Fashion Photography

Macro with Digital Camera

Alice in Wonderland (My Way)

Alien Brief Final Images

Functions of a Studio

There are all types of photography that can happen inside a studio such as fashion, portrait, advertisement, model, musicians, still life ect. A studio shoot consists of shooting a photo shoot in one room/studio that contains all types of lighting but for each different type of studio photography the lighting and equipment differs. This is due to the style of photography used in each type of photography.

Fashion Photography

 This type of studio photography usually consists of using a well known lighting system, which is called “three point lighting”. The system allows the eye to be purposely made to focus on the subject or model. As well as the three point lighting system that is used in fashion photography, sometimes certain amount of natural lighting is along with a high key light.

The three point lighting system is important to a fashion shoot as the three lights work together to bring out the subject. The three lights used are a key light, a fill light and a back light which are all positioned around the subject.

The key light is always the main light that is used as it has the most powerful light in the scene. It creates a defined highlight and shadow in areas around the shot. The key light is placed directly to the side and above the model. This means that the other side of the model’s face will be in shadow, so the second light is used which is a fill light. The fill light is placed on the other side of the room so it is opposite to the key light. It is also placed at a further distance away from the model than the key light is, as it does not have the job of using strong light. The back light provides light from behind the model, which allows the model to stand out from the background as it helps give a pop-out look. As well as making the model stand out it also helps show of and highlight the clothing on the model.

 Sometimes skylights provide a source of natural light that helps give the fashion light set up a warmer feel. An indoor shoot can not always have natural light as there would be a lack of sunlight openings such as windows. Fashion photographers make a personal decision on whether it is best to shoot in a natural environment or not.

Still Life Photography

 This type of studio photography is very similar to fashion studio photography as it involves pretty much the same set up just a little bit different. This is due to fashion involving moment of the model, were as with still life the subject is still which allows correct and precise lighting on the subject.

 The equipment used for this piece of still life was 2 tungsten light and three different types of reflectors that were white to help bounce the light around from both lights. This was shot by a student in a make shift studio.

To get a flat lighting effect it is best to place the key light very close to the camera. If the light is moved upwards and to the side, then the model/subject will take a 2D look. For a stronger effect so the shadows become longer and the 2D effect to be increased, if the light is moved further up or to the side. With the shadows increasing the need of a fill light may be needed. To play it safe it is always good to place the key light to one side of the camera and above as this will produce a safe image. A light can be placed behind the subject to give it a silhouette effect, by only lighting the background.

It is best to experiment with the lighting because with each subject, the light will react different with how it hits the subject. So it is best to see other lighting set ups or even this set up shown and work around it till the style of light needed is achieved. 

Subcultures - Elderly People

Subcultures Evaluation

The aim of this assignment is to visually document a subculture and in the end produce a set of 9-12 photographs that really captures the chosen subculture. I could not think of one specific subculture that I wanted to document so I chose to create a mind map to help me break cultures into all types of subcultures. I started of with categories such as Hobbies, Jobs, Lifestyle, Fans, Style, Age and from these starting points I went on to discover Giggers, Football Fans and Elderly People. These are just a few that caught my eye out of a list of subcultures, so I chose to look more in depth into these three subcultures.

After creating a mind map and looking more in depth into certain subcultures I chose to study other photographers work and look into what they document and what style they document in. I chose Jane Bown, Bruce Davidson and Phil Borges to research so I could gain some influence and ideas from. From all of them I like the matter and meaning behind the documentary as I think they portrayed their own projects in unique ways. Mainly I enjoyed Jane Bown’s work as her style was black and white but with a high contrast, which made her subject’s skin very eye catching. This was due to the contrast making the person look stronger and bolder because of the light on sections of their face.

Once I had researched into other photographers and had now gained a better understanding in subcultures, I wrote a proposal for my assignment as I had chosen to base my documentary on Elderly People. I chose to capture how they live their daily lives and decided to portray their life in two different ways, depending on whether or not they live a busy life or a relaxed life. If their life was busy I would show it in a fun colourful way but if their life was relaxed I would show it in a sad and dull way by using black and white imagery.

Now I had better structure and control over the assignment I decided to do a photo shoot so then I could gain feedback on how I am capturing the Elderly People Subculture. My plan is to try and create a similar style to Jane Bown with a black and white theme as the photo shoot shows the Elderly People in a relaxed way. I shot my first photo shoot in black and white hoping to capture the style but they didn’t turn out how I wanted them to. I gathered feedback to help capture them how I wanted them to come out like, I got told that if I take the images in colour instead of black and white I would be able to colour select the image.

