Portraiture shoot

For this shoot I went out into the city centre of Preston to shoot portraits, with the keywords of confidence and wonder. I chose the do this shoot on Avenham park and used a few different locations within this park. I used the location well to capture aspects of it within the portraits to help the images to be more interesting and add to the meaning of them. I think that I included the use of the keywords to capture the images well, and that my images represent these words well. From the shoot I had chosen 6 images which I felt was the most successful, and then used photoshop to slightly edit these images. The 6 I have chosen I feel work well and have captured a very meaningful shot. I managed this by trying not to capture posed images but more natural facial expressions and reactions, and didn't shoot whilst she was posing, but shot whilst in the midst of movement and doing things, such as being on the phone or reacting to things that I had said. Which I think has created better images than if they was to be posed. An area for development would to be to shoot a lot more and in different locations within the city centre, but other than this I think that from this shoot I have created a good range of images.

Joiners

This is a David Hockney style joiners. This is done by taking separate photographs of one scene or object that you want to create an image of. Once the images have been taken they need to by uploaded to photoshop by opening up photoshop and going onto file, scrips and selecting 'load files into stack' which then brings up the images and photoshop will put together all the seperate images how it think they should be.

First and second curtain flash sync

First curtain flash sync












Second curtain flash sync

Colour photography

Colour photography can be very different to black and white photography. Colour photography ensures that a certain aspect of the photograph can stand out, such as something thats bright standing out in an image, this would work in colour and would stand out. In colour main subjects can stand out and using color photography makes it easier to get a good contrast of colours. One photographer that uses colour photography well in this way is Ernst Haas. He photographs subjects in ways that ensure bright colours stand out within an image and contrasts colours together well. The colour photography of Ernst Haas' work is that the colour within his photographs is very bold and stands out, which is helped along by the processes he uses. This effect can also be created by using photoshop. As well as these aspects of colour photography it also states what colour things are. This example picture of Ernst Haas' work is a good example of a good use of colour photography because there are plenty of bold colours throughout this photograph.

Although black and white photography blends everything together, it can be used more successfully than colour photography. It can change the mood of a photograph and makes you analyze it more because it isn't easy to see everything as in black and white it doesn't stand out like it would in colour. A photographer that uses black and white photography to give photographs this effect is Garry Winogrand. Particularly his street photography works well being shot in black and white, as it helps to give a better effect on the type of things he captures. Such as this example of this, what looks to be a homeless person, asleep on the grass during the day therefore shooting in this in black and white gives a better and meaningful effect to this photograph.

Black and white photography suggests colours, which means it can be interpreted in many different ways. We guess the colours in the photographs and depending on which colours we interpret them as depends on the message and effect we receive from the image, which isn't always a bad thing. It records only a single channel of brightness and only shows shades of grey. 

Colours within photographs are important as they help to make images more interesting, often if not all of the time within colour photography it would look boring if there wasn't any coloured objects within the photograph. Different colours can have different meanings, which people interpret in different ways, but each colour can sometimes give different effects. 

In the class we had a task to choose a colour and go out into the college and take photographs of red subjects. I took a range of photographs, some were successful and some not. I have shown a contact sheet of 18 of the images I have taken within this task.

Sharpen

 To start off sharpening an image the layer needs to be duplicated which can be done by using the shortcut cmd&j.

Still life

 In the studio I have photographed still life objects. Starting off with using a white background and using these objects which include my watch and phone, and parts of nature. I placed these objects on the table and photographed them from above and straight on. I have done this as an experiment on photographing still life. Although I like the image photographed straight on, if this image was to be used to advertise the image from above would be a better image because the objects are more visible and shows a lot more detail than the one from straight on.

I then photographed a range of different objects, this time using a black background to also show experimentation with photographing still life. I chose the use these objects and placed there where I thought would look good, I placed some stones and shells inside the bottle and placed some next to it to show two different looks for the stones, and also placed the mannequin hand at the top of the bottle to make it look like it was about to be picked up, and also places some bigger shells and stones behind to give more to the image. I played about with the lights slightly and have chosen this image because everything is placed out nicely, the lighting is good and I think that this is a good representation of still life photography.

Adjustment Layers

Adjustment layers are used to adjust images in separate layers so if something goes wrong the original image isn't ruined and lost and you can experiment with different techniques without having to keep reopen the image and start again. One layer can be used for each tool if you want to use more than one to adjust the image. So if you use one tool and get the image the way you want it, then use the next one and you don't like how it turns out you can just delete that layer instead of having to start again.

Hue/Saturation

Adding an adjustment layer and using the Hue/Saturation tool I have experimented changing the colours of parts of this image and have got the outcome of this image. I have shown the layers to show that I have one Hue/Saturation layer over the top of the background so if I don't like the way this image now is I can delete this layer and have my image back to how it was. I like the way this tool has changed the colours in this image and makes it look a little more dull but still has colour in it.
















Black and White

After experimenting with Hue/Saturation I deleted that layer and moved onto Black and White using a new adjustment layer. I have experimented with this setting and got the outcome of this image, I have made this image so that is it not all completely black and white, I have left some slight colour in her hair, and also using the pain brush I have removed the black and white in the ear to show the bright yellow colour in the ear plug, I really like this image and think that bringing some colour back into a black and white image works well.

Curves

Lastly, after experimenting with black and white I deleted that layer and adding a new adjustment layer moved onto using curves. I experimented with moving the curve bar around until I got it into a position to make the image look how I like it, I have given the image a little more light to make it bright, but not too bright and with this image I think it works well and isn't too bright.