Re-submissions

Small Product:

i was thinking of doing a board game, guess who or monoplay but it doesn't really fit in with the other products. although after looking thought some catalogs looking for inspiration i did happen to notice they do have board games. never the less i was going thew a toy shop and i noticed they had these things called "hex bugs" they where little robot bugs that run around the table.

board game ideas:

hex bugs

by the looks of the lighting they have used in the scenario, i think they have used one soft box lighting them from the upper right hand side.

when i was a little kid i remember a game called gone fishing and when i was in the shops i found it so instead of doing those other products i will be doing this instead.

instead of having 2 of the same thing iv got a different variation of it called shark frenzy. i was thinking about copying the same style set up they have but by the looks of it its been deep etched. If this is to hard to recreate i was thinking of cutting the top of the label off and placing it next to it.

Corporate Shoot:

this time for my corporate shoot im keeping it simple. not trying to do anything creative or exciting just plain boring and simple.....

the main light lighting the subject from the left and a reflector on the right side side, and then a flood light or a snoot from behind the subject so they are separated from the back ground and creating a nice rim lighting 

location portrait shoot

iv now shot this 3 times and by the last time i think im pretty sure it was sucsesful. i first used my room mate david but he has long scruffy hair and  i shot it with cream walls as the back ground witch lowered the overall image professionalism, so i decided to change to my other room mate ben. he has shorter hair and has a more formal look going on. all the shots iv  done with him have ended badly to because of the dreaded CREAM walls.

first shoot

(shoot with david) 

 i tried to keep the lighting simple as possible, with the use of 2 umbrellas and the flood light to blow out the back ground. as you can see with his long hair its not as formal as i was hoping for

second shoot

( shoot with ben)
slowly getting better but the cream wall still looks like crap i personally think


third shoot

much better i think but i will have to edit out the sign in the background and the door frame a swell

studio corporate shoot

for this shoot i was hoping to try to create an interesting lighting setup, with the use of 2 soft boxes and a back light

a basic plain black back ground

here is this interesting style i was going for, iv tried doing this before but i never have been successful.

i think this lighting scheme is close to what i was hoping to achieve, but if the lights are more directed to the sides of the subject instead of the front

as you can see its horrible. all the lighting is is just flat, he isnt separated from the back ground, their is that massive horrible black shadow on his forehead. after looking more closely at the image i was hoping to get, i notices all the different light scenario the photographer used

 here is the lighting scheme i came up with to create close to what i was hoping for 

couple studio shoot

for my couple i was going to do Andrea sisters Della and Taylor. im choosing to do them because they look so much alike and they are really photogenic

obviously nothing like this, but the style of lighting

                                                                                         

  having them doing something with their hair

with happy laughing expressions 

a really basic setup, one light lighting the subject and a second light lighting the back ground (preferably a snoot)

here is the shot i got and i think i got close to what i was hoping for, and its unedited to by the way

for my group shot i was going to be shooting the fyshwick fire brigade, i was hoping to get all of my shots done inside because the weather isn't going to be to crash hot on Friday apparently,and as well if i get to use a truck i was i think it might be easier to light it inside. this is the email i sent to them

Hi my name is Alex Hogg

I’m from Canberra Institute of Technology and am currently studying an Advanced Diploma of Photography. We have an assignment where we are to photograph 2 group corporate shots and after talking to my teachers they are allowing me to shoot the Fyshwick fire brigade.

Requirements:

- 2 photographs, 1 formal and one less formal.

-both shots can be done inside or outside, whatever is easiest

- For the formal photo I was hoping to have 6 people standing inside and in a row, looking at camera with simple facial expressions.

- And the less formal photo I was thinking the group could be looking off camera, talking, laughing and with a bit more of a

creative back ground. If it wasn’t to much of a hassle and if i wasn’t taking up to much space i was going to ask if i would be able to use a trucks in one of my shot?

I’m going to be using 3 mono block lights (portable flash units) that require a power point. They take roughly around 15 minutes to set up, and they are easy to move around. So all up it shouldn’t take any longer than 40 minutes, I would come their 30 minutes prior to set up all the lights.

For locations i was going to come in tomorrow to find some spots that are not to in the way and wont bother anyone, with a power point available.

I am more than happy to give the station a copy of my images and a mounted foam

core print to hang as a thank you for letting

me take up some of your time.

