Studio evaluation
This blog project was all about working in the studio , in a professional environment using professional photography equipment , it was about enhancing my skills and trying new techniques in new situations. As soon as I was given the opportunity to document everything from this project in a blog rather than a sketch book I was very excited , I knew I'd be able to keep up with the work load better , save time and try something new.
A lot of ideas for this project were generated in the studio at college , both individually and in groups. During the first session I already started to idea blast about how I want my blog to look and also how I wanted my professional website to look. This project also included creating a professional appearance online and encouraged me to create a website for my photography business as well as another website for personal photography self promotion. (I have different websites for my two separate styles).I also generated ideas on my blog and in note books as drafts before writing them up online , here.
This blog project was all about working in the studio , in a professional environment using professional photography equipment , it was about enhancing my skills and trying new techniques in new situations. As soon as I was given the opportunity to document everything from this project in a blog rather than a sketch book I was very excited , I knew I'd be able to keep up with the work load better , save time and try something new.
A lot of ideas for this project were generated in the studio at college , both individually and in groups. During the first session I already started to idea blast about how I want my blog to look and also how I wanted my professional website to look. This project also included creating a professional appearance online and encouraged me to create a website for my photography business as well as another website for personal photography self promotion. (I have different websites for my two separate styles).I also generated ideas on my blog and in note books as drafts before writing them up online , here.
After taking into consideration the different websites / blog sites I could use for this project I picked blogger because I already had slight experience with it from my photography blog and I wanted to get the hang of it more , I also like the font styles and the way it presents photographs. Following on from this I quickly set it up and started my next priority; studio shooting!.
My first studio session photographing :
http://ellaruthstudiophotography.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/session-two.html#
I used Chloe and Jennii as my first practice models for this session. The importance of that lesson was learning how to use the lights correctly, I booked out a Nikon D40 , a camera I didn't have any experience with , to learn new skills in the studio. I was working with high key lighting , which meant using two lights on either side of the models and using the flash meter to help get the settings right in the camera to match the surroundings.
I was pleased with my outcomes especially as it was my first time really using the equipment properly. Before that lesson I didn't understand the importance of using flash , I never really liked using flash either before learning how to use it properly and noticing the difference it can make. It helped me improve my studio skills at home with my backdrop and basic photography studio lights too.
Product photography ( & research ):
http://ellaruthstudiophotography.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/session-three.html
Learning about product photography was definitely the highlight of the whole project for me, it was something I had slight interest in and once I had the opportunity to practice it I loved it. A lot of this lesson included creating ideas blast so I spent a fair amount of time thinking about different products are available to photograph , the list included :
I used Chloe and Jennii as my first practice models for this session. The importance of that lesson was learning how to use the lights correctly, I booked out a Nikon D40 , a camera I didn't have any experience with , to learn new skills in the studio. I was working with high key lighting , which meant using two lights on either side of the models and using the flash meter to help get the settings right in the camera to match the surroundings.
I was pleased with my outcomes especially as it was my first time really using the equipment properly. Before that lesson I didn't understand the importance of using flash , I never really liked using flash either before learning how to use it properly and noticing the difference it can make. It helped me improve my studio skills at home with my backdrop and basic photography studio lights too.
Product photography ( & research ):
http://ellaruthstudiophotography.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/session-three.html
Learning about product photography was definitely the highlight of the whole project for me, it was something I had slight interest in and once I had the opportunity to practice it I loved it. A lot of this lesson included creating ideas blast so I spent a fair amount of time thinking about different products are available to photograph , the list included :
Shoes Accessories
Jewellery Children's toys
Make up Skate Boards
Books Perfume
I found that ideas blasts were really helpful for me throughout this project , it helped me to create blog posts and jot thoughts and ideas down and also different lighting techniques. For the lesson I looked at make up and hair product adverts / product photography and what I learnt is that high key lighting is often used for this style and it usually looks best too.
What I learnt about product photography that's important :
High key Lighting
Rule of thirds
Negative space
use of colour
using text/information
The next session was one of my favourites , I brought in some jewellery to photograph ( Tiffany & co bracelet ) in the studio. My first photo that I took was my favourite , I placed the bracelet on top of the packaging which was on a plain black background to emphasise the soft Tiffany blues and whites and it worked wonders. The only editing I had to do was to remove / soften the scratches on the silver. I tried using both studio lighting and just the simple room lighting , surprisingly for this particular shoot I found that the room lighting was best.
This studio project consisted of a lot of small quick mini themes/projects and once one was over another one started straight away , following this was 'Beauty is in the eye of the camera holder' This was an interesting twist on product photography , I needed to take photos of camera equipment in a way that would encourage people to take up photography.
