Studio Shoot

So today was spent back in the studio shooting for my final major project, titled: "What Means Most". My friend agreed to travel down from Plymouth to spend some time in the studio with some of the things which mean most to her. Unfortunately she could not bring Coco, her maccaw, and so to represent that she brought along with her a t-shirt with a parrot on and a few parrot figurines. She also brought along an old teddy which used to belong to her older brother some years ago and these were what I decided to photograph.

From taking the images from the studio and to my laptop however, the images do not appear the same. Whether this was an error of lighting set-up or camera I am not sure however the images do not appear as bright. The images to me look at lot more dull than they did when in the studio. Here are my favourite two anyway, unedited:

The images were taken on the colleges Hasselblad 503CW on a 200ISO, shutter speed of 250 and aperture f/11

Back Into The Studio

Having got my book project and exhibition out of the way, its was time to think about what I would choose to do for my Final Major Project (FMP). I particularly liked the idea of going back into the studio to shoot some portraits as I had not done this in a while. From this grew the idea of photographing people along with some possession of theirs which has either some sentimental value to them or that is simply that important to them. I could picture in my head a shot of my brother, who is particularly into his music, with his electro-accoustic guitar.

On Monday I managed to book our studio and, as a bit of a warm-up or test run, took some shots of my friend who's ring has sentimental meaning to her. Having not used the studio in a while for concentrating on landscapes for my book project, I was a little rusty to say the least. Eventually I got the shot I wanted after much frustration with the Hasselblad and trying to get it to focus on the area I wanted it to.

Images taken on a Hasselblad 503CW Digital with flash lighting on f/2.4 and a 1/250 shutter speed. The first image being the final image taken and the one which I am happy with after much time trying to get the focus in the right area. Having wanted the focus solely on the ring, this caused much frustration as many of the images ended up focused primarily on the hands/ fingers with the ring being ever so slightly out of focus.

Conclusion: Back into the studio for more practice!

Studio Shoot

So the other day our lecturer aranged for a model to come into the college so that we could all get some more experience in the studio. So at one o'clock on tuesday our model, Sarah, arrived and the college's make-up department worked their magic to make her camera ready.

Whist 'under the brush' we set up the studio using only one light with a beauty dish on it. We would have the model sat on a chair to begin with and have to black boards situated either side of her, which would cause a slight shadow downt the sides of her face to aid in defining it.

• Using a Canon 5D Mark II set at:
  ISO 100
• Exposure Time 1/125secs (sync speed for studio lighting)
• f/4.5

Unfortunately at this time, I cannot remeber which lens we were using..

Anyways, here are the first couple of images taken:

For the second of these images, the boards that we were using either side of Sarah's face we turned around so that the white sides were facing in towards Sarah. As can be seen, this means that the light reflects off the boards and illuminates more of her face. Also for this photograph, I had someone holding a reflector to cast some light underneith her chin and on her neck. I personally prefer the second image for the lighting which I think is a lot softer than that in the first image.

Also in these images we used another light which was positioned behind Sarah at an angle so not in the shot. Over this light we put a piece of pink coloured gel which, as can be seen, gives a slight pink tinge to the right-hand side (can especially be seen on her hair).

For our other shots we asked Sarah to stand near towards the back of the studio against our white back-drop. As Sarah was not only tall but also was wearing 4inch stilettos, we had to then direct her so that we were able to photograph her whole.

Although not a full-length image, this was my favourite image from this set of pictures: