Updated article & trying out B&W

Updated article & trying out B&W

I’ve been trying out a few different images for my Saturday Supplement article. I’ve going with the plan of not using the detail shot where the hand is playing with the guitar as it stood out too much for the rest of the article. I also decided to go with a different image for the opening.

I decided to heavily crop the image as I liked the harsh lighting, also as he is looking to the left his eyes will point the viewer towards the title. Also I felt it was very reminiscent of Phil Collins I Don’t Care Anymore, even to the point where the catch-light is in the same spot. Just the whole image is flipped.

As mentioned this image is incredibly cropped so I won’t be 100 percent sure about the quality until I do a test print later this week. Which considering the fact it’s full res at 50MP on Phase One and sharp at 100% I’d like to think that the quality is there when it’s cropped. Once again maybe I should’ve shot one close up portrait.

I asked 3rd year Christian for his opinion, which he liked the images, he wasn’t sure about the image on the left of the article, he felt the subject looked a bit off balance, a bit uncomfortable however he liked the lighting and felt the images weres strong.

 

 

Christian was expecting to see the detail shot of the hand on the guitar, he saw it on my LinkedIn and he really liked the shot. He did agree with my feeling that it wouldn’t work with colour images. He suggested trying the whole article in B&W. Which I’m not sure about it, there doesn’t feel like there’s much consistency between the images. Also the images are incredibly flat and don’t jump out at the viewer so I will definitely be doing my article in colour rather than grayscale. Another reason why is because there is very little editorial nowadays that is shot in B&W.

A brief reflection of my time in the studio

A brief reflection of my time in the studio

I’m 50/50 about how I spent my time in the studio. On one hand, I’m really impressed with some of the images that I created with Hayden.

A particular highlight was where I got Hayden to put his head in line with the Guitar. This shot turned out much better than I expected it to. The light was very evenly distributed thanks to an Octabox on the left-hand side from a high and a square softbox on the right of the camera. This added with a close-up polyboard on the right bounced it around. I wish I took the time to capture one image where I shot at aperture like F22, just to see how much of the guitar could be I focus. At the same time, I really liked the depth that the shallow depth of field created but I would’ve had all the bases covered if I shot with a deep depth of field.

This kind of leads onto how on the other hand I feel this shoot was also a missed opportunity. Some of the shots don’t match as regards to tone this was because some shots had light fired onto the background and some didn’t. An example where this happened was this shot, which I was hoping to include to show that he plays with a Telecaster Fender however in this image where the logo is nice and sharp there wasn’t any light on the background.

Another image which I wish I took more time with was this one. I was very eager to shoot this image, however, I feel I silhouetted the hand far too much. In hindsight, I would’ve to put a polyboard very close to the subject on the left. I really like the light effect created on the metal finish of the guitar but it’s tough to tell that its a hand. Once again if I spent more time I probably could be got the Phase One to look right down the guitar and it would’ve been easier to show the shape of the hand, a bit like this image I did in my test shoot, then again I was shooting that hand-held so I was much more agile.

 

There was also a bit of experimentation that I did in my shoot which I’m pleased I did but I once again wish I spent more time trying to pull it off. Halfway through the shoot, I thought of an idea, I was wondering if I could create an image where I froze Hayden and the guitar but blurred his hands. This didn’t work but this image on the right does slightly demonstrate what I wanted to try, you can see the movement on the right hand. I think to pull this shot off I would’ve needed a snoot lighting just the face and then I could’ve let the ambient light provide the motion blur on the hand. This, however, would’ve led to motion blue of the guitar so this shot most likeely would’ve been too tough to pull off

 

So overall, I’m happy with what I’ve created in the studio with Eman and Hayden but I definitely feel the shoot was a missed opportunity. Hopefully, this isn’t a missed opportunity I live to regret.

Meeting with Julian Jackson

Meeting with Julian Jackson

For our elective project, we got to having a meeting with the Founder and Director of Vision-bridge.

This meeting was very important for us because it was a chance for us to work out how we can benefit and add value to Vision-bridge.

 

• How he went blind:

He started by telling us about the journey he has been through. In 2010 he lost his eye-sight to an inherited retinal disease. He had prior knowledge, he and his family knew that at some point his eye-sight will be gone. Julian and his twin brother use to walk around with their eyes closed so they could prepare for the day where they had to stop using their sight.

Even after he went blind, Julian was in denial about it. There was one time where he was getting off a plane and in between the plane door and stairs he fell and didn’t hit the tarmac because of his backpack.