I thought about using my instant camera because it's fun and quirky and it's also a style that's making a modern comeback however I decided to mainly photograph old vintage cameras (with the exception of one or two).
These are two favourites from the session. I asked Sharrah if she could take turns holding these two cameras for me , my favourite aspects about these two photos are the colours in the lens I think they look so beautiful and intriguing.
I learnt a lot of skills from doing product photography and beauty is in the eye of the camera holder , I figured that little editing is often better if you get everything right in the shot in the camera , over editing can make it look unprofessional. Knowing how to use studio lighting and flash can help dramatically and improve the image quality massively.
The next part of the project was focusing on head shots and portraiture. I did research on high key lighting studio head shots and portraits using pinterest before I started shooting. I used my boyfriend Ryan as a model. I hadn't done head shots before so it was great for me to do some pre-planning and some research to see different ways I can pose him. Despite having corruption problems when trying to edit the photos from the head shot shoot I was pleased with the final outcomes.
I decided to do another head shot shoot when my previous ones corrupted , Chloe kindly let me use her as a model. I'm glad I did two shoots because it helped with experience and improving my studio skills. The outdoor fashion shoot was also good experience , again I did more research and thought about different backgrounds / environments I could work with but decided to go with a plain brick wall to get the focus on the clothing rather than any distractions. I also did a studio fashion shoot which was probably my favourite out of the two, I did a lot of research into posing because I realised the importance of being able to show the item of clothing off correctly so it's the main subject and the most eye catching.
Out of this project I also enjoyed light painting , I've done light painting previously but to do it in the studio using more colourful lights than previously was a lot of fun and I also tried out different techniques using models too.
This was one of my favourites from the shoot. Ellie was the silhouette. I didn't have a tripod so I definitely learnt the skill of staying still with long exposures for these. Not only did I work independently for this but also in small groups and one large group , it was good experience working with everyone and all co operating together. We discussed as a group what we would try next and take turns moving the lights around.
Alamy was the next task in the project , there was a lot of guidelines for this , I was required to pick a selection of my photos that meet the requirements and I did just that. The guidelines were a mixture of simple things such as no camera shake but also there was some harder ones to meet too. I carefully inspected each photo which taught me to do this with all of my work , I carefully look for flaws in my photos and it changed my perspective on how I look at every other photo and piece of art I see too. I truly believe that it's a good thing for stock websites like Alamy to have such strict rules because there are so many photographers who aren't really great photographers that dismiss key simple things that photographers should be able to do/ not do. Which is also why I like the fact we did the Competency Test.
Collaboration
The next part of the project was all about collaborating which is something I do a lot of as a photographer especially having my own photography business. I regularly talk to clients to figure out what kind of photography package they want and I also collaborate with people in the college group when we work in teams. I wrote a post about a wedding I shot at the time and the kind of collaboration work I did there. I was instructing Jennii and Sharrah a lot on the day because they didn't have any previous experience with it , I had to ask Geoff what kind of photos him and his wife wanted from us, all of which is collaborating. I also worked in a group for the money for life challenge which I have done two years in a row now , we were collaborating together with money for life.
The John Lewis task was another one of my favourites , I decided to pick to subject of jewellery for this task because I loved the previous product photography task. I flicked through the John Lewis magazine to get a feel for the style of photography they have especially in the product section. It was the Christmas season magazine which obviously changes a lot of the style . I wanted to photograph in a way that was similar (but still with my own style) to John Lewis and good enough that it would be something possibly displayed in their book or website. My style for this was quite minimal , I wanted the eye to be instantly drawn to the jewellery item and the shape and colour and all the little details of the jewellery item.
This was one of my favourites from the shoot because you are instantly drawn into the logo on the bracelet and the black and white softens the photo but exaggerates the detail of the bracelet.
The Ebay task was really interesting for me , I was required to take some technically bad photographs of a product and then take some good ones of the same thing. I photographed a polaroid camera , for the bad photographs I picked messy backgrounds , purposely bad light patches (over exposing parts) , and completely unfocused shots too. I had my camera on complete manual because that was the best way to try and take an awful photo , it worked! and they really turned out awful. My good versions turned out great , I used natural lighting and took the photos from the best angles that would make the camera look great. I really enjoyed this task overall because it was something very different.
The minimlism task was the final one for the studio blog and it took a little while to complete but once it was done and I had the inspiration I needed it went great. I was really stuck with what to photograph but due to the beauty of working in a group who all have different opinions I was encouraged out of my comfort zone and tried something new. I again did more research for this task because I hadn't really looked into the theme before. I noticed that a lot of that style photography is black and white and focuses on strong bold shapes rather than lots of detailing. I researched the artist
Karl Blossfeldt as I have looked at his work before and I love it , so I thought I would re create something similar for this.
