Candy hero work experience

As part of my work experience I took a job on with Bradford college and a few other students on my course to work with a company called Candy Hero. The job entailed:

• Taking Portrait images of all staff member at the local stores.
• Taking on location images of a select few products
• Working in a team to produce perfect technical studio images of a selection of products.
• Work flow management skills
• ‘Pea pushing’ skills
• Communication skills

I decided to be a part of this work experience because I know I have brilliant interpersonal and communication skills, so this would be great to show my potential in a professional working manner on a professional job contract. I also thought that this would be a great opportunity to work on what I feel is one of my weaknesses: Work flow management.

From participating in this job I have found out that I have better skills in work flow management than what I thought, I believe I worked well in this area of the job despite my doubts, I worked well to the deadlines of getting the images to the person in charge, I felt I did well in managing the work flow, by making sure when any sd cards were full that they were copied over to several sources, so that we could format the card and use it again if needed.

Overall I found the experience with while, I developed my skills and worked on developing my weaknesses into strengths.

(All proof of work flow management and development of weaknesses can be seen in outcome 5) 

studio practice 3b- cutting out

What have I done? 

In another group class we looked at using the pen tool on photo shop to cut out objects efficiently, and then this will allow the object to be moved onto another image without any small background edged located on the object.

To do this, we selected the pen tool in photo shop, start on a relatively straight edge and click on the edge of the object, continue clicking along the edge of the object until you get to a corner or a curved edge, to get past this you need to curve the line. To do this, you click over the curved edge and hold the mouse down this then allows you to curve the line in junction with the object.

What have I got from it?

From this lesson I know understand how to use the pen tool correctly, I know that using this photo shop tool is better is certain circumstances than the magic wand tool or the selection tool.

But this is a technique which I will not need within my photographical work or within my future career path.

Whats next?

I will not be using this technique within the future, although the tutorial was interesting and I learnt a new technique, it isn’t something that I will need to use within my work, so I will not be using this technique in the future.

Studio practice 3b- frequency separation

Before

After

What have I done?

As part of a group class we looked at the retouching technique of frequency separation. Frequency separation is a photo shop technique that you can use to remove blemishes, dark lines and so on. Helping make the skin look more smoother and younger, but to make it seem realistic a texture layer is added.

I used a rather close up shot, one of which the person had numerous marks on their face, I used this particular image so that it would be much easier to compare them both after I had finished.

To make this technique work, there has to be two working layers in photo shop: Blur and Texture. The blur layer is where you adjust the gaussian blur to the point where a small amount of texture cane be seen within the highlights. The texture layer is where you set ups dialogue box up with the following:

Layer: Blur

Channel: RGB

Invert: Unchecked 

Blending: Subtract

Opacity: 100%

Preserve transparency: Unchecked

Mask: Unchecked 

Scale: 2

Offset: 128

Next you then go back onto the blur layer, use the marquee tool and select any problem areas of the skin, and re apply them gaussian blur, but subtly otherwise the skin may become plastic looking.

What have I got from it?

Although I did find this lesson very interesting and I learned a different technique to retouching, I believe it is something which is not suited towards any of my final major project, due to me wanting to combat stereotypes I feel it would take away from my narrative.

I also feel that after my degree this technique wouldn’t be very useful as I am aiming into a career of the photo related business, rather than becoming a photographer or re toucher.

Whats next?

As said above although finding the technique interesting I believe I will not be using this technique for any of my other photographical work, I also will not be using it after my degree due to my preferred career path.

Studio practice 3b- second shoot ‘NERD’

What have I done?

This is my second photo shoot for this module relating to my final major project, but my first after development. This photo shoot was to convey the stereotype ‘nerd’. As found in my post Project development, I have developed my project to only have one sitter throughout my whole project, this I feel will have portray my narrative much clearer.

This photo shoot, was to get some head shots of the stereotype ‘nerd’, after some surface research I did.

What have I got from it?

I feel this photo shoot has been successful in gaining more narrative, it fits better with my project proposal and development.

Although I feel the narrative has been successful within narrative, I feel it is lacking within technical skills, which is something I will work on and improve upon in future shoots.

Whats next?

Next I am going to do some deeper research onto stereotypes before I photograph them, this will help the narrative become much stronger. I also think looking into usage of props will be useful to the narrative.

I also will be focusing a lot more on my lighting skills, to make sure I don’t have any issues when doing future shoots, this may need some testing with my studio kit before shoots, so I can get more familiar with the settings.

Studio practice 3b – Project proposal development

What have I done?

To see whether my project was going in the correct direction I re-read over my initial project proposal to see if I was on track and whether my imagery I was creating was correlating to what I stated.

From looking over at my project proposal I have come to the decision that the way I was photography my project didn’t help the narrative become real, this also was apparent when talking to peers and others about my work.

I have now decided that it will be best to focus on one person and explore stereotypes that way. I will do this by picturing the person in a few different stereotypes, which i will research. This also still correlates with what I stated within my brief, as I said I wanted to explore stereotypes, how and why they are formed. I will just be approaching it in a different photographical way.

