Graphics: Model Photography

Following on from my previous work on Close up Macro shots of textures. The next thing I was set to do was photographing a model. Unmoving un tiring, a static manikin model, modelling a piece designed by one of the fashion students. We set up a mini studio using 1 diffuser lamp and 2 slave.

Above is what the set up looked like once complete. We added an extra piece of card in front of the model so we could step in on the white background without dirtying the back drop, while getting in close for the more detailed shots.

After taking an array of photos from different angles, levels and distances I felt i had the shots I wanted. In total I only took a set of 25 shots, ranging from close ups to full body shots. Each aiming to capture a different part or feature of the model. This was achieved mainly by thinking about my shot before shooting it. Allowing me to get an idea of what I wanted from the photo before actually closing the shutter.
By doing so I feel i achieved some wonderful photos as seen below.

Here are just 6 of the photos I ended up capturing. I would say these are my favourite pictures from the shot mainly for there composure and keen focus on detail. I really love the close up shot of the cloth over the hand. The composure of the shot works really well against the black model, mainly due to the slightly light cast over the back part of the models hip.
All these photos are straight out of the camera and as such haven't been edited in any way at the present. I plan to go back into them and make the right most edges completely white as the background to give them a more complete feel which I was unable to obtain through photography alone. But alas that is why I love photoshop, It allows me to fix mistakes and blemishes with ease. I really liked the way these shots came out and look forward to doing something photography work such as this.

Graphics Texture Photography

Carrying on from my work with fabrics to make a bunch of textures. Taking all these over to the photography area. I set up a single light and used a white photography table set up to give a clear background. However I wasn't to fussed about the background in these shots as my goal was to get in really close and take some super close up marco shots of these fabric piece.

Above are all 60 shots I ended up taking, if you look closely you'll see the first few shots were over exposed. After a few tweaking in manual I ended up changing the iso and got the right lighting I wanted for these texture shots. This was mainly down to using a preset camera in college and not my own but overall these first shots will still be used somewhere in my work for textures in photoshop. So I've kept them either way.

Possibly my favorite shot as of the amount of depth and detail captured.

The 4 above shots are just some of my favorite ones that I ended up taking from this exercise. I really love the amount of depth that is visible after getting in nice and tight with a macro lens. These will work really well in photoshop for adding some nice textures to different works.  

After ever 3 or 4th shot I ended up changing the position and intensity of the light to try and give different shadows in the shots. I feel this is most seen in my final shot. Having the light coming in from the left making the centre of the pom pom look extra dark. Coupling that with the depth of field with the back pom pom makes this shot really interesting to look at I feel. It'll also work well as a textural piece for something with a lot of focus needed on the right side of the image. 

Overall I found this a very useful exercise and typically I just tend to use free textures or use digitally generated ones for my piece. However having some real shot textures will come in handy I feel.

Photography Project: Colour & Concept/Theme

 From the brief given to me, this project has two parts. The first being colour, which I chose to pick the colour blue, the aim was to work fast with a camera to get my photos. For colour it was important to focus more on the colour then it was the object which the colour came from. I had multiple ways of doing this which I experimented with. Such as close ups, details of larger pieces, leaving things in or out of focus. Below are just 6 out of the many photos in which I ended up taking for the first part of this brief.

 I tried many different forms of focus, ranging from completely out of focus, blurring the while image. Slightly in focus and perfectly in focus. Just to get a wide range of images as shown above.

The second part of the brief was to focus on a concept or theme, for that i chose 'Birds eye view' As capturing things from a height that they typically aren't seen from seemed to quickly draw my attention.

Photoshop: Clone Tool

Following on from my 3D Object light photography the next step was to use photoshop to improve these photos and one such thing to improve my photos was to clean up the backgrounds as they weren't completely clean. They had smudges and crease marks and one of the best tools in photoshop to remove them is the 'Clone Stamp Tool'.
Even though I consider myself pretty adapt and know my way around photoshop I had never used this tool before. Typically when I wanted to remove blemishes I'd use the dropper tool and paint in and around the marks I wanted to remove till I'd looked right. However the Clone tool at least to me felt a lot faster and easier to use.

Above is just a quick side by side view of how i was working. Having the original up next to what i was editing help me get a good view on what I was working with.

Above is my original photos blemishes and all zero editing so far.

The final edited photo is now above. After a lot of zooming in and out in and out, I finally got the
picture to stage that I thought was complete. As you can see by comparing the original photo and this edit version, the background is much more clear. After that I gave the whole piece a little touch up with the brightness and contrast and then played around with the showers and It was done. I really like this tool as what would have taken me easier twice the time with the dropper tool the clone tool
has accomplished super fast and is something I will be using from now on.

Now the clone tool is very good for cleaning up photos but I wanted to experiment with it on a larger scale. So i increased my clone copy size to 2500+ and went to work manipulating and creating a very abstract sort of piece from my completed photo. I wasn't really aiming to create anything in particular but I ended up with what would could almost be worked into to create a cityscape.

3D Object Light Photography

Having created a 3D letter at home, in graphics we experimented with lighting effects and how they're cast on objects. My 3D piece as seen below and in my previous piece is of a letter 'H' as I wanted to relate it back to my previous work around the phrase 'Honesty is the Best Policy'. Because of that I made my letter in such a way that it was rough and loose to give the impression of a hidden meaning such as the same with my phrase. As not all things are true and lies are everywhere.

