Studio practice 3a- Mazn

This is my third photo shoot relating to my final major project, here i continued to focus on the head shot style, seeing on whether it could be possible to shoot my while project like this. I used the same set up as the previous shoot, with the two hedler continuous lights, and the foam board as a background to solve the issue with the blinds. Before the shoot I asked the person, what type of personality they had, which made it easier to photograph them, as I could say ‘lets focus on this personality trait’, I am showing the persons different personality traits, to push them out of the stereotype which they could have been placed in by just viewing their cover. Fitting with what I stated within my brief, that i wish to explore the saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’.

I believe I had no issues with this photo shoot, the sitter was very comfortable in front of camera and professional too, we both communicated well to get the results which i required. The issue with the background was resolved within the previous shoot, so I just took what I did there and applied it to this shoot. But I feel after looking at both shoots, just doing head shots will not show what I would like to get across, from what I have stated within my brief.

Next I am going to look at some other styles at which I can communicate my final major project with, I will research into other ways which I could do this and then I will test out to see if it communicates which I have stated within my brief.

Studio practice 3A- Adam

This is my second photo shoot as part of my final major brief, as my first photo shoot was full body one with different stereotypes and views of the person showing, I decided that in this shoot I would focus on head shots and see if this style fitted with my brief. This was testing to see if i could shoot my whole project in the head shot style. For this shoot I used a mock up studio in college, using the two hedler dx15 continuous lights, (as I believe they have created a good effect whilst using them in the past).

At the beginning of this shoot I had one issue with the background, as they’re were no plain backgrounds around, i used the closet to it, which was some closed blinds, but this was not aesthetically pleasing and added a distraction to the image, so I got someone to assist me and hold some white foam board up behind my sitter to solve the issue. Other than that the photo shoot went smoothly and I believe I was very successful with this, due to what targets I set our initially with testing the styles to suit my brief.

Next I am going to do another shoot in this style, to see if it can work through a range of people, I will then evaluate each shoot and see which steps I need to take forward to develop my project. I will also look at having people assist me in future photo shoots to help me if I have issues similar to which appeared in this one.

Professional Practice – Day at impressions: Time for tea.

On Friday 14th November, I was part of a volunteer group helping on an event called Time for tea, http://impressions-gallery.com/events/event.php?id=285

What was my role:

My role was to make sure all the guests felt welcome, and that they had any refreshments which they required, I also was the photographer for the event. This required me to take images of any interactions between the staff and guests, and then also taking images of the talk about the exhibition: Hunters by David Chancellor.

This was a very interesting experience for me, as I want to work within this type of business it was very knowledgeable for me. I got to understand how the impressions gallery helps the elderly understand the photography, this has helped me gained knowledge on how the gallery markets towards certain ages, this is knowledge which I will require once I get into this line of work.

I am next being part of another event on the 12th december, so this will be another great learning experience for me.

Professional Practice – Strengths and weaknesses

As part of my professional practice I have been looking at what my strengths and weakness are, below is a list of what I believe they are :-

Strengths:

• Time Keeping
• Working to deadlines
• Comunication skills
• Creative

Weakness:

• Work flow management
• Stress management
• Prioritising

To combat my weakness I need to start by getting a diary and writing all important events and deadlines down so I can organise my priortising according to their deadlines. (As keeping to deadlines isn’t a weakness of mine, this isn’t an issue, it is how I prioritise my work prior to the deadline which I struggle with).

For work flow management I need to make sure that after a photoshoot, I download my images onto a number of different mediums, for example: Hard drive, dropbox, cd. ect.

Stress management, I would need to look at how to cope with stress, to a level which will not interfere with my work.

Studio Practice – Ring Flash

Today we were looking at ring flash, on the canon 5d mark 2, again each person had a go on camera and then in front of camera. While two people were up with the camera, the rest of the class could look at the projected image on screen to provide feedback on the highlights, levels and harshness of the shadows.

From this task today I have understood how to work with ring flash on people, I understand the effects it can give out, which can be flattering and which maybe not do flattering. I have come to understand that the ring flash can produce some beautiful images with the shadow behind the person, and with the small rings in their eyes, with creates a very aesthetically pleasing image. but if done wrong the shadow can be very overpowering and can take over the whole image.