If their any quires you can call me on my mobile: 0421085450

Kind regards Alex

check list: camera!

hot shoe adapter

bowens kit

AJ lens i borrowed

step ladder?

assistant

full battery

spare memory card

the ideas i had sketched up in my book 

so overall the shoot went prity bad, little things that kept happening. like i ended up nocking over some guys cup of tea, i was pouring in sweat because i was freaking out the whole time. I knew the photos went bad and as soon as i left and had a look a them....... o boy they where really bad. my formal group shot went alright but my creative shot..... eeek. after showing Belinda and talking it over with her she thought i should deferentially re shoot. so i went back to the station and talked it over with the boss and he said it was alright but only if i do it quickly because they have training on. o man iv never done anything so scary in my life, but i think i should be alright to do this reshoot because i have a good idea in my head of what to do and i know what to expect. its something you try to prepare for but boy o boy its such a shock

some of the shots i got from the first shoot shoot 

  

 this was me formal shot (unedited) this is the only half decent image i got from the night 

then this WAS my creative shot. but soon it wont be any more 

deep etching

i was thinking of doing a cigar add, but because of recent tobacco laws i think i might not be able to do this. im not to sure as well if i should have to model smoking the cigar or if it should be unlit, or if maybe i just have a models face in it.

ideas!

i like the use of the simple black and fading grey back ground

the way the cigar is positioned in the image, but not as big. the size of the cigar in this image is to big i think

and i would like to use a girl model

mock up:

this is somewhat close to what i was hoping to achieve, a simple fancy text with a model holding the cigar and the main cigar on the right hand side. the look in the image im going for is a fancy upper class, a"prestige" feel about the hole thing.

instead of the use of the white back ground i was hoping to replace it with black, and give the model red lipstick to also relate to the red label. instead of shooting landscape i will try shoot portrait because of the magazine style spread

here some styles that i will be aiming for. darker, rich, fancy

i tried looking up casino style lighting and it came up with bright flashing lights with a trashier look about the whole thing

the closest and most realistic ideal lighting would be this, its simple yet elegant. although it is just a plain black lit wall it has so much potential. instead of lighting the whole thing i was thinking of using a snoot have a more direct centered lighting 

group photo

i don't have a group of office friends i can shoot or do i know where to start. i was siting at home the other day and there was a car crash out the front and we had to call the police and fire brigade, so that's where i came up with the idea of doing a group of fire fighters dressing in uniform in the station.

product photography ideas

when it came time i booked my studio i had nothing to do, so i started to mess around with shooting paper animals. (there was a weird effect that occurred, if you look closely on the back gr

ound of the baby powder and the cow you can notice a black shadow aro

und it)

so for myproduct i was hoping create a diorama sort of scene with animals or dinosaurs, iv bought some toys dog so i was going to try and advertising dog food w

ith a caption like "all dogs love this dog food even toy dogs". I was also thinking using the dinosaurs in maybe trying to advertise moisturizer or something.

ideas?

ideas! thinking about it after a while i was hoping to do kids toys for a brochure. toys id like to use are barrel of monkeys, play doh, mr potat o head, gumby, army men, game, toy cars

test shoot with barrel of monkeys

final shoot with barrel of monkeys!!

well im really happy with the way this one went! i got the action and the movement in the monkeys that i was hoping for. also managing the lighting to wrap AROUND the barrel instead of looking like a dogs breakfast. but still i think it can maybe use a little more done to it

shoot with game boy

play doh ideas:

my shoot with the play doh!

i liked the composition of the idea for the other play doh add but i think its a bit to messy, so i decided i would stick with the idea of having some of the play doh out of the bucket, but i was more content on it being rolled up into balls, it was a much more appealing than having it in a big seedy lump on top of the buckets. the major problem i faced was with the rough shadows left from the play doh balls, i tried fixing them with another soft box on the other side but it started to look messy with the shadows. i found moving the light higher and directing it down eliminated the problem, but i think i like it more with the shadows and the table was to close to the back ground witch created the pink highlights in the shadows. so.... i think i might have to reshoot 

mucking around with the monoblocks

for the first half of the day i was just trying to light up the scenes and mixing the flashes with daylight and just getting a general feel for the lights. but later on in the evening my roommate ben came home so i used him as a model, so then i was trying to work on position my model (and failed haha)

