Evaluation

So now Im here and I've reached the end. Lets look back on this assignment. From day one when we received the brief i thought oh god here we go. The reason i felt like this was before this project i previously had hardly any experience with the Hasselblad. I had set up a studio in my own home but not in the studio. The main things that caused me the problems this assignment were:

*models

*Hasselblad

*capture one

now models they are brilliant providing they don't cancel on you and leave you on a tight rope luckily i managed to retrieve the control again and get another model in. I have to say at those time they test you to the limit till you feel like cracking (as i did and was ready to give up)but the best thing you can do is stop welling on it move on and start sorting another shoot(which is what i did). I think with this assignment I've learnt how to deal with a model canceling on me as its happened 2 times now, and the after math.

Now Hasselblad when it came to the lighting setting up i managed but the technical side of the cables and the Hasselblad i was lost. My problem is with things i don't feel confident with i avoid like the plague and that is what i did with my first year. And my development compared to my class mates when it came to studio was far far behind.So again i have learnt that when unconfident with something don't sit back silent in the background speak out and force yourself to learn things your not sure about.

And capture one. when using capture one i had never used it before so again i was lost but after having to learn how to use it i feel relatively confident with it now.

This assignment has had me the most stressed I've been in the past 2 years having to learn new skills and feeling so unconfident. To be honest I'm glad its finished. But i am glad i have learnt these new skills and i know that next time i get a studio brief i know how to approach it and how to set up and i don't think i will be as stress in future(plus i will be a lot more confident). 

Costings

Wacom bamboo pen tablet:£75.00

Travel costing's petrol:£110

A3 Prints:£17.00

paper costing's a4 prints:£5.00

over all costing's of the year:£207 

Bibliography

Books:

*The Studio Photographer's lighting bible by Calvey Taylor-Haw

*Italian magazines Vogue (back copies)

*British magazines Vogue(back copies)

*Elle magazines (back copies)

*Retail Jeweller magazines (back copies)

* Vogue Covers:on fashion front page by Robin Derrick and Robin Muir

* Cakes to celebrate love and life by callie martiz and mari-louis guy

Website:

Make up research:

Google images search engine-creative makeup-4th febuary

google image search engine-maori body art and totoo’s-4th feb

google image search engine up hair styles- 4th feb

www.bourjois.co.uk- 22nd-feb

www.maccosmetics.co.uk/-3rd march

www.rimmellondon.com-3rd march

www.maybelline.com/-3rd march

http://www.barrym.com/ - 3rd march

www.smashbox.com-3rd march

Jewelry research:

uk.tiffany.com-22nd Feb

google image search engine-Tiffany adverts- febuary 24^th

Vogue british magazine-3rd

Retail Jewellers magazine-5th mach

Elle Magazine-5th march

Fashion beauty photographers:

www.justingrantphotography.com-29th january

www.richardmilesphotography.co.uk -2nd febuary

steven eastwood-www.photographersportfolio.com- 2nd February

Umbar Shakir ^{-www.atomicsparkle.com-2nd February}

www.augustbradley.com-fashion/beauty photographer-2nd February

^{www.timhill.co.uk-food photographer-16th February}

^{www.jeancazals.net- food photographer-16th February}

^{www.jerryerrico.com- food photographer-16th February}

^{www.mattarmendariz.com-food photographer -16th February}

^{www.christinapeters.com-food photographer-16th February}

^{cupcake research-www.flickr.com-20th February}

^{www.callendercakes.co.uk-20th February local cake making shop+website}

Lighting Diagrams

digitalpixels.net -5^th march

Google Image search engine-Studio lighting diagrams-5th march

Presentation and printing?

So now i have my 3 images what am i going to present them in and where am i going to get them printed out. Well my printing side of this decision has been made up i set tim to printing on thursday for me and my work proved that inkjet was the wrong form of print for my work. The problem that we had was with my eyeshadow image contained golds and oranges which apparently inkjet cannot print so i am having to take my prints to digilab in newcastle. This will be the first time i have had my worked printed out there and hopefully all will go okay i have set them in the right profile sRGB and i have also assigned the right paper type with Tim's help so hopefully everything will go okay the prints i think are getting printed on the Wednesday.