Now that he’s blind he reflects on how he will never be able to see his wife or his daughter. He ended it with “you can prepare as much as you want, but you will still be surprised when it happens”

• What he stands for

Julian said that he is an advocate and campaigner for eye research. He also said he is probably viewed as a pain in the backside by people in the volunteer sector

• What are charities doing

He believes that charities are failing their supporters and beneficiaries by going to the same people every year

• Facts

He presented us with many of the hard-hitting facts about blindness. 300 million people have problems with their eyes, 40 million of which are completely blind. Every 24 hours 100 people will lose their sight. Half of people affected by blindness have got no cure. All this results in £32 billion lost each year in lost taxes and benefits that have to be paid.

20 million people can’t remember the last time they had an eye test. One final fact we were told is that when asked which sense people fear losing the most, 83% say sight.

• His personality

Julian being an advocate goes to many talks and there was one where a lady came up to him after the talk and asked if he was actually blind. He said yes I am and wondered why the question was asked. The lady said that he seemed too happy to be blind. We definitely got this impression of Julian during our meeting. But this shows that he is a man who has accepted what’s happened, he knows there is no cure at the moment but if he keeps raising the profile, maybe just maybe research might find a cure for not just him but millions of people.

• How money is spent

With most charities that raise money for research into eye problems. Very little of the money actually goes into research, most of it goes into support. Which is really good but support isn’t gonna bring peoples sight back.

• Big Blind Walk

It was great to hear about the Big Blind Walk that he did from Lands End to Jon O Groats. He had so much support which ranged from people walking for a few minutes to people walking many miles with him. He mentioned about a couple of Royal Marines who joined him. When he reached the end one of the Marines ripped his Royal Marine shoulder patch off, which he had worn in Afghanistan and he gave them to Julian saying “you f*cking deserve them”

Advice about Websites

Advice about Websites

A few weeks ago we had a lesson where we were given advice about websites and CV’s. This was the final talk in how we make ourselves into a professional.

Websites:

Homepage. Click on image to view my website

We received recommendations of several platforms to use to create a professional website. The first one which was recommended was Squarespace. I used them, they offer 50% off the first subscription to Ravensbourne students they also offer e-commerce.

Other platforms are:

• MyPortfolio: Free to Ravensbourne students. Very similar interface to Squarespace. Doesn’t offer e-commerce.
• Behance: Very focused on the Creative Industry, more of a blog but can still be used as a website
• Dribbble: Very similar to MyPortfolio but focuses mainly on Designers

 

Despite the free options, I intend to stick to Squarespace next year as the website is set up and ready-to-go. Also I’ve got a very good understanding of how the interface works

Saturday Supplement Edit

Saturday Supplement Edit

I started the edit by setting up a smart folder where I put all the Sharp images. There massive files so when I was going through making adjustments, it would be great if I didn’t have to keep zooming in to check focus.

Next, I gave Five Stars to my favourite images from the shoot.

It was clear looking at the images that I had to do some Photoshop retouching, I had to remove tape and footsteps on the backdrop. So I broke out my Wacom and did a basic retouch of most of the images. To which I’m probably gonna go back and do must more extreme retouching to the portraits, however, if I do it to one I have to do it to all of them. So I would have to spend loads of time and patience.

Saturday Supplement Shoot & initial articles

Saturday Supplement Shoot & initial articles

Image: Eman Rostum

Yesterday was the day of my long awaited Saturday Supplement shoot. Apart from having the tripod round the wrong, a wheel falling off the table and my schedule kind of going out the window I’m really happy with the work that was created which was a really fun collaboration between myself, my assistant Eman Rostum and our Guitarist obviously it is a bit gutting that I didn’t do more collaborating and networking with an MUA and Stylist.

Below is a contact sheet of images that I’m happy with:

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1st Article:

When I got home, I decided to do a very basic edit and assembled the article of images that we’re unretouched. This was simply to see if I’d got 9 images. I decided to ask my friends what they felt about this layout.

Chiara simply said she “Loved It”

Elle also said that she loved the article but she wasn’t sure about the order of the last four images. Which one of them was significantly darker than the others, so with some retouching those four might work.

Tiana liked the article but felt the first and last image looked too similar.

Gabriella felt the images were strong but she like Elle wasn’t sure of the order of the last four images. She also felt that I should swap the 2nd and 3rd image round which I decided to do in the 2nd article.

2nd Article:

On the right is the 2nd article I created, this time I used images that I had retouched.  I decided to once again ask for advice on this article. I asked my friend Cal Mackenzie who studies film and Bournemouth and is an eager follower of work in Digital Photography at Ravensbourne after studying Foundation here.

He said nice shots overall, he really liked the one of him lying down. He wasn’t sure what the center image was saying, which I was thinking of it showing the Guitar he used but maybe the logo isn’t clear enough because of the highlights.

