Yulia

Depth of Field

SELF-PORTRAIT PROJECT

Yesterday was the deadline to submit our photos for the self-portrait project. Though I've sent mine to David 10 hours later 12-00 he still accepted it, yuhoo!

This one was pretty difficult for me cause to make your self-portrait you have to know what kind of person you're, what is you style let's say that. Well, I don't have ANY idea! So my self-portrait I hope reflects it. I wanted to show that my personality is still a secret, even for me =)

I was also looking through the photos of previous year's students and liked just few of them. I think that a lot of guys were just lazy to make something better. Still, it's just my humble opinion =)





I like the dramatic look of the first one. Of course this isn't fresh idea to take photo of yourself with a camera for photographer...that's actually very old..but if your camera is a part of yourself why should you take self-portrait with something else in your shot?

Girl's self-portrait I liked cause of washed out colours and mood of the shot.



Girl's photo with musical instrument is very authentic I think even with simple lightning like this. Cause...how many of us can play on anything but nerves of our relatives? =D

Photo of the guy in the window looks so dreamy and fairy-tale-like. Pleasant bright colours.

And the eyes of the guy looking over his laptop...I just like the look in it, playful and sweet =)




Japanese's girl photo is just fantastic! i hate colours but the IDEA and composition!

Fashion Photography Workshop

Place: studio 4
Date: 08.02.10
Tutor: Adrian

First of all...LCC do smth with the heating! Poor little students trying to keep warm but still listen to Adrian - that was an image of our morning =D

OK, now about the workshop...I looved it! Adrian gave a lot of practical pieces of advice and even brought 3 make-up artist to our class so we could get their contact details! Girls were lovely and open to work together ;-) Building portfolio is awesoooome!))



We've been showed a slideshow of beauty shots.
Adrian:
"Here you could see cross session of mainstream fashion photos. What makes them so strong? Well, of course, styling is important. Make up is critical. Without it 70% of fotos couldn't be so good. Choice of the right model is crucial for sure. And all these elements come together. You don't have to do a lot of photography here.
You start on lightning, mood, atmosphere. What is important is your ability to put all the elements together! ANd then put your individusl statement. BUILDING TEAM OF PEOPLE WORKING TOGETHER- work of a photographer. Coordination of all to make it work, production skills.
When beggining your work in this industry what you can do is to go to a model agency and show our portfolio and if your style is close to their one it can work. So look for their style first, look at pictures, models, style they re interested in. That will be a start what you are looking for.
Usually agencies have so-called "new faces devision". Models there are building their portfolios. So you can go for them.

Working with agencies you need to have flexibility. They can ask u to do photos you don't like, for example. So ry to have couple of photos they want.

-Good hairdressers are important for your teamwork too.
-You have to have a back-up cause if a girl u want to shoot have work this day u can't complain.
-The pictures you make can be used only for your portfolio.

There are a lot of online agencies. Good place to start(modelmaihem.com, onemodelplace.com.) There are 3-4 large online agencies. You have to try to find good ones. There you need to submitt some of your pictures. Response from good pictures would be musch bigger (hello again captain obvious). You also can find make-up artists there.

So you can ask 2 models to come for the photoshoot(this way one of them is a back-up model) If both models come, shoot worse one fast and spend main part of the time wirh better one ( we're eeeevil ;-) )

Don't forget that you NEED to make contacts. It's all quite into link. And don't get paeanoid on copyright. It's fine, that's why you've done the pictures: model, stylist, make-up artist - they are gonna use photos and get on with it, build up a team.

You need to work close to the stylist.

BEWARE ( CHEATING TIP) : You can borrow stuff from the shop and then return it saying that it doesn't fit.

NETWORKING TIP: there is a fashion styling course at LCF. Go thee, talk to the students. You need to be involved in business, to know whats going on.

Next week is fashoon week in London. There are a lot of alternative fashion shows which you can visit. Young designers will make their shows and that's a good chance to network. Do keep an eye on styles, who do what. every top make-up artist go to shows.

Buy magazines!
Places to buy good stuff: frank's books shop -fashion book store, oxford street. Get all trendy fasion magz, free magz. (cheep ones you can find at headen garden market, white cross streer at the big second hand magz store). You have to feed your creative ability. More magz u look at - more creative you're becoming. You can also use libraries at UAL for this.