With this I used two different set ups both with 1 lamp each on full brightness. One with a white background the other with a black. The goal was to take up to 20 shots or more of different angles, shadows and focal points.

First here are two shots both with something wrong about them, the first is overexposed and the second a miss focus on my point. All shots were taken under manual focus and settings. The main problem I had was the yellow tint on the bulb and going back I would sort out my white balance after every other shot.

One of the main problems shooting in manual is without a doubt reading the situation wrong and getting an over or under exposed photo or rushing the shot and miss placing the focal point.

All 3 of these shots have zero editing on them for now and i will later do an edit to clean up the backdrop and such but first lets me explain why out of all 20+ shots these are the 3 I feel have the best composition for what i was aiming for.
First up with this angle i made the main focus on the back part of the letter to allow the depth of field to blur out the front portion and allow the shadow to really take form. I really enjoy this photo as its really captures the shape of the shadow and the object.

Next up in this almost central shot, This is a great shot in my eyes as as of the placement of the letter on the backdrop [very near the back] you can see the way the shadow bends its way around and up the white sheet and I really like the way its almost creeping out form behind the letter. The only problem with this shot is the white balance is a little off but i feel even despite that it really works well.

My 3rd favourite shot is this poorly framed but elegantly focused shot. A little off with the framing but can easily crop out the white wall in photoshop. What really shines in this photo is the focus of the letter and how faintly the shadows lay on the letter and escape from underneath it because of the black backdrop. 

I really enjoy photography and consider myself a keen hobbyist and love experimenting with new ideas and concepts such as lamp lights in these shot and playing around with shadows. I really look forward to advancing this shadow play with a live model sometime soon. 

Creative Typography [Final A-Z Pieces]

Following on from my previous creative typography post, After a lot of editing and correcting a few minor images i wanted to tweak i have complied all A-Z images. This includes my original photos, my threshold [black & white] edits and my 'Cutout / Stencil styled' edits.

Original Photos - A - Z [No edit - Straight out of camera]

Threshold Edits - A - Z

Cutout Filter / Stencil Styled Edit - A - Z

I really enjoyed the whole process of manipulations my originals photos to get to a point of having my own alphabet in photoshop. The threshold edits were nice to do but overall i feel they don't have the same sort of impact as the cutout filter edits. I think this may be because i prefer the way you can change the colour to very vibrant and eye catching colours where as the threshold just gives a very flat feeling to the photos.
What I enjoy most about the Cutout edits, is the way the original letter shapes are completely warped and simplified. Making some letters such as C, E, L lose all form and give the use of the alphabet to create a word or phrase a really interesting aspect, which is something that will be explored at a later date using cliches phrases and sayings.

Creative Typography - Part One

I really enjoy working on computers i like the amount of freedom programs such as photoshop give you to be creative through a multitude of different means. In my graphics class we are creating creative typography via experimenting with a variety of graphics and photographic techniques to produce a series of creative typography images, firstly consisting of individual letter forms and/or words based loosely around cliches.
So first things first after a brief introduction i was set loose in the college to collect images of A-Z letters forms within the environment.

[Above 4 shots of Letters C, T, P & O] - Next week we're compiling all letters a-z onto a single layer in photoshop and all the images will be shown in that post [Link Coming here soon]

At first i found this rather difficult as i just kept seeing actual letters on signs and the walls around college buts once i let my mind free a little bit i found it easier to spot letters being formed in everyday objects whether that being an 'A' as a bike rake, an 'O' in a light or even as seen above a 'P' formed from the hose on a fire extinguisher. I really enjoy having the freedom taking my own photos gives and coupling that with photoshops the possibilities to creative great works is endless.
My favourite photo i took was without a doubt the 'O' and without any editing i feel the photo in its self has some really strong composition. [All photos shown about are straight out of the camera no editing]

The next step was to import these photos into photoshop and start manipulating with different filters, colour effects, blurs etc. One of the main points we aimed for was that the images didn't have to keep there original letter forms in turn creating something completely new, even a new language if you will.
Below are the Manipulations for my letter 'C' and 'O'

 Filter: Glowing Edges then hue change.

Threshold Change.

Filter: Cutout and a purple hue shift.

 Filter: Dry Brush and an Aqua hue shift.

 Threshold Change.

Filter: Cutout - Aqua hue shift.

After A LOT of changing my mind with different filters and trying to find one i liked i created an array of different letter forms from my originals photos. With each letter i made 3 different types of creations the first being a threshold change so i had a black and white A-Z with varying types of legibility. The 2nd was to apply a cutout filter to each letter and create a very abstract sort of piece giving each an unique colour and finally the third was very much just a filter i felt looked good on the photo and i added different colours to each to try and give them a very neon feel.
With 'O' being my favourite photo i had taken i didn't really want to edit the photo at all in 3 different types and just to leave it on its own as i feel the photo is very strong as it was. But once i added a cutout filter to it i was very much surprised at how much i loved how simplistic the new 'O' shape was while staying true to the original photo but being ever so interesting. I feel i have very strong photography skills but something about taking a real life object such as a ceiling light and turning it into a very abstract piece without really meaning to have it turn out as such made me very excited to carry on developing ideas in photoshop.

Part Two - Click to see final A - Z pieces and original photos.