i like the positioning of his hands in the first image because in the second his hand is sort of sliding back behind his elbow, and if you look hard enough it sort of looks like he has a bung wrist. but never the less both shots he still looks really awkward! i like in the second shot his facial expression more than the first
i thought this area here could work prity well as scary scene. just on dusk with the sun setting so its a bit darker and giving the hole area a gloomy feel .
i used 2 different flashes in this scene. a umbrella on the right and a just a directional flash on the left
here i just used a single lamp to light up the main feature window, after looking at it on a computer i didn't really realize that annoying shadow on the window

working with flash output levels

i don't have a flash yet but i borrowed ajs SB900 witch is an amazing flash! it has a recommended subject distance guide on the main screen of the flash unit! what the subject distance guide is alls you have to do is tell it what f stop you use and than it tells you how far the subject should be away from the flash for optimal effect. i tried using 1/1 1/2, 1/4. 1/8. 1/16 and 1/32 also the subject was back lit from the sun.

all images where taken with iso 100 at 125 of a second at f 8

1/32 (under exposed)
1/16 (sort of alright)
1/8 (alright still)
1/4 (perfect!)
1/2 (getting there)

1/1 (over exposed)

kioloa assignment research

well i was away in Vanuatu when everyone received this assignment, but wile i was over there i managed to get some great shots, so hopefully i can use some them!

ideas:

-tropical tropics

-tropical places and Paradise beaches

-cows and coconuts

-panoramas

-the life they life ( shots of their houses, beaches and just that kind of general stuff thay take for granted)

-a simpler life

-wow (i say this because when i was over there almost every person said the best way to -describe this place is "wow")

-the colour blue (blue water, blue sky's, blue animals just anything the colour blue)

most of the shots i got was sort of happy holiday snaps, its a bit of a shame as well is because i as hoping to get images with more of a humanitarianism prospective. but it was hard because the people who lived there were so poor and less fortunate than us, so it wasn't like i couldn't pull my camera out any second i saw something interesting

i did happen to have a point and shoot on me wile i was over there so i was able to take it more places other than my SLR, the real downside of it was the image quality is a lot less and it didnt have a manual exposure setting on it so most of the shots where over exposed or under exposed with a super hight iso

other ideas!

a little wile ago i bought some steel wool for doing night shots, so i was maybe thinking of doing something with a bit of a creative light painting prospective, its a bit cliché but meh just trying to get some ideas

-lighting up bridges

-canberra icons

-tunnels

-spirals

-circles

overall idea

coming to a conclusion i think i might just do tropical tropic because there is such a wide range of things that fit into the title. most of the photos i got where of dense jungles and really nice beaches so it kinda works well i think, all the places where tropical!

Week 3 research

Location class

This week’s research for location is more about the use of flash, in this case a monobloc unit, as a main source with daylight being used as a fill source. In other words, correct exposure will be based on the flash and daylight will be underexposed by two stops. 1.Daylight exposure is affected/controlled by your choice of shutter speed and aperture. True / False? 2.Flash synchronisation is affected by your choice of shutter speed. True / False? 3.Flash exposure is affected/controlled by your choice of shutter speed. True / False? § You are photographing a subject in daylight where you wish the flash to be the main source and the daylight to be the fill at two stops less exposure than the flash exposure. Procedure; 1. Using a light meter (as opposed to “oh I don’t know, any old exposure will do because I’m lazy or confused from a night out”) you calculate the ‘correct’ daylight exposure to be 60th @ f32. 2. Set up your monobloc as a main source and adjust the output and/or distance (and using your light meter) until correct flash exposure is f32. 3. Describe the resultant lighting if you exposed for daylight together with the flash on these settings. 4. Describe how you could now reduce the daylight exposure by two stops without affecting the flash exposure. Hint: don’t even think about touching the monobloc unit for this, the answer is much simpler. change the 5. Having done this, now describe the resultant image in terms of what the subject looks like and what the background, which is lit by the daylight, looks like. Oh come on, I’ve just about given you the answer. Lastly’ have a look at just about any editorial portrait and you’ll see this technique being used.

