1.1 –I have looked at various types of research on Annie Leibovitz so that I could get to grips the type of photography techniques she uses and how she plans and processes each of her shoots. I watched a Youtube video of Annie Leibovitz getting interviewed by someone, she talks about herself that she’s been through in order to produce such quality work and what stages are included. She focused on talking about Photoshop techniques that she had used on her previous shoots and how that helped her final outcomes. I prefer the Youtube videos to looking in books for research when it comes to this type of research, as written work can manipulate and change the words of someone whereas video interviews are straight up evidence coming from the person themselves. However, all interviews are limited due to the questions the interviewer can ask and answers received as they can be open or closed answered. I find the interviews she does through Rolling stone magazine and vogue magazine very useful as you know they are two reliable sources, whereas the research I got from Wikipedia could be unreliable as anyone could edit the information that has been put on there meaning the information could be false. The research sources that I have said would be most useful have helped my develop my work the most as I have seen the different techniques Annie Leibovitz has used in her shoots. She has given me ideas on possible techniques that I could use when doing my shoot, for example, the use of lighting; the soft box was a popular use of hers to make her subject look air brushed and have no sharp edges.
2.1 – Within this unit we did a test shoot to help us grasp the concept and capture influenced pictures from our chosen photographer, in this case my chosen photographer was Annie Leibovitz. As part of my primary research I did a photo shoot, I took over 100 photos just so that I could play around with camera settings to see what work best. When I did my shoots I realised how many people Annie Leibovitz must have had beside her ready to help, I struggled just with three people for lighting, holding the fan and modelling, the thought of Leibovitz having so many more other people around her must have been stressful. From this I have learnt the amount of effort that would have gone into each of her shoots and if I was to do this for a career how organised and professional I would need to be. My outcomes for my shoots took some time as I had to play around with the techniques that I was using, such as the use of the fan; I had to have the model and the person holding the fan standing in the right position in order for the photo to work well. It took time and I had to make sure the model didn’t get bored whilst waiting for the fan and lighting to be readjusted each time. The use of secondary evidence had helped my outcomes, I had a few of Leibovitz photos at hand whilst I was taking my own photos to get inspiration. I feel this was most effective as I was able to attempt her style of photography, from positioning of the model to lighting and camera settings. Annie Leibovitz’s inspiration resulted in my photos being bright as I used a soft box meaning there was no harsh edges, her photos were heavily edited using photoshop which I would then continue to do as the next step. There were no flaws on the model in any of her photos, this is the type of imagery “celebrities” would give across. Annie Leibovitz has shown no before and after pictures when editing her work, so you can’t see any exact changes when comparing her own work, from reading interviews I know that photoshop has been used a lot, however before and after pictures would be helpful to see what processes go in after the shoot has been done. She was inspired by Avedon, when I have compared his work with Leibovitz’s I can see how she was influenced by his work but had added her own effects to make it her own work. By adding different aspects of both of their work into my own I was able to develop and learn when producing my own shoots. I found the interviews the most useful when it came to research as she said in her own words how she was successful in each shoots, Looking at her photos are helpful visually however you have to assume what editing has been applied, there is no explaining about the shoot and editing process with each photo.
Rachel Jacob 