Beginning of craft - digital workbook
Mood-board / Mind map -
Magazine front covers analysis
I like the reflection of the subject on the table below and how it creates a blurrier version of the subject. I also like how the colour of the subject's outfit matches the colour of the title.
I would change the composition of the image and leave more negative space at the top of the image for text. I think it was shot on location with natural light from the top left. I also think they used props in the image like the large table that the subject is leaning on. one thing I could take from this image to use in my work would be the composition and the model pose. I like how having her leaning on the table gives a sense of authority and power.
On this cover I really like the lighting, more specifically how the colour of the lighting changes from warm to cold across the model's face. The low aperture/shallow depth of field isolates the subject from the background and makes him stand out. I would change the image by leaving more negative space for the title. I think it was shot in a studio using artificial light, the lighting itself is coloured using gels, with warmer lights to the left of the subject and cooler ones to the right giving that contrast across the image. I like the storytelling in the image and the questions it puts in the head of the viewer, such as whats he looking at? where is he?
I like the colour palette within the image e.g soft pinks and beiges and how they’ve left room at the top of the image for text. Although I like the colours I would also like to see some contrasting colours to make certain parts of the image pop as I feel the pinks all blend together. I think it was shot in a studio with a pink backdrop and natural light, props were used with the stool the subjects sat on. Also the soft colours and clothing act as a good contrast to the subjects back story. being an actor in mainly police dramas has a more rugged and rough feel whereas this image contradicts that and is more soft texture and colour wise.
ISO - International Organization for Standardisation
Film ISO -
Back in the days of celluloid film, ISO referred to the level of film's sensitivity to light. the value of measuring the films sensitivity usually began at 100 then went up to 200, 400 and 800. higher the value higher the sensitivity to light.
Digital ISO -
ISO can now be increased and decreased digitally because it's all just an electronic process inside the camera. A measurement of the sensors sensitivity to light.
What ISO should you use in different scenarios?
- Daylight/studio - Low ISO
- Dark/night - High ISO
Why shoot low ISO? -
- To avoid grain or noise - maximises image quality
Why shoot high ISO? -
- Low light conditions and shooting without flash
- a larger amount of light will be captured by the sensor - even lights the human eye cant perceive.
- to add grain or for aesthetic purposes.
Shutter Speed
- refers to how long the shutter stays open for
1" - 1 second
10" - 10 seconds
100 - 1/100th of a second
250 - 1/250th of a second
Slower/longer shutter speeds capture movement and blur objects, used for slow moving objects but also require stabilisation
Fast/quicker shutter speed captures quick moving action
Aperture progression
F/ 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11
Exposure -
Exposure is the amount of light a camera lets in and determines how bright/dark an image is. it uses a combination of all the cameras features - Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO.
In response to this work I'm going to take and upload 6 images;
- one with a slow shutter speed & one with a long shutter speed
- one with a shallow depth of field & one with a high depth of field
- one with a low ISO & one with a high ISO
An image that I could take is a long exposure, this requires a long shutter speed and is really good for capturing movement over a period of time. Commonly long exposures are taken of traffic or to show movement infront and around of a stationary subject.
Fast/Slow Shutter:
The image on the left is a panning shot of a taxi in London. I used a fast shutter speed and tracked the movement of the taxi across the frame. because these images have more of a documentary/street feel to them I wanted to edit them in black and white however, I decided to leave the red's in the image so that they both have an identity and are both clearly taken in London. The second image is a long exposure and was taken using a 10 second shutter speed. I waited for a good amount of traffic to pass so that I got as many light trails as possible.
These images are taken with a varied aperture the one on the left is taken at f/11 and the one on the right is taken at f/4. With higher aperture's you need to allow your camera to let in more light to compensate. This did push me out of my comfort zone as I'm not used to shooting 100% manually.
Lastly, I had a look at varying ISO settings, having a low ISO (right Image) gives a more dark moody feel. Having a high ISO gives a brighter feel to the image and I've edited both images in a fashion that works with the feel of the photo. One thing I've noticed and had to work around using ISO is the noise of the image. where the camera is letting in more light you get grainy and noisy shadows/highlights. these can be taken out slightly in editing but it did present as a challenge especially in low light. the image on the right however doesn't have this, this is because i had a slightly higher aperture (f/5.6) and shutter speed 1/80 to compensate for the low light.