From my photo shoots I collected key images that stood out and wrote about why they stood out to me as I was going to develop them into final pieces for my project. I then chose 12 images that I wanted to develop which were images from both photo shoots and use them as my final pieces. I showed a visual diary of my images as I also documented how I create the final image.

I finally presented my work in a symbolic way by attaching my images to tags and hanging them on up and down shaped wire to help show that life is not just one straight course as you have good times and bad times. To me my final pieces show a journey and contrast of life between the view and the photographs, which are the meaning I want to come through, through my work.

I enjoyed this project and found it very interesting, as I like documenting another age in life that I have yet to come up to and discover my self. It was an easy in my personal opinion as I found that my ideas came quick to how I wanted to do my assignment. I think I have completed it to the best of my abilities and done as much as I could do for the assignment.

My project was about the capturing a subculture and I decided to document elderly people, as they are a group of their own in their age range. I chose to capture the sad and lonely side of being elderly in life but also show how she is content with it.

Heroes and Villains

Heroes & Villains Evaluation

For my Heroes & Villains assignment I had to create a minimum of 3 film posters that represent both a hero and a villain. The starting point for this assignment was for me to understand what the main concept of what a hero and villain are, as well as have other ideas as to what creates a hero and villain. To help me I created a mind map of words relating to the following questions, what is a hero? Who is a hero? What makes a villain? Why are villains bad? This gave me many ideas as to what theme I could go for as well as what type or characters I could create and basically give me ideas that I can make my own.

To get a feel for film posters and what they consisted of I reversed engineered three film posters. For the film posters Little Miss Sunshine, Bridget Jones (The Edge of Reason) and Salt I looked at the colour scheme, where the image was taken, what type of camera was used, whether Photoshop was used, if the font was consistent and the angle of light. I did this for each poster and in result of that it gave me more ideas and tips as well as a better understanding of what needs to be in a film poster.

To get more concrete ideas on what style and techniques I should use in my film posters I looked into Lionsgate (SAW) and Joey Lawrence (Twilight) for some inspiration as I like both the films as well as the film posters used for them. Lionsgate mainly focused on the imagery being black and white with only one colour, which was red being used. The red was symbolic for blood and danger, which there is a lot of during the film. The imagery would consist of either one actor/actress or an object, there wouldn’t be more than one person used in a film poster. Where as in Joey Lawrence’s film posters he uses either one actor/actress or more, with a cloudy effect around them in the image, which helps give it a feel. Also the colour scheme has more colours used than Lionsgate but the colours used are dull and don’t stand out much, due to the position of the light that is on the actor/actress.

Since looking at other film posters it gave me more ideas of what I wanted to do for my film posters, now knowing what I want my film posters to be about I created two mood boards. One showing the theme as well as style of what I want my film posters to contain and the other showing the story line along with key imagery that I may use and make my own. After knowing what I want my film posters to be about I created a synopsis for my film that I would try to be shown in the imagery used for the posters.

Before creating my film posters I created a proposal outlining what I will be setting out to achieve in my film posters. The proposal included a health and safety assessment, techniques, equipment, camera settings and sketches of what I wanted my film posters to look like on camera. Once the proposal was done I started to develop my ideas by deciding on lighting, layout, models, depth of field, location, shutter speeds, exposure, fonts, make up and film poster presentation. Instead of doing 3 film posters I have chosen to do 5 due to experimentation with different effects and styles.

To test out my proposal and planning of the film posters I did a test photo shoot which was to try to create the imagery I am after. In doing the photo shoot I learnt of light issues as well as angles that needed to be altered to capture the imagery I would like. On the final shoot for my film posters I decided to change the studio around to capture the right imagery and my whole shoot was a success as I got all the imagery I needed.

On Photoshop I gave all the images a plain background whether that is black or white also I kept the images used in colour instead of using black and white imagery, as I preferred it in colour. Plus I layered text that was scanned into the computer as well as computerized text and other imagery to help create the film poster look and style that every poster has.

As a final summary I believe I completed the assignment to the fullest of my abilities as well as covering everything there was to do on the brief and more. I think I have done what has been asked of me for the unit and have used my time well to handle tasks. I found the assignment hard to understand at first but then once understood found it an exciting project to work on. I would say I need to plan more in the beginning to be able to expand more in the project.