Assignment 2

Lighting

The definition of Photography is 'Painting with Light'. Light is very important when taking a picture, with out it you won't have an image, so choosing the perfect setting is key. You can use any light source such as the sun, a torch, sparklers, car lights, television and light bulbs. 

You have to consider four different things when sorting the lighting out:

• Quantity - How much you use?
• Quality - Soft or Hard?
• Direction - Where is it coming from?
• Colour - Hue?

Soft or Hard Lighting

You can get two types of lighting:

• Hard - High contrast, creates dark shadows, is quite harsh and unflattering on the skin. You  an see all the wrinkles and imperfection on the face, it is often used for portrait photography as it creates moods and emotions to portray in an image.
• Soft - Low contrast, minimal shadows, is smooth on the skin. You see it used in alot of fashion photography images as it makes the skin look smooth and covers and imperfection.

I have taken some images in the studio using soft and hard lighting:

Soft lighting

You can see here that the skin looks smooth and flawless. There are also no shadows in the image. I like this image because the lighting casts an innocent setting over the whole image, I also like the composition as he is in the cent vertical section of the rule of thirds.

Hard Lighting

You can see here the imperfections on the skin. You can also see the dark shadow created by the light source. I find this image has a dramatic feel to it, hard lighting tend to bring this to an image. I like this image as the mood is quizative, this is due to the facial expression and pose of the model, but it is also down the the way the composition has been set up with him looking into a space and being to the side of the image.

Colour in Photography

The mood and emotions that an image can portray can be changed by the colours in the picture. You can change to colour in different ways like editing in photo shop, colour filters on your lens or camera and altering the colour balance in the camera settings. Here i have looked at changing the colour with the camera settings.

The colours and their moods:

• Magenta - Feminine and loving/caring
• Yellow - Happy, joyful and fiery 
• Blue/Cyan - Calming, cool, relaxing and death
• Green - Natural, relaxing, medical, and death
• Red - Love, passion, warning and threatening

On camera settings you can change the colour balance settings and it adds different colours to the camera lens. 

• Auto White Balance
• Daylight +warm colours
• Cloudy +warm colours
• Shade +warm colours
• Tungsten +cool colours
• Fluorescent +warm red colours
• Flash +warm colours
• Custom where you can manually change the camera to add the colours you want.

Here are my images using different colour balance settings:

AWB

Daylight

Cloudy

Tungsten

Fluorescent

Fluorescent H

Composition

The composition of the image looks at the set up and layout of the image.There are several 'rules' that you can use as guidelines to create great images such as the rule of thirds, rule of triangles/odds and evens plus more. Here i will be looking at these rules and showing demonetisation from my own work.

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a rule of composition I find very useful to use, it works by splitting your image into nine equal parts, using two vertical lines and two horizontal lines. This is an example of the grid you would use (but different size, as each grid is individual and related to one specific sized image).

The green dots are focus points that draw the eye in, if you were to have a horizon line in your image its best to have it on one of the horizontal lines. There are many different techniques you can use with this rule and is widely used by photographers. Here is an I image I have taken using the rule of thirds.

You can see I have place the object along the righthand vertical line and the base on the bottom right focus point. I really like this image, as it reminds me of space and how space isn always bad.

Rule of Triangles

The rule of triangles is a simple rule where you make triangular shapes within you image, wether out of objects or the way you arrange the people in your image. It is a good technique to use, this is because a triangle is a strong stable shape the brings strenght into your image. This is my example of using the rule of triangles.

 Here you can see the base of the triangle is along the three girls and the point is the males head. I believe that if this was a portrait image it would be better as they will seem closer together.

Rule of Space

When taking an image you have to be aware of the spaces, a misplaced space can ruin an image, you should leave space for the person to walk or look in to this will lead to the thought there is movement in the image or there is something beyond the image itself. This is my example of the rule of space.

Here you can see there is space for her to look into. I like this image because the mood is light but passive at the same time. If i was going to take this image further i would tone down the colour saturation to create a moody image.

Symmetry

The rule of symmetry is where the image is balanced, this could be from have a mirrored image or by having the same amount of shapes, people objects and a line of symmerty. It is a rather easy rule to get the hang of, and makes your images look more aesthetically pleasing for the viewer. This is my example of symmetry.

I have placed the two leaves in the centre with the line of symmetry running down the middle. I like how the two sides arent completely the same but are very similar it brings a roughness to the image.

