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.

Contact Sheet

Every week we are given a weekly picture project and this weeks project is October light and colour. When I think of October my first thought is leaves falling off trees and cold whether. When taking these images for this weeks project I went to a local woods and took some snap shots. After I had finished this task we were asked to make a contact sheet in lightroom.

I created this contact sheet by pressing print on the right hand side and it gave me many options such as layout, image setting and page options. I chose the size of each grid and how much margin I wanted in the layout option.

I then added the date of when each image was taken and what exposure I have used. Almost any information can added. I find this tool to be quite simple but very effective.
I have leant a lot from this task as I never knew how to create a contact sheet and I will find this very useful in the future.

CD Cover

CD Cover

For this week brief I have been asked to design a cover c.d. of my choice. I had so many songs I wanted to chose but I decided on Travis McCoy - Billionaire as it is one of my favourites. I thought the best idea was to go out and about for this brief instead of staying in the studio.
With the songs name being Billionaire and lyrics rapping about money I thought of the lottery. So I went and got some lottery ticket and scratch cards to take photos of. After many attempts I was still not entirely happy with my images even after post processing them.

First Attempt



Second Attempt 

I wanted to create an image that look like someone had just won the jackpot on the lottery and they are looking happy and excited, but after glancing at this image I have found the composition is all wrong. I am still not happy with the image after editing.

When setting up my camera I had taken a few test shot to get the correct exposure, these images were much better then my original ideal as they were more interesting.

In lightroom I applied a black and white preset and increased the blacks to give a scared vulnerable look. Then in Photoshop I added to text and cropped the image to fit a cd cover.



I tried out two examples for this song title The Recluse, I have chosen the first image to summit as I think it fits the brief best. I am happy with the outcome of both pictures than I was with my first thought.

Studio Introduction

Studio Introduction

I have recently been introduced to the studio, I have been shown many important pieces of equipment and their uses that I will use regularly. I am going to talk about each piece of equipment individually that I’ve learnt within the session.

 

Studio Equipment

Soft box - The soft box is used to create soft diffused light and it also is used as a modifier.

Beauty dish - The beauty dish is used for soft lighting and gives a dramatic effect.

Honeycomb Grid - A honeycomb shaped grid attaches on to the modifier and slightly diffuses the light.

Reflectors - Comes in black (absorb the light) and white (reflect the light) and are made from large pieces of polystyrene.

Snoot - A snoot is a cone tube that fit over the lights to give's a controlled beam light.

Tripod - The tripod is used for keeping the camera elevated and balanced.

Health and safety

Don’t touch bulb because they could be hot.

Don’t leave wires trailing because this cause trips or fall.

In case of fire don’t use the lifts, use the stairs.

Dont take food or drinks in the studio.

When I went in the studio learning about the types of lighting I decided to try them out, so I used a soft box and took some images of still object but each image I took I change the setting on my camera to see what effect it would have on each image.

Iso - 100, F7.1, 1/60sec

I took this image in the studio with using Tungsten lighting on my camera to see what it effect it would give.

I like the effect it gives because its not the normal setting I would generally use.

 

Iso - 200, F7.1, 1/60 sec

I used just the soft box tilted over the perfume bottle (top lit), doing this has given a reflection. 

Iso - 200, F29, 1/200 sec

Iso -100, F5.6, 1/10sec

Camera Basics

Camera Basics

　

I have been asked to talk about camera basics that I have learnt within the session.

Aperture ( F-stop)

The aperture is the opening of the lens this controls how much light passes through the camera. The aperture is like the pupil of a human eye. To change the aperture on the camera you should change the f number. An easy way to remember the f number is:

The lower the f number the more light is let through ( shallow depth of field).

The higher the f number the less light is let through ( deep depth of field).

Shutter Speed

The longer the shutter speed the more light is let in. (blurs action).

The shorter the shutter speed the less light is let in. (freezes action).