So presentation how am i going to present my work, well the same as usual with the traditional polyester sleeves sized A3.

And what am i going to contain my images in?well i will be keeping my images in y black print box. It looks professional and keeps my prints in good shape.

Bourjois -paris- final print

This is my final 3rd image, this image was my cosmetic idea advertising bourjois. This image was meant to be the image that i did the most high maintenance adobe on. But it turned out that my Tiffany image needed more. Out of all my 3 images I find my self much more proud of this image. So much research has gone into this idea, photographers,makeup,hair styles,makeup,backgrounds etc.
This final image was choosen to fit into the catagory cosmetics,as eyeshadows in modern society today are classed as being cosmetics.

Cupcake cafe final print

This is my final image of my cup cake cafe research.This image is the result of all my previous research on cup cakes of the,cup cake designs, making the cakes,book research,lighting research. I'm quite happy with my final outcome really i wanted a nice cool but yet homely feel. Whilst it still being a believable cafe shot and i think i have achieved this within this composition.
This final image was choosen to fit into the catagory cafe.

Tiffany and co final print.

This is the final product of all my research. Within this photo i have included elements of all my research of different photographers and medias. I have included my research of poses , jewelry research,title research and i have taken the composition into deep consideration. This image has had a lot of editing done to it, with layer masks. I actually planned for the bourjois shoot to have to most editing because, In our brief is stated that one image must be heavily adobe'd and it turned out to be this image rather than the Bourjois
This final image was choosen to fit into the catagory womens fashion,with jewelry in modern days society being classed as womens fashion.

Bourjois lighting set up

This was the lighting set up that i used in the Bourjois shoot. With this shoot i used a low key lighting set up. This diagram is similar to the set that i used with a few little changes. The background that i used was a plain black background, i had Emme stood a distance from the background. I then had the soft box set up to the right of Emme (umbrella in picture was actually a soft box)so the light was facing down on her. I found this lighting set up quite effective.

Tiffany lighting

This image was taken from Google images when searching studio lighting diagrams. I have included this diagram because this was a similar set up to the lighting set up that i used within the tiffany shoot.Right so lets get going then first off i had Emme standing in the cove i turned the strip lights on ( replacing the umbrellas shooting toward the cove)facing towards the cove to even out the lighting on the cove. I then had 2 black boards facing toward the camera either side of emme just like in the diagram. I faced the black boards so the white side of the boards were facing towards the cove reflecting the light back. I then had a soft box to to the right of Emme casting light on her and the jewelry.( soft box replaced umbrella to the right of model in diagram). I then just had the camera in front of Emme I then also had a white board reflecting light back onto emme to the left of her just like in the image(without the light).

Product lighting for "Cupcake cafe"

This Image was taken from the studio photographers lighting bible. I found it relevant to include this diagram into my blog because this was the lighting set up i used for my cup cake. After setting up my cupcake and decorating it. I set it up on the table i then set up a soft box to the left of the cupcake and plate and cup. I then also added a mirror to the right of the image to reflect the light back into the opposite side of the object where it was rather shaded and dark. I then took the image and the lighting in the image worked out.

Tiffany research

Here is my Tiffany research, I found it relevant to include the actual brands advertising which i will be shooting.To back up my Tiffany idea.













I really really like this advert i think it is tasteful and elegant. I like how they have lighted the model, it shapes her back and shows the contours. I choose to include this image because its a tiffany advert, I've found that with the majority of the tiffany adverts even if they don't have the tiffany name they have a regular recognizable phrase "some style is legendary".
















Again this image is an advertisement by Tiffany with the name. Typical advert along the lines i am wanting to follow.


















This is again another tiffany advert with the signature phrase some style is legendary. But again this image doesn't have the tiffany title attached.I think if you didn't know the tiffany phrase you wouldn't really know who's advertisement it was therefore that is why I'm adding the title into my composition.



















This is an advert for tiffany eye wear but again has the tiffany title attached so its recognizable as to who's advert it is.













