Studio Photography

The next project that we have done, was based on studio work, therefore we had to create eight final shots all within the studio, to a professional quality. However, it was not quite as simple as this as for the entire project, we had to work with a partner... which isn't as easy as it seems. The aim was that each pair, would work together and ideally complete their work with a similar theme and look, however due to a difficult partnership with my partner, we opted for completely different style's as I went for the low key, dark and moody effect apposed to my partners high key, light effect.

Furthermore, for this project we worked with media make up students, which was a fantastic experience and learning process, as it gave me the chance to witness how the make up was applied as well as giving me the opportunity to work with other people, who have control over how he subjects/ images look, therefore it forced me to work with other people and discuss the outcomes rather than doing it all my way, which was very useful and something I definitely need to be able to do, if I want to become a photographer as a career path. 

The theme for the brief, was Aliens, again which was really good fun and made the studio work a lot more interesting as it wasn't a basic portrait shoot but it had a bit of difference, therefore making it more enjoyable for both myself and the media make up students. 

As previously stated, my theme for this shoot was low key lighting, to create an intense, dark and unsettling atmosphere as I really wanted to portray the subjects as non-human and slightly dangerous. Also, with the fantastic quality of the make up of the subjects, I really wanted to follow through the quality and I believe that the low key lighting creates a quality image without any loss of atmosphere, which for me is an essential part of any image and how it will be portrayed. 

I really enjoyed this photo shoot, as it gave me the chance to really explore lighting options and effects, both low and high key, although I do prefer low key as for me it creates a deeper and darker atmosphere which was extremely fun to replicate in the photo shoot as I think it works very well. Also I really enjoyed trying out different effects to achieve different atmospheres, and seeing how an image is portrayed differently due to the atmosphere..

Below are my eight final shots for this project...

Selective Process

     From my previous post on Careers, I researched many different areas of photography, however only a few actually interested me as a career path. Therefore as a selection process, I have chosen the different areas of photography that appeal to me, as something of which I would be interested in, to continue as part of my career. These areas include;

Fashion, Glamour, Advertising, Fine Art, Nature, Landscape, Travel, Nude, Macro, Photojournalism and Documentary.

     Although, there are areas of which I am unsure about, but would consider doing them, so long as the assignment interested me, these areas include;

Still Life, Underwater, Architecture, Forensic, Product and Medical.

     Furthermore, as there are areas of which I am unsure about, equally there are areas of which I am sure I do not want to do, as these areas of photography do not interest me as being part of my career and I have no interest in doing that type of photography. Mainly, as these areas do not appeal to me, I don't find them creative or interesting. These area's include;

Wedding, Portrait, Candid, Secret, Headshot and Child.

     Now, my next step for my career research is to, focus solely on the area's of photography that I am interested in and to specifically find out, how to get a job and publicity in those area's of photography without the need to go University, as at the moment, University is not an option for me and is something that I think is unlikely to be as my next step after my college course is over.

Photoshop Techniques

Recently, both in college and at home, I have been experimenting with photoshop effects and techniques, which lean more towards graphic design, however I feel they are useful to me, to understand more about photoshop and how it works. Quite a few artists have inspired me for this, such as Miles Donavan, Julien Opie and Jason Brooks, just to name a few. Just a sample of the techniques I have done include vector based images, using layer masks, joiners effect, panoramic images as well as adding my own style to each image. Overall, I found most of them quite easy, however mainly the vector based images where tricky at first but more time consuming as one alone took me more than two weeks to finish. I have really enjoyed working alot more with Photoshop, and I will continue to research and learn new techniques and to better myself with the program...

Firstly, this is my Panoramic image which I created through Photoshop, by taking several images and merging them together through the Photomerge selection tool. This technique was extremely easy and presented no problems at all as well as being able to achieve it within seconds.

This is my joiners image, the image is of a Jim Morrison poster which I own. Again, I did this technique very simialr to the panoramic image as it is made up of several images which are then stuck together through the Photomerge option in Photoshop, however this technique can also be achieved manually, which for this image both ways where utilized as Photoshop was only able to creat half of the image and then it was up to me to complete the image manually. Again, this was a very easy technique which produces very interesting and aesthetic results.

This image was inspired by the work of Miles Donavan. I created this image using the layer mask tool in Photoshop and used a photocopy style image as the background of which then I used the monotone colour option. However, for this image to be different I created two of the same image only with different colours then offset them to create a 3D style image and then I added the background using the same effect as the main image. Aesthetically, I am really pleased with this image and feel it is quite strong aesthetically. I really enjoyed the process of this image as although it was easy, it was quite lengthy at first but never the less very rewarding at the end.

Again, this is another image of Jim Morrison (unless you have not noticed this will become a re-occuring feature) this time the image has been inspired by the artist Jason Brooks and his vector style images, however unlike his images I have not used the gradient tool, I have kept each shade a solid block as I prefer this look. This is my favourite image out of my experiments, as it was the most challenging and the most time consuming (two and a half weeks) however again, it was worth the labour as I feel this is a very strong aesthetic image and I am really pleased with how it turned out.

Youth Centre Opening

On Saturday, 20th November I attended my second event as a photographer. This time it was for the opening of the new youth centre in Widnes. The centre is the start of many new developments for youth within Halton. The centre's opening was brilliant, the council spared no expense and went all out on the hollywood theme for the opening. They had entertaining from singing to dancing as well as a magician. Food was offered and there was a special appearance from Titan the Robot, which personally was the highlight of the day. The centre is state of the art and free to all users, as well as being opening 7 days a week. Overall, I really enjoyed the day and it was a great confidence booster for me, as this was only days after my first attempt at being a event photographer this gave me the chance to work on ideas and gain more experience in this area. The experience I gained was excellent as this was an all day event, I was able to wonder round at my own leisure and photograph whatever I wished with time to spare... so for that reason I found this event to be easier but no less useful. As this was in the middle of the day and the building had windows, the lighting was quite good and was easier to capture shots with good exposure without increasing my ISO, as I did this during the speaking contest and alot of my images had noise on them although this didnt really happen during this event, which was good for me. Below are a selection of images I took at the event...