Willem Jonkers - Fish-Eye/Wide angle lens
Willem Jonkers is a street photographer living in Rotterdam, he likes to photograph regular, ordinary people on the street that would otherwise be forgotten about. Using a fish eye lens means he has to get up close to the subject which can cause some different reactions as the subject knows they're being photographed if he used a telephoto lens theres a higher chance that they wouldn't know and would make the image more natural. He also uses lots of low angles resulting in a more powerful look of the subject.
Annie Leibovitz - Portrait (70/80mm)
Anna Leibovitz in a very famous portrait photographer, photographing the queen of England, the rolling stones and has been features in many famous magazines such as vogue and Vanity Fair. She uses a wide array of lenses but in this image used as the cover image for les miserables she used a portrait lens. I haven't got the exact camera settings but from looking at the image I think its a 70/80 mm focal length. This is because theres no real distortion or warping around the facial features and you can see the ears clearly.
Ash Donelson - Telephoto
Ash Donelson is a Manchester Based sports photographer, as a sports photographer he is someone I look up to. this photo was taken with a telephoto zoom lens. the angle he has taken this photo specifically a is below the hip making the viewer feel as if they're on the pitch with them. however the viewer is still below the subject making the subject feel powerful and big. i also like the framing of the image and having the opposition in the background annoyed and the team who have just scored happy in the foreground acts as a nice contrast.
My images responding to lens work:
Lighting Diagrams:
Lighting diagrams in photography are used for showing how your lighting is going to be arranged on shoot. this can be sued wether tis on location or in a studio. they are drawn or made from a birds eye view with the type of lighting, the location of the light itself, the camera location and the model's location all being shown.
The Inverse Square Law
The inverse square law relates to the intensity of the light and coverage on the subject/models face. the closer the light is to the subject the more harsh the light is on the face however, the coverage of the light will be much smaller and focused on the subjects face. the further away the light the softer it is on the subjects face and the more evenly spread the light is across the face. (as seen above)
My Idea:
My general idea for the three covers of "Saturday" magazine are going to relate to what people do and get up to on a Saturday. one thing that i realised alot of people more specifically men do is get a haircut. After speaking to my cousin who owns his own barber shop, he said that Saturdays are easily his busiest days. In response to this information i plan to go to his shop and take photos of him. As well as this I want to shoot one image in the studio to add a bit of contrast and add something different to the three covers.
Lighting Diagram for in-studio shoots
This is my lighting diagram for my in studio shoots, this may be changed on the day of the shoot depending on conditions, however I'll do a test shoot before hand to ensure everything works and all looks how i want it to.
After going over my ideas decided it'd be better if I did all three shoots on location, this way I can have the covers all linking and I can also relate back to the time of year, which is what the brief asks. this way I can complete all three shots for the covers on the same shoot.
Visualisation Planning -
The following images are my inspiration for my three magazine covers:
First (Left) image -
https://unsplash.com/photos/taZSJ6xmt48
My first image will be taken in similar style to this one (far left), I like the shallow depth of field and how the focus is sharp on the scissors only. the things I'm going to change are:
1. the position of the scissors -
i'm going to have the scissors point in at an angle from left to right across the image with the back of the hand facing the camera, and will be outside the barber shop on location. one thing I'll have to think about is the weather as if its raining it could change the look and feel of the image. however this could work in my favour as it'll relate closer to the time of year and release of the magazine. The reason I want the scissors facing a slightly different way is so that i gives a more laid back/candid feeling as i feel the reference image is quite serious.
2. Monochrome
I'm going to not have the image in monochrome, as stated previously I want to give a more fun playful feeling and i feel having the image in colour will help get that feeling across better.
Second (Middle) image-
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/204139795586701553/
1. In my image I'd like to have a model in the chair, this would help the image have a narrative and would also help tell the story of the barber shop. The model in the in the chair will just be a client that he has, this will mean that I'll have to get permission from the client before taking photos of him.
