Pip in Australia

As some of you already know, Pip has flown out to Australia as her brother has been taken ill. She will not be back in the country until June 15th. Pip has brought the mounts for the competition back into college and left them with Mr Steve so we can carry on with mounting this Saturday

Do we have enough mount cutters? I can bring mine in if needed

C u Sat

Inspiration for your product shoots

Hi Bloggers here's a nice product shot, thought it might give you some ideas and inspiration

Image Presentation Written Account

My preferred method of image presentation


Digital Media CD and DVD

The method of image presentation I have chosen to present my images for this course is by digital media. I will be copying or burning all of my 20 final  images to compact disks or digital versatile disks

Made from plastic, the discs have a variety of advantages compared with other methods of presentation such as print for example

Using these disks, images can be viewed at various resolutions and sizes on mobile phones through to giant cinema screens. Virtually any type of screen would be able to display images.The images can then be viewed by my tutor on a desktop pc, laptop or projector to evaluate my work

I have chosen this method of presentation because of it's ease of use, low cost and versatility. Once burnt to CD or Dvd, the images are safe and cannot be deleted. Advantages of this particular method of presenting images are endless, I have named some of the reasons below:

Price:

The cost of cd's and dvd's are just a few pence. Compared with print which costs £2-3 per A3 image

Speed and reliability:
Saving your images to these disks is very efficient and quick.You can save hundreds or thousands of images in minutes dependent on the format used

The disks are vary reliable and very rarely fail. There is always a constant supply to buy at a local stationer or computer shop

Potability:

The disks are very compact and can be carried around in a pocket,cd case or envelope etc. You can store thousands of images on cd's and dvd's, they store easy, you can send them in the post very cheaply and also email images taken from the disks.The disks have vast storage areas and can hold thousands if images and numerous films.

Reproduction:

They are very easy to copy or burn and reproduce. There is no deterioration of the final images once burnt to disk.

No real loss of quality:

Images saved to these disks can be saved in various file formats for future storage and compatibility. Some common formats are jpg,tiff,dng,raw. Using the raw format file to save your image preserves the unique digital negative exactly the way it was captured in camera with no loss of quality

Versatility:

Images stored on these disks can be used to screen images on Tv's,laptops, pc's,projectors,dvd player's,mobile phones etc.
Image files stored on this media can easily be uploaded to image manipulation software packages such as Photoshop etc for editing

Security and Backup:

For security reasons it's always best to produce numerous copies of your disk as a back up.This way you'll always have a master that can be copied endless times. You can copy your images perpetually from these master disks which always retain the original images with original colours that do not age or deteriorate in time as compared to the print method. There is only a very minute loss of data when copying the files from these disks.These changes are not visible to the human eye and are not detectable which results in no visible loss of quality

I have considered other methods of presenting my images, one of these methods is print

Print

As any photographer knows there is nothing like seeing a really nice well printed photograph that can be displayed,handled,passed around and inspected. This is a lovely way to show off your work. I find this method also a great way to present and show of your images and is definitely one of my favourites. They can be wall mounted,framed,or inserted into portfolios etc but there are a lot of disadvantages associated with this method of presentation compared to the one I have chosen

There are numerous sizes available to print from shown below are just a few popular sizes

Different print sizes examples

A4

 
 
 
 
 
A3
 
   

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A2



I did consider this method to display my images but the disadvantages definitely outway my preferred method of digital media cd and dvd. Compared with images stored to disk or digital media it does have a whole lot more disadvantages. I have outlined a number of these below:



Disadvantages of print

There are a vast amount of disadvantages associated with this method of display, I have outlined a number of them below:

Costs:
I did consider this method of image presentation but the cost was far to high compared to presenting images on CD and Dvd. Print  prices can vary. For example an A3 print can range from £2-£5 per image from a good printer on quality paper.
This method can be very expensive but the costs at commercial printers have come down a lot over the past couple of years. The costs can come down if you have your images printed in a large batch instead of one and two's

Damage:
Prints can be damaged easily. Just touching the surface with any object or your fingers will scratch the surface layer which can ruin the photograph forever. Any type of moisture coming into contact with your photo will damage it making the colours run cause inks to bleed into each other. Corners are easily bent over and cheap papers tend to roll up and produce creases on the surface

