Tuesday, 26 March 2013

Reflection of what I have done so far on this course


Reflection of what I have done so far on this course

I have learnt an awful lot on this course so far. We first learnt about how to use shutter speeds, apertures and ISO’s by doing group activities of going out around Newcastle and taking pictures using these three different things. I was encouraged to work harder as I felt like they had to be good or creative as they were shown on the board at the end. I quickly understood shutter speeds and apertures but ISO’s were a bit tricky. It was confusing because I didn’t understand which one I should use for certain lighting.

Black and white film was something we went through early on in the course. I didn’t enjoy this at the time, not because of the assignment but because I hadn’t got much confidence with using film so this made things hard for me. The main reason I didn’t feel confident was because I felt like I needed to get strong shots every time as I knew I couldn’t delete the images like I would on a DSLR. If I was to improve I feel that I would need to shoot more films so I could build confidence and get more strong images.

Processing film was tricky at first. Loading film was the trickiest as when It was in the bag which it goes in so you don’t expose the film to light, I couldn’t get the film onto the real and eventually this frustrated me an awful lot so I do feel that I need to practice this. Processing the film was also tricky as I kept forgetting the instructions which we needed of to do as their was quite a lot to remember.

Learning about HDR imaging was good. This was slightly confusing like how to create one of these images. It confused me a little by how you had to overlay the same images but with different exposures. This did interest me as it seemed really creative and gave me ideas.

Composition was a big part, which has helped me a lot. Basically this is how objects or the camera is placed to capture the shot. I fount this easy as we went through plenty of examples of photographers work.

Photographing objects or places which we were given was a tricky one. We did an assignment where we had to shoot something of our choice but within a certain area of Newcastle town. I ended up using a church but this was tricky as there wasn’t that much interesting stuff within my area, so I fount it tricky to generate ideas. If I was to do it again I would us stuff I am interested in within that area.

We have been taught about how to create magazine covers well using our images. I enjoyed this a lot just simply because of the freedom. It was a little frustrating putting the covers together but I am happy it was done that way as I could do it how I want.

Creating the magazine covers was my favourite part simply because it kind of links in with what I want to do when I finish this course. I really want to get the chance to use my images as a cover for a skateboarding magazine so the “we british” assignment kind of opened my eyes to doing this and it kind of  made me believe that I could get the chance to do this and its not ut of reach as long as I push for it.

Taking pictures of stuff that I am interested in on these assignments helps a lot as it makes the assignments more fun meaning I will stay interested and wanting to complete the work. It helps to make you feel like you can push yourself more. I want to work for Redbull when I am older shooting extreme sports so this work s really helping.

Wednesday, 20 March 2013

week reflection


This week we have been making our magazine covers. I have learnt how to crop the logo off and get the barcode into it. I am quite proud of mine as the layout I used looked just like the real magazine. We were also told how to put our magazine cover into a template. Basically we had to skew The image into place of the template. I feel that I will finish this easily by the deadline. This assignment has been good. I have enjoyed it but I had a few issues. Flash sync was one of my main problems. I had put the shutter speed on to fast for the flashgun meaning part of the image was lit but the other half was really dark. This effect looked good on some but on others you had this dirty shadow. This luckily didn’t happen on every photo as I had experimented with different shutter, apertures and ISO’s. I also had permission to shoot in the warehouse where I was using for my location. So I didn’t feel pressured about rushing so I could get out and out of trouble. I spent ages getting images, I got a few hundred images which gave me a good range to decide from. If I was to do it again I would try and use off camera flash and use a wide angle lens as at some points I struggled to get the skater in the frame due to how small the location was but luckily I made do with what I had.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Week reflection


This week we didn’t have to come in on Monday because its rap week. Tuesday we spent abit of time on our work and then went to a few different sessions about different things. The first one was a woman who came in to talk about her shop in trentham gardens. She sell artists work and handcrafted objects. I thought it was amazing how she was doing so well. She said her shop has been open for nearly two years. The second talk was alright but I wasn’t much for it as the woman was on about the shops she had opened shops in Liverpool selling peoples art and handcrafted objects. By the sounds of it she was doing well as she said her shops have been open for about eight years. She said she had quit school at the age of 15 with no GCSE’s and went to Newcastle college. She told us she lied in interviews by saying she had got B-A*s in school which I thinks really wrong. The last talk was all about interviews. Like what you need to do before and after the interview. I think this helped me as it will be stuff we will use. Today we have been talking about what we want to do after college. I  am considering university but I’m not that sure at the moment as my main aim with photography is to work for Redbull shooting extreme sports. I want that job more than anything so ill go university if I feel I need to but if not ill try work my way up by working for sports agency’s, selling my work, weddings and anything else that I can. I feel that its achievable and I feel I could stand a chance for working for them. University would be the best way to go for sure so that’s the route I will probably take. 

Wednesday, 6 March 2013

week reflection


Monday we went to the NEC in Birmingham for the focus on imaging event. It was really interesting. They seemed to show a lot of lighting there more than anything else which I didn’t really like. I was really interested in some of the lenses they were selling. Especially the fish eye lenses which I am considering buying. I was shocked at some of the prices of some equipment. I didn’t like how there were so many people there trying to show off there cameras when there wasn’t really anything good worth taking pictures of. When we got back from Birmingham we had to upload the first part of the we british assignment. I have decided on my final ideas for the second part of this assignment and am going start shooting the test shots this weekend. I am feeling confident about this assignment and feel I could have some strong final images. We also made a magazine cover so we know what to do when we have our final images. To be honest it was fairly easy and I was quite proud of mine. The magazine I have decided to make a cover for is sidewalk magazine which is a English skateboarding magazine which helps link in with my work and I feel my images will look similar to the images which are in the magazine. My aim is to show skateboarding as a urban sport (in the background) within the UK which it is so one of my final images is going to be set in an abandoned warehouse where I skate with my mates and capture a skater in mid air using flash to light it up.