Studio class

§ Do some basic research on tabletop small product photography and post this to your blog. Small products are things like electrical items, toys, kitchen/bathroom products, groceries but NOT raw or plated food items. Post a few different types of shots and comment on the lighting used.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Week 2 research

Location class

1.What does the term ‘bounce flash’ mean and why would you use this technique? bounce flash is a technique used that you direct the flash unit to be pointed at a white or light colour wall, and when it is set off it reflects the flash discharge in a different angle. you would use this because a flat flash straight is unappealing, we naturally dont look directly into lights 2.What does the term ‘fill-flash’ mean and why would you use it?. fill flash is the where you have a darker section on you image and use a flash to light the darker areas. you do this because if their is some unsightly shadow or the other light source is to strong 3.When working in daylight, how could you use flash as a main light and daylight as a fill, describe it? you can have your subject face you wile looking away from the sun so it causes them to be back lit, and use a soft flash to light there other side, this is would be a good example of fill flash.

Studio class

1.When employing multiple flash exposures to a moving subject (like the Edgerton strobe photos) why is it important to photograph against a black background? it is important because every time the flash goes off it exposes and back ground, and if you have black background it reflects way less light as a white back ground. so if shooting on a white background every time the flash goes off it exposes the image more and more 2.In a given situation when one flash discharge is used the correct f-number to achieve correct exposure is f8. How many identical discharges would you need to achieve correct exposure when using f32?........... 5? 3.Explain your answer in the last question

folio proposal

Make four portraits, using flash lighting. The same person needs to be used for shots 1 and 2 but you need to use other people for shots 3 and 4. 1. Standard corporate portrait/head shot with white (PLAIN!) background, photographed inside. 2. More creative corporate headshot or midshot, photographed i nside. They can be looking off camera talking to someone, gesturing etc or simply a tight more creative crop. 3. A portrait of the same person but have them using a computer, either laptop or desktop. Again, person to be photographed inside. NB: You cannot photograph fellow students. 4 A simple portrait (friend, family) of one person using the monobloc(s) as a main source outside. You will need to make sure you are able to reach a power point. The intent here is to test your ability to combine daylight with monobloc flash. 1. Do some research and post this to your blog. This should include identifying the people you will be photographing, or several ideas for the person you want to photograph. An idea or ideas of the way you will light the person. 2. You are required to present this to the class in two weeks, August 29 and 30 depending upon which class you are in, no exceptions, no excuses, no second chances. This is part of the summative assessment process. 3. You can use your class time to make arrangements for shoots, carry out the shoots, plan and edit images. Belinda will be at CIT to advise and help you, so there are no excuses for unsolved problems! As usual we encourage that you bring your work in progress to class for discussion and are prepared to reshoot if necessary. 4. Submit 5 printed, foam-core mounted A3 prints of the final group portraits by the due date below, as well as the images on CD, and the usual files using the digital file submission guidelines provided in semester 1. IDEAS!!! well i have no clue what im going to do for it. but the few ideas i have got iv only seen have been photos from the internet. PR shots are something that iv never really noticed before or iv really thought about to be quite frank. also to something iv always struggled with is choosing lighting for models so i think this assignment is going to be a challenge. allot of the bad shots iv noticed that people do for their PR lighting is really flat boring and very unexciting or if there not flat and boring they have horrible shadows. the people position also tends to be awkward and very unnatural poses and when they have their hands are cropped out they are always cropped off in really awkward positions. this is a perfect example of dreadful lighting. well its a perfect example of a dreadful photo in general.... see with this shot the lighting is very flat and this man has a crooked nose and the lighting in it exactitudes it very much enough about the bad stuff and more about my ideas i was planning i really like the use of 2 flash units used, one soft light lighting the mans face from the left giving him a nice aura, and there is a more harsh light coming from the right filling in the rest of the shadows. although i do find the harsh light a little to bright and sharp. the way he is positioned with his arms folded it gives him a really "im a happy but hard working fello" kinda look i really like the position of the man in front of the computer it gives you a idea that he kinda knows what he is doing, i think its more effective that he is typing because if he was holding the house it would look a bit weird and there is a nice refection coming from the window onto the glass tabletop. the use of the 2 lights in this image is a better example of what im aiming for in both my portrait images. for my group shot i like stumbled across this image, i like the composition of the people...... but i don't like the peoples positions thay are in.... the man on the left looks like he is trusting into the Asian lady's head and the guy in the back ground looks like such a lurker and if you look really closely there is a set of fingers coming out of the asain lady's head. and i think the camera could scootch up just a little but the soft lighting coming from above is nice i think