The Final Photo

My final photo

'A Dead Soldier' The original image I chose

The final photo before editing

As you can see the photo I took needed quite a lot of editing to get it looking how I wanted; I knew my location meant I would have to mirror the image to get the same positioning as 'A Dead Soldier'.  Once I did this I could get a clearer idea of what else needed to be adjusted.  I got rid of the wind surfers in the background and then I also wanted to edit the edge of the cliff so that the model's feet looked more on the edge as they do in 'A Dead Soldier'.  I flattened out the horizon line as I didn't like the slanted angle it had in the original and I think the straighter line sets the photo up better.  I couldn't get the cigarette to light up on the location as it was too windy, but the smoke was important, as I wanted it to resemble the lamp in 'A Dead Soldier' and the symbolism it has relating to the temporary nature of life and how easily it can be extinguished.  I therefore had to put the smoke into the picture myself, and I think it works quite well and adds to the photo. I had to digitally enhance the makeup as it didn't show up very well in the light, but I wanted to maintain a subtly about it, without making it look too clownish, as punk sometimes did.  I like the way the skull seems to be looking at the figure, symbolic of death waiting for all of us and we will all be claimed it at some stage, I painted it silver to give it a shine, based on Damien Hirst's work, which was a statement on mankind's materialistic nature which I thought fitted well with the themes common in 'vitas' paintings.  I was a little disappointed with how bright the overall image was and I darkened the sky a little in an attempt to edit this, but the location would have been almost impossible to get to in the dark.  The moody sky in 'A Dead Soldier' was partly what drew me to it and I would have liked to have been able to reproduce this effect.  However, I do feel that the brightness of the setting makes the model look darker and creates quite an interesting contrast.  My aim in this shoot was to have influences from the original painting combined with a more contemporary style; I think I did achieve this by using punk and the Vietnam war as my influence I think they come through well and maybe the brightness suggests that punk was revolutionary and still is today, so it lives on and people can still relate to it.  I am happy with the final image as I think it works well against the original painting while providing a more contemporary context of a movement that fought its own war against social fashions and ideology.