#hnd1b

[samanthalambhnd1b]

High Speed Flash- Unseen

[francescomarianicogc-blog]

Illuminate.

Contact Sheets from the Illuminate Project.

[taraprigge-blog]

Illuminate Final and Evaluation

For this shoot, I made sure I set up facing west, so that there would still be some colour and detail in the sky after the sun had set. I had my camera on a tripod and used a remote trigger to release the shutter so that a) there wouldn’t be any camera shake due to the long exposure time, and b) I could run around and light the parts that I needed to, which I did with an LED panel. I initially tried to get everything lit in a single shot, but soon realised this wouldn’t work as I was getting light trails in the shot and the light on the fountain looked very flat, so I decided to light each part separately, and put the images together in Photoshop afterwards. I lit the left and right halves from the side of each, rather than from the front, so that there would be shadow detail giving shape to the designs on the fountain. I also lit the top of the fountain a little and the trees to either side of it. 

Post-production: I selected nine images in Bridge, then clicked on Tools -> Photoshop -> Load files into Photoshop layers. Next I aligned them by selecting all of them, then going to Edit -> Auto-align layers and selecting the auto option. I had to crop the sides a bit after that as I’d obviously moved the tripod a little while shooting. I had the layers in the order of darkest at the bottom to lightest at the top. This meant the image I shot last, when the light was totally gone from the sky, would be my base image and starting point. I “turned on” just the bottom layer by holding down Alt and clicking the eyeball icon next to that layer. This turns off all the other layers except that one. I then clicked the eyeball icon for the layer above that, meaning I could now see it, and changed the blending mode to Lighten, then right-clicked on the layer -> Copy layer style, selected the rest of the layers, right-click on one of them -> Paste layer style. This changes the blending mode of all the layers to Lighten, so you can then see the effect each one has on the image as you turn on each eyeball icon. At this point I decided the top three images were too bright and flat, so I just ended up using six out of the nine. Out of these, there were a few that worked with the image but were just a little too bright so I brought down the opacity of a couple and added layer masks to two of them where the adjustment had to be more specific. 

On the whole, I’m quite pleased with how this image turned out, although I had originally wanted to play around with coloured gels but due to time constraints and a lack of clear evenings at the time, I stuck with the simpler option. 

[yvonnejohnstonhnd2-blog]

Planning, images and evaluation for the live brief.

[eddie-burns-hnd1b-photo-blog]

This image is my chosen final for the brief recycle. For this i stuck to simple food shot using boldly coloured spices and vegetables in stark contrast with the dark slate i used as a worktop. The slate was sourced from a disused slate quarry in Aberfoyle, in the Trossachs. Used vegetable oil to darken the slate and bring out it’s deep blue/grey colour. I used a shallow angle of lighting with my main light to help show the texture of the slate and a second light to bring some detail out in the shadows.

[samkennethhnd2photo-blog]

Movie Poster 

here you can see the progression of my editing. using the quick selection tool i did a quick selection of Liam and then in select and mask i used the refine edge tool to perfect the edges of Liam and again used the quick selection to cut two holes in the selection for under the right arm and under the left arm so that you could still see the background through them.

I then selected a solid colour layer to make sure that the cut out was perfect. After that i place Liam onto the previously shot background an used free transform to ensure that he was the correct size. 

i went back into Lightroom and corrected the lighter part of the background so that it fitted around him more accurately. After returning to photoshop i used colour overlay with soft lighting on Liam so that he matched in with the background.

Finally i used the text tool to add in the writing to complete the movie poster.

Overall i think that this was a very successful shoot which i really enjoyed shooting and editing 

[thatbeardedphotographer-blog]

Creative industries worksheet

[brookeheasmanphotography-blog]

Movie Poster Ideas

Back to the future; 

I was going to try different parts of both the first and the second movie poster. I will have both Doc and Marty but will be attempting the fire trails from the first poster but with a contrasting sky. I unfortunately don’t have a delorean so may have to try make the lighting on the subjects come from the fire or will have to try substitute a car but i don’t think it would look as good since the delorean is such an iconic part. 

Attempt 1 of fire; (the quality is decreasing when uploading the photos) 

Overall i think this was a good first attempt but i’m going to reshoot since areas of the fire kept going out so i think i need to use more resources and may even try using a shutter release so i can focus more on keeping the fire looking good and safe. I’m also going to make the angle of the shot lower and looking up more. I think the location is good with the rough tarmac and a good view of the sky especially at sunrise but there are lamp posts and signs in the back. so i may even try a few more locations as well. 

[samanthalambhnd1b]

Final Titantic Movie Poster 

[taraprigge-blog]

Structure Finals and Evaluation

This is another project that I wish I’d had more time for, as architecture photography is something that interests me a lot, but the timing of this brief in the middle of our Graded Unit meant I couldn’t really explore this as fully as I would’ve liked. I decided to shoot a different building for my interior shots to the one I used for the exteriors, as this was an option we were allowed. The exterior shots are of Strathclyde Uni’s Technology and Innovation building and luckily I managed to get two of these on a sunny, cloudless day, so I have a nice, blue sky background. The first detail shot, on the left, was taken on a cloudier day, as I felt this would look better with diffused light on it. The second detail shot, on the right, is a bit more abstract due to the reflection on the glass, and I like the zigzagging lines this creates with the glass panels. My interiors were shot inside The Briggait, which although not especially contemporary, has been done up a bit in recent years so it was approved beforehand for me to shoot there. I really like the main overview image of the interior, for the sense of space, symmetry and repetition one gets from it, as well as the streaks of afternoon sunlight and shadow on the wall. The detail shot of the interior (bottom right) is an unusual shape and an angle of that building not usually captured. 

