Studio - Coloured glass bottle

I have photographed a coloured glass bottle under different lighting set-ups in the studio.
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The following are lit by:
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Honeycomb on right side and slightly above subject

This gave a rich colour to the glass and good highlights but had stong shadows and reflection of the light in the bottle.
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Softbox (masked) on right side and slightly above subject

Bright glass and soft shadow but weak detail and very harsh highlights and reflections.
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2 Soft boxes (masked), one on each side and both slightly above subject

No shadow, good highlights. I like this.
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Beauty dish on right side and slightly above subject

Soft shadow, well lit glass and nice highlights but harsh reflection of the light.
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Umbrella on right side and slightly above subject

Good detail and soft shadow with highlights. Some harsh highlights on the bottle though.

This image shows 'drop focus technique'.

'Drop focus technique' - when a very small slither of an image is acceptably sharp and the rest is thrown out of focus.

Demonstrating importing, organising, naming files and adding captions to files in Lightroom.

This is a screen grab demonstrating files being:

imported into Lightroom

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Organised - To do this I have added a red filter to 5 of my photographs so that I can easily find them in future.


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Naming - I have renamed my image in the metadata menu in Lightroom. This will make it easier to find when needed


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Adding a caption - I have done this to remind myself to use the image as a macro shot for my assignment.

Shallow depth of field, cool, grey balanced and warm versions.

This is a photograph that employs a 'shallow depth of field'

Depth of field is a section of an image that is acceptably sharp, the rest of the image will be at different ranges of focus (from slightly blurred to very blurred).

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Depth of field is affected by camera type, lens, aperture and distance between the camera and the subject.

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'Shallow' depth of field is a very small area of acceptable sharpness within an image. Using a wide aperture gives a shallow depth of field.

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For this photo I used a 'close up +4' filter on a CAnon 18-55mm lens @ 18mm. I shot at f3.5 and 1/80 sec, using a flashgun to light my shot.

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This is an example of how depth of field works.

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Using the white balance slider in Lightroom I then made a:

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Cool version

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Grey balanced version

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and a Warm version
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One Word Task - Treasure

For our for fortnightly task we were asked to take a picture with the theme 'Treasure'.

All of my photographs were taken in a tungsten lit room with a flashgun with a diffusion plate on.

The first 3 pictures of my jewelry box were my first idea. I wanted to show the jewelry box as the modern day treasure chest.

I added an antique light preset to this image in Lightroom.

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I took this shot with a Macro lens.

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I changed my mind and then decided to go with the obvious and dress my son up as a pirate and take a picture of him with treasure.

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For the treasure I emptied my jewelry boxes, added all of my costume jewelry, some pirate themed toys that I found and some chocolate coins that we had under the christmas tree.

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I added a vignette and added a black and white preset in Lightroom.

I added a sepia preset to this one.

This is the image that I chose to submit. I added an 'Aged Photo' preset and a vignette to draw the eye in to the image and to the focus point.

Group Task - 'From Capture to Print'

For this task we were asked to get in to groups of 3 people. We then had to use the skills and knowledge that we have gathered from our lectures and workshops and were asked to think about the light, exposure, and the process and treatment of the subjects that we photographed.

We were to start at 10am and finish by 4pm.

Our task was to produce a photograph influenced by one of the following film titles:

• Breakfast at Tiffany's
• The Fountain
• Into the wild
• Dead Man's Shoes
• Dog Day Afternoon
• A Clockwork Orange
• Sunset Boulevard
• Three Colours Red
• Rear Window

We first researched each film by, watching trailers, looking at posters and finding film covers.

After doing this and talking about what ideas we had, we finally decided to do 'Dead Man's Shoes' and found the film still below and chose to try and recreate this.

To recreate this shot we first tried to find a toy axe but after a long time of searching with no success we settled with a meat cleaver.
Luckily, one of the people in my group was already wearing a jacket very similar to the one in the shot, so he was chosen to be the model.
The thing we struggled with was the sky and the sun shining through his arm.
In the film still the sky is light blue with thin, wispy clouds but when we were shooting our photo the sky was very grey and overcast so we later brightened it up in Adobe Photoshop. The problem we had with sun was that it was too high in the sky to be able to position our model for it to be shining under his arm so we also had to add this as a lens flare in Photoshop.
To try to get the angle of the model the same I knelt down and shot the photo from a low angle.
I underexposed the photo to create the almost silhouetted figure against the sky.

This was our final image:


f5.6 - 1/50 sec - ISO 400 - WB-Daylight

The photo was taken on a Canon 400D with a 18-55mm lens set to 35mm and was taken on RAW file format.

