Summer Assignment

 Over the summer holidays i did an awful lot but my three favourite parts consisted of skateboarding, holiday to spain and mountain boarding. I spent everyday that i wasnt working skateboarding. I went to derby, manchester on days out or skated more local. The skateboarding image i took was basically one of my favourite shots that i had taken through the summer. I was trying to show the height my friend was getting but i made sure i showed exactly what trick he was doing. I took this image on a day out in manchester. The second image was taken on holiday in spain. I came up with an idea by using a pair of sunglasses to reflect an. So i placed the glasses in an angle where i could see the reflection of some palm trees behind me. The tint of the glasses gave it a really nice look that i was aiming to get. I got alot of other images while i was on holiday which i felt were strong but i just felt this one stuck out from the rest of my images. I also thought it was a creative idea. My final image was a picture i took when me and a friend went mountain boarding. It was our first time trying it but we both picked it up straight away as we were both used to skateboarding. We adored it and learnt some tricks while being there. so i thought to show this proggresion in a short period of time id show my friend in mid air. I felt like overall these three images that i chose were the strongest and most creative.

This week we looked at the college art show and I was fairly impressed. There was some really high quality work and I hope to be doing work like some of theres this time next year. We went to staffs university a few weeks ago to look at the students photography work. There were some really creative work. There were a few pieces aimed at old toy collection. It was expanded on the wall and filled the frame. It was really grainy looking but it gave it a old looking image which I liked. There was another piece where someone had cut out characters in a book and made them look like pop ups in a book.                 I liked this because it told a story about the book he or she had aimed it on. It opened my mind to other areas and inspired me to think about ideas which are aimed at different areas of photography. This last year has been really good. I have learnt an awful lot over the year. I have got an awful lot more confidence to get out and try and achieve ideas instead of just thinking of them. I can use a camera in manual and also use photoshop in a lot more detail. The main thing I feel I need to improve on is just open up and try out other genres in photography which I intend to do in the second year.

week reflection (20th-22nd may)

This week has been a busy week. We have been focusing on finishing our powerpoints off , I did my environmental portrait shoot at the weekend and I felt it went really well.  I came back with all the images I needed. I had a few problems like I it rained quite a lot meaning I had to wait for it to pass. Then my model decided he couldn’t do any other day so we had to just wait it out. Then my friends who I wanted in the background of my shot said they couldn’t make it which was making things worse but after that things looked up. I spent a lot of time testing out the light and then got a number of different looks.  I also got both of my final images some feedback off other people from in the class. All around everyone said they liked it and only one person said they thought the lighting wasn’t that good on one of them but I like it and others said it was good so I decided to keep it. I also finished off my work, I spent ages on it and felt I have done much better on it as I have added a lot of detail in it. I could of made a few changes if I was to do it again but I found this assignment really good, It was a challenge but I didn’t feel that pressured on it so doing the shoots was easy.

Week reflection 13th-15th may

This week we have been mainly focusing on studio photography. We had a quick introduction on how to use the lighting and going through health and safety issues. We were told to use 100-400 ISO but I used 100 on my shoot. I kept the shutter speed to 125/1 and the aperture at f11. Then we went through how if the studio lights are closer to the model then the background would go darker. Personally I felt that my photoshoot went well. I had jeff helping me with lighting which helped a lot. I was expecting it to be awkward as the person I was using as a model has never done this before but he was calm and we had a laugh which made it much easier to produce the shots I wanted. We talked about our aims after college like university or employment. I was talking about how I want to be a commercial and sports photographer and hopefully work for redbull if I can. We also went through communicating issues as most of the class including me are to quiet and don’t tend to answer questions as we are scared we will be wrong but alex went through how we shouldn’t be afraid of being wrong as we all make mistakes. We went through formatting sd cards. We were told that we need to do this after shoots as just deleting images on the camera doesn’t fully delete it, it just means other images can take its place so you format them to get rid of all the information.

Week reflection(07 may-08 may)

This week we looked into making our own cheap light modifiers. We used a piece of flyway and folded it into a rectangle and we taped it together and onto the flashgun. It worked well and only took a minute or to. It worked just like a normal one but its cheaper. We looked into tilt and shift on photoshop which is where you can change the focus of an image. So you can do diagnol lines in focus and blur out the rest. We were looking into tilt and shift lenses which cost an awful ot but seem interesting. We looked into the advantages and disadvantages of studio lighting and speedlights. Basically the speedlights can stay cool however studuio flash can get really hot. There is no wires on speedlights like there is on studio lighting plus speedlights are small meaning they are more portable. However studio flash has a fast recycle time which is good for quick photoshoots. Speedlights have slave modes built in which is really handy when on location. With a speedlight it is much safer as it wont fall over and hit someone light big bulky studio lights can. Another issue with speedlights is that they take up a lot of batterys which over time could be quite a cost so you always need to carry spares around with you incase the ones you are using go dead. We also figured out about different sized soft boxes and how it doesn’t really mean it changes the scale of the light, it just changes the softness. 

week reflection

 This week we have been through a lot but mainly focusing on lighting modifiers and going through the different ways we can use them. We looked at softboxes and looked at how we can beatify the model. We looked at how a snoot narrows down the light but usually has hard edges. So we looked at how by using a honeycomb can soften the edges of the light so it won’t look so harsh on the model. We also went through dodging and burning on Photoshop. And looking how we could improve the look of an image by using the heal tool. We looked at editing our images in camera raw before using Photoshop because it’s easier and quicker to do the basics. We were told not to turn the exposure, vibrancy, contrast, etc. up to high as it could make the image look unrealistic. We looked at model release in more detail and were told to start using them within our photoshoots. We should always get one so that our models cannot sue us for using them images for certain purposes. We also talked about university or going on to employment, I am still in a position where I can’t decide what I want to. I want to go university if that’s what’s going help get the job I want which is working for redbull shooting extreme sports. But I feel like I could make it without going to university. We also looked at the terrism act and ahout how we cant take photos of the police for legal reasons.

week feflection

Last week we spent looking at focal length on Monday which I enjoyed. I used a18-55mm, 70-200, 300mm lenses and we had to test out out the different light meterings which helped us to tell the difference between apertures, sharpness, colour. There was a big difference between each and it helped open my eyes into buying other lenses.  We also looked into environmental portraits which is a portrait shot within an environment which tells you more about the model and tells a story. We also started our new assignment which is based around doing a shoot on a model who meets the equality and diversity act which means we use someone who has something which makes them different. We also looked at unique selling point which is something a photographers do within there work which makes them different and people with become familiar to. We looked into model release forms. They are forms which the model you use signs so they cant sue you or stop you from using them. I am going to start using them in my next shoots. We looked into equipment which we could use on an environmental portrait. Basically we would take a number of different lenses with different focal lengths, apertures. Tripods for the camera and a tripod for flash if sing off camera flash. Reflecters, sd cards and anything you think you would need to achieve the final images. I was looking into my favourite areas of photography which was sports, landscapes and portraits. I was looking into new skills I could use within them areas.