Halton's Public Speaking Contest 2010

On Tuesday, 16th November I attended Halton's Public Speaking Contest 2010 as the events photographer along with another student from my college photography course, James Wrigley who was also a photographer for the evening. The contest was held at Kingsway College and it is a chance for all schools within the borough to showcase some of their best students from both key stage 3 and key stage 4 who excel in english especially verbal communication. As part of the contest each student has around 3 - 5 minutes to discuss or argue on a subject of their choice... the subjects ranged from global warming, society to music. All students who participated did really well as this isnt as easy as it sounds and I should know as I was one of the competing students in the first public speaking contest although I came second, I really enjoyed the opportunity and it was a useful tool to develop. This was my first attempt at photographing an event as it was only the third week into my course after I had started although I feel I did quite well and the evening went well. It was an excellent learning opportunity for me and I learnt alot, such as how to quickly set up my camera for when I didnt get the shot I wanted and to take as many shots as possible in the amount of time. I feel this opportunity helped me in my course as one of the projects was a documentary based project which is similar to what I did on the evening of this event. Below are a few of the images I captured at the event...

Low Key Wet Photography

As part of wet photography, we learnt about studio work with film and as part of this we looked at low key lighting especially in the work of George Hurrell. George Hurrell was a 1930's and 1940's hollywood photographer who was one of the first to photograph what is now known as glamour photography although as it was the 30's visual content is minimum. Although he made major contributions to glamour, his main style of work was portraits. His clients where hollywoods best including Norma shearer, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo. Hurrell's instantly recognisable work was based heavily on the dramatic lighting which is known as low key lighting. Low key lighting is a lighting effect which creates a high contrast image and a chiaroscuro effect within the image, which accentuates the contours of the subject with deep shadow and bright highlights usually on one side of the subject. Average photographs are created with a three light set up which includes a key light, fill light and back light... where as a low key lighting set up includes a key light and either a fill light or more often than not, just a simple reflector, which is used to control an areas contrast. Low key lighting has a higher lighting ratio such as 1:8 compared to a high key lighting ratio of 1:1. Low key lighting works best in a studio or under very controlled environments as this effect works best for potraits. During this project, I learnt alot about studio lighting and the set ups needed to create a low key lighting effect of which I think will be extremely useful in the future. Also, I learnt about light ratios which is really important and useful. Below are a few images from my low key shoot...

 The first image is the fully exposed contact strip for my negatives... the exposure time was five seconds.

This is my final print before I experimented with the magenta filter, it is the complete shot... I am very happy with this image as I think it has worked quite well. The exposure time for this shot was three seconds. This image is a hurrell replica and not my own set up as I reproduced the set up of which I thought was used to create the original image.

This is the same shot and negative as the previous image although for this shot, I have enlargered and printed a specific part of the negative to create a close up shot. Again, this is before I have used the magenta filter, the exposure was five seconds. I am pleased again with this image as I think it has worked well. Although the original image was a replica this close up image was that of my own ideas.

This is a different shot, although for this image I have experimented with the magenta filter. I increased the filter to seventyfive and increased the exposure time to seven seconds. I think it came out quite well and I am pleased with the outcome. Again, this image is a re-created attempt of a Hurrell image.

This is again the enlarged negative only this time I have used the magenta filter... still at seventyfive although the exposure time was thirteen seconds. I am very pleased with the outcome as I think it is a good example of low key lighting.

The difference about this shot is that it is my own shot, pose and set up where as the other's where Hurrell replica's. This is the complete shot and I have used a magenta filter although it is only set to fifty and the exposure time was five seconds. I am very pleased with this image as it is my own set up and it has came out the way I intended and I feel works really well and also is a good example of low key lighting.

Tattoo Documentary Project

These are the twelve final shots from my documentary project within my photography course. The project was based on tattooing. For the final shots, I had to follow the photo essay structure which had to consist of an establishing shot, which would act as an opening to a story therefore it had to set scene. A medium shot, which is the follow on shot so it would have to bring the viewer closer to the action. A detail shot, which is of course a shot with detail relating to the story or theme. next, was the portrait shot, which is the main character or subject. Afterwards, came the moment shot, which is the peak of the story and the main action/ shot. Finally, the closing shot, which is a natural end to the story. For this project, we had to come up with a message or theme that we had to portray through the images and it had to be consistent throughout the images otherwise it would not be clear what the theme was... the theme for my project was to portray tattooing from the artists point of view as most images relating to tattooing are from the clients perspective or just of the tattoo where as I wanted to try something different. Throughout this project I was able to further develop everything I learnt from the last project and learn new skill such as photographing in a environment out of my control as I have no control over the lighting or the subjects. I found documentary photography really interesting and enjoyable although I think when doing this type of photography the photographer should keep direction to a minimum of which is what I did throughout my time in the tattoo studio. Aslo, I was able to use my imagination alot during this project as I needed shots that where understandable of what the shot was of but I wanted to try to get more abstract and different and more interesting shots rather than obvious shots such as a shot of the studio from the outside for the establishing shot as instead  my establishing shot was of the studios business card with the tattooist in the background but with a shallow depth of field.