Eureka

No Benny Hill style remarks please !

When I was taking the product shots of the wine glass, during product shoot 2, I based my idea on an article in Digital Photo magazine, which I then lost.

I have now found the issue, number 128 Spring 2009, and I have compared their photograph to mine:

 

Their photograph	My photograph

 

Because we had limited time during the shoot, and that Jim had chose a white backdrop, we went for a contrast to what the magazine had done.

I took photographs as Steve slowly poured the ‘wine’ into the wine glass held by Pippa, waiting to get the shot that I wanted.

Some of these photographs are shown below:

Looking at the two I prefer my version, which although there was no splashing in the glass, much in the same way as Chris Collins or Martin Wonnacott, the bubbles in the ‘wine’ in the glass add to my shot.  Looking at their photograph the red wine is much thicker than the ‘wine’ I used and may have been poured from a greater height  to get the splashes in the glass.  In their article the wine glass was fixed to a table using tape and /or blue tack, whereas in mine Pippa held the wine glass, adding the human element to the shot.

So out of the two shots, I prefer mine !

Portraits of Photographers - Part 2

Aim of the shoot

For this shoot I wanted to capture some of the other photographers from the course. Unfortunately, there were a few problems so it was a case of improvisation. But this did give me an opportunity to try some portraits in a very different lighting scenario to my previous portrait shoot.

Set Ups

For the two portraits I used ambient lighting. Although I did vary the set up for the two portraits, which included the direction of the light.

For Rebecca I shot her against natural backlighting. The set up diagram is shown below:

For Steve, we went for a more formal pose, where Steve stood with his back to a whiteboard. This set up shown below:

Steve stood near to a whiteboard, this gave a clean, uncluttered background. Eric kindly held a reflector which helped with the lighting.

Choice Of Equipment

As this was a more improvised shoot, I was very limited with the equipment available.

I used a DSLR with a 18-200mm lens, without flash, using the available light in the room. Eric kindly held a reflector to even out the light on Steve. This lens is very handy as it has a variable focal length and can be used to zoom in on someone, reducing the amount of cropping required, without standing on their toes. The lens has a wide aperture of f 4.5 which allows me to isolate the subject from their surroundings, in particular the backdrop.

Health and Safety

Because I am working with people who are modelling for this photo shoot I must make sure that at all times their safety is of prime concern. Fortunately, all my subjects are photographers themselves and are aware of the safety measures in place. Working in a classroom instead of the studio, where there is seating, although out of the way, any dangers that can arise from these can be reduced by having an assistant present, who in my case was Eric.

The usual health and safety precautions must be followed:

Environment

Fortunately, working in a college classroom which is kept clear of any obstructions, we had a clear and safe working environment.

Electricity

Because we were not using studio lighting the only danger which could affect any of us was from the Apple Mac computers in the classroom.

Heat

Because we were not using any studio lighting there was no danger from these. The only heat in the classroom was from the sun.

Flash Photography

As I chose to use the existing light, there was no flash used.

Chemicals

Because we were not in the studio, and the classrooms are kept clean and tidy, there were no chemicals in the area.

Image Selection

Because this had been a more improvised shoot than my last one I had less images to choose from, but again I wanted to capture the personality of the person, not just their portrait.

Below is a contact sheet of the portraits that I took during this session:

With such a limited selection of images to choose from, particularly in the case of Steve Bright.

Post Production of the images

As with the other portraits, I used the Black and White film filter to convert the images to monochrome, whilst maintaining control over the finished image.

These were then cropped. Although with Rebecca I could not achieve a square finished image, I was very happy with the end result. Thanks Rebecca and Steve !

From this photo shoot I came away with the following images:

Many thanks to Rebecca and Steve for their participation in these portraits, and for Eric’s assistance.

Product Shoot 3

Aim of this Shoot

This time I wanted to concentrate on photographing ladies perfumes, which are one of the most popular products for advertising, using some of the cosmetics in the house. The inspiration for these photographs has been posers in shop windows and adverts in magazines.

Using the kitchen table, with natural light, and a white mount board for the set. This did mean folding the mount board to create a stage and a backdrop, thereby ruining the board for anything else. The things that I will do !

The Set Up

The diagram for this set up I used is shown below:

As you can see there is really very little working space available, whilst getting the lighting how I wanted it.

Below are photographs of the actual set up:

Choice of Equipment

For this shoot I chose to use my Fujifilm Finepix S7000 camera, because this has a better macro capability, especially when working in such a confined workspace. The S7000 has a built in lens which is the equivalent of a 28 – 210mm lens on a 35mm film camera, but offers both macro mode and super macro mode (the latter allowing focusing down to 25mm).

