Photography analysis, construction using photoshop, powerpoint etc.

1. Photography Analysis for the
film poster and the magazine
cover
Celina Laureta

2. I began by taking solo shots of the female protagonist because I wanted her to dominate the film poster. ‘The Bonsai Tree’ is a story about contempt, loyalty
and betrayal among other key themes; to illustrate some of these themes, I asked the model to showcase different expressions, hence why the majority of
these photos are close up shots and mid-shots. I incorporated the prop weapons i.e. a sword and a gun, in order to portray her power and fighting abilities.

4. PROCESS OF ELIMINATION
By carefully looking at each photo, I
eliminated multiple images that were
test shots (the purpose of which was
to double check the colour and
lighting) but the main reason is
because some photos were out of
focus and blurry. Here are a few
examples.
Other reasons include the models’
expressions which were sometimes
inappropriate i.e. smiling.

5. EXPERIMENTATION: Angles, shots, and lighting
During the process of the shoot I directed the other members of my group to hold up props and move the light
reflector to create different lighting effects. I found the low angle shots the most challenging because I had to lie down
on my back in order to get the models in one shot; as a result, some photos came out wonky. However, I was satisfied
with the outcome I achieved.
James
holding the
sword
Chandler
positioning
the
reflector
ME

6. In Japanese culture, the
idea of beauty revolves
around having clear,
white skin and long silky
black hair so using the
‘spot healing tool’ I
cleared the model’s face
of the baby hairs on her
face and the redness of
her blemishes to make it
appear smoother.
I used the lasso tool to remove the
background and experimented with a
solid colour however it wasn’t
appealing because the solid colour
was not effective enough. The reason
being there were already too many
red parts in the image.
INSPIRATION

7. I deepened the contrast to
intensify the darker areas
such as the shadow around
her face. Then I used a black
and white filter to make the
image look more dramatic.
Using the background
remove tool on powerpoint,
I carefully isolated the
colour of the flowers on the
kimono and deleted them. I
placed the black and white
version above the coloured
layer to achieve the effect
on the right.
Title and slogan
Actors names
Credits

8. I used the lasso tool on photoshop to give a white background and
replaced the white background with a secondary image of a room
adorned with oriental furniture from Google. I made the background
darker to create an intense atmosphere which is juxtaposed by the
colour yellow and the flowers in the vases.
I also tried different fonts and sizes to determine the most appealing one
for the sell lines and the headline. I used the ink drop tool on the kimono
to pick the colour of the font so it would compliment the other colours in
the image.
I used two methods to
darken certain areas. The
one shown in the gif is
selecting an area and
dragging the brightness
level down.
The second method was
to use the paint brush
with a soft effect and the
colour black to darken
certain areas like the top
and bottom of the image
so you can see the font
more clearly.