#MONOCHROME // ashen

Monochrome -- exploring colour and its influences.

Let's start of with an outlay (this is my most successful one yet!!)

Accessories and Equipment (excluding camera, of course)

Clothes

Yes! I managed one!

It's not up to Margaret Zhang's quality, but it's a start. (It's definitely not perfect. Looking at it now, there are things that are off angle and just urgh man I wish I could fix them right now but it's too late.) I have to say that being short is quite a disadvantage because it means I really have to utilise everything to get the highest viewing angle possible.
(Mostly, I'm just flexing my tippy-toe muscles a lot)

None-the-less, it was still difficult to fit everything in the frame and so instead I had to make-do with compositional framing and try and make it look alright if I cut bits out. (This is also the reason why I had to do two outlays; they wouldn't all fit into one image)

I had to take it on the bed (thankfully my bedsheets in summer are suitable) and utilise a lot of natural lighting from my room window.

Now, what's this outlay for???

Anyone who read my post yesterday will likely be able to guess what it was for.
New project! Searching for #Monochrome

I really wanted to try and have a go at a little bit of fashion (no prizes for anyone who can guess who inspired me to give this a shot), mixed with portraits/photography. I also recently got this new skirt which I really liked and I wanted to try this look. It's not something I've ever worn before, either.

I'm thinking to have two photographs for each installment. One full-body, and then a mid-shot (is that what you call it?). But, it's still in the workings. Everything's subject to change as time passes.

I had to scout the entire house for a nice brick wall that was in the shade

After experimenting a bit today with post-editing, I think the final shape and image of this project came into form. I have a much better view on what I want to do with this project, and what I'm going to do with it (especially in terms of the colours and editing)

It was actually quite difficult to do this photoshoot because it was a super hot day, so let's just say that wearing a blazer in an Australian summer isn't the most comfortable thing.

Also, the usual thing with self-portraits was also difficult to deal with (focusing, composition, posing, timing, etc.), but I made do to the best that I could.

I spent about ~1-1.5 hours getting ready (this involved painting my nails black and white, which took up the bulk of the time), about 0.5 hours actually shooting, and then oh god, 2 hours post-production.

In hindsight, the reason why it took so long to post-edit was because I wasted like, an hour editing one picture in a very inefficient way. After I had finished the shot, I realised there was a better method of obtaining an even better result, so I started all over, effectively wasting my time, which I always seem to be good at.

SF#M

Generally, a lot of tweaks here and there. A lot of colour correction (more than I've ever done before, I believe). But I'm fairly happy with the shots.

Misc anecdote; a crow swooped in when I was about to finish my shoot and just perched there watching me. I feared for my life. This isn't the time or place to tell the story because it's probably not as entertaining to you as it was scary for me, so...

Anyway. Such is such.

I'm liking this monochrome theme. Now to decide what colour to do next, and to scout around and try and find clothing like that. (or, you can cheat and do post-production editing, but that's not ideal. Definitely not ideal.)

Anyway, the next installment for SF#M isn't likely to come anytime soon. I've got a very, very busy next week of my life, with some international and interstate friends coming over to stay, so that means a lot of tourism photos of Sydney (which I will do my best to edit and post on here).

Till my next post (which is likely to be far sooner than I expect), a la prochaine.