Because I was working from a fixed location, I used my older Miranda tripod, which is considerably heavier than the lighter Star 75 tripod that I took to Wales, but far more steady.

To avoid camera shake when pressing the shutter release I set the camera to a 2 second self timer, as this camera does not have a remote release capability.

Health and Safety

Working Environment

As I am working in a confined space, and it being a kitchen, it was very important to ensure that all knives and sharp objects had been put away, prior to the start of the shoot. Also, I had to make sure that the floor was dry, with no spillages which could lead to me slipping over.

Electricity

Because I was using existing light, there were no concerns over electric lighting, again the kitchen was clear and the electric appliances were unplugged and out of the way.

Cables

I made sure that there were no cables in the working environment to prevent any tripping style accidents.

Heat

As there was no flash lighting there were no concerns over the heat generated by these. The cooker had not been used for hours, so it was cold to the touch. As there was no direct sunlight there was no noticeable heat there. The water in the kettle was cold as well, although this was down the other end of the kitchen, well away from where I was working.

Chemicals

I had ensured that everything was put away, prior to the start of the shoot. The kitchen tops were clear.

Selecting the Images

Having looked at some advertisements, both in weekend newspaper magazines and in shop window promotions, I had an idea what I was looking to achieve from this photo shoot. Also, like the corkscrew climbers from the second product photo shoot, I wanted to take some of my photographs beyond their normal limits.

Both focus and exposure were very important when selecting the images, but also scope for taking the photographs further.

Below is a contact sheet of the images that were taken during this product photo shoot:

The results of the shoot

Here are some of the finished images:

Product Shoot Two

Aim of the shoot

This time I was working with Jim in the studio. Jim was also working on a product shoot, very similar principle to me, so Steve suggested that we worked together, also I might learn a few things from Jim.

I was looking at shooting some 'wine', for which I have a few ideas, the 'wine' being poured into a glass, and perhaps an empty wine glass.

The first thing to do was look at the lighting that was required. Jim had worked out what he was looking for and Steve Davies helped set up the lighting accordingly.

The Set Up

After Jim had taken some of his photographs, I had the opportunity to take some using a bottle of rose wine (well, ok, summer fruits cordial - but it looked good ! and did not mean bringing alcohol onto the college premises !).

The set up involved using the product table again and one soft box on the left, lighting from behind the product table, with barn doors to control the lighting, and a light from under the table.

Below is the lighting diagram:

The flash was triggered by a wireless trigger.

After a few test shots I got the lighting just right. The exposure was set up for the liquid, not the labels on the bottle which would have resulted in the liquid being highly over exposed:

After I was happy with the image of the bottle, for which I have one or two ideas, one based on some of Chris Collins work.

Next I wanted to try something that I saw in a magazine, Digital Photo, which looked good. For this I would need a wine glass, which I had brought from home, and two people. I discussed this idea with Steve who advised that although the lighting was different, it would be something interesting to try.

Pippa joined me, Steve and Jim in the studio to give us a hand, sorry but pun intended !

I lined up to camera, Steve advised whilst Jim poured some of the ‘wine’ into a wine glass held by Pippa:

Although the lighting was different to that used in the magazine, we were all happy with the result. One thing that was nicer about my photograph, as opposed to the photograph in the magazine was the bubbles in the wine glass as the ‘wine’ was poured.

Choice of Equipment

To save time during the shoot it was decided that I should use Jim's Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR which was fitted with a 24 - 105 mm lens. This gave me the opportunity to use a more pro spec camera. This lens offered a wider aperture setting than my lenses and could isolate one item from a group by careful use of the depth of field. Although the camera uses compact flash, Jim downloaded these onto my memory stick at the college, although the CR2 (Canon RAW) files were very large, I was able to deal with them thanks to the UFRAW application.

Health and Safety

When working in a photographic studio you have to be careful of a number of things:

Environment

Fortunately, working in the college photographic studio which is kept clear of any obstructions, we had a clear and safe working environment, which is very important because, once the lights are out and we have only the modelling lights from the flash units to see by, any cables or props left lying around could cause an accident.

Electricity

Although the voltages for many lights may be lower, especially for portable lighting, you must always check that the cables are in good condition and have firm connections (to the equipment and to the mains power supply) and that nothing is overloading any sockets.

Any use of liquids, especially with some of my photographs, was controlled to prevent any liquid coming close to any electrical appliances.

Cables

The lighting is fitted to a series of tracks which are fixed to the ceiling, this reduces the number of cables that are near the ground, and any slack in the cables from these lights is taken up to prevent any tripping over accidents.

