decided to include as an article of my magazine. It focus on a Armenian women expressing her experience on being a writer in her country.
Unfortunately by not having the chance to meet one, I created the character by myself attempting to form it as undeniable as possible.
It was important for the gender of my magazine to have a wide diversity in the guest's nationality, consequently I choose the country Armenian to be represented.
The fact that Armenia is rarelly exposed in media, it leads me to include it in my magazine.
This topic won't be the choice for my double spread, but I wished to include an image of the photo-shoot in the table of content.
Inspiration
To represent a writer sharing her life, I had in mind to place the model behind a desk with some props that belongs to a litterateur lover.
I have searched for some examples in order to have a clearer idea of the result and to guide my model.
Model
I expect to have a wide range of ages in my magazines which lead me to decide that the character will be an elderly in order to point out a certain maturity and life experience, and to touch a wider audience.
I directly thought about my Grand-Mother for this role, who has the attitude of an artist, correspond to the age I was searching for and was really enthusiast to pose for me.
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Françoise Grimaldi
60 years old
French
Location
Props
I shoot in two different places with diverse lighting, to experiment two various atmosphere.
Here the books background corresponded perfectly to the topic and the wallpaper gave a touch in plus to the universe of the guest.
First location
Second location
I also wanted to try a white background and to play more with an artificial light. For the attention to be exactly on the model.
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I wanted the clothes to be extremely simple in order to have less details and colors, but to still be able to build a style and to add a touch of femininity with a necklace.
contact sheet
Selection & editing
488 pictures taken with a Canon EOS 700D
I have selected several pictures for which you will be able to see the initially and the final editing result.
I used, as editing software, only Photoshop without working on Lightroom . I judged that the pictures didn't need so much modifications as I wanted the result to be really simple and natural.
First of all, regarding the edit process of the first series of pictures, I added, by using the magnet lasso tool, a blur effect on the background to make the model standing out more.
Moreover using cope stamp tool I erased some strand of hair and some spots on the tablecloth which were disturbing the composition of my image, and I sharpened some elements as well.
The final step I took was the adjustment parts where I selected the model in order to decrease the brightness and contrast separately from the background, additionally as decreasing the saturation. I did some modifications for the background as well and the final ones to the whole results.
For this serie of pictures, the atmosphere is completely different by the neutrality of the setting and her appearance. I wanted to try a composition more serious.
Experience
I didn't really know what to expect from my grand-mother, it was my first time photographing her that way and probably the first time for her as well to pose as a character. By having this suspicious feeling, I have planned everything very carefully in order to have a satisfactory result.
To construct a representation of a writer was probably one of the newest thing for me in this photo-shoot. The use of important props and the significance of the composition were something challenging for me, even if I wanted a simple and natural result.
I am, however, satisfied about this photo-shoot, my grand-mother take it really seriously and was really cooperative.and even if the edit part was more difficult than I expect it. I have learn some new tool, such as the blur filter, but the adjustment of the light had been difficult for me even if I practiced it a lot before.