Beauty is in the eye of the camera holder

Today we got part of our brief in class, woo!. The title is 'Beauty if in the eye of the camera holder' and the whole point of the brief is to basically photograph photographic equipment but in such a way that it advertises photography as a subject rather than an object. I'm looking forward to trying something different and have a bit of a challenge and this looks like it will be! I already have some ideas planned however.

I'm thinking of photographing both old camera equipment and new, I'm looking forward especially to photographing my instax fujifilm.

I've created a board on pinterest to help with project inspiration. Our tutor got out some of the camera equipment in our college store and it was great to look at the old medium format cameras.

For futher research I'll look at photographers and also create an ideas blast.

Product Photography

Session Four

For our Fourth session we had to bring in a product to photograph, the product was of our choosing so I decided to bring in my Tiffany & Co bracelet with it's packaging to use as props too. We were first asked to take a shallow depth of field image with our product;

I began experimenting with light and where I was taking the photographs around the room, I took them with white backgrounds and high key lighting and I also tried photographing them on a black chair which is how I photographed these three.

I'm really really pleased with how these photographs of the Tiffany and Co bracelet turned out. I played around with editing the levels and then changing it to a sepia tone and also black and white however I wanted at least one strong image showing the iconic Tiffany blue.

Session Three

Product Photography

Session three began by our tutor showing us a powerpoint. He asked us if we have began to research various blogging websites to create our online blogs and if we have been documenting the sessions so far which I have done. The second slide on the powerpoint asked us to identify what strategies and approaches are used with product photography so I wrote in my notebook key things such as ;

1. Good Lighting 
2. Good clear camera angles
3. Strong colours
4. Contrast (bold coloured products against plain backdrops etc)

The next task was to propose a product that we can supply to photograph using the techniques discussed and generate a series of potential approaches so as a group we all nominated three people to go up and write a big joint ideas blast with suggestions from the group of products we could possibly photograph.

The title in the ideas blast bubble was 'Potential products, brands, Items' and some of the products suggested include;

Hair dye             Glasses

Apple (brand)        Sweets

Stationary           Fast Food

Clothing             Laptops

Shoes                Accessories 

Jewellery            Childrens toys

Make up              Skate Boards

Books                Perfume

We discussed how certain products are best being photographed in environments they would most probably be used in, for example we spoke about how we would photograph a skateboard and how it could be taken in a skate park mid stunt. Including a model using the board with the skateboard mid air so you can see the details of the product from a low vantage point. Product photography is all about showcasing the product to its advantage to sell whilst considering the target audience. 

The final task of the session was to work in smaller groups and decide on two photographic adverts to show to the group so , Jennii Chloe and I chose an MUA makeup advert and a schwarzkopf hair colour one.

We bullet-pointed key features from each advert everybody chose so for this MUA one we picked I wrote in my notebook;

Colourful.Bright. Simplistic. Plain backdrop. Lots of products. White vignette.

The use of the pound coins in the photo indicates that MUA is budget makeup which is a key selling point. The bold product colours stand out even more against the plain white background, high key lighting has been used for this photograph which highlights colours and adds contrast. 

Here is the second photographic advert we picked. Its a schwarzkopf hair dye advert. My notes were ;
Warm tones. Rule of thirds. key colours red & brown. negative space. lots of text/information.

The photographer has used lighting to highlight parts of her hair to create a soft gentle look with her hair which is the selling point. Red is instantly a very eye catching colour even with a small amount of the colour in the advertisement it still makes it striking. 

Post production editing is also a main factor when it comes to creating a good photographic advertisement, its clear that both of these chosen images have used lots of editing to enhance the pictures to be more appealing. Its important to keep the target audience in mind as well as what the product is that your trying to sell even whilst editing.

I'm looking forward to producing my own product photography.

Session Two

High Key Lighting

Session two was all about using the studio and learning how to use the lights properly. I booked out a Nikon D40 from the college store to use during lesson and we took it in turns to photograph each other. 

For the high key lighting we used two lights , one on either side of the subject facing towards them and we had a back light behind the backdrop. Of course after already spending one year in college and occasionally using the studio we already knew the very basics of using the equipment but we asked for a lesson dedicated towards learning more about them. 

From that lesson I learnt the importance of using light in a studio and how altering the light source can transform a photograph for the better. I'm really glad that we spent that lesson solely on lighting because I feel much more prepared now for any studio photography I may do.

I have basic studio equipment at home however I have always been hesitant to use it due to my lack of knowledge however I feel much more confident in using it now. 

Here are a selection of my images taken during the session. I learnt from this session that if you get the lighting just right in the studio then you don't have to do much if any post shoot editing at all.

Our tutor suggested to us that instead of using an A4 sketchbook for our work which we normally produce to instead upload all our work onto an online blog which is why I have created this. He asked our opinion on if we would prefer to do it online or not and we all agreed that creating it in a blog format would be best. Not only will it help to possibly promote our work but I think it's easier and less time consuming to do it online.

Session one

In our first session back at college our tutor spoke about using the unit to help us all create our own website. The idea of creating a website is to promote our photography more not only to help us to possibly earn money from our photography skills now but also for the future, what could be more beneficial than that?.


During lesson we also did an ideas blast on the board of different possible themes we can do throughout the year to structure our outcomes by. Some of the suggestions included Horror , Fashion, Studio based, Colour film and Emotions. I think idea blasts are such a great way to help with organising themes and helping with research too, to me they play a critical part in finalising ideas and progressing through the stages of developing thoughts.


By doing the ideas blast it helped me to determine what kind of photography I would like to have on my websites and blogs and how to separate my portraiture work and my still life work. Throughout the discussions in the first session it made me realise the importance of having an online presence where my photography work is concerned especially nowadays because its often the first place people look who are interested in it.

I look forward to creating a professional looking website to promote my work , I think combining it within the college units is a fantastic idea because I would hate to leave college with no idea where to start.