Next I am going to look further into the uses of ring flash with portraiture, I will possibly look at purchasing my own to help with my practice, but first I will do some more testing to see if it will be the right decision to invest in.

Studio practice 3A- Phase one

As part of today’s lesson we worked with the phase one back and capture one software. We looked at different styles of lighting to suit a selection of moods and atmospheres, also with the uses of the capture one software we looked at work flow management. Each person had a turn in front of the camera and behind, I feel this is necessary as photographers need to know how it feels to be photographed, once we know how it feels to be in front of the camera, it can help with direction and such.

The work flow management system helped me a lot, as part of my professional practice I mentioned that a weakness of mine is work flow management, so this task helped me understand the importance of it more, and how to do it on a more professional level. Also being in front of the camera for a change, helped too, it helps me understand what it feels like to be in that position.

From each section of today’s lesson I have manage to take some knowledge and possibly take it further, from what I have learnt with the work flow management I can relate this to my own work and continue to do this with each photo shoot I do.Now i know how nervous you can feel in front of the camera, I will take into consideration the sitter/models feelings and be more considerate of them.

Studio practice 3A- Working with flash on location.

Today as part of our lesson we were set a task to do some speed light work with people on location. I used a simple set up with my 450D, standard 17-55mm lens and flash gun, with some card to diffuse if necessary.I went around fife rent locations situated within the college building, looking for challenging backgrounds and lighting ect.

In the first image, I chose a canteen area as the lighting wasn’t great quality, I thought this would be a challenging area to photograph in, and my first impressions was correct. I believe I have managed to light the girl pictured correctly, but I believe the background is quite dull, to improve this I could have used a second flash gun to fill in some light.

The second image, was a large area filled with daylight, I thought this would be interesting to see the effect the flash would have with the daylight. I believe it creates some beautiful lighting, the flash just helps slightly with a little fill in light from the side.

The Third image again was a large room with lots of daylight, so I thought It would possibly have the same effect as the second image. But as pictured you can see, in the door at the back the reflection in the flash, something which could be edited out, but also something I could improve on whilst working on location. Also another issue which is seen is on the kitchen worktop, the white area is over exposed.

Overall I believe this task was successful to my genre of photography, I have took some good knowledge and experience from this, overlooking the images I can see which areas i need to improve on and which areas are my strengths,

Next i will be looking at possibly using this technique within my project, along side that i will be improving on any of my faults which have come up during this task.

Studio practice 3a- Joshua

This is my first shoot to go along with my proposal, here I have tested the effects of continuos lighting, I also have experimented with how to shoot what is stated within my brief.  With this shoot i decided to have my sitter show the one side of which they can be seen as by others, or stereotyped as, and then also to show one side of them which stereotypers may not necessarily see. I have decided from this shoot that continuous lighting has a very good effect, I used my own studio kit at home which is easily portable, the only issue I have with the lighting is that it has to be run by a mains switch, at times within my project a main switch may not always be accessible. I am going to look at ways I can solve this issue, this would include looking at other lighting solutions, if I can get continuos lighting in a battery operated pack, and then also experimenting with other types of lighting such as flash and natural daylight etc.

Professional practice – How to get work experience

In a session of professional practice we have been discussing work experience, which is relevant to us indivdually. We discussed the different ways and approaches of how to get work experience: Email, Phone call or visiting in person.

I discussed that I had already got one days worth photographing people who are involved within the LGBT society at Leeds Trinity university, this does help with the experience as a working photographer, but me and the group decided just one day is not enough experience.

So from this I have been looking at other options of experience to add on, as I have ambitions to work within exhibitions, I have been looking at relevant gallery spaces to contact.

Next is to contact these people and get my work experience, aiming to get a few weeks experience in total.

Professional Practice- Interview to camera

In today’s session we were set out a task to be interviewed by our classmates, on video. The interviews all had relevance to our projects which we all we doing, so it seemed an easy task talking about our own work.

After getting up on camera being in the limelight, it was a bit more difficult as I am not used to being on that side of the camera, but it was very interesting seeing how I coped under the pressure of being taped whilst being questioned about my work.

Looking back at the videos, I feel I didn’t do the best I could do, probably down to nerves. This is something i hope to improve on throughout this semester, and then also throughout my career. To improve this i can practice by viewing my video again and looking at what I need to do, then keep practicing until i get better and more confident.