I really like this composition i like the lay out, the lighting and i think i also like the idea that shes posing with a camera which i find quirky. This advert again has the title attached. i will definitely be adding the tiffany title into my advert.

Jewelry research

Here are some examples of some research i did in the library yesterday these images were taken from the past issues of Retail Jewelry Magazine. These examples i have chosen i have tried to choose jewelry adverts displayed on a model to link back to my image.I have tried to choose big brand names when picking the adverts.



















I really liked this image and the elegance of this image, i think it portrays the jewelry really well and also has the branded name attached to this advert like i wanted to do.



















I'm sorry this image is portrait but it wouldn't turn on landscape. I really liked this double page spread. I thought the use of adobe editing skills like adding tentacles on the octopus style image. And i also like the edited fingers on the lizard style image to create a spine i think these images are really contemporary and i really like them.

I again liked this double page spread of the Pandora bracelet set in a scene between a couple then the advertisement page on the opposite.I think this image demonstrates the theory of wanting to include the jewelers name within the image.

Again i have to apologies for the image being portrait again blogger unfortunately doesn't allow you so change portrait to landscape.I choose to include this image within my research because i love the jewelry and i think its really pretty, but it also demonstrates how when advertising you really need the branded name or something to associate the product with a specific brand, like the tiffany research i have done ahead of this post(i.e tiffany does not necessarily put there name on the image every time but she have added a phrase on every advertisement associated with tiffany).

This is an advertisement by Guess again it is a good example the brand name is included and the jewelry is displayed on the model like i was wanting to approach my work.

Again this is another good example of nice jewelry but who's it made by where can i buy it from? these details really need to be included.



















This again is created by the double page spread further up the page with the lizard style and octopus style. I really like this image i think kits a really good advert i love the adobe'd leopard skin it all fits and makes a really good advert.

So from this minor research i had done again i have learn't that when advertising you really need the brand name so you can at least research where to find the product , I'm wanting to include the product on the model in the corner enlarged for a better view and tempting view and the tiffany name.

Make up advertising research

Right now I'm on to the market of makeup "cosmetic" advertising. Now i know ive done plenty of research on makeup styles, but whilst editing my images i came up with a problem. Now when editing my images because my make up was vivid and over the top how were you to guess that it was an eyeshadow by Bourjois. I really wanted to add the product into the image and whilst you're doing that you wonder which company its come from even though the product has the name on.So i therefore wanted to add the name of the company,but then i thought was using there name copyright and plagiarism. I went and asked Richard was it copyright and plagiarism and Richard said its not providing the image is not going outside of UNI which its not. And if i want to add the product and name of the product within the composition he said thats fine providing i have backed it up in my research so here I go here is my research and the reasons why i want to do this:


















Right so lets begin with this image here this image was taken from Bourjois's website in the history section.This advert was created in the 19th century.When the first face powder was created for the use of the theater and Bourjois became an official supplier to the imperial theater.
As you can see in this image dating back to the 19th century even then they have included the company name within the composition and the product. I do not have my model applying the makeup within my image but the simple fact that the product is in the composition is selling it.














Now here is an image taken in the 20th century by the same company.Here they have modernized the image of course a whole century later. And once again the makeup on the model has been included into the composition, as well as the branded name. I find this composition quite busy because they have included nearly every product used on the model but this advert demonstrates my idea.












So This Brings me to this image,this image was taken from mac cosmetics website another large branded makeup. Now with this image i wanted show another aspect. Now from this image you can see that its a model with very full on makeup(like my choice of makeup) without any branding or the actual product. Now for me i look at this image and i think whats it trying to sell lace?. Or is it even an advert it mite just be a beauty image therefore what I'm trying to say, is that i think I have gone along the right route of choosing to include the product and the brand. Otherwise you're left to guess, and for me advertising to a high end market this for me although yes its a good image it would of synchronized better with the product and brand for an advertisement.












