ND Creative Media Production Yr2 S2 Gregory Doherty Unit 55: Photography & Photographic PracticesFor Unit 55: Photography &Photographic Practices, I will demonstrate the following outcomes;

1. Understand different applications of photography

2. Be able to use photographic equipment and employ photographic techniques

3. Be able to plan and produce photographic images for a specified purpose

4. Be able to reflect upon photographic work

As practical evidence of my work I have produced photographs for a calendar and film poster and discussed photographic techniques used to create them.

P1 – Task 1

Describe different applications of photography and different context you may find them.

Advertising Advertising photography is creating images with the purpose of selling for a product. In the advertising industry there is always a need for lots of photographs which can be supplied by an individual, a small studio, even a multinational organisation. Some studios prefer to specialise in a particular field, for example shooting images for an auto magazine, food for cookery books.

The context this would be used for is TV/magazines/books etc.

PromotionalPromotional photography may be used to build profile for a certain thing e.g. a band. It would most likely appear in magazines or web pages etc.

FashionFashion photography is used to promote and sell clothing and cosmetic items often seen in magazines and shops. The images are mainly taken in studios. This style of photography would appear in magazines and other promotional campaigns in order to sell an item.

PhotojournalismPhotojournalism is the study or real situations through photography to show a realistic view on current affairs. This can be anything from war photography, sport photography or paparazzi. This type of photography could be found in galleries in a museum or in newspapers.

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ND Creative Media Production Yr2 S2 Gregory Doherty Unit 55: Photography & Photographic PracticesPortraiture A close up photograph usually of just the head and shoulders of a subject. This type of photography can you used in magazines and also for individual clients, who want a close up shot of their face to add to their portfolio for modelling.

High street studio work High street studio photography can be anything from wedding photography to portraiture. This style of photography would normally appear in households. People can book a photography session to take these type of images.

ArchitecturalArchitectural photography is taking photographs of buildings and structures. This would be used by designers, people who are promoting a building. The image could be shown to promote the design of the building.

Medical Medical Photography is a specialized area of photography that concerns itself with the documentation of the clinical presentation of patients, medical and surgical procedures.

IllustrationIllustration photography is a depiction of a subject made by an artist, such as a drawing, sketch, painting, photograph, or other kind of image of things seen, remembered or imagined.

Fine art photographyFine art photography is an extremely wide genre which often specialises in expressing the artist’s emotion. This style of photography could be found in magazines and exhibitions. They will be on sale and on display.

DocumentaryDocumentary photography is often used to show long term projects with multi-strand narratives. This type of photography can be found on online websites and in informative magazines.

P2 – Task2

Digital Cameras

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ND Creative Media Production Yr2 S2 Gregory Doherty Unit 55: Photography & Photographic PracticesCompact Cameras Point and Shoot Cameras Advanced Digital Cameras

Digital SLR Cameras

Lenses

Wide-Angle Long Telephoto

Macro

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Is a small, simple 35 mm camera with automatic focusing and exposure.

The camera’s focus, flash and all settings are automatically set by the camera enabling users to simply point the camera at the subject and press the shutter button.

This Camera has different features which include underwater photography, advance camera modes and studio lighting options.

Is a digital camera combining the optics and the mechanisms of a single-lens reflex camera with a digital imaging sensor, as opposed to photographic film.

Is a lens whose focal length is substantially smaller than the focal length of a normal lens for a given film plane.

Is a lens with a long focal length, used as a camera attachment for taking photographