WEEKLY JOURNAL WEEK 1
The time in our first session was used to recap how to assemble all the different equipment we were going to be using throughout the year such as Bowens 500 flash lights, colorama backgrounds and tripods/stands. We set up our lights with a slave/sync cell and sync cable which are flash accessories, that are used to fire another flash remotely so that multiple flash set ups can be arranged without cables and all synchronised with the cameras shutter.
WEEK 2 This week we were again focusing on setting up the lights in the studio, but this time we were capturing portraits. The camera was set with a aperture on f11, had a shutter speed of 1/125 seconds and 100ASA. We used to Bowens 500 lights with softboxes set to 3.4 and 3.9 to light the body and face. We experimented with both manual and automatic focus, and started using the diopter correction eye piece, which allowed you to optimise the Phase One viewfinder’s sharpness in conjunction with your individual eyesight. This was a good feature as it allowed near and farsighted photographers to view the finder image accurately without wearing glasses. We also used a wireless transmitter which allowed us to take pictures on the camera and in seconds it would appear on the mac. A wireless transmitter allows you to see what your camera sees and allows you to control the settings and shooting functions through programmes such as Capture One. Shutterspeed and Aperture Sequence
A call sheet is a document that have all the information everyone in your cast and crew needs to know before a photo shoot. They contain information such as the photographer’s contact information, crew and cast names, location details and address, concept details and more. In the lecture we discussed different trades that were likely to appear on a call sheet and who would be present in a photoshoot, here are a few of the ideas we came up with: - photographer - assistant photographer - make up artist - stylist - model - light tech - director - mac operator - producer - client - courier
Richard Avedon Darkness and Light Review Darkness and Light explores Richard Avedon’s style of photography and his techniques he uses to take such iconic images. The short film shows how he altered the terms of photographic portraiture due to his fascination with capturing expression and emotion in faces and body language. Avedon would always want to create a story, even when there wasn’t one present; the short film teaches us that he would photograph on a white background so the viewer would focus solely on “reading a face”, told that it would also heighten the fact that they are alone. We learn that there are some frightening elements to his work, with Avedon looking through a camera, his portraits are never not self-portraits, he claims to have invested each of his works with fragments of his own face. It is difficult not to be impressed by Avedon’s photographic creativity although some of his work is controversial. Avedon seems to find both sides of every person in a photograph as he claims “To be a photographer, you have to nurture the things that most people discard.” Avedon would find nothing from posing royally; instead he would disgust his subject to “bring out the loss of humanity in them.” Darkness and Light shows how Avedon was intrigued by the complexity and power of the human face.
In week 2 we got assigned into groups and got given a theme that we had to research and discuss that would be used to complete one of our assignment tasks. My group (Group 4) got given MAXIMUM SPARKLE and printscreens of our presentation can be seen on Week 11.
WEEK 3 Aggressive/Scary Portraits
Our brief in Week 3 was to produce a ‘scary’ portrait. As much as facial expressions and clothing were important feature in this brief, the lighting was essential. We used four Bowens 500w lights with softbox and flash to light certain parts of the face and background. Two side lights were used to light the side of the face/hair - these helped separate the model from the background as they were both dark and the body would have been lost in the background without them. Another light was placed behind the camera, this gave a slight colour to the face, but was kept minimal to make the face appear darker to create a mysterious, dull atmosphere. The final light was used to light the blue background. We shot these images on the Phase IQ140 DB on a tripod. We used a radio transmitter/ reciever which allowed us to wirelessly fire flashes even when it was not connected to the camera. This prevented hazards as it didn’t requite any extra wires lying around. We learnt how to create and name new sessions within the Capture One software on the Mac Book Pro so our work was kept organised and would be easy to locate.
WEEK 4 Brief: Avedon white background shoot. Style yourself to re-create a portrait by Richard Avedon, with white background. You will create the set and shoot.
Tethered photography is the process of connecting your camera to your computer wirelessly. We used a Mac Book Pro and used tethering software to display and save images straight onto the Mac from the camera. This way we could clearly see the results of a shoot on a large computer screen straight away and check the focus and composition was correct.
Kelvin Colour Temperature Scale
Kelvin is a unit of measurement for temperature and in photography we most often use it to measure the color temperature of light sources. The temperature scale most often used in photography ranges from about 2000K (K=Kelvin) to 9000K. On my diagram you can see that the temperature of light of a candle is roughly about 2000K. So if you walked into a room lit entirely by candles, in order to get a nice white balance you would set your Kelvin temperature very low on the scale (2000K). Same principle applies when we walk into a room lit by regular tungsten yellow lightbulbs, we would then set our white balance to around 3500k to match the temperature of light in the room. If you are shooting in the shade and want nice warm natural looking skin tones then you’ll want to shoot with a temperature around 6500-8000K depending on how deep you are positioned into the shade and how much natural sunlight is influencing the light temperature.
WEEK 5 This week we arranged 4 different light sources in various places in the studio and used trial and error to find out what shutter speed our light sources needed to be illuminated correctly with the aperture of F16 and 100ASA. The different light sources included fairy lights, LED’s, lamps, a modelling light and a bowens flash head with a green gel. We used a sekonic light/flashmeter to give us an average shutter speed for each lighting source. We set the Phase One to a shutter speed of 4 seconds, this gave us time to expose each lighting source for a good amount of time. The different lighting sources needed varying exposure times, for example, the LED’s needed to be exposed for under a second so as soon as the camera was set off, the LED’s had to be switched off instantly so they weren’t over exposed. We used a Bowens travel pack which included a battery flash which was useful due to the amount of lights plugged into a main socket in the room.
This was our class final outcome. In the end we introduced extra light sources by using our phones, the slow shutter speed gave us time to move the light around to created colourful light paths. PHOTOGRAPHY IN PUBLIC SPACES - As long as you’re not causing any harassment, you’re allowed to photograph other people if you’re both on public land. - If the person you’re photographing is on private land, they could claim a right to privacy, and if you’re on private land, then the owner of the land has the right to restrict photography on their property. - How you choose to use the photos later may well be restricted by whether you have a model release or property release. - You do not need permission to photograph a property if you can capture it from a pubic place. - Should be aware that if you’re photographing something that could be deemed sensitive to national security, then recent prevention of terrorism legislation could give the police cause to stop you if they believe you to be involved in terrorist activity. They need to be able to prove reasonable suspicion, and in any case can never order you to delete your photos without going through the correct legal process first.
COPYRIGHT Copyright for photographers means owning property. With ownership, you get certain exclusive rights to that property. For photographic copyrights, the ownership rights include: 1. to reproduce the photograph; 2. to prepare derivative works based upon the photograph; 3. to distribute copies of the photograph to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending; 4. to display the photograph publicly; A.O.P - www.the-aop.org “The AOP is the leading organisation protecting and representing the best of professional photographers. Whatever your role in the industry, the AOP can help you develop your business. Licensing fees, on the other hand, control where and how our images can be used and in what way. Licensing your images properly creates images that can continue generating income long after the shoot is over. Licensing image usage Assuming that you’re happy with the terms you’ve agreed with the person who wants to use your image, you will then grant them a licence for that usage. This does not involve you handing over your copyright to them. It simply means that you have an agreement whereby you allow a third party to use an image for a certain means and for a certain amount of time. It’s important that both these things are agreed beforehand, as well as whether the licence is exclusive or non-exclusive. Most commissioned photography will be on an exclusive basis. The client is paying you to take a certain photograph for whatever their purposes may be, so they’re not going to want you to make that image available to other clients – hence you will license it exclusively to them. However, it’s possible that after a while the shot may not be so important to them (for example if they’d wanted a portrait of a celebrity for a magazine cover), and consequently they’re happy for you to try to sell it onwards, for example by putting it into a photo library. In this instance, you would agree on a time-limited exclusive licence – for example for a period of 5 years, after which the usage is non-exclusive for, say, a further 5 years. If they want to use it again after that time, they would need to negotiate a further licence. All of this requires filling out forms to confirm a certain agreement.
WEEK 6 This week we practiced shooting food on a white background with the Phase One IQ140 camera. It was set to with an aperture of f22 to allow depth of field from the front object to the rear object. The focus point was approximately a third into the depth of field. We set up one Bowens 500 flash head, which was set high to eliminate shadows on the white colorama paper background. After taking a few images of the food arrangements we opened up the files in Capture One and played with the RAW adjustments including: the colour temperature, levels, hue and the saturation. We focused on the histogram, which showed the levels of black (0) and pure white (255) within the image. We used the keystone correction tool to transform any lines that weren’t parallel. The tool helped eliminate any perspective distortion that was present. We also lightened any shadows that were present and reduce the highlights to create a pure white background. Finally, we saved the image to a tiff.
WEEK 7 This week we had to dress up as a movie character that would be instantly recognisable. I decided to dress up as Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribean. I used a sword and a gun as props so I could use them to help with my positioning as this particular character. We experimented with a variety of different poses that incorportated my props. I put brown eyeshadow under my eyes to make my eyes looks darker and used other makeup such as eyeliner to make my eyebrows darker.
