LILY HALLIDAY
Y O U T H
A N T I - S M O K I N G A D V E R T S
Although I have found the bear prints fairly successful, I feel as if the smoke aspect itself has been lost, which has been a key piece within all my development work throughout my project. Therefore, I have looked into anti-smoking adverts in more depths focusing on images rather than photography to visually see how these artists portray their ideas and messages using different techniques and whether there is any way I can make the bunny/bear still the main visual aspect representing the same concept but using a different technique...
Although some of these anti-smoking adverts include a cigarette, which I said previously that I would leave behind due to a lack of success I had during experimentation and development of ideas, I am focusing more on the way they portray there messages and how they use other concepts/objects to portray the idea of smoking and its effect such as smoke, ash trays and symbols.
M I N I E X P E R I M E N T
From analysing various anti-smoking ads, I found this particular NHS advert one of the most effective. In my opinion, it shows the idea of parental issues such as smoking surrounding their child’s life. To experiment in the style of this advert, I have taken an image of a hand and created a similar effect. I have found this difficult to create and less realistic compared to the original image which is an aspect I don’t want within my final outcome.
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Initially I thought that this technique would be effective in incorporating the bunny/bunny outline like I experimented with previously. But I feel as that this technique isn’t effective in portraying my ideas.
At this stage within my project, I feel as if I am grasping for ideas rather than showing the development of my thoughts. Therefore, I must refine my ideas within my work and focus my attention to a very purposeful concept and technique analysing what has been successful and unsuccessful for far...
S E V E N S T Y L E S
To follow through with the aspect of smoke but in a more creative may, I have researched into the artist Seven Styles. I found within a lot of the anti-smoking adverts that they used smoke in an alternative way creating outlines and shapes out of smoke itself. Styles creates various smoke edited images of different subjects exploring various colours and themes.
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I believe working in the style of Styles will suit my theme perfectly emphasising the idea of smoke surrounding a child, and physically making up their lives covering every aspect. Due to the fact that I have been searching to find a new way of introducing smoke into my photography without showing a physical cigarette, this technique is perfect. It also moves away from my less successful edits of trying to edit smoke into original photographs. It also allows me to create smoke without capturing a physical photograph which I have struggled with throughout my project.
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Before creating my own edits, I have looked more into the process Styles go through to see how I can apply the effect to my own photographs...
E X P E R I M E N T S
To work in the style of Styles, I have created my own experiment using one of my existing photographs from a previous shoot that shows the full body. Within the majority of Styles work he focuses on fully body images, which I believe come out the most effective. Therefore, because at this point in time I have no photographs specifically for this experiment, I must use an existing one.
Even though there is a visible cigarette within this photograph which I previously mentioned I would leave behind, this image is purely for experimentation purposes.
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At first I found creating this edit difficult as you had to ensure the subject of the image had a very clear outline. But, in the photographs I had sourced the outline was less clear meaning I had to careful select the correct areas and fill in myself any areas that hadn’t been selected successfully. I also found deciding where to position the smoke was difficult at first, as I was unfamiliar with the technique Styles uses. Once I had completed the main body of the edit, I was able to edit the opacity of the smoke changing the levels of each section of smoke itself adding more dimension to the edit. I was also able to change the colour of the smoke itself, covering a range of different tones.
Although, following on from the previous smoke edits where I was changing the colour of the smoke I found that it was the most effective when it had a slight blue tint that was realistic to the colour of actual cigarette smoke. This is same within this experiment, and I believe the original colour is the most visually effective.