Assignment - Studio Photography/Still life

Task 1

Keith Major

I found these images from watching the TV programme America's Next Top Model, I like these photographs because they are simple head shots but look really interesting with the different coloured paint/dust on the models faces. I also like the lighting that is used in this shoot, which seems to be a light above on the right side of the model and a soft box has been used to create a soft lighting and slight shadows. These set of images inspired me to shoot head shots for my assignment, but I will not use the coloured paint.

Juergen Teller

I chose these photos because I like the kind of old-style effect on the images, especially the first one how the make-up and patterns on the clothes tie in together. The lighting used on these images is strong as you can tell on the faces of the models because there skin looks very light. From the shadows on the left of the first photo, it shows that there's a strong light on the right of the photographer. On the second image the light is also on the right of the photographer but not as far over, its more in the centre. I don't think I will use any elements of these photographs for my shoot.

Rankin

I chose these photographs as I thought the whole idea of the card shapes highlighting the facial features was very unusual and interesting, I like the shapes used in the images and the positions they have been placed on the models faces. The lighting used in these shots is head on and slightly over exposed to make the white spaces look bright and clear, the light used is also head on to the model. These images inspired me the most and I have decided to use these images to recreate in my shoot, for some of my images I have to decided to copy them exactly but for others I will also use black card for the shapes around the faces also I will create my own shapes in the card to add a bit more variety to the shoot.

Presenting my Photo Shoot

• For my photo shoot I have chosen to recreate these images that were taken by Rankin, I came across these photos on his website which I chose to go on because I borrowed one of his books from the library and I liked his work so I decided to check out his website.
• What I like about these photos is that they are very over exposed which makes the card look very white, what I also like is that the shapes used in the card make the features stand out and look interesting.
• I chose these images because they aren't just a beauty shot or particularly special but the prop used of the card makes it more interesting with the shapes used.
• For my shoot I have chosen to copy these images as closely as I can but also make my own versions using black card as well as white, and make my own shapes in the card also.
• The lighting will also be the same in my shoot which is head on to the model and slightly over exposed which is what creates the white and cleanness on the card.

Evaluation for Tom

These past few weeks we have covered:

• Street Photography

Taking photos in the streets in Leeds of people that we thought looked interesting or had an interesting story to them. I liked this doing this a lot because you have to find unexpected people or things going on in the street, although I didn't get a lot of my own images this was the one I enjoyed the most and I like going out of the college to do work which helps me learn a lot more.

• Shutter Speed

Using a fast shutter speed to catch someone jumping or moving in the photograph. I think the images for this came out really well and was really fun to do because there was a lot to play about with by doing different things in the photo like jumping. You could use this technique for photographing sports or cars moving to capture the image with no blurriness.

• Painting with Light

Using a slow shutter speed to capture a light and make an image with the light. This was also a really good technique to do because there was again a lot to play about with, making different images with the light and different coloured lights, my images didn't work out very well as it was hard to make a picture with the light that we were using. You could also use a slow shutter speed at night to take pictures of moving cars and capture the light from the headlights.

• Macro Photography

Taking close up and detailed photos of things and blurring out the background to define the object in the image. This technique was alright but I didn't enjoy it as much as the others although I thought my images turned out really well. You could use this technique to take photos of small objects or animals to capture them in great detail.

• Photoshop

I chose the technique that I liked the most and did a shoot in my own time, I chose to do Painting with Light as I thought it was very interesting. I took photos in the studio creating different shapes with the light then uploaded them to the computer and edited them on Photoshop changing the Levels, Exposure and Curves. I find Photoshop hard to use but its good for making your images look better than they already are and you can pretty much do anything to them with Photoshop.

Painting with Light (Photoshopped)

Essay

I think I should be on this course because in the past year photography has been an interest of mine. My dad bought me an SLR for christmas and haven't really been able to use it as I didn't know how to but joining this course has really got me knowing how to use a camera properly and all it's settings. Since I started this course I've just wanted to take photos all the time and I think could possibly be a career choice for me in the future. I also think I should be on this course because when I get into something I work really hard to acheive the best of my ability.

The things that I have enjoyed most on this course so far would probably be learning about Street Photography and learning how to use Photoshop. I enjoyed learning about Street Photography because I think you have to have a good eye to look out for things and people that would be good to photograph randomly in the street. I've also decided that if I choose photography as a career then Street Photography is the genre that I would like to work with. I liked learning how to use Photoshop because I think especially now  it's an important part of Photography and will be useful in the future for editing my photos, it's hard to use but I think when I've used it a lot I'll find it easier.

I think that I could improve on my work by doing more photographing outside of college so I can get to know the settings of my camera properly and it would help my skills of actually taking photographs as well.

High Key Photography

This was the set up for the shoot that we did in High Key, two lights with soft boxes facing towards the model and a white background. The camera was set to an ISO of 200, shutter speed of 1/125 and we started off with the f number as 22 for the first image. Which is here:

For the next two images I lowered the f number to 20, and the image became brighter.

For the last image I lowered the f number again to 18 which made the image even more brighter.

Macro Photography edited using Photoshop

These are the photographs I took last week, I edited them on photoshop changing the Exposure, Levels and Curves.

Low Key

We were shown different positions of lighting in the studio using a dark background and one or two lights but moving them around to create different effects on the images. The camera was set to shutter speed 1/125, aperture 11 and ISO 200.

Here are some examples of the photographs I took:

Macro Photography

Macro Photography is really close up, detailed images. Ususally with one part 0f the object in the photo in focus or just the object in focus and the background or rest of image looking soft/blurred. When doing this another term for it would be a shallow depth of feild, depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that are perticularly sharp in an image. To create this effect with your camera you need to use a fast shutter speed, I used 1/160 and then balanced the aperture as you need to so the photograph isn't under or over exposed so I changed my aperture to 5.6. I also changed the ISO to 200-800 depending on what I took photos of, I used 200 when photographing bright things like grass and I used 800 for dark things like trees so the image wasn't under exposed and appeared dark.

These are some of the photos I took:

Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed is the amount of time the camera shutter is open for, another term for it would be exposure time. By changing the shutter speed on your camera higher or lower you will affect how long the image is exposed for. To make sure your image is exposed properly you have to balance the shutter speed with your aperture and ISO settings, if you don't balance all three your image will either be over or under exposed.

We had a go at changing the shutter speed to a long exposure and using the lights from our phones to create images with the light. This is an example of some of the photos I took:

This was the only image that turned out well, I took a photo of Georgia making a shape of a love heart on a slow shutter speed of 5 seconds.

This is an example of some of the photos that I took with a fast shutter speed to capture Georgia jumping without any blurring.