Adobe Photoshop - Working with layers and layer adjustments

For this task we were asked to use an image imported from Lightroom and to apply several of the principles, that we had learned, of using layers and layer adjustments to the image.

I used the image from the previous task and used different layers, selection tools and layer adjustments to colour each of the windows different colours and patterns.

This is my finished image:

Individual task - Digital asset management

For this task we had to:

1. Set our camera to the following settings:

• Manual focus
• Manual exposure
• ISO 400
• RAW file format

2. Take a photograph of an object lit by one of the following light sources:

• Window
• Strobe
• Fluorescent

3. Import the files, from our DSLR or memory card, into Adobe Lightroom using the following guidelines:

• Create or use a catalogue that is saved on the local hardrive
• Import the file in to the catalogue (create new versions)
• Give each of the imported pictures, using the import dialogue box options, a custiom name

These are the short listed photos that I chose:

I chose this image as my '5 star' image to add a preset to:

This image was lit by Fluorescent light.

4. Organise the pictures and add relevant metadata to each file:

• Using the metadata sidebar, type your name as the vreator for each file
• Rate your pictures using the star method (***** for the best)

Type your name in the creator box and sync this metadata to the rest of the files.

5. Add a preset to your chosen '5 star' photograph:

• Using the 'Develop' module, chose a Lightroom or custom-made preset appropriate to your photograph
• Check the photograph for both colour accuracy and tonal detail (both highlights and shadows) and adjust where appropriate

This is my photo after I increased the exposure slighty, increased the blacks slightly and added a 'high contrast black and white' preset:

This is a screen shot of me checking the colour accuracy and tonal detail:

6. Export the photograph into Adobe Photoshop:

Using the export command on Lightroom, export your photograph using the following guidelines:

• Create a folder for the file to be exported to
• Set the file type to JPG level 100
• Give the file a new, custom name
• Chose to open the file, straight after export, into Adobe Photoshop

This is a screen shot of me exporting my image

Systems and Processes - Lesson 5 - Macro

This week we learned about Macro photography.

Macro means that the subject is on the camera sensor at the same size that it really is, a 1:1 scale.

We took these pictures using a Macro lens and 2 tungsten lamps with flash to light the shot. One lamp on either side of the subject on a product table in the studio.



This happened due to the flash sync.
The flash of light from a flash unit is extremely short (a few milliseconds), and has to happen when the shutter is fully open. If the flash happens when the shutter is still opening or closing then the shutter itself can block the light and stopping the entire image area from being fully exposed.











Shooting accross the subject, when using a macro lens, depth of field is extremely shallow. There is literally a couple of millimeters that are in focus.

To get a more focused photo, shooting from above can help. This is shown in the picture below.

'One word task' 2 - Knowledge

For our second 'One word task' our word was Knowledge.

For this I decided to take the saying 'A hunger for knowledge' literally and try to put a twist on it.

I decided to take a picture of my son eating pages out of an encyclopedia.

These are the ones that I short listed:

I tried out a few different filters on each picture but eventually decided to go with Sepia.

I used the last photo for the task.

John said the the idea behind the photo was really good but the shot could have been executed better.

Systems and Processes - Lesson 4

For this lesson we learnt about different ways of photographing glass/reflective material.

1.
Soft box on the right side of the subject.

Harsh light but good detail and highlights.

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2.

Top lit.

Still a bit dull but better than the last shot.

Highlights the writing on the lid well.

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3.

Back and bottom lit.

Lost detail on the lid.

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4.

Bottom lit.

Brighter subject but darker background.

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5.

45 degree - top and bottom lit.

Brings back a bit of the detail on the lid and brightens the background a bit.

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6.

Top and bottom lit with white polystyrene board on each side with someone holding a piece of card to shade the lid of the bottle.

No detail on the lid.
Dull picture.

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7.

In front of window.

Bright glass and lid.

Brings out detail on the lid.

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8.

These next pictures are of an aftershave bottle that we chose, and in groups of 3, went to find and photograph our bottle in different lights.

Window light from behind.

Window light from behind and highly reflective steel pole in front.
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9.

Light tent with flash.

Strong highlight, good depth.

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10.

Fluorescent light from above and red light from the left.

Different coloured highlights.

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11.

In a dark room with just red lights.

Lack of depth and highlight. Fully coloured red.

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12.

Fluorescent light from the right.

Flat image, strong shadow a highlights reflected on to the wall behind.

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13.

Bottom and back lit.

Good depth and detail.

Same but taken from above.

Same as previous photo but too dark on top.

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14.

Back and bottom lit, soft box on the right and white polystyrene board on the left to reflect the light.

Added another bottle and took a few from different angles.

This is my favourite shot. I think it looks well lit and has highlights and detail.