He also commented on the silhouette image, he felt the shadow on the hand was too strong, which I could try to lift the shadows, in hindsight, I probably could’ve put a polyboard next to him. He also said that the article wouldn’t work with a mix of B&W and colour images. Which I didn’t think of. So I might end up replacing this image.

I’m gonna sit down with 3rd year Christian this week to discuss my images and article, we’re also gonna discuss a potential opportunity for me as well.

Final update on Saturday Supplement shoot

Final update on Saturday Supplement shoot

As today is the day of my Saturday Supplement shoot, this post will serve as a final update.

My pursuit of finding a make-up artist and stylist has been unsuccessful, I have really struggled to approach them, I haven’t really been sure where to look especially on the stylist front. As mentioned, I could probably very briefly use my friend Elle’s MUA for 5 minutes to do minimal make-up on Hayden.

Hayden Brennen is arriving a 1PM tomorrow, he’s coming on the underground he’s bringing two electric guitars and one acoustic guitar. The electric guitars are blue and red so I could potentially create some nice images maybe with a burst of colour in a silhouette.

Despite the setbacks on the MUA & stylist front I’m still feeling confident about my shoot and I’m looking forward to shooting alongside my assistant/studio manager Eman Rostum tomorrow

Phase One Refresher

Phase One Refresher

Last week we had the opportunity to try out the Phase One camera system before our Saturday Supplement shoots. It was great to have this opportunity as I was feeling nervous about the prospect of shooting on the Phase One system. I’ve had two opportunities to use it before but I really need to know the focal length range.

I forgot that the lenses on medium format cameras are different from those of full-frame. In simple terms and 50mm Phase One lens isn’t the same as a 50mm Canon lens. The three most important lenses to remember are:

• 55mm [wide angle, equivalent of 28mm full-frame]
• 80mm [standard, equivalent of 50mm full-frame]
• 150mm [telephoto, equivalent of 100mm full-frame]

It was good knowing the numbers, but I actually had to see these lenses in practice to feel confident about my ability to make the right lens choice. Now that I have, I’m feeling a lot more confident about my shoot. This refresher was great to chance to refresh my skills in focus re-compose which will be very important for full-body shots, remember Phase One only has one focus point in the middle of the sensor so we have to get focus on the eyes, then recompose the frame. On the note of lenses I think most of my shoot will be done with the 80mm lens, there will be a few close ups and detail shots that will need the 150mm and maybe 1 or 2 image that needs the 55mm. However as I’m shooting in 212, I might be able to take a step back and shoot wide with the 80mm lens. This means I can now have a plan of what order to shoot my images in.

Idea for Cultural Geography

Idea for Cultural Geography

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been able to think of a few ideas for my cultural geography assignment, however, I was really getting a passionate idea. I do however think I now have something I could write about.

Yesterday when browsing through Facebook I came across this post. I wouldn’t extend to saying I was a fanatic, but I’ve always taken a keen interest in nature documentaries, I’ve always been blown away by the cinematography and the calm narration of David Attenborough, however, this project has made me question just how much of nature documentaries are natural?

How much of it staged? how much is filmed in a studio? how much of it sees natured get interfered with?

This article shows nature being disrupted in a good way, saving a life by breaking the number one rule of the show. Not only can I question how natural these shows are, but maybe I could also write about the moral standing, at first people will see that nature is being disrupted just by filming there, however, if the crew wasn’t there, these penguins could very well of died.

Update on Saturday Supplement [Call sheet, schedule & MUA’s]

Update on Saturday Supplement [Call sheet, schedule & MUA’s]

Below is the call sheet which I have assembled for my Saturday Supplement project. I left the options open for the Make-Up Artist & Stylist, however, I’m not feeling confident about my chances of finding one, to which if I can’t find one by tomorrow I might not be able to get clearance from Front Of House. If the worst comes to worst, I might be able to very briefly use my friend Elles’ MUA who is shooting next door to me at the same time. Admittingly this isn’t as strong as getting an MUA for the shoot but it’s better than nothing.

Call Sheet:

Schedule:

For this project, I decided to create a schedule as well. I decided to do this as the time in this project is probably gonna fly by. Especially considering that I’m shooting on the Phase One system and with it being shot on a tripod means that I might have to take a bit more time to get the camera in the right position. I’m going to get the shots in the order of lens needed. For the first schedule [left], I decided to give myself 10 minutes per photo, however, I decided to give myself 15 minutes to set up and shoot every image. Yes, this gives me less time as regards to contingency, but I feel confident in getting all 9 images covered with this schedule [below] especially after doing the Phase One refresher last week. NOTE: Image number can be seen on this blog post