PhotoSkillsA-Lauren-Cain

Thursday, 20 October 2011

Research for Final Studio Assignment - Product Portfolio (1)

For the first of my product shoots I am going to be photographing a green butterfly pendant with a silver chain by the company Palenque. It is my intention to capture this image with a natural feel using props such as stone, leaves and small branches. Below are some of the images I have used for inspiration/research.

It was quite difficult for me to find images that included the variety of natural props that I intend to use to create my image. I was drawn to these images because of the use of natural elements and how that use has created interesting textures and vibrant colours.

http://www.soophotography.com

http://www.whiteflash.com

http://www.soophotography.com

http://www.akelstudio.com

http://www.priceinspector.co.uk

Research for Final Studio Assignment - Portrait Photography

For my final studio assignment portrait shoot I have decided to use a an indie guitar with a Gibson solid guitar shape, with a male model. Below are some pictures from the Internet that I have used for research/inspiration.

The reason I am drawn to the images below is because it is my intention to keep focus on the guitar as opposed to the model. With these images that has been achieved in a variety of different positions/poses. The preference for this type of shot appears to be high key, although the last image in the series is quite low key. I do not yet have a preference for which style I prefer as I like the brightness and clarity of the high key images, but I am also drawn to the atmospheric feel of the low key shot.

http://www.visualphotos.com

http://www.saw.org

http://yaymicro.com

http://depositphotos.com

Saturday, 15 October 2011

Light Painting

Below are some simple images where I have experimented with light painting. These where shot in my backgarden as I was unable to make the studio session. For all the images I used a LED light and a wireless remote trigger. The wireless remote helped greatly because as soon as the "painting" was finished I could close the shutter, preventing any unwanted streaks of light in the image.


f/20.0 29.0 ISO 100. In this photograph I painted around the outline of my 8 year old brother who found it difficult to keep his arms still, I found that afterwards that this gave a nice "wing like" effect.

f/20.0 12.0 ISO 100. My name...

f/20.0 18.0 ISO 100. A smiley face of sorts...

Wednesday, 12 October 2011

Studio Lighting

We spent today in the studio experimenting with various types of lighting. I found this a really useful excersise, although I have used studio lighting before, it has been my preference to date to shoot high key images and it was interesting to see the different effects we could create by simply repositioning the lights.

The images below are from our session in the studio. We experimented with various light positions and used mostly variations in aperture to control the exposure (occasional adjustments to the lighting units themselves where made).

Rembrandt lighting


f/6.3 1/160 ISO 100

f/18 1/160 ISO 100


f/11 1/160 ISO 100 Gold reflector on subjects lefft side

Hollywood Lighting

f/10 1/160 ISO 100

f/8.0 1/160 ISO 100


f/5.6 1/125 ISO 100


f/5.0 1/125 ISO 100 Gold Reflector to subjects left side

Butterfly Lighting

f/7.1 1/125 ISO 100

f/14.0 1/125 ISO 100


f/14.0 1/125 ISO 100


f/18.0 1/125 ISO 100 Gold reflector below subject.

Side Lighting

f/7.1 1/125 ISO 100


f/7.1 1/125 ISO 100 Gold reflector to subjects left side

Broad and Short Lighting

"Broad" f/7.1 1/125 ISO 100

"Short" f/13.0 1/125 ISO 100

Back lighting

f/18.0 1/125 ISO 100

High Key

f/10.0 1/125 ISO 100


f/7.1 1/125 ISO 100

Other experimentations!

f/18.0 1/125 ISO 100 - Hair light, overexposed due to the main light being set too high.

f/18.0 1/125 ISO 100 - Hair light

f/18.0 1/125 ISO 100 - fill light only to the subjects left side

f/25.0 1/125 ISO 100 - High key lighting on the background, no lighting on the subjects.

f/22.0 1/125 ISO 100 - High key lighting on the background, no lighting on the subjects.

Tuesday, 27 September 2011

First time using a Canon

This was my first time using a Canon, I found the controls a little tricky to get used to initially, pressing buttons and turning dials got a bit confusing, but I got there in the end and was able to have a play around.

Experimenting with depth of field using a wide aperture...