2. as a second version I'm going to have an image of just the barber and an empty chair. this could also give the image narrative as I feel like its welcoming the customer into the chair for their Saturday haircut.
Third (Right) image -
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/barber-with-client-looking-in-mirror-by-milles-studio--640144534527357322/
1. for the final Image I want to have an after shot, this way the images are like a sequence; a beginning, middle and end. the end shot will be similar to the reference image as the barber will be looking over the clients head in the mirror checking the haircut.
2. my image will be taken without a mirror and will be taken straight looking at the subject. this is because I don't want the viewer to be distracted by the mirror, I want the image to be straight to the point.
Test Shoot
As a test shoot, i went to his barber shop one evening to take photos with my own external flash. this have me a clear insight into what sort of light i needed to add or even or get rid of. I knew the lighting in the shop would be good as its quite bright spot lighting however it was the outside environment i wasn't so sure about being good lighting. these images aren't too similar to that of my cover and was more for fun/personal use however it was a good way to see what the location was like outside.
*all images taken at:
ISO 400
1/50s
f/ 3.5
I'm really happy with the images above and how the lighting looks. As stated previously these images (apart from the first two) are for fun and social media purposes. the settings above i found worked well, since I had the flash and some available daylight, I could reduce my ISO to just 400. The shutter speed was actually relatively slow to compensate for the low light, as well as this I opened the aperture to 3.5 allowing even more light into the camera.
The edits on the final images will be similar, I want to have a lot colour as the Saturday magazine has alot of colour and gives off a more fun happy feeling.
Final Shoot Images
As well as the images that are related to my plan I took a few more and added a few variations while shooting. this gave me choice and a couple more options if the images I liked didn't come out as planned. However, I liked all the images I took but does leave me with a mixed choice and alot of options when it comes to making my final covers. To see what images I like most, I can use the 'overlay' tool in capture one to visualise what my images would look like with the Saturday title.
The panel on the right has an overlay option if I upload a PNG file to the overlay section I can preview what the final image will look like. The tick boxes below show and follow the crop. The show box simply shows the overlay on-top of the image thats selected. the follow crop tick box means that when the image is cropped the overlay will be moved and/or shrunk to fit the new crop of the image meaning you haven't got to move it each time. Below the image you can also see the camera settings that were used to take the image and the star rating. this image has two star ratings 1. so I can separate them from the rest and 2. you can rate them out of 5 stars depending on how much you like them.
In this image in particular I didn't like how the Christmas tree was in the background of the image, the time of release of the magazine is Jan/Feb 2023 so this will be after Christmas. The imags itself I'm fairly pleased with however the Christmas tree does reduce the rating overall.
After viewing my images with the overlay in photoshop, I found my final covers. The above circled images are my final picks. What i like that i didn't necessarily notice before is how they seem to tell a story from within the barber shop. e.g the warm welcome, followed by the finished product. the actual edits on the images I want to keep fairly minimal, If I were to do anything to them it'd be increasing the saturation of the images so they fit in with a-ot of the previous covers that feature pop colour.
The overlay can sometimes block the subject in the image. So in order to prevent this, I can erase part of the heading in photoshop. By rasterizing the Saturday PNG layer i can erase part of the title so it appears to be behind the subject. this adds depth to the image and helps the title and image merge a bit more smoothly.
I can do this by masking the PNG file on top of the base image and slowly erasing around the top of the subjects head. this as stated before can add depth to the image and can help the various components within the image blend together nicely.
Final Covers:
Cover 1 -
One alterations I made was the crop, I felt that having the whole head of the client in the photo completes the story of the image and having the model cropped out a bit I find quite distracting as a viewer. I also added a second gradient filter, coming from the top. The reflection of the lights in the window clashed with the white lights and made it hard to read. to solve this I added a gradient filter and darkened the top of the image.
Cover 2 -
No changes have been made since the original edit.
Cover 3 -
This is the only image in which I have put the title behind the subject. I have also cropped the image so that the premier league logos from the shirt in the background are hidden. this is incase of copyright. This is a hypothetical brief but I still want to abide by the rules and regulations of commercial photography.
