Final Photobook

Editing of the Photobook

Image Making, Project Ideas and Development

After the announcement of COVID-19 restrictions, I had to be wary on when to order my photobook and in the end I realised that it won’t come til after the deadline. However, the university did email about the moving the unit hand-in online so I will be annotating point relating to how I wanted my photobook to look like in the physical format.

Firstly, I tweaked all the images in lightroom. I mostly focus on the predominantly blue-lit images to remove the purple hue.

Before importing it all to InDesign I physically created a layout of my photobook using the book I made during our Photobook Making workshop. Keep in mind most pages are combined into one spread for continuity.

i wanted to start off with my little sister and the different colours representing the Philippine flag

During the editing of the photobook, it was quicker to edit because of my physical copy.

Initially I was going to just going to leave the background plain but decided to add a vintage background to replicate old papers left from the past.

Final Shoot

Image Making, Project Ideas and Development, Project Ideas and Development

The final shoot went well as working with my family brought us closer together. However, there are a few factors I wish I could’ve change for my project.

It was challenging to get both my mum and sister together because at the time school was still on and I had to wait for my sister to come home at 3pm when I had loads of free time in my hand. My mum is a nurse and usually only has one day off or on the weekends when I usually work she’d have a day off. All-in-all I made the shoot worth while for my two models and thought it was fun.

Firstly I used my little sister for the shoot since she came home earlier than my mum.

With my little sister’s shoot I managed to create more ways to play with the primary colours I wanted to use to represent the Philippine flag this is because she is more comfortable and was keen to model.

On my Filipino tribe posts, I mentioned about basing their outfits on them and due to limited sources I did the best I could. Firstly I wrapped my mum’s yellow scarf over my little sister’s waist as a skirt and my headscarf as her tube top seen in the pictures.

Secondly I dressed her up as one of the “The Kataas-taasang, Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan”, also known as Katipunan or KKK; this was a Philippine revolutionary society founded by anti-Spanish colonialism Filipinos in Manila in 1892. To represent patriotism to the country. (No, this has nothing to do with the the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

Also shown is the babayin script “tattooed” (I used henna) on her arm to further represent her Filipino blood, however, it did not appear well so there were not a lot of close-ups of this.

On the same day was my mum’s day off so I managed to capture a mother-daughter moment; my sister is actually half English half Filipino, therefore, capturing her and my mum together shows where she got her Filipino side from and how proud she is.

Moreover, due to the low light situation some of my shots were darker and blurrier than intended. Also I shot all of this at around 7-8:30pm because it was when everyone was free and it was just before my sister’s bedtime so I did not have enough time with my mum also due to the fact that she studies for her own university work. But I still manage to capture some shots with my mum nonetheless.

Although, I could have had another shoot there was not enough time due to having to send my photobook to print.

Test Shoot & Changes

Image Making, Project Ideas and Development

After gathering my ideas I decided to do a test shoot. As mentioned due to COVID-19 restrictions, I was not able to use any agency models for the shoot, therefore, I decided to use my mum and little sister instead as it also makes the project more personal to me. Below are thumbnails from the shoot.

And here are some photos I edited and thought would fit in my photobook.

In addition to changes due to COVID-19, I had to do the shoot in my living room at my house and due to restricted space and the sue of a f1.8 50mm lens all the shots were quite uptight and was hard to achieve a full body shot resulting into a successful one which is only the second image.

Contacting modelling agencies

Image Making, Project Ideas and Development

To further enhance my communicating skills and build up a portfolio I decided to email a few agencies who are welcome to allow me to do a photoshoot with their Filipino models and in return expand the models’ portfolio.

Here is a screenshot of the email I sent to numerous agencies.

I made sure to give concise details about shoot, moodboard and contacts to give the agencies enough information about my proposed project.

Although I’ve always wanted to work with j’adore models, the agency requires payment for any booking you do with them.

Above is a reply and a portfolio of the model the modelling agent, Ludovica, suggested for me. Carys is perfectly suited for my project as she is Filipino heritage and I needed a female model for my shoot.

HOWEVER,

Due to the current situation, I was unable to book any models for my shoot leaving me to create a contingency plan.

Project Idea

Image Making, Project Ideas and Development, Project Ideas and Development

Filipino Heritage

For this project, I chose to explore my Filipino heritage. I grew up in the Philippines up until 2013 when my older sister and I moved here in the UK to live with my mum, my little sister and (step) dad. I acknowledged that there has been numerous projects about our Filipino heritage such as last year’s graduate, Aynrand Ariel’s work, “Balikbayan”.

Therefore, for my project I wanted to explore and have a deeper understanding of the pre-colonial Philippines. This is through further expanding my knowledge on the national costume, baro’t saya or filipiniana, the pre-colonial writing system, Baybayin and incorporate the colours of the Philippine flag in my lighting setup.

BAYBAYIN

PHILIPPINE FLAG