Heat

Because of the use of flash units, which generate a lot of heat, these were only handled before any photography started, using the light from the modelling light to ascertain the lighting. Also nothing inflammable was placed any where near any lighting equipment. It is important with so much lighting equipment that can be triggered wirelessly that any unused equipment is switched off, both for safety and causing unwanted lighting.

Steve, who changed any fittings, prior to the start of the shoot, was careful not to catch any lighting tubes, which are very fragile whilst changing the fittings.

Chemicals

Because we are all using digital cameras, most of the chemicals involved with photography, in particular the processing and development of the finished photographs, have been removed. I think the most dangerous fluid in the studio that day would have been the ‘wine’ which although not dangerous, would have caused some disappointment if tasted.

Selecting the images

I was very how this shoot turned out, and I think Jim was very happy with his product shoot.

This photo shoot gave me a number of images to work with, some of which I have already got ideas for their use.  The important issues when selecting images from this shoot were that these images were good exposure and accurate focusing.

The contact sheets for the images taken during this shoot are below:

 

Post Production 

With the photograph of the wine bottle, shown below, I just needed to create an adjustment layer for the label, as the exposure was set for the liquid, so that the label was clear.

I also had to clone out a small reflection of one of the studio lights.

With the pouring of the wine into a wine glass, held by Pippa, I used masking and lightened Pippa’s hand which was too dark.

One good thing was that nobody tried to sample the ‘wine’ !

Thanks again to Steve, Jim and Pippa for their help.

Portrait Photography

Portraits of Photographers – Part 1

For this project I wanted to capture the other photographers on the course. Unfortunately, some of the group, namely Steve B, Becky and Joe, were not in today so I will take more at a later date including a group shot of everyone.

Aim of the Shoot

My inspiration for these portraits are from some of the portraits taken by David Bailey.

Steve helped with the lighting which we decided would be similar to the type of set up that David Bailey or Irving Penn would have used:

For these portraits I used the DSLR with a 18 – 200 mm lens, as this would give me a wide range of focal lengths to play, without either standing on my subject’s toes or standing out the door. I have read that a good focal length for portraits is around the 90 mm mark. I will also be using the battery grip enables me to take the portrait orientated photographs, whilst still having access to the important controls. At first I used the camera stand, but this I found too limiting, so I chose to use the camera loose, as it should be used.

I used the infra red trigger for the flash units which gave me more portability and prevented any tripping over type accidents. The main flash was above me but there was more than enough clearance from my head.

Steve set the studio with a white background with one main light almost above me and two soft boxes to illuminate the background.

The set up is shown below:

For some of the portraits I wanted the subject to stand up, for others I wanted them to be sitting down.

 

 

Health and Safety

Because I am working with people who are modelling for this photo shoot I must make sure that at all times their safety is of prime concern.  Fortunately, all my subjects are photographers themselves and are aware of the safety measures in place in a photographic studio, where as many people, especially children and curious adults are prone to ‘what happens if I press this’ scenario, which having worked in the joinery trade, I am fully aware how dangerous a clicking of a simple button can be where the person pressing it knows nothing about the implications of doing so.  Also the dangers of multiple children, or over curious adults, where you cannot watch everyone all the time, although these dangers can be reduced by having an assistant present.

 

There is another option, with some people (none of those on the course) but a piece of 3 x 2 would not be permitted.

 

The usual health and safety precautions must be followed:

 

Environment

Fortunately, working in the college photographic studio which is kept clear of any obstructions, we had a clear and safe working environment, which is very important because, once the lights are out and we have only the modelling lights from the flash units to see by, any cables or props left lying around could cause an accident.

Electricity

Although the voltages for many lights may be lower, especially for portable lighting, you must always check that the cables are in good condition and have firm connections (to the equipment and to the mains power supply) and that nothing is overloading any sockets.

There were no liquids in the studio, so there was no concerns of any liquids coming close to any electrical appliances.

Cables

With more people in the studio there are always more concerns over tripping and falling accidents in the studio.  The lighting is fitted to a series of tracks which are fixed to the ceiling, this reduces the number of cables that are near the ground, and any slack in the cables from these lights is taken up to prevent any tripping over accidents.

 

Heat

Because of the use of flash units, which generate a lot of heat, these were only handled before any photography started, using the light from the modelling light to ascertain the lighting.   Also nothing inflammable was placed any where near any lighting equipment.  It is important with so much lighting equipment that can be triggered wirelessly that any unused equipment is switched off, both for safety and causing unwanted lighting.

Steve, who changed any fittings, prior to the start of the shoot, was careful not to catch any lighting tubes, which are very fragile whilst changing the fittings.