Which then leads me onto this website this was taken from a forum for makeup and they specialize in a good variety of adverts. Now when looking at this image it screams lipstick I first look at the lips full ,red,bright and then my eye is lead to the lipstick. Now for me this composition is very nearly there i look at this image and think, ok so you're selling a lipstick, by which company, where can i get it from if i don't know the company etc. This really needed the brand just to finish of the advert. This image was advertising Rimmel another worldwide popular brand.















This again is another advertisement. You can see clearly that its advertising a mascara. Yes you can see the name on the mascara tube but for me the name would of finished it off for me. This advert was taken from Maybelline another world wide makeup brand.













































These 4 images above for me is how i think advertising should be displayed as how i have chosen to edit my images. They all include the name for the retailer to see who's advertisement it is and its there choice to go and purchase the product in a shop or research it up. They all clearly state the branded name and the product that has been used within the advert. So staring from the top the first advert is Rimmel taken from Google the next to images after that are adverts by barry m the eyeshadow is a lot for me and i find the adverts very fresh i seem to want a bit more with there adverts a different take,composition,full on makeup.
And the very last one of my choice is smashbox another worldwide makeup company for me this advert perfectly conveys what an advert should convey. The makeup,the brand,a feel you may get from wearing the makeup and most of all i love the composition. For me this advert is right on the money i would go out and buy there product iff needed after seeing this advert.

So that concludes those are the reasons and explanations why i have chosen to include the brand name and the product into my final compositions.

Cupcake shoot feb 16th

I know this post is quite late but with organizing my posts i have been a little here and there.
Right so earlier on in my post i explained the design i was going to use but forgot to explain the shoot.Well thankfully that week i had taken the Sunday and Monday night of work because i had hours to take. So i was a little lost as to what to do, so on the Monday i went and bought some ingredients for the cupcakes. I then came home and set to making the cupcakes. For some reason all my cupcakes were rising lopsided. But yet i pursued my cup cake making and after making about 22 cupcakes i got all of one cupcake to rise perfectly in the center. I then iced the cupcakes and left the lime and mint fresh to cut and add the day of the shoot. So the cupcakes were ready for one day that week. I then realized for food photography you don't need the cover or a major area of the studio. So When i woke on Tuesday morning i rang UNI up and asked if i could be fitted in anywhere just to do some little food photography.

They looked at there tabel and there was meant to be a girl painting the cove so i was alright to be using the back end of studio one i just had to co into uni for about 3.30. Well i got the train to uni armed with all the things i needed. I had an hour to spare so i went and bought granite blocks because i thought they would look nice reflecting the reflection of the cupcakes, a plate and a cup.

When i got back to uni it was about time for me to set up. Now with this being the first time on my own in a studio i was flipping a little not had used capture one before or the haselblad on my own. So i set up capture one and that started going wrong it kept cropping my image and turning them diagonally. Also the lens i was using was not getting close enough and working on you're own and having to maneuver things was very difficult(not to self next time bring helper).

I started flapping because nothing was going right everything was coming out to be honest looking crappy. Thankfully but unfortunately for emma randall on my class(THE LIFE SAVER) she came to my rescue. She was meant to be doing a shoot whilst at uni but the group who were in befroe her over ran into her slot and she was left with such little time and was forced to cancel her shoot. So emma which was really nice of her decided to help me. She explained i didn't have the right extensions on my lens hence the reason i was getting crappy shots. I asked at the store if they had any in just as my luck they didn't but after trying to pursue with my image 20 minutes later someone dropped the extension tubes off so i was able to use them.

I then decided to decorate the cakes with the lime and mint and started shooting we found a teacloth in the bit box which went well(i had previously looked for a white and green teacloth but they were all unsuitable or gordy) although i wanted a square plate i bought a round plate and wanted a square one,morrisons didn't have a white square plate. they had black cream but not whit!(one again my luck) thankfully they had the perfect square plate in the bit box i brought icing sugar to decorate the plate and included the cup into the background to give it a more "cafe" theme. Emma also helped me maneuver the objects which was much easier than moving them my self to much out of the image or in the wrong direction.

In the end i got a good few that i could work with i went home worked on them and now i have one final portrait cafe image this will be found later on in my blogg alongside my jewelry image and makeup image.

