Extra Fashion Shoot with my Brother

This was an extra shoot, I tried to do to cover a little bit of the shoots that I had missed. I also wanted to try and put some of these photos in my final work, but I did not have time to edit them as i had to get everything printed as soon as possible. 

I havent taken many photos because they are very last minute, and I did not have time to experiment much. 

If i was to re shoot this i would definitely take more time and plan my shoots better, i would also take more time an experiment more with my model and try different techniques.  

Final Project Evaluation

Final Evaluation 

Our first task was to research fashion photographers historical and contemporary. I found this task very interesting and inspiring to see the different types of fashion photography, styles, clothing and editing techniques. I really liked Alex Salisbury's work Its simple but the contrast in her photographs are really eye catching and the editing is not over the top so it appears very natural. 

Task 2 We had to go out and photograph street fashion, this meant that we had to go up to people and ask them if we could photograph them, which I  am not very confident doing, which i know this is something that I need to build and improve on. So I had to try and improvise by photographing people while they was moving around town and photograph my friends. 

Task 3 This task we had to look at low key and high key lighting in the studio, for preparation for when we went in and so we had an idea of what we wanted and could start to plan out photographs we was going to take. 

Task 4 We also had to do some more research for the studio into different lighting equipment such as light meters, so we knew how to use them and why we used them to help us with photographing in the studio so we know what settings to put our camera on. 

Task 5 This is the task I enjoyed the most probably out of all the research tasks was researching the magazines, the styles and the layouts of them and how the magazines are different for different audience and different type of fashion. 

For our accessories shoot we had to photograph some accessories to go inside our magazines, i have only managed to photograph one accessory and that was an gold watch, I have used this in my magazine, i thought that these photographs went very well with my magazine style and design.

We had to do a lot of interval and interdependent shoots, of accessories and clothing, due to my very busy lifestyle i haven't been able to put 100% into a lot of these photographic task, such as the hat and umbrella shoot. 

Our final piece had to be a front cover and a 2 page spread, I always find working on photoshop difficult because i am not very good at remembering how to do things and i always mess things up somehow. so i did have a little but of help from my friend just helping me remember how to do some times.  

Exposure meters/light meter

A light meter is used to measure the amount of light in photography. Photographers use this to determine the correct exposure for a photograph.
Ambient light is the light that exists in a scene. Also referred to as “natural light” or “existing light,” ambient light can be the found light inside a home, a restaurant or concert hall, or a bright, sunny day, a deep foggy day, a city at night...in other words, any kind of pre-existing light. This is found light, not additional light that you, the photographer, might choose to add, such as flash. When photographing a scene that is lit with any kind of ambient light, you need to use a light meter to determine exposure. 
The most common exposure method is via your camera’s built-in exposure meter. When shooting with a compact camera, determining exposure and setting the camera’s aperture, shutter speed and (in some cases) ISO happens automatically. With DSLRs, this also can happen when the camera is in Program or “green” mode, but you have plenty of other exposure mode options. You can have more control over exposure by choosing Aperture-Preferred, Shutter-Preferred, or Manual exposure modes. A less-common approach is to use a handheld meter, which measures light and provides exposure setting guidance.

incident light measures the light falling on your subject and how light or dark the subject is has no affect on the exposure reading.

Reflected light measures the light reflecting off your subject, and the color and value (how dark of light your subject is) affects your reading, requiring evaluation and experience to accurately apply this information.

In terms of speed, incident is the faster way to get an accurate, ready-to-shoot exposure of a subject in the same light or shade in which you stand. Reflected readings are very useful when your subject is in shade and you are not, or vice versa - but again, the reading you take with reflected can only be "ready-to-shoot" if you are indeed pointing at something that is "middle gray" in value.

The first time you use an incident meter is one of those "a-ha!" moments. Once you take a reading with the lumisphere, set the camera to same and find that your exposure is right on, we bet you will wonder how you ever lived without it!