We got into groups of 3, one person modelling, one person operating the mac and another using the Phase One IQ140 camera. We had to have strong communication between each role. As a photographer we had to direct our model into different positions and take shots of each. The mac operator had to use the Capture One software to check how sharp each image was and make sure the focus was on the eyes of the model. We set up 2 Bowens 500 flash heads to light the blue background and the model.
This was the image I selected of myself to use in my selected movie poster. As I was dressed up as Jack Sparrow I decided to cover him up in the poster. To do this I had to flip my own image as it fit within the poster better. I altered the colour tones, so increased the yellows and reds to make my face have more of a glow like the other people in the poster, I also increased the brightness slightly.
Screen shot of A1 portrait poster, 300dpi.
WEEK 8 - DECADES/FINGER PORTRIATS
This week’s task was to capture different generations by the amount of fingers a pe hold up 1 finger to represent the first decade of their lives, someone aged 11-20 an to capture 9 out of the 10 generations. I thought this task was very challenging as the majority of people were friendly and were happy to have their photograph take age, saying “it’s none of my business”. All in all I was happy with the images I mana
erson was holding up. We had to capture a person aged 0-10 and get them to nd get them to hold up 2 fingers to represents 2 decades and so on. I managed it required asking peoples ages, it can appear rude as its an invasion of privacy, en for this brief, however, some people had an aggressive tone when I asked their aged to get.
WEEK 9 This week we got given a brief which allowed us to collect items and peg them up on a piece of string that would demonstrate a certain theme. We only had to use four of the pegs and keep one empty (I scanned past this detail in the brief so filled all pegs). It was a test to make sure we paid attention to every detail. We were in partners and had 2 hours to complete this task. 1. IDENTITY - my student card - my birthstone ring (february) - my favourite watch - my house keys - my favourite necklace
2. FINANCE - student santander bank card - 20 pound note - 1 pound coin - 10 pound note - lloyds current account card
3. FOOD - tracker cereal bar - 20% off food bill card - dib dab sweets - fork - sweetner/sugar
4. LEISURE - gym top - club discount card - newspaper - bus ticket - library card
5. WASTE/RUBBISH - sweet wrapper - red bull can - costa cup lid - mint wrapper - tissue
WEEK 10 Our brief this week was to select an object that was bigger than a cricket ball but smaller than a football, We had to make our object appear in certain images and all images had to be shot within a 3 hour period. CLOTHES HANGING IN A FASHION STORE CHANGING ROOM. I went into River Island and picked out a few items of clothing and took them into the changing room to photograph with my chosen object, a Buddha.
A WHEELCHAIR/DISABLED SYMBOL PAINTED ON A ROAD SURFACE. I found this disabled badge in a car park in the City Centre.
A VEHICLE REGISTRATION PLATE WHERE A WORD HAS BEEN FORMED BY THE ORDER OF LETTERS/NUMBERS. This Porsche’s registration spells out ‘Toy’.
A CLOCK IN A PUBLIC PLACE SHOWING 11AM. Clock slightly blurry because focus is on Buddha, but can still tell it says 11 o’clock.
A BUS STOP WITH ATLEAST 4 PEOPLE WAITING FOR A BUS. This image is slightly blurry as the people in the background were getting aggitated at me photographing them so this was taken quite quickly. It could be improved if there was less of a shallow depth of field, so the people could been seen better. SOMEONE WEARING RED SHOES. My prop with some burgundy/red sh
A STATUE OF A HUMAN.
AN OUTDOOR STAIRCASE.
A MANNEQUIN.
A TRAFFIC LIGHT SHOWING RED AND AMBER.
I managed to capture 10/15 images. The images I didn’t capture were: 1. A animal kept as a pet. 2. A street performer. 3. A water feature. 4. A shop assistant looking directly at the camera. 5. An aeroplane.
WEEK 11 Magazine Cover In assigned groups, you will be given a brief for a magazine cover shoot. You will design your own cover and make all arrangements for the shoot, which will take place on a specific date ( refer to schedule ). Each member of your group will shoot images in turn and you will use one of your own images for YOUR front page layout, evidencing skills and knowledge from lighting workshops to date. Submit a finished front page cover layout, complete with magazine title and copy. Cover size 10 inches x 12 inches @300 d.p.i.
Theme: Maximum Sparkle
Our Model - Hannah Lowe - I have decided to use tin foil as my background. I will be using the side that is slightly less reflective so it isn’t over exposed and over powering. I will scrunch up the tin foil to give it more texture an appear more ‘sparkly’.
Finished Magazine Cover