And remember it's a tough business (no, really? O_O ) . And there is not so much money in it ( foooooooock....). Everybody pays nothing for working in magazines. And it started long ago. Everybody just did it for nothing when magazines didn't have money to pay photographers for this work. And now magz dont want to pay. Photographers contribute. And you have to deal with it. Sometimes you submitt your photos and just hope they'll use it.

BUT don't do it for nothing for too long. There is a limit and you need to find some area to get money from and fashion photo can be fed on miney from it. You need to work on balance between commersial and artistique photography. If you get work from commercial magazines they'll pay you.

Working with free models:
Free models either can or cant (O_o). But remember that they're becoming better from shoot to shoot (O_O). You have to direct them if they don't have an experience (are we STILL talking about photography here???). But some of them work fine in just a work flow. And male models are probably easier to work with. They aren't so obsessed about themselves and don't spend all their time looking into the mirrow. And cause there is bigger demand on female models it's easier for beginner photographer to find a guy model than a girl model.

Then make-up artists came to the studio. We looked at their portfolio works and took their contact details.

alicia-jade@hotmail.com

rachel starbuck 07828131626

lena ostholm 07910942619
lena_80@hotmaol.com

And here you can try to get some work as guys need photographer on LFW:
linnea@renaissancelife.co.uk

After that we've been showed the sideshow again and started to discuss what makes them such strong shots.

I did couple of notes till my beloved smartfone switched off (that's just a life, baby)



Comments: why is it so good: androginous look, messy hairstyle which is so difficult to make though it looks like you just wake up. Interesting lighning from below works perfectly here. Low lightning gives drama. White background with strong back light.



Comments: why is it so good: mainly because of make-up and powerful face. Simple light made with umbrella or softbox and reflector probably. Colours are washed out.

Tip: Tear out photos u like from magz to show to a person. stick into the folder so when you need to make model what you want you have smth to work on.



Comments: why is it so good: This shot is lit from above. Light is hard cause you can see harsh shadow under the lip. Probably for this shot round matted metallic head was used (jusr above camera lens).



Comments: why is it so good: for this lightning ring had been used probably. Maybe small one. Glamorous oily looking skin can be made with using straight light which will give you shine.

IN CONCLUSION: Why time flies so fast, I want MORE information, MORE MORE MORE! =D My only desire after that workshop was to attack all magazines' stores in London, to be honest with you =D
So, boys and girls, next week is FASHION LIGHTNING WORKSHOP! Can't wait to see you all there ;-P

And couple of fasion shots I found on the web, just cause this is my blog and I can publish whatever I want here. :-p

David Graham's workshop

Well, Monday morning I came 15 minutes earlier and that was fucking right decision cause following 30 minutes we were only talking about how bad it is for photographer to be late for a meeting. Some guys were…David didn't like it. Understandable =)

First of all we've been asked to get to pairs and take 1-2 shots of your partner. I was lucky enough to be put together with Lisa cause she's very interesting person I think and I'm not alone in this opinion.
Then David showed us his work which has been exhibited at National Portrait Gallery. Impressive!

What is a portrait?, - he asked
Portrait- is a picture of a person who knows he's is being photographed. Good portrait says more about photographer then about an object of a shot. You shall bring your eye to a person. It's your opinion, it's how YOU see this person. And that's why it's hard to photograph a person, whom you find not interesting.

About lightning David said that he loved daylight and didn't use flash. Traditionally photographers use 80mm lens for making portraits.

Tips:
Relationships with person is a key factor to a good portrait.
Sunlight can be a problem so try to soften the light. (captain obvious...)

Then we had something like psychological exercise, we had to look for 1 minute at the face of your partner to remember all the most interesting and unique traits of appearance. Cause you have to find main feature of a person's face and make it a centre of your shoot.

Then David talked about how much a person's mouth can show. You've got to relax person unless u want to make him look stuff. RELAX YOUR MODEL. Make couple of compliments. MAKE THEM FEEL GOOD ABOUT THEMSELVES.

Posture.If your hands feel comfortable - u feel comfortable. (example, series of photos of people doing different movements by their hands with looking at camera).
Not bad idea to watch american top model show. I've seen it and agree with this advice.

Background
Plain background looks better.

In the process of taking portrait we can have small changes in clothes (move scarf, etc.)

Tip: tight lips look baaaad.

While shooting: ask for small movements. Don't allow friends of a model be there. People look for approval.
David said there's a book about what photographers say to their models but couldn't remember the name…fuck(.

!!! never take photo of kids without permission of their supervisor !!!

!!! If u want to change something in posture, clothes or appearance of a model ask: "do u mind if i touch you?" . Tounch a person with outer side of your hand cause that's not so personal.

Then David asked us to take photos of each other for 10 minutes. That was a lot of fun ))) Here you can see couple of photos of Lisa I took during this exercise. Still not enough time!







And finally we've been asked to go outside and ask strangers to pose for us so we can make their portraits. OMFG, how stressful that was for me u can't even imagine O_O How much I love my cosy photo studio....mmmm.....=D Worse part is that every guy I asked to pose for the portrait tried to flirt with me...wtf!& O_o
Ok ok, that's an example of the crappy crappy photos i ve got after 40 minutes of my efforts.



In conclusion: unfortunately David din't tell us anything new about the technical aspects of portrait photography. Though he gave a lot of psycological tips.

So...next step is to be exhibied at National Portrait Gallery! =D

Photographers' sites I like/1

Hello guys!

I'm sitting at web design course now. We've been discussing couple of photographers sites which I liked a lot! Wanna show them to you

http://fashionphotographer.it

here I loved the way the photos are organized. Very comfortable. And colors look glamorous and expensive. That's what fashion photography about, yeah?

http://www.oleg-photo.ru

Well-established photographer, shoot for a lot of magazines and so on. The pleasant fact - he is Russian. Yeah! Very creative site.

Fashion Lightning Class

Tutour: Adrian
Place: Studio 4
Date:11.01.10 ( other groups: 18.01.10)
NOTICE: all the shoots are taken with my creepy phone camera, so don't expect ANY quality =D

Fashion photography mostly done with white background. We adjust 2 narrow strips (strip softboxes). Shallow scoop. However much light we use to light our background, floor will be darker than upper part of the photo. To prevent it one can use a shiny bottom (final sheet material, plastic) Intensity the same.



Narrow reflectors



We place strips 45 degrees to background.If u shoot from your knees light goes higher. Strips have to be placed evenly. Photographer stands in apprx. 30 sm before strips and 40 sm to the background. Then we do reading with flashmeter and set power to 9. We also use a reflector ( in the middle, above the person)

Flashmeer gives following parametres: 16.1/11.9/16.0. We turn strips more to the middle,nthg changes. make power on right strip to 8.8. nthg pretty change. Adrian moved strips more far from background. Result: 11.8/11.7/11.8 Assistant holds flashmeter as high as she can 11.6.

Now we have to overexpose on 2 stop. Don't forget that u have to use more power with film camera and be more careful. But with film u can cheat, 2 stops over on film we can expose and develop differently to compensate. Therefore, we take reading but instead of shooting f8 as with digital camera we shoot f11. Underexpose back and foreground and push during processing.THAT'S CHEATING MY FRIENDS, YEAH!






We now take front light. For this we use a big softbox for first demonstration.Huuuge one actually!))




(Then I'm unlucky enough to become a model =D ) Assisyant takes flashmetering of me (I feel like a fucking rock star,niice =D ).
Softbox is situated slightly higher than me. f8.03. We then put it higher and incline to the floor.It is placed from the left side.
-Ambient light can affect shot. 2 stops brighter power than strips.5.6 on big one.
Guys, if its 11.9 u should regard it as 16.8. Another shot. Adrian turned lights off. Twined strips a little to my side. Don't forget that by now we're looking for overall not fashion shot.

We take now 4 huge white panels. They give nice soft light. For example this kind of lightning can work very good to take a shot of bared mother and baby. Panels are situated in the form of a diamond around the model. Reading: same 8.at speed 1/125. change to 5.6.
Panels are necesary to control the light which comes to the image. We take away two front panels. Left and right panels are turned white part to background to control spillage of light.




Adrian changes the huge softbox for the smaller and more controlable one. Notice: huge one is good for group portraits. Also model can move? a lot of pose variations which is perfect for shooting dancers. We needed to take a shoot of person jumping to the air. Here comes leaping torture (well, it was fun after all. Aperture: 5.6f.

Softbox is placed before panels on the side of the model. Lightmetering. Rembrandt light on face. 8.03 now. As a result - clean white background and shadow on face. Here comes third panel. Black side to model, on the opposite from softbox. With this we're able to control shadows and have white background. 10f
New lightning technique:
No softbox.Hard light from strobo behind shooter. This kind of hard light is good for shooting men. Jani was our model for this one. Looked niiice. This light also gives beautiful look of clothes. Gappy sort of style. 8f/1/125.f8 on strobe.

That's all for fashion lightning my friends. Good luck!