Fading and degradation
Most prints will fade and degrade in time due to exposure to daylight and the elements surrounding it. It is essential to print images on high quality printing paper to reduce the threat of fading and degradation. it is essential to protect images by mounting them in frames that are covered at the front with glass or perspex. It is essential not to hang or mount photographs near windows where they will come into contact with sunlight or direct light which will in time degrade them

Profiles and reproduction printing:

Print colours are not always true and do not print out the same as seen on a monitor or camera.Colour casts are sometimes evident so printing would have to be set up by the use of a profile. Sometimes there are colour casts in the printing with different hues and tones ,shades and casts are sometimes evident. This can all vary by the type of profile setup and type of printing paper used. There are so many different types of printing paper available nowadays which does have a great impact on the finished print. Setting up a print profile to replicate a perfect print can be a tedius affair because calibration of a PC,monitor and printer all have to link together with the correct profile and calibration

Blog 21 Health and Safety

Health and Safety

During our first week at college we were taken into the photographic studio and given a health and safety talk by our tutor Steve Davis who outlined the dangers that are present in the studio


There are a certain amount of health and safety considerations to take in to account when using a photographic studio. Most of the work will take place in a darkened room so there are a number of dangers lurking for the unsuspecting photographer


1-Trip Hazards

There are various trip hazards in and around the studio,these include:

2-Tripods and lighting stands:

These are very easy to trip over and which cannot be seen easily in a darkened room. Some have long booms with large counter weights on their ends. Be careful not to bang you heads and be weary of low positioned lighting heads

3-Trailing power cables, leads and extension blocks:

Again easy to trip over and carrying very high voltages.Tape cables to the floor where possible with warning or hazard tape

4-High voltage Flash and lighting heads:

These units which produce the lighting in the studio can become extremely hot due to there high power outputs. The side casings of these units can become very hot, handle them with care. Do not hang or drape coats, shirts etc over lighting/flash heads. This could overheat the lighting and produce a fire risk


5-Strobe lighting and flash:

Be sure to warn people accompanying you into the studio that there may be a risk that the flashing lighting in the studio may trigger of epileptic fits


6-Water and liquids:

Be extremely careful if using liquids and water within a photographic studio. Liquids and high voltage electricity don't mix. Always use dry hands when using any electrical equipment within the studio


7-Fire extinguishers:

Make sure you know the location of the fire extinguishers within the room. Make sue you know the right kind of extinguisher to use on a fire. There are different extinguishers for different kinds of fires

8-Telephones:

Make sure you have acess to a telephone or mobile phone while using the studio. Sometimes the studio door may be locked or restricted for people entering the studio while a shoot is taking place. If an accident was to accur the use of a telephone is essential. Always notify people that you are using the studio


The links below show some basic health and safety procedures for studio photography:

http://www.ehow.com/video_2371507_photography-studio-equipment-studio-safety.html

Image logs,test shots and contact sheets

A collection of my test shots,image logs and contact sheets


(still under consruction)



First test shoot in the college studio



Shown below are some of my very first test shots when using the college studio. These show my model  (Niece Hannah) posing for the same shot but were taken with different F stops. They demonstrate how much more light is added to an image by increasing the F stop


     Large Aperture                                                     Small Aperture

               F4                             F5.6                          F8                             F11                          F16

Practice and test shots fromLondon


Shown here are some of the portraits I have taken while studying the college courses. These shots were all taken outdoors in London at various times of the day. I waited for certain lighting conditions to achieve the correct exposure but I was pleased with th overall results

I always like to blur my backgrounds which make the subject stand out more from it's background. I used an Fstop of F4 for all 3 of these portraits. I took numerous shots of all 3 street performers but these proved to be the best of the bunch with near correct lighting

This shot was taken in very bright sunlight in the middle of the day on a very sunny afternoon. I manipulated the image in Photoshop to darken the whole shot using the adjustments tool where I adjusted the brightness and contrast, highlights and shadows then used the filter>shapen>unsharp mask to sharpen the whole image

Shown here is a screen grab which shows how I added the final shapening to the image before saved

Another of my favourite images taken in Trafalgar square
Again taken at F4 125th sec 100 ISO. Using a large aperture like f4 on a 70-200 mm zoom lens always gaurantees me a nice blurred background

 

Motion Blur Test shots