Post-production: I had to correct the perspective of both the exterior and interior overview images. The exterior was a bit of a nightmare to be honest, as it’s such an extreme angle. I tried several different methods of correction, from Auto and Guided Upright in the Transform menu of Camera Raw, to Perspective, Distort and Skew in the Transform menu of Photoshop, but none of these seemed perfect for one reason or another. Finally, I tried the Adaptive Wide Angle filter in Photoshop, and this gave me the best results. Due to the image being awkwardly cropped after this, I had to use Content-Aware Fill to fill out the gaps again, then used the Clone Stamp to correct any bits that didn’t quite match up. Finally, I brought down the highlights on the left as these were a bit blown out, and cleaned up some marks and dust on the image. The interior was a lot easier to correct. I used the Guided Upright tool in Camera Raw and this worked perfectly and the image didn’t need any further adjustments with regards to the perspective. This, and the three detail shots all had minor optimisation adjustments made and marks/dust cleaned from them. 

I learnt a lot from this brief, despite the time constraints, and look forward to putting these new skills to use with any future architecture photography I do. 

[yvonnejohnstonhnd2-blog]

*Updated* Final images for our Structure brief. 

I had the intention to shoot the Riverside Campus of City of Glasgow College, however, the weather had been so bad and every time I went out to shoot I just wasn't happy with how flat the building looked against the grey Glasgow sky so I left it with a hope to be free and able to jump out to capture it if and when the weather cleared up. The weather did clear up eventually, but due to family commitments, I was unable to go out and shoot. So, I left it, and up until yesterday I didn't have the chance or the weather to fulfil this brief. As it was such a glorious day I decided to walk to the Riverside museum. I have been shooting a lot on my 40mm lens but decided to bung my 18-55mm lens on as I needed a wider frame. All exterior shots were shot at f/8. I corrected them using the crop, straighten and transform tools in P.S. I changed the levels bringing the highlights down slightly and increased the mid-tones, then I bumped up the contrast and made slight adjustments to the shadows and highlights as well as using the colour balance to tone down the green and blue colour cast on the exterior of the building to try to maintain its true colour. Although two of the three exterior shots show the same side as the building, I feel they are quite different in what they say. The first one shows the full building, well, 2 sides of it anyway, and gives depth to the image while the second is much more dramatic and shows the consideration by the architect to include pockets of shadows that change during the day, therefore changing the look and feel of the building depending on what time it is viewed. These shots were taken at around 2:30 PM meaning that the sun was still quite high in the sky which lead to hard shadows that to me, are atheistically pleasing on the eye. Remembering to leave room for cropping and straightening was very important and doing so left me with the freedom to make the adjustments I've already mentioned in PhotoShop.

For the interior, I opened up my f/stop to 3.5 as that is all my kit lens would allow. I kept my ISO at 200, though I feel I could have bumped it up a little bit more as in postproduction I had to bring the shadows up and out quite a fair bit and this lead me to see a lot of noise that I thought I was compensating for having my ISO so low. I think that I just got away with it. As both my interior shots feature a window, I was trying to expose for outside so that I wouldn't lose my sky and cause me to over expose it when I was bringing up the shadows of the inside of the building. I wanted to show the structure of the interior as well as the things that live inside it. 

I had to replace one of my interiors to show more of the inside of the building and I have corrected the main exterior that shows both sides of the building.

[eddie-burns-hnd1b-photo-blog]

Above is my final image for, the brief illuminate taken at Dunure castle in Ayrshire. For this i used speed lights situated behind the bushes in front of the castle. Shot this just as the sun went down leaving just enough light in the sky to get some detail in my shot. 

[samkennethhnd2photo-blog]

HND1 reflection

image one: when we were initially given the gift brief I didn't think I would enjoy it as I don't particularly enjoy still life but I feel that I successfully produced an image that was what I was visualising in my head I think this image is successful because of its unusual composition, vibrant colours and the fact that it doesn't look like straws but like it could be stained glass. After this I realised in some way I might actually enjoy still life 

image 2: In the clean white brief I have definitely gained more knowledge with evenly lighting the background and working closely with film. I find that my final images both digital and darkroom were effective as the backgrounds where evenly lit, they were sharp and in focus and had punchy contract.

image 3: I really had a lot of fun with the who am I brief as you really had to think about how to express yourself but also for the images to work well as a set. While doing the portrait I learned how to use a remote trigger both wired and wirelessly in order to get a side on silhouette. I am very happy with the final image as it is is exposed well, sharp and has a strong composition.

image 4: who am I object. I shot this image in my living room using a soft box and repositioned the light until I was happy with the lighting. I think that this image is well lit, sharp in focus and has again a strong composition.

Image 5: movie poster brief. initially when we received the brief I didn't think tat it was something that id enjoy as the part where you need to combine the model with the background in photoshop seemed quite complex. However after watching a few videos giving me hints and tips on how to make the process easier the final result looks very realistic.

Although I have turned out in the end to succeed in these briefs there have been a few in which I have struggled with. In particular I have found the darkroom very stressful and feel like more guidance is necessary. Also the video project has become increasingly stressful as there is not enough video tripods and I think that again more guidance is necessary. 

Overall this year I have learned some valuable skills this year which will definitely come in hand when working in the industry.

For my personal project I am going to focus on portraiture as it is something that I really enjoy. I enjoy portraying a persons character through portraits and intend on using models and colours to represent that persons interests and hobbies and also show their background.