Experimental Shoot

I have been doing some experimental photo shoot using objects in different lighting set ups and places. By doing this, it has helped me improve my photography skill and has given me more confidence. 

In the objects brief we have to produce an image to go with commercial I have been looking at different advertisement to get some inspiration from them.
I like the way Costa Coffee produced their christmas stock photos. I think the bokeh effect makes these images appear more intresting.

I have tried some images in the same style.

Same image with a preset off lightroom.

Other inspiration included:

No7 Boots nail varnish

I took this image in the studio using a beauty dish under light. I found that using this lighting has taken most of the attention off the main aspect of the image and the writing on the bottle isnt as clear as I would of liked.

As my shoot didnt continue the way I wanted it to I progressed on to anouther else where using the object. The title of the bottle is called "stay perfect" I wanted to create an image to show you can stay perfect in anyway.

I took these images in snow to show diversity in my work.

Overall I think this object has been difficult to photograph as the writing on the bottle as been challenging to capture as the light bounces back off the bottle.  

Reflective Objects

In Andy lesson we had to photograph reflective objects. I brought in a unique perfume bottles and we were also given one to use. Both had different properties. Our task was to have four final images one from outside, one artificial lighting and two different studio and these had to be uploaded on to flickr.

Studio


I have used a snoot it has given each of these following image a professional look and has drawn the eye to the main focus. The reflection underneath has made the photograph more appealing.

F13, 1/60SEC, ISO - 100, White balance - Tungsten

F13, 1/60SEC, ISO - 100, White balance - Tungsten

F13, 1/60SEC, ISO - 100, White balance - Tungsten

F13, 1/60SEC, ISO - 100, White balance - Day light

Soft box under lit has given a soft subtle appearance but I find it to be quite dull and not very creative

F7.1, 1/100Sec Iso - 100, White balance - Day light.

A Snoot has side lit and a soft box has back lit the perfume bottle this has give the a shadowed and

reflection.

F7.1, 1/100Sec Iso - 100, White balance - Day light.

Natural lighting

When trying to produce natural lit objects my idea didn't go to plan. I thought the images I produced in the studio had more greater impact than outside.

This photo has a simple concept and I like the way the sun bounces off the perfume bottle.

F5.6, 1/100sec, Iso 100, White Balance - Day light.

Artificial

The light have I have used for artificial is just the normal lighting in a room. My images didn’t show a drastic lighting effect. To make the image more interesting on this photo I have added a black and white preset.

F6.3, 1/100 Sec, ISO - 100, White Balance - Flash

Although this image isn’t the most engaging photo it clearly shows the way the light is hitting the perfume bottle.
 

F6.3, 1/100 Sec, ISO - 100, White Balance - Flash

Macro Photography

Today we had a very productive lesson with macro photography. I have learnt a lot in this session as things are very new to me with this side of photography.

Macro

Macro means taking close up photographs and it gets recorded onto the camera sensor at a 1:1 ratio. Bokeh (暈け or ボケ) which just means out of focus or blur comes from Japan. Bokeh is usually found in the back ground of image when there is a shallow depth of field.
 
I took some macro images of objects in the studio using different lighting techniques to create alternative moods.

White balance - day light

To get the correct exposure I had to change the white balance into tungsten.

To create a different elision to this simple object I have used a mirror to add more of a shine. The out come is quite noticeable.

Side lit

Back lit - un mirrored

Back lit and mirrored to give a sparkled effect.

Although I am happy with the studio work they all don’t show any depth of field so at home I took some more images that show this.

I have place in the ring in the background and to get a bokeh effect. 　

Portraits

Portraits

This week we were asked to get into pairs and take some portraits of each other using different kinds of lighting techiques. I teamed up with Collette and we both had our own ideas of what we wanted to produce.

Natural lighting

I took this image in front of the window.

 

Honeycone Stop Light

When applying a honey cone stop light I moved the light at different angles of the face to create a shadowed effect.

Soft box

I found this kind of lighting for portraits to be suitable for this genre of photography as it gave a diffused subtle look. I placed the soft box straight on so the main focus is on the face. When post processing this image I have cropped the image and smoothed the skin to give a more youthful appearance. 



Using the same image I have changed the appearance by applying different presets. This tool is simple and very resultant.

Antique light preset - I like the effect old fashioned look it gives.

High contrast - I prefer this preset because the image is more bold. 

Manipulation

I have never done this before and I found it to be more simple then I expected to. I opened out Photoshop and selected half the image and copied the layer. I then used the free transform tool and flipped the half selected image horizontally. I then positioned how I wanted it. I repeated this and manipulated both sides are the face.

These are all the image I have taken on this shoot and turned them into a contact sheet. 

Museum Visit

This week we had a trip to Blackburn museum which was more interesting that excepted. They had many historical artefacts these included Egyptian, Victorian, coins, books and manuscripts. My favourite part of the trip was seeing the Egyptian part as I found this extremely fascinating . We were shown round the museum by Steve Irwin who was very helpful. I thought they were very considerate towards photographer as they asked us many times it were wanted to see any thing out of the cabinets.
Within this trip I took many pictures which I will am going to talk about and also use for part of my objects brief.

Textiles

I took these when I first arrived at the museum they had a full section on texture. These images I have captured arn't fantastic shots but it clearly shows the detail of the machine and what hard work they went to make these very detailed piece of equipment.

War
I took these images in front a large glass cabinet and had to improve the quality in lightroom as the light bounced back. I am still quite pleased the way they turned out.
 

 

Old fashion toys

When looking around the museum I came across some old fashion toys. Although times have change the idea hasn’t just the quality and look have been altered.

These are the same kind of toy just from to different times.



Pottery
The museum had a wide variety of pottery from different eras. These I have taken are from Egyptian and the war.

The Egyptian pottery isn’t as clear what they were actually use these for but in fact they used these for drinking, eating and storing.

These pot from the war are much more clear what they would be used for as they look quite similar to today.

Book and manuscripts
This part of the museum the flash had to be turned off because it would effect the objects and the room was quite dark so I didn’t take many images in this part but I did find it to be very intriguing.

Contact sheet
I have created a contact sheet of some the images I had taken on the day.