Chemicals

Because we are all using digital cameras, most of the chemicals involved with photography, in particular the processing and development of the finished photographs, have been removed.

Image Selection

From this photo shoot I took a number of images, where I tried to capture the personality behind the portrait, rather than just capture an image of the person.

Below are contact sheets of the images that I captured during the shoot:

 

Once I had looked at the different photographs I selected those that I felt captured the personality of the person, because to me this is what is important about any portrait.  Although photographs never do the person justice, I wanted to at least capture their personality.

Although Eric and Jim brought cameras, I wanted to capture them off duty, without a camera.

 

The Post Production

After I had selected the portraits I wanted to convert them to monochrome, using the Black and White filter from PhotoPlus X3, which is just like the filter demonstrated by Peter Clark from Adobe Photoshop CS4. This would create a similar finish to portraits by David Bailey.

My first subject was Ruth. Ruth was a little nervous at first, a common thing with all people, especially photographers. Ruth soon settled and we got some good portraits:

1/60th at f5.6 with 100 ISO

Next up was Eric, who is very relaxed on both sides of the camera, as you can see:

1/45th at f5.6 with 100 ISO

My next subject was Pippa:

1/45th at f5.6 with 100 ISO

In fact whilst taking portraits of Pippa I caught the dial and ended up with some high key portraits as well. I soon realised and corrected this ready for my next subject Suzy:

1/60th at f5.6 with 100 ISO

Like all the team, Suzy was a great subject and soon relaxed.

Next was Steve Davies, our tutor:

1/60th at f6.3 with 100 ISO

Steve brought with him is sense of humour, which is something that I wanted to capture about Steve.

Finally, for this session was Jim:

1/45th at f5.6 with 100 ISO

Who is forever the photographer.

The Final Images

Below are the final images that I have cropped, in a similar way to those portraits taken by David Bailey, as suggested by Steve Davies:

Ruth

 

Eric

 

In fact Steve Davies asked if the Burton College could use this photograph for promoting the exhibition.

Pippa

Suzy

With Suzy, I wanted to also capture her necklace, showing a paw print, because Suzy in very passionate about animals.

Steve Davies

Jim

I hope the team are happy with their portraits, please give me some feedback on these, as I said above, I will be taking some more portraits on 29 May 2010, when I am hoping for a group portrait.

A very big thank you to everyone who modelled for me today.

Peter

Product Shoot One

Aim of the Shoot

For this first product shoot in the studio, I wanted to try a few ideas I sketched whilst on my dinner break.

The first ideas featured fruit juice drinks, including J2O.

First, it was discussing with Steve Davies the ideas that I had and what I was looking to produce, Steve gave me some suggestions and helped with the positioning of the lights. After carrying out a quick risk assessment for health and safety, we started the photography.

The Set Ups

After some test shots and tweaking the aperture (both the ISO and shutter speed were limited), I got the results that I was looking for.

Using the set up above, with two light boxes backlighting the product table, one light under lighting the product and a snoot to the left of the camera.

A studio overhead diagram is below:

The camera itself was mounted on a camera stand, which was far more flexible than the traditional tripod, and far more stable.

The first idea, which I called Quality First featured four bottles, with a J2O bottle, which I used as the target product.

The next idea for the juice drinks, used a little improvisation:

But, at the end of the day, if the photograph looks good

(and they cannot see how it was done) the end justifies the means.

 

Here is the end result, which I entitled 'Above the rest':

For this photograph I had to position and rotate the J2O bottle so that the label showed the brand as best I could, whilst keeping the two front bottles together, which not only produced the effect that I wanted, but also hid the rolls of tape used to raise the J2O bottle.  One trick I used during the setting up of this image was to use the focus frame, in the viewfinder, to line up the bottles.

The next idea I worked on still involved the fruit juice, but used a different approach.

This image I entitled 'Quality not Quantity' was used to promote the target product in an environment where it was clearly in the minority to the other products, but demonstrating that it is not the quantity but the quality that counts. 

Toiletries

The next product I looked at was some toiletries, that I had been given as a gift.

Toiletries and perfumes are a very popular product to be photographed, because of there appeal to people, sometimes being promoted by celebrities, often shown with backlighting illuminating the bottle and its contents.

A studio overhead diagram is below:

In this case the bottles are black and opaque, so back lighting would not work with these.  An added problem with these items is that the camera might expose for the black packaging and not the white labelling, so some post production work in Photoshop will be necessary.

Canon A720 IS

The next item was a compact camera.