Incident metering tells you about the light you are controlling. The Sekonic Litemaster Pro L-478 Series light meters' Lumisphere (hemisphere receptor) is designed to read all of the illumination that falls on it, and the subject, including the key light, line light, hair light, eye lights, etc. Besides taking nearly foolproof exposure readings, this enables you to set up and light a scene before the principal talent arrives, saving time and adding to your presentation as a professional. You can also “walk the set” to measure the evenness of the illumination and perfectly light green screens.

The L-478 Series offers the convenience of a retractable Lumisphere. Retract the Lumisphere to read individual light sources to adjust them to the desired ratio, or read the flat subject. Extend it to take an exposure reading for 3-dimensional subject position.

Men's Watch

These are the photographs from my men's jewellery shoot. I did not really have much men's jewellery to photograph but i thought this would be a good one, as it is very interesting. I like the contrast of the colours between the gold, black and the white/cream background.  I tried to photograph the watch from different angels to give different effects and to see how it makes the image feel and how this effects the image outcome. 

These are a few examples of photos I have taken and edited slightly.

I do like these photographs but the gold tone does appear a bit yellow and doesn't look as nice as it could have been. I think that when I edit the other photographs I am going to try and get rid of the yellow tones. 

I like this one loads but I dont like how you can see the back of the watch that spoils. 

Men's Causal Street Fashion Shoot.

These are my contact prints from the men's street fashion shoot, in this shoot i tried to experiments with different lights, such as soft lighting and really harsh and bright lights, i also used hard light witch I did not feel it was very effected for this type of shoot I am doing and does on work very well with the fashion theme in my case. 

I did not plan my shoot very well when it came to outfits and ideas so I am planning on re-shooting a better idea and trying to be more created this time, with more of a variety of clothing/outfits as well as different styles such as joggers and trainers, workout stuff, and even maybe swimwear and pj's. 

I do think that i would really benefit from doing an extra shoot because i dont think that i have a very wide range of photographs and i know i could do a lot better and be more created with my shoot.  

Some of my Final Photographs 

This is one of my images that I have edited, I have always liked black and white images, they always add the mysterious and texture to your images in my opinion. I thought that is I cropped this image as well I could use this to go at the side of a paragraph, because it is a really natural looking pose. I used a soft box and background lights to lighten this image. The clothing is really smooth but the background like did come across a little harsh sometimes and too bright. 

I personally think that the background light is very effective in this image because its darker at the top and the bottom and light in the middle which brings your attention to the phones and the watch, so i could also talk about the accessories. 

Again I was playing with the black and white image and decided to colour pop the watch just in case I want to talk about the accessories. I really enjoy colour popping it always looks really interesting and never fails to grab your attention.  I was using a soft box to take this photograph and Its gives this really soft smooth looks to clothing and skin. 

In this image I used a light box and background lights, I tried not to over edit my images and keep them looking natural. I do think that the background lights are a bit bright and over powering and that I maybe should have adjusted them a little bit before shooting. 

In this photograph I again tried to experiments with colour popping again, but I used a piece of clothing this times, which is a lot more natural and not as in your face as the watch it is still effective but it a more like a water colour, soft and less bright. 

I tried to get some closer photographs of the clothing instead of full body photographs so that i could talk about different things in my magazine, also when I was doing my research I saw a lot of images like this on internet shopping. Again this was taken with a soft box and background lights to, brighten it all up so the clothing is clear. 

Again I tried to take more focused shots. 

Mens Street Fashion & Magazine Research

I have decided to do Men's casual street fashion because I feel like this is something I know well and i wanted to create a magazine that I know I would be able to talk about. I also think that this is a very open shoot and can still be very interesting depending on how created you decided to be.  As for my final product I will be creating a magazine so I might create a casual and then a smart page, but both for affordable prices.

I have got some examples of magazine speeds and covers that I will help to inspire me with my own magazine and to help me generate layout ideas.

I am not too sure about the page spread personally this is not something that i would do myself. I think it looks too serious and I would want my magazine to look more fun and colour full, this page spread is very plan and basic.

I like this one because it think is it always important for people to have something to read, I don't think anyone wants to buy a magazine that is full of images only and no writing its pointless. I also like all the cropped products and accessories to help fill up the page and it helps to add colour.

I also like this one again because of the layout, how it has one page that is focused on an image and then the other is on a story but obviously my magazine is going to be about fashion so it may not contain as much writing as some other magazines. 

I love the photograph style I think this is something I could easily created out on location. I also really like the translucent writing over the image, it really helps to brighten it and gives it that modern look and feel about it,

I really like the image layout again for this, not so much all the writing but I think this would be a good idea for a page I also like the contrast of the images.

These are some examples of magazine covers that I could recreate and help to inspire me.

I really like the busy cover look, I am not too sure about it over lapping the writing on the image, to me its feels really cramped and squished.

I definitely prefer this cover because it is simple, light colour and it is very welcoming, the text doesn't over lap too much with the image and all the colours work very well together to create a nice even contrast.  I like the simple plan background I think that it is very easy to work with.

mens modeling poses

This is a small collection of images of male model poses, i thought it would be a good idea to look at male poses to help my model and to help me direct them. This was also very helpful to give me the idea on what type of poses, I wanted to use and what effect they make give, this also helped me to decided what type of like I wanted and which one would be most effective.

High Key And Low Key And Lighting Attachments

These are a few examples of high key lighting, this gives a very bright and white effect to your images. It also makes everything appear very clean and crisp, you get every part of your object with no shadows. I think this is a good technique for very clean bright photograph, it is good for positive, happy images, or if you want some features to stand out more then others you make make them darker and have a light and pale background. 

These are examples of  low key lightning. They are a lot more suttle and gentile to look at. They make the skin appear really smooth and clear, this kind of lighting is good for very dark photos, when you want that dark feeling of fear, scary and different emotions. I also think this is good when you want to focus on different things and make the jump out to your viewer so they don't get distracted. 

Beauty dishes are a great tool for any photographer; the light produced is harder than a softbox but softer than an umbrella. You can also add different modifiers to change how they work. The light can be made harder when you use a grid, which you’ll see below, helping to add to the versatility of the modifier.

Shooting in the studio has many benefits and having total control over your lighting is one of them. You can let your imagination run wild and visualise endless ways to shoot your subject. That’s the fascination for me, using any number of different accessories to create subtle effects and mood changes. To do this – to create those different moods – needs a type of accessory that will control the light and give very small, controllable pools that we can use like tiny brush strokes.

Soft light
Soft light is light that creates shadows with a gradual transition from light to dark. There are no hard shadow lines. It is created from a scattered or diffused light source. Soft light is found where the lighting is indirect or where it passes through a diffuser, clouds or some other medium which scatters the light. Diffused light can be light that has bounced off one or more surfaces before it hits a photographic target.

Hard light
Hard light creates shadows with a sharp edge. There is a negligible transition from light to dark. Hard light is created by strongly focussed light travelling from a small (or relatively small), single-point light source like the Sun, a focussed beam of light, or an undiffused light bulb).

Standard reflectors are your everyday reflector for the studio flash head. They’re usually made of metal (with a silver matte interior finish, a polished silver finish or a granular metallic finish), and they direct the light output in a 90 to 120-degree beam. A standard reflector is the typical light/reflector set-up for shining the light into bounce cards, through diffusion, and grids or cutters. One thing to know about standard reflectors is that the wider they are, the softer the light you get from the lamp unit. Additionally, the shape and interior finish can affect “softness” of the light. While standard reflectors seem very basic in their usage, they should become a staple in your studio lighting set-ups.

Soft boxes work by confining the light from a lamp into a closed chamber and releasing it through at least one layer of diffusion material. As the light passes through the translucent fabric it scatters, producing a very even and soft result.Uses for the soft box fall predominantly into two categories: Key Light, as the principle light source, and Fill Light, as a secondary light to reduce contrast. Although any style of light source can be used for key or fill applications, the use of a harsh light for fill renders a poor result. Soft boxes, on the other hand, are perfect for fill light because they don’t cast harsh shadows.