Depth of Field

Depth of field is a technique that is widely used with photographers, it is about how much of your image is in focus. For example and image with a small section in focus has shallow depth of field, whereas an image with everything in focus has large depth of field. This is my example of shallow depth of field.

You can see that the coins are in focus whereas the note in the background isn't. I like this image because it makes you think about the pennies. The composition of this image is good and creates a good image.

Portrait Photography

Most photographers like to do portrait photography in a studio, this is because you can control the lighting and get really clean crisp shots. I like working in the studio because you and using all the different lighting equipment to create different feelings and moods. 

This is a studio set-up I really like to use because it creates a dramatic feel in the image. It is a hard light set-up with the snoot as the key light and a soft box used as a background light to soften the image.

This is an image I have taken using this set-up for one of my A level photography pieces.

Here you can see the snoot lighting the face, and the soft box lighting up the image.

Here are a couple more image I have taken using different light set-ups.

This is using a three light set-up that i researched during a project, it is a complex set-up that has some really good out comes.

This set up uses one light source with the barn doors attachment. The barn doors allow you to control the amount of light flooding the images and the direction it goes in.

 This image uses one light source with the snoot attachment. The snoot creates a dramatic feel in images.

Health and safety 

When working in a studio you have to be aware of the hazards around you. 

• There are leads from the lights you have to be careful of, and its best to tape them down so no one will trip. 
• There is also the back drop you have to tape down to the floor as it is also a tripping hazard. 
• After the lights have been on for a while the bulb and attachment become very hot so you have to be careful when handling them, from personal experience the snoot get extremely hot to handle.
• In the studio a lot of electrical equipment is used, so there is a risk of fires starting

Image Manipulation

Cropping and Changing Colour

Cropping and changing colour is important to know when is comes to simple image manipulation. Cropping is simply choosing the cropping tool on photoshop and resizing the image to the size you want. When cropping the rule of thirds grid comes up so that you can make sure the composition is how you want as well. Changing colour can be done by adjusting the hue and saturation. Here is my example of cropping and changing colour.

The original image.

Here i have cropped the image using the rule of thirds to help me. I have the brought the saturation down, changed the contrast and brightness of the image. After doing this I brought the hue up slightly to change the tone of the skin. I like this image because it is sharp and clear, it also has strong eye contact creating a confident image.

Adjusting Levels or Colour Balance

Adjusting the levels means you are changing the levels of the shadows, mid-tones and highlights. Changing the colour balance means you are changing the colour tones in the shadows, mid-tones and highlights.

Original image.

Here I have made the highlights and mid-tones darker when adjusting the levels and then added more yellow and red to the highlights and shadows. I like this image as the original I don't believe the editing ha made this any stronger.

Creative photoshop

Creative photoshop is where you use different tools to create a completely changed image. Here is my example of creative photoshop.

 This is the original image, I want it to be the same size as the image below so i cropped it and adjusted the contrast slightly.

I then added this image as a new layer, I the changed the opacity of it so you could is the original image as well.

There is the outcome, i like this image because it is creative and different, the faded top layer creatives a magical feel about the image, whereas the original image underneath creates a distance passive feel.

Looking and seeing

Describe what you saw in the first image

In this image you can see a female black woman breast feeding a white baby, you can’t see either of their faces so you cant connect with the subjects. The photographer has placed them in the centre of the image with nothing else, so you are not distracted and focus on the two humans.

Now describe it again.

This image of a black woman breast feeding a white baby with neither of their faces being shown, shows equality between two cultures, not just these two people but standing for all cultures around the world. The way the woman is holding the baby is very loving and makes the viewer believe there in a strong connection here. The red cardigan also backs up this emotion and red is a very emotional intense colour standing for love.  The soft lighting makes the mood relaxed and there is no tension in this image. This image has also been taken at a straight on angle, as though facing the issue straight on and there is no holding back.

What do you think he meant by this? (Hint: think about objectivity and subjectivity)

Robert Doisneau say’s ‘We must always remember that a picture is also made up of the person who looks at it’. What he is saying here is that we can all describe the image in the same way objectively but subjectively we all cast different opinions on it. This due to our personal opinions on the image and what it stands for. Take the first image some people would think this I a good image show love between cultures where there would be people who would be offended by image and strongly disagree on the way the to cultures are shown.

How does knowing the context change our understanding or appreciation of an image or other artwork?

At first I believed the image to show a group of school kids and their teacher all having fun in the playground, in the 1930’s/40’s but since I read this description my views completely changed and made me realize this image showed a lot more than just a bunch of school kids, it show the mixed reaction of a shooting. It made me think how could these people being enjoying this shooting, as thought loving at death in the face. I didn’t understand the mixed reactions at first and with reading the description I still don’t understand how they are smiling but understand why there are different emotions going on in this image.