Cameras are a very popular consumer item and here product photography is a vital advertising tool, often the cameras are shown in a dim lit or even dark environment.  I therefore thought that I would give it a try first shooting in a light environment, especially as the camera has a silver finish and compare this to a photograph taken in a dark environment.

I did not want to take too many photographs as I was unsure how these would turn out, and my priority was the fruit juice bottles and the toiletries.

A studio overhead diagram is below:

Below is one of the photographs that I took in the light setting:

The angle of the photograph captured both the front of the camera and the top.  This is a popular angle when photographing a camera as people like to see as much detail, particularly in a single image.

Choice of Equipment

 

For these photographs I used the DSLR with a 18 – 55 mm lens, as this would give me a range of focal lengths to play with.  The lens had a macro setting which would be essential for these photographs. I will also be using the battery grip enables me to take the portrait orientated photographs, whilst still having access to the important controls.

 

I also used the camera stand as this would reduce time adjusting the focusing and any metering changes.

I used the infra red trigger for the flash units which gave me more portability and prevented any tripping over type accidents.

 

Health and Safety

When working in a photographic studio you have to be careful of a number of things:

Environment

Fortunately, working in the college photographic studio which is kept clear of any obstructions, we had a clear and safe working environment, which is very important because, once the lights are out and we have only the modelling lights from the flash units to see by, any cables or props left lying around could cause an accident.

Electricity

Although the voltages for many lights may be lower, especially for portable lighting, you must always check that the cables are in good condition and have firm connections (to the equipment and to the mains power supply) and that nothing is overloading any sockets.

Any use of liquids, especially with some of my photographs, was controlled to prevent any liquid coming close to any electrical appliances.

Cables

The lighting is fitted to a series of tracks which are fixed to the ceiling, this reduces the number of cables that are near the ground, and any slack in the cables from these lights is taken up to prevent any tripping over accidents.

Heat

Because of the use of flash units, which generate a lot of heat, these were only handled before any photography started, using the light from the modelling light to ascertain the lighting. Also nothing inflammable was placed any where near any lighting equipment. It is important with so much lighting equipment that can be triggered wirelessly that any unused equipment is switched off, both for safety and causing unwanted lighting.

Flash Photography

Flash photography, in particular the use of strobe lighting can affect someone who has photosensitive epilepsy, where by an epileptic fit can be triggered by flashing lights.  This is why announcements are made prior to showing on television, for example an interview, where there is rapid flashes from photographers flash guns.  Although no one I know suffers from this, it is an important consideration to think about as some people are unaware that they are sensitive to light in this way until something happens. 

Chemicals

Because we are all using digital cameras, most of the chemicals involved with photography, in particular the processing and development of the finished photographs, have been removed.

Contact

Although this might seem an unusual heading, it is still a very important consideration.  Whilst working in the photographic studio at the Burton College, we are aware that the rest of the group is nearby and in the event of an accident there are people who could assist (some members of security staff at the college are trained first aiders), and if required call for an ambulance.  If we were working alone in a studio or with a single other person, it would be essential to ensure that in the event of an accident someone could raise the alarm and call for help.  In the event of an accident, especially a serious one, the casualty must not be left alone.

This is an important factor when working on location, especially where there is little or no mobile signal, which could prevent a distress call getting through.

 

Selecting Images

I had decided on some of the uses of many of the photographs that I had taken, so when selecting the images it was a case of looking for images that were well exposed, in focus and that I could use for the ideas that I had been looking at.

Below is a contact sheet of all the photographs that I took during this photo shoot.

  

Post Production

J2O

All the J2O images have had minor issues corrected using Adobe Photoshop, because although you set the lighting up for the product there are so many considerations to take into account, which in some cases would counteract each other.  For example I was happy with the lighting of the bottles and the liquids, but the labels on the J2O bottle were not as vibrant as I wanted, so it was a case of selecting the separate labels on the bottle, and copying them to separate layers:

I then adjusted the levels on the individual labels, on separate layers, so the labels were vibrant and clear, without altering the bottles or the other label.

Toiletries

The first part of the workflow was carrying out adjustments in the Camera Raw, tool for importing and carrying out some adjustments using the raw image from cameras using a raw image format.

Once any adjustments are performed an xmp file is saved with the raw image, which retains the settings used when making adjustments to the image.

Once the adjustments have been made the image is opened in Photoshop.

The first priority was cropping the image, there is little point working on the whole image when you are only intending to use a portion of the image.

The next priority was working on the lettering on the packaging (which was a very long job !!).

 

Then I copied the selections to a separate layer, because there was so much text to work on I used three separate layers, I then adjusted the levels on these layers so that the text was clear.

This is the result of a number of hours work - before and after: