AS Media Studies Foundation Portfolio

 

 These photos are all unedited.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ...

 For the LGBTQ+ section of my magazine, I wanted members a part of our community to convey their acceptance and pride for who they are. Aiden is a transgender teenage male and Lessy is his girlfriend, who has been with him even before his transition. I wanted to take pictures of both of them individually and together. Aiden will be wearing a white t-shirt, boyfriend jeans, and some black and white converse. Lessy on the other hand will be wearing a black tank top, a kimono, and some high-waisted shorts. As for props, I wanted Aiden to bring his transgender flag so that he can wrap it around him and them during the photo shoot. 

 Today, I was able to capture my model's essence and the beauty in her confidence. I'm extremely happy with these pictures because she looks like a free-spirit. She exudes confidence, acceptance, and love and those are the main objectives in my magazine. I believe I'm going to use the picture of her smiling for my cover page but I'm still debating which one I'm going to choose. 

 I'm not quite sure which my final pictures are going to be. However, I edited all of my favorite pictures from this photoshoot. I used my iPhone xs to take these pictures and edit them. I touched upon exposure, brilliance, shadows, contrast, saturation, and warmth. The camera shots, angles, and editing we utilize have the power to alter the ways in which an audience perceives something. 

 These pictures are as is, without being edited!                 

                                                                           Nikko Ortiz: Taking these shots allowed me to play around with different angles as well as understand the importance of lighting and background. I didn't like how these pictures came out as they looked very random and unplanned. The background of the first picture isn't smooth and kind of makes it looks a bit messy. Furthermore, in the second picture, the light is being reflected in his glasses, and in the third picture, the lighting was not bright enough to fully capture his face and the background as well as I wanted it to. 

 Nikko is one of my male models. Since I want my magazine to display acceptance and openness, gender norms will be completely obliterated in this magazine. Therefore, I asked him if he would feel comfortable in "women's clothing", and he said he loved the idea. We came up with two outfits for him. The first outfit consists of a pink beanie with a smilie face on it, a white graphic t-shirt along with a pink button up shirt to match the beanie, and a black skirt. The second outfit consisted of a white bucket hat, a jean jacket as the top, and some grey baggy pants. We thought it'd be a good idea to take these photos in a public setting rather than in a room to convey the idea that he is prideful in his self-expression and embraces his authenticity, not just privately but publicly as well. As for props, he wanted to wear many necklaces and I wanted him to hold his skateboard. It has a nice design and I though it'd bring some spice into the mix!