This was my favourite from the shoot I did. I love the sharp focus , the leading lines from the shadows at the far left , i love the details too that you can see if you look closely.
The next part of the project was focusing on head shots and portraiture. I did research on high key lighting studio head shots and portraits using pinterest before I started shooting. I used my boyfriend Ryan as a model. I hadn't done head shots before so it was great for me to do some pre-planning and some research to see different ways I can pose him. Despite having corruption problems when trying to edit the photos from the head shot shoot I was pleased with the final outcomes.
I decided to do another head shot shoot when my previous ones corrupted , Chloe kindly let me use her as a model. I'm glad I did two shoots because it helped with experience and improving my studio skills. The outdoor fashion shoot was also good experience , again I did more research and thought about different backgrounds / environments I could work with but decided to go with a plain brick wall to get the focus on the clothing rather than any distractions. I also did a studio fashion shoot which was probably my favourite out of the two, I did a lot of research into posing because I realised the importance of being able to show the item of clothing off correctly so it's the main subject and the most eye catching.
Out of this project I also enjoyed light painting , I've done light painting previously but to do it in the studio using more colourful lights than previously was a lot of fun and I also tried out different techniques using models too.
Alamy was the next task in the project , there was a lot of guidelines for this , I was required to pick a selection of my photos that meet the requirements and I did just that. The guidelines were a mixture of simple things such as no camera shake but also there was some harder ones to meet too. I carefully inspected each photo which taught me to do this with all of my work , I carefully look for flaws in my photos and it changed my perspective on how I look at every other photo and piece of art I see too. I truly believe that it's a good thing for stock websites like Alamy to have such strict rules because there are so many photographers who aren't really great photographers that dismiss key simple things that photographers should be able to do/ not do. Which is also why I like the fact we did the Competency Test.
Collaboration
The next part of the project was all about collaborating which is something I do a lot of as a photographer especially having my own photography business. I regularly talk to clients to figure out what kind of photography package they want and I also collaborate with people in the college group when we work in teams. I wrote a post about a wedding I shot at the time and the kind of collaboration work I did there. I was instructing Jennii and Sharrah a lot on the day because they didn't have any previous experience with it , I had to ask Geoff what kind of photos him and his wife wanted from us, all of which is collaborating. I also worked in a group for the money for life challenge which I have done two years in a row now , we were collaborating together with money for life.
The John Lewis task was another one of my favourites , I decided to pick to subject of jewellery for this task because I loved the previous product photography task. I flicked through the John Lewis magazine to get a feel for the style of photography they have especially in the product section. It was the Christmas season magazine which obviously changes a lot of the style . I wanted to photograph in a way that was similar (but still with my own style) to John Lewis and good enough that it would be something possibly displayed in their book or website. My style for this was quite minimal , I wanted the eye to be instantly drawn to the jewellery item and the shape and colour and all the little details of the jewellery item.
The Ebay task was really interesting for me , I was required to take some technically bad photographs of a product and then take some good ones of the same thing. I photographed a polaroid camera , for the bad photographs I picked messy backgrounds , purposely bad light patches (over exposing parts) , and completely unfocused shots too. I had my camera on complete manual because that was the best way to try and take an awful photo , it worked! and they really turned out awful. My good versions turned out great , I used natural lighting and took the photos from the best angles that would make the camera look great. I really enjoyed this task overall because it was something very different.
The minimlism task was the final one for the studio blog and it took a little while to complete but once it was done and I had the inspiration I needed it went great. I was really stuck with what to photograph but due to the beauty of working in a group who all have different opinions I was encouraged out of my comfort zone and tried something new. I again did more research for this task because I hadn't really looked into the theme before. I noticed that a lot of that style photography is black and white and focuses on strong bold shapes rather than lots of detailing. I researched the artist
Karl Blossfeldt as I have looked at his work before and I love it , so I thought I would re create something similar for this.
Overall this project has really helped me grow outside of my comfort zone , I've tried new things , new techniques , new themes and new equipment. I've learnt things about my own photography and discovered that I love jewellery/product photography and it's something I'd consider doing in the future. I've learnt more about lighting and more about camera control , a lot about posing models. It's been a great project for me it's helped me grow as a photographer so much. The project developed really well , I was constantly on the ball learning new things and it required quick thinking and the ability to throw myself into new projects quickly.
It was really encouraging to get peer feedback during my time working on my blog so I knew what to change and improve on apperance wise and information/text wise.
I think my strongest image from the whole project is my tiffany and co bracelet photograph.
