Cover Girl Photo Shoot- The day of the shoot

Cover girl project- The day of the photo shoot

Organising the photo shoot, timings, behind the scenes pictures and evaluation

My Mood Borads for the day

Over the half term break we've got given a project to organise a photo shoot reflecting SS16 hair and makeup trends and to turn one chosen image into a high fashion magazine cover of our choice.

We also had to choose location, source a model, a photographer and a stylist.

Because I already had a flight booked to Hungary, I thought why wait until I come back to London? I could maybe organise a photo shoot in my hometown. It would be a great opportunity to network in my homeland. 

I am quite lucky because I know a few photographers from college in Debrecen. The college I attended after my school leaving exams was a graphic design/ photography college. Half of our class was specialising in graphic design and the other half in photography.

So I started contacting them one after the other, but unfortunately they either moved up to the capital Budapest or abroad or they were specialising in other types of photography. 

Behind the scenes

As I did not have much time to spend in Hungary I started panicking a little bit. I did not have time to travel to Budapest to organise a photo shoot there with one of my ex-class mates. I decided to start sourcing a model in my city and hope that they know a photographer. I remembered that one of my classmates from high school, Csilla Megyeri works as a TV presenter at a local television station and is also modelling. Once I messaged her with my ideas she was very much interested and told me that she knows a brilliant photographer Norbert Porcio, who is specialising in editorial/fashion photography and that they have an upcoming project together in a couple of days. I told both of them that it is for a uni assessment and that unfortunately this would be an unpaid project. I was pretty nervous in case if they say no to an unpaid project but luckily they were both interested and very helpful. Csilla suggested that we combine the two projects together. Their project was a test shoot for a brand called Furever Fashion. They sponsored the photo shoot so we had to include some images with the fur they provided. No doubt, I was very excited because everything seemed to be falling into place. After picking an available date for the shoot, packing up and flying back to Hungary, the big day has finally come. 

Below are some un-edited images for the Furever Fashion part of the shoot:

The day of the shoot

Norbi, my photographer was only available after 5 pm that day so I had a bit of time in the morning to pick up some outfits and accessories and to pack up my kit.

I regards to the makeup look, my original intention was to go a little bit more creative with the makeup but because we combined the two projects together, my ideas had to fit into their concept. So we decided to go for a simple blue eye makeup look, as it was a huge trend on the SS16 runways. As for the hair style we tried out a few different looks. We tried a messy look first, followed by a sleek wet hair look that is still a huge trend on the runways. For this look I used water to wet the hair and then to keep the locks in place I used a gel spray. I sleeked the hair back using a tail comb. After we finished with the wet-hair look, I dried Csilla's hair and curled it, using curling tongs, concentrating on the length of her hair. I then run my fingers through the hair to loosen the waves for a very trendy "Diane von Furstenberg-soft curl" look. I finished off with a small amount of hair spray.

My original idea was to take pictures in iD Magazine style, with Csilla's right eye covered. So Norbi took some pictures in that style but after seeing the pictures, we all agreed that they are beautiful images but they look a bit too wintery. 

This led me to change my initial idea of doing iD Magazine to do W Magazine instead. Luckily we took some spring-themed pictures as well, but not in iD magazine style. So below are the finished images, I hope you like the end result.

Product list:

Face

• Garnier Micellar Water
• Vitamin E serum
• Embryollyse Moisturiser
• Instantly Ageless serum around the eyes
• Dermacolor concealer palette- shades D10 and D1
• NYX peach concealer underneath the eyes
• MAC face and body-shades c3 and c4
• MAC full coverage foundation in shades NC15 and NW25, really buffed into then skin on problem areas
• NYX Medium Concealer palette
• Ben Nye setting powder in shade Fair
• Mixture of MAC Shadowy and Shadester for contouring
• Mac Mocha on the cheeks towards the temples and Dollymix on the apples of the cheek
• Suqqu eyebrow pen in shade Brown 02

Eyes

• Too faced shadow insurance eyeshadow primer
• NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk as a base to accentuate and intensify the blue colour
• MAC Gesso
• MAC Electric Eel Underneath the lower lashline
• Astor Colour Waves single eyeshadow in shade Classy Blue in the crease
• Mac electric Eel Mixed with Illamasqua mixing medium as a liner
• Catrice eye pencil in shade Rendez-Blue

Lips

• MAC Spice Lipliner
• MAC Twig and Pretty Please lipsticks
• For Blue & White ombre lips: NYX Jumbo pencil in shade Milk, MAC Electric Eel eyeshadow and Astor Colour Waves eyeshadow in shade Classy blue

Hair:

• Water and gel spray for the wet hair look
• Leave in conditioner, heat protection serum and hair spray for the wavy look

Timings:

Eyes: 20 minutes- Primer, cream base, eyeshadow application, blending, mixing eyeliner and applying it to the top lash lines, lining the waterline, applying mascara

Prepping Face: 5 minutes- cleansing with micellar water, toning, applying serum, moisturising, applying eye serum
Face: 15 minutes- priming, colour correcting, applying foundation, buffing in foundation, concealing under-eye area and blemishes, setting with loose powder, contouring, applying blusher and a touch of highlighter 

Lips: 20 minutes- Lining lips, applying lipsticks

For the Blue & White Ombre Lip Look:

Lips: 10 minutes- applying white base colour, applying medium colour, applying the darkest colour and blending them together
Fingers: 5 minutes- colouring the fingers

Behind the scenes photos

Spring themed images

 

And the finished magazine cover

Conclusion

I can definitely say that I am very happy with the end result. When I first saw the un-edited photos, I really liked them but I was also a bit disappointed because I really wanted to use the pictures where Csilla's fingers and lips were painted blue as well, but they looked a bit too wintery. This is why I decided to go for one of the pictures with the tulips and the green/yellow dress.  Even though the makeup wasn't very creative on them, I liked the colours and I thought they would suit a spring magazine cover much better than the rest of the photos.
I also panicked a little bit when my photographer edited the chosen picture. I thought it looked way too edited and a bit fake, but once all the headlines and the logo was edited on the picture I was very delighted. I think it looks great, nothing over-complicated but. 

So I would like to say a special, huge, massive thank you to my lovely model Csilla Megyeri, my brilliant and talented photographer Norbert Porcio and my amazing graphic designer, sweetheart friend Annamaria Orosz for putting the whole magazine cover together<3 :)

Below are their Instagram links if you would like to follow them:

Model: Csilla Megyeri- @csillamegyeri
Photographer: Norbert Porcio- @porcionorbert
Graphic Designer: Annamaria Orosz- @zsanzselina
and of course me: Make-up & hair: Brigitta Balazs- @brigmua

Thanks, Brig xx