ISO

ISO stands for International standards Organization. Iso is how sensitive the sensor is to light. The lower the Iso the better quality the image will be and using a higher ISO will give images noise.

JPEG

JPEG is a small compressed file so more images can be stored on a card. When shooting on JPEG a lot of quality of the image is lost. JPEG’s are used on the world wide web. - This is a large file that has come straight from the camera and hasn’t been altered by built in camera software.

Raw
This is a large file that has come straight from the camera and hasn’t been altered by built in camera soft ware. Raw gives the best quality of image and when post processing images, items can be changed such as white balance and colouring. When shooting Raw you get less images on a card than you would with JPEG.

Modes

All are DSLR cameras are different but they all have more or less the same modes. I have a canon 400D and this come with the following modes:

Macro - Taking close ups and records onto the camera senser at a 1:1 ratio.

Manual - This should be used, you have to set the aperture and shutter speed so your telling the camera what to do, not the camera telling you what to do.

Night - Taking images in the dark so it gives a longer exposure and needs a higher Iso.

Landscape - Using landscape will capture a lot of detailed scenery using high a f stop.

Aperture priority - This mode sets the aperture.

Sports - Uses a high shutter speed to capture moment.

Shutter Priority - Sets the shutter speed.

Portrait - For taking portrait images. The back ground will blurred out and uses a low f number.

Systems & Processes

Induction Project

For my Induction project I have been asked to research two objects that are meant for two different photographic purposes. I have to decided to use Jonathan Knowles's image for an advertising image and one of Edward Weston's for a still life image. Both are from different eras as well as photographic genres.

Advertisement 

Jonathan Knowles is photographer of our era who has many famous images; such as O2 and Daz washing powder. I think the concept is referring to the big bang theory (the start of creation) as the text says “Lager Evolved” which I think is likening the larger to humans evolving through time. The image is very clear & mimimalistic. The bottle is sharp and bold, this draws your attention to the bottle. The photographer has used a high F number to give a deep depth of field so everything is sharp and in focus. When post processing this image the photographer has changed the back ground.

I decided to use this image by Jonathan Knowles because I believe his work is very creative and diverse. I like the effect he has used making the back ground blue, it gives an ice cold feel to the bottle making the image enticing. The way he has used the rays of light behind the bottle draws your eye to the centre of the image making this the main aspect of the actual advertisement.

Still life

This image I have chosen of a cabbage leaf was taken in 1931 by a famous photographer, Edward Weston. He also took many still images such as rocks and peppers. The image was taken on a 10x8 view camera and are gelatin silver prints. The image is top lit and he has used a high F number to achieve a deep depth of field, this has made the object detailed and made the leaf veins more emphasized. Edward Weston took pictures of objects that looked like parts of the human body or form. This particular image is thought to look like ripples of a ladies skirt.

I chose this image to research because I found it to be different because when I first glanced at the image I didn’t automatically know what it was. It took a moment to realised it was a cabbage leaf. I like that the photographer has his own unique style taking simple still life objects and turning them into more of an interesting object. I also like the way it has been captured because it makes the leaf look quite fluid.

I have compared both images and I found that I prefer Jonathan Knowles image of the Guinness bottle because I feel theres more of a concept behind this than the cabbage leaf. But also they are both relevant to today even though they were both taken at total different periods of time.   

Test Shots

I have taken some test shots of still life photography using fruit. I have chosen still life because I like the way you can take simple everyday objects and show them as something interesting and beautiful.

 I took this image of a necterine and edited it in lightroom. I applied a preset called colour creative and increased the blacks. Doing this it has given the peach a velvety look to it and made it stand out more.

Iso 100, F 5.6, shutter speed 125/sec

Using the same same settings as above I took a picture of a pear. These pears are the same image but the second pear has been post processed in lightroom. I’ve changed the look by slightly cropping the image & applying a preset called antique, I also made the clarity higher altogether this gives it an older look.