What have I got from this?

From looking over my project proposal and deciding it would be best to approach it in a different photographically manner, I believe I have become more confident in photographing my project, I believe now the narrative will be more apparent across my images.

Whats next?

Next is to continue researching into stereotypes, I will look at a number of different ones, and then begin to photograph them after throughly researching the particular stereotype.

studio practice 3b – First shoot

What have I done? 

Here are a few images from my first photo shoot, I did a selection of head shots and full bodied images to develop from my previous module photo shoots. As I am still carrying on with focusing on stereotypes, I wanted to have two sections of a shoot, one of the person in their ‘stereotype’ and the other in their ‘true’ self.

In this photo shoot I wanted to convey, the sitters stereotype as a ‘party girl’, as the sitter is a young adult, that is something which young adults can be associated with.

What have I got from it?

Although I feel I have got some brilliant portraits from this photo shoot, I feel that I have not got what I would have liked to convey through my images. I believe I should have had my background information available to viewers to help portray my narrative across.

Whats next?

As I feel this photo shoot was not successful in my narrative aims, I am going to read through my brief and see if there is any development which I may need to work on, this also may help me portray my narrative across much better within my images.

Studio practice 3a- best practice images

Why have I chosen these images as my best practice?

The three images are from tasks which have been set out in class or from testing and experimenting, these are not shot for my final major brief.

I chose these images because I feel they are technically and aesthetically on point, they are all lit well, in focus and well composed. I feel these images show my best testing work throughout this module. All these images contain different lighting set ups, which I have researched into as part of my final major, they all have influenced my styles of lighting within my photo shoots for my final major.

studio practice 3a- Adam 2

This is my fifth photo shoot in relation to my studio practice brief, for this photo shoot, I used one of my previous sitters which I did head shots of. The reason to revisit this person was I felt that using a number of different compositions would help with my stated idea in my brief. I decided to take images of this person in their usual attire and then in clothing of a sports which they actively took in. (As i wanted to show that from first look of someone you don’t always consider them to play sports, or do certain activities.)

I believe this photo shoot was semi successful, I had difficulties finding a suitable location for this photo shoot (this due to me not scouting beforehand), So I just chose a location near, which had a relatively clear back ground, but with some relevance to the person. I also I believe the lighting at the beginning was not the best, due to the light coming from straight behind the subject, it was not flattering.

But I did achieve the outcome I wanted with looking at different attire and how it affects views on people and frothed stereotypes.

Next I will look at a range of different locations before going on a shoot to avoid the issue which I had with this one, I will also take a number of different lighting equipment with me to deal with any lighting issues I may have.

Studio practice 3a- practicing ring flash at home

Following on from a class introduction to ring flash, I decided to research further into the lighting technique and bought my own ring flash, I did a test at home with my purchased ring flash. I decided to use myself as a sitter to practice on, this relates to my project as I am specifically looking at portraiture. The aim of this shoot was to see if I could use the ring flash in any of my work, if it could be used within my project and created beautiful lighting to which I feel is necessary to my project and work.

From doing this photo shoot I have found using ring flash very easy and simple to use, its small and compact, making it easy to carry around for photo shoots. It also doesn’t require as much battery power as a speed light would, which is helpful again for storage and carrying less things around ect.

Overall I have found this photo shoot successful,as I have done which i set out to do and have achieved a great outcome. I believe this stye of flash lighting is great for the type of photography which I do, It creates a beautiful ring light within the eye, and gives and all round consistent light coverage.

Next I will be contiuing to use ring flash within my photography work when appropriate, I may look into investing into a more long lasting, better brand.

Studio Practice 3a- Tom

This is my fourth photo shoot relating to my brief, for this photo shoot I decided to do a election of head shots and full bodied shots, I also did the photo shoot in relating environments to try and achieve a better narrative throughout my images. The selections of head shots and full body shots, help have a few different angles and view points within the image, with each shot I did both a full body and a head shot, from this I could then narrow down which composition worked better with the narrative that was being depicted, also which would be more aesthetically pleasing.

The only issue i believe I had with this photo shoot was keeping square on, some of the objects within my images are not straight, therefore can be quite distracting and un pleasant to look at. In future to deal with this, I need to make sure that I take a tripod with me at all times, this can help me keep my image square on and straight, but if in fact that my squaring on isn’t the issue, I may have to adjust the particular object myself. For example in the third picture, you can see that there is another image in the background next to my sitter, to make this image more aesthetically pleasing I could have just straighten the other image, or placed it some where else in the picture.

Other than this issue I believe my photo shoot was successful on the grounds that I have some technically correct images (lighting ect.) with the narrative and story of which I was trying to depict.

Next I am going to be taking tripods with me on each photo shoot, to make sure I have no squaring on difficulties, I also will be focusing more on my composition, as on some only images I have noticed there is too much head room.