Hid Saib Neto is a Brazilian photographer who uses flecks of vivid neon paint to decorate a person on their face and shoulders to almost make them look as if they are from a different world. He either covers the whole face or just takes photographs of one part of the face for example, the mouth or hands. This style of photography is a style that I want to recreate because my entire theme is distortion/metamorphosis meaning that I will be able to turn a person into something completely different by using neon paints and a black light.
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This is one of my favourite images by Hid Saib Neto as he used half a models face to create an astral glow in the dark look. He uses flecks of paint to create something that looks like its from another world. He uses colours that complement each other, in this case he uses blue and pink to give the image a cool but vibrant tone. The colours give off an effect that the model has purple skin which creates a piece that looks like a galaxy on their face. There are only two colours in the image which keeps it simple however there still looks like there's a lot going on in the image due to the style of paint that he uses. I like how the image can be kept simple by only using two colours but it is not plain due to the flecks of paint, making it look more unique and interesting. Neto also uses a black background as black light does not react with black, to direct all the focus of the image onto the model. In some cases, the models face can be blacked out meaning that they'll be submerged into the black background which can create an effect that looks as if though they have no other facial features but the ones that the neon paint covers. This is a good way of distorting an image as you are turning somebody into a glow painting rather than keeping them looking like a person.
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This photograph by Hid Saib Neto is another one of my favourites as he has used green and orange which are another two colours that complement each other. Again, he has used half of a models face to create something that looks robotic/futuristic. This image is more vibrant than the other one due to the colours that Neto has used. He has also painted green makeup onto the model which we can see on the eyelashes and eyelids as though she would do it everyday, giving the image an element of normality however the fact that it is all neon makes it look distorted and unique and adds another dimension. In this image Neto has painted orange onto the models lips rather than using his particular fleck style of paint. The eyes and lips are painted normally which brings the viewers attention to them rather than the rest of the face even though his usual style of orange flecks are still painted onto the model. The fact that the lips and eyes are painted normally makes the model look more humanistic however she is still distorted due to not being able to see any other part of her body but the paint covered parts. Once again, he has used a black background so the black light doesn't react and the attention is diverted towards the paint rather than the rest of the face.
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Sarah Leal is a Brazilian photographer that uses glow in the dark paint and black light to put emphasis on parts of the body that are normally masked by sunlight. She captures the human body in a completely different light that we are used to in everyday light. Leal was inspired by Hid Saib Neto, however instead of only using flecks of paint she more often uses smears too, to create a different effect. She also takes photos of different parts of the body as well as just the face such as hands.
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This image by Sarah Leal is one of my favourites due to the fact that this is a photograph of someones hands instead of an image of a face. This differentiates Sarah Leal from the other artist Neto has her images involve more streaks of paint rather than flecks and also the image of the hands gives a different and distorted effect. Leal also uses more colours in all her images as well as keeping the colour scheme the same. For example, in this image she uses green, orange yellow and a hint of blue, All of her images use the same colour scheme which is a running theme throughout her work even though she switches between taking photos of two models faces and just hands. This image of hands is made extremely emotive which makes the image different to what it would've looked like under normal light and without neon paint. The effect that can be unearthed using only black light, neon glow paint, and two subjects or hands is extremely effective compared to what it would look like with normal lighting as it almost gives an opposite effect to everyday life, creating another dimension.
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This photograph by Leal is another one of my favourites as she has used two subjects which are similar in terms of paint style but are almost opposites to each other even though the same colours have been used. The two models in the image have the same flecks and streaks of paint but the colours are painted onto different parts of their faces. The neon green and orange paint compliment each other and are used in a smart way due to one model having orange painted onto her lips and eyelashes and the other model having green painted onto her lips and eyelashes. This seems to be the main focus on each of the models however they each have the opposite colour flicked onto their faces and shoulders. The fact that the models are very close in the image and one has her hand on the other face gives us a visual sense of opposites attracting and rubbing off onto each other in day to day life and becoming close friends. Leal has also used a black background to divert all of the attention onto the models and let us as an audience focus mainly on their lips and eyelashes and a bit on their shoulders, hands and parts of the face which may not be as noticeable in day to day life, creating an almost alternate universe effect.
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To edit these images in photoshop, I started by duplicating the layer to make sure that if I made any mistakes I could start over without closing the whole image and I could also see the difference and enhancements between the original and edited image.
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Next, I changed the brightness and contrast of the image. I found that the lower the brightness, and higher the more vibrant the colours against the black background whereas a higher brightness setting made the image look too overexposed and the colours almost lost their glow and vibrancy.
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Next, I played around with the curves of the image as it would allow me to enhance certain parts of the image which meant that I could make sure that tones of the image looked good. It also allowed me to add some more contrast, brighten and darken.
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Next, I used the burn tool to burn out aby colour the might have accidentally gotten onto the black background that we were using. It also allowed me to burn out the models arms that were reflecting slightly due to the black light. This made the final outcome look more abstract and distorted as you could not see the models actual arms but just the paint.
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These were my mini outcomes as I liked a lot of images in the first photoshoot, so I edited all of the best ones using the same photoshop process that I used in the experimentation. I feel like some of these would be good enough to use as a final piece, so my next step is to do photoshoots which include my other ideas so I can build a portfolio of final pieces for this unit.
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I edited my favourite images from the photoshoots that I did so I could get used to editing glow in the dark images and can build from these images and create better photographs with a different style of paint application. In the next photoshoots that I do I will be trying to build final pieces and so will have to focus on the paint application, colours and where the blacklight will be in terms of lighting up the face properly so the paint looks like it glows a lot more. I also hope to improve my paint application so it looks less bulky which will be a massive improvement from these photoshoots.
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