Bourjois "makeup" shoot 23rd Feb

So you will notice that this shoot date as the one in the post bellow the reason for this was because i decided to multi task and try to get 2 shoots in one day which i managed happily.Lets begin with how I started this idea, so from the research that I had done previously ready for the shoot with Claire reed I re-used, scenes as I bought all the decorations. The theme of the makeup was big and bold but also beautiful. I think when it comes to selling makeup you need quite dramatic makeup for advertising. This was the main image I was influenced by:


















The gold circles on her face(gold circles in my image and black within this image) I went and bought ribbon, which was decorated with them. I spent a couple of hours cutting them out and adding double sided tape on the reverse of them so they would stick on the models face. The black makeup I bought ready for the shoot and practiced the style on my face so it was ready to just do again on emme. The biggest problem which arose for me was the netting which I found extremely hard to find. In the end after much research I found that neither Darlington or Newcastle ”and the biggest material store you could go to dainty supply’s in Washington” did supply it either. So I went around problem solving. I bought fish net tights and practiced and played with it ready to use on emmys face, and I also had black sticky glittery strips to try and create a net look but I didn’t use that idea. The prospect of trying to make fishnet tights look like hat net was daunting on my mind and was basically impossible to do. Luckily we didn’t settle for the fish net tights and kept looking, when me and my mum realized we bought fishnet net to cover the pond in the back garden earlier on in the year and we had left over’s. So I went and got some from the shed and it was exactly what I had been looking for, for about a month. That was a great relief so hopefully when the shoot came it would be alright.

So when the shoot came along we had already don’t the tiffany shoot earlier, we went and got some dinner then came back. I re set up a different set, I was originally finding it hard to find the distance of the model from the black background then I realized it was the distance I needed. So I distanced Emme from the background aimed the soft box so the light was falling on her then tried it and it was perfect. I then applied emme’s makeup the dots and then the, netting which was rather hard to stick down but luckily I had the stickiest double sided sticky tape in the world J. After the makeup was applied and rather successfully which I was rather happy with we set to shooting I tried 2 different angles and I managed to get what I needed within that day.

I then set to shooting the objects to add within the compositions after emmy had gone. Shooting the Bonjouis eye shadow and my tiffany necklace and bracelet, with different lighting setups brightness exposures and apertures. This left me with enough work to work with when I went home. After the shoot I spent about 2-3 editing and I finally finished them yesterday after making repeated mistakes. The gold glittery background was taken at home on my camera of some material I had, I shaped it to look shaded and like velvet again and adobe’d it within the image. I think the overall composition was successful the final image can be found later on in my blogg.

Tiffany shoot-23rd Feb

Right so after the problem of my model dropping out on me the day of the shoot i roped my friend emme shafto in who did modeling for me previously,because i knew she enjoyed it and was a rather good model. So after a while of flapping and organizing with emme I booked the studio for the 23rd of Feb the Tuesday,after organizing the date with emme.

So after waiting a week and doing as much as research as possible Tuesday came and we did the shoot.

Emme met me after her tutorial at her uni and we set to, i went in the studio an hour before she showed up and set it up all on my own for the first time so it was ready.So wen emme arrived we did the first shoot a jewelery shoot(youre probably reading this thinking where is the jewelery research but the research i did before hand will follow later). I choose to photograph by Tiffany necklace and Bracelet, had a member of my class not covered Pandora already i may have shot my Pandora bracelet, and unfortunately i didn't have a matching neclace for Pandora. So tiffany with it being a designer name and brand and me having both a necklace and bracelet i set to and used that within my shoot. previously in my research i had found work by a photographer .

I loved this image and i thought that this pose and scene would set a good jewelery image.So i got emme to pose similar as this model here and added the jewelery after polishing it and perfected the light and set on with the shoot. These images were rather successful my final image can be found later on in my blogg after all my research.