Photography and it's uses

Fashion Photography Examples

Fashion Photography Examples

Nick Knight

Nick Knight is one of the worlds greatest photographers. He most famous work was is his collection of images called 'Skinhead' in 1982. He has worked for many magazines and fashion designers. In 2010 he did a photo shoot for Alexandra McQueen with Lady Gaga, and has several different sets of work for Christian Dior. This image here is from his work for Dazed and Confused.

Corinne Day

Corinne Day can be argued as the woman that gave Kate Moss her nudge to fame. She has several collections of images featuring Kate Moss, some published in magazine, some just as works of art. Her images don't show glamour and fame, they show reality and natural beauty. Her work has been praised by critics around the world. This image here is one of her most famous images with Kate Moss as the model.

Lara Jade

Lara started her own fashion photography company at the young age of seventeen. Ever since she has only gained respect and many high end clients. She has worked with companies such as Sony Music, P&G, Goldsmiths and Schwarzkopf. She is also well know in the magazine industry, and has worked for Elle, The Observer and Lush Magazine. This image is one of Lara Jade's. 

Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy is a london based photographer who has a massive reputation. He covers fashion photography as well as portrait photography and has gain respect in both areas of photography. He has worked with some massive british stars including Alan Carr, Professor Green and Kiera Knightley. Hea has also worked with Lindsey Lohan, Angelina Jolie and Leona Lewis. This image here is one of his fashion photography images.

   

All These images and photographers are great examples of fashion photography as they are widely known and many people in the industry will recognize them. They all have different takes of fashion photography and bring their person feelings and talents into these images.

Developments in Photography

Since the first perement image was invented, photography has progressed alot.
Here I have created my own timeline of the developments with images

In 1826 the first pement image was produced by Nicephore Niepce, indroducing photography to the world.

In 1900 Kodak Brownie invented and produced the first box roll film camera, instead of using sheets of paper/film. This allows photographers to take more photos quickly, it is especially good for photojournalists.

In 1907 the Lumiere brothers produced the first commercial colour film called autochrome. This helps photography in the media industy at the time because they can express more through colour. This image is made using the autochrome film.

In 1930, Harold Edgerton made the discovery of strobe photography, also called stop action photography. This is where you are capturing a high speed action with a high shutter speed. This helped photography in the media industry because it enables photojournalisms and photographers to capture moments they wouldn't usual be able to. This is an image using strobe photography.

In 1948, Hasselblad in sweden offers its first mediun-format SLR for sale. The Poloroid camera is also for sale with instant black and white cameras.
Here are the two cameras:
SLR

 Poloroid

In 1975, Kodak builds the first CCD based digital camera. CCD stands Charge-coupled device, which allows photos to be taken and stored digitally. This helped photography incredibly as it allows you to take as many photos as you like, this could also been seen as a negative thing because you over take images and have a lot to go through.

In 1990 Adobe photoshop is released, this programme is used widely in the media industury and is a historical moment to keep in mind.

In 1994 phot.net is founded, this is an online database of images and information to help people learn about photography and widen their skills.

In 2000, Japan invents the first ever camera phone which has push photography technology further. the camera phone is now extremly popular and many people have them. 12 years on there is even a blog called instagram which allows people to share the photos they have taken on their phone. 

In 2009 Kodak annouces they are no longer producing kadachrome film, this shows that people are using film less and less. Digital is so commonly used now and more efficant than film.

Uses of Photography in the Media Industry

Photography is widely used in the media industry, especially in advertising. It has great uses in magazines, newspapers, music and film.
Here I am giving examples of their uses in the industry:

Adverts

Alexandra Mcqueen

Magazines

Vogue

Newpapers

Daily Mail

Film (posters)

Project X

Internet

Weheartit.com

Books

Fifty Shade of Grey

Music

Netsky

Photography

Photography can be defined by 'capture a moment using light and the control of a camera'. Photography dates back to the early 19th century, where a bulky film camera would of been used. Throughout the years, photography has changed very much, there is better camera technology such as smaller film cameras and the increasingly better technology of the digital camera. There is also better printing technology, which has made it easier for photographers express their feels through images.

Photographers that have had great input on Photography:

• Henri Cariter-Bresson
• Ansel Adams
• William Fox Tallbot
• James Clark Maxwell
• Nick Knight