Cakes to celebrate love and life

Well so far I,ve looked and searched for this book without having to buy it i refuse to spend 12.00 to take an image of one picture out of a book so i went to watertones as said and they didn't have the right book,so i went to the college library they didn't have the book either. I then went to Darlington(big library) to try and find the book and once again they didn't have the right book. So i went back to the callender cake shop and asked iff i could take an image on my phone of the design i decided to use, and the woman wouldn't let me take an image simply for my blogg as explained so i left very angry and will be advising people not to visit that shop after being followed around the shop like a thief. I forgot to check in whs miths, that is my last option to get the right image iff i cant get the book there i will have to call it a day on the image after exhausting my ideas.

Cakes to celebrate love and life

This was the book i saw the design in for my cupcakes, Although the book's designs look very over the top there was some subtle designs. Although I have searched and searched for the same design of cupcake's which I did I couldn't find the design (copyright i think). Later in the week i will go and find the book in the library or Waterstones and i will take an image of the design i based my ideas on.As i cannot find the image as of yet until monday when i go to the book store i will explain my design:

The design i picked for my cupcake was not over the top like a cake you would find in a confectionary shop I enrolled elements of the research i have done earlier. The cupcake design i choose was whipped meringue (whipped egg white uncooked) on a plain vanilla cupcake, with a slice of like lime placed on the meringue with a fresh leaf of mint on the edge of the cake. I choose this design because it wasn't to over the top it was possible this design could be found in a cafe. It also enrolled the warm tones of green like in the research of the carrot stick food photography shoot by Matt Armendariz and the lovely fresh looking image by Jerry Errico I found these artists backed up my choice of design.

Callender cakes.

After doing my cupcake research i jumped into my ideas head first. I felt like i wasn't skilled enough to make good looking cupcakes, so i went and visited a local cake making shop which i know was meant to be a good shop it was called Callender cakes.

Although i had plenty of research i thought they mite have a better idea of what decorations would typically portray "Cafe". I asked them if they would consider making me 3 cupcakes for my assignment and they agreed they asked me for designs but i was unsure.

So I had a wander around there shop and had a look through there cake making books and i came up with 3 designs which i didn't think were to over the top.

So when i went back to the lady and showed her the ideas unfortunately in the time of looking for the designs i wanted she had taken cake orders which meant she didn't have time to do them for the next week(this week present). So i set to to make my own cupcakes and try to recreate the same design.

Here are some designs of cupcakes i researched before going to callender cakes (images researched on Flikr)

This image above was the image i took my composition inspiration from, I liked the whole cafe theme in the background and i tried recreating this within the studio, but that was unsucsesfull in the end i just went with the flow and what i preffered throughout the shoot and improved the image before.

Christina Peters

These images were taken by Christine Peters i really like her images i find there not cold and commercialized. They contain the kind of homely feel to them i think for my cafe section i will focus my ideas on puddings I.E  cup cakes puddings etc.

Matt Armendariz

This image was taken by Matt Amendariz again this image has quite a cool feel to it, but i think that the oranges and yellows of the melon and carrot sticks warm the composition.I quite like the freshness but i really want a homely feel to my work so i will keep researching.

Jerry Errico

This image was taken by jerry Errico, although i like this image i think it portrays my idea of "cold". I think with food photography it has become a male orientated view on food photography. Women preffer the home made,freshly homely food where as men prefere the new,cool and fresh. I like this image because i think the tones og green slighlty warm the imag but i think this was a good example of cold food photography.

Jean Cazals

These images are by Jean Cazala i love how he has achieved this cracked egg look. I would love to do something like this but at the same time it isn't really cafe style i thought it relevant to include into my research because i really like things like this.

Cafe research-Tim Hill

Rite so after looking at the definition of cafe my ideas were right,they don't sell full on meals so i need to be doing quite light food like coffee , cup cakes deserts and maybe very light meals.Here was the beginning of my research when i was wanting to try country style life food photography i came across a food photographer called Tim Hill:


















This is the work of Tim hill the reason i was wanting to create a countryside feel was because with this theme,it makes you feel at home, all comfy and warm. I think with commercial food photography sometimes it's to cold and commercialized and quite hard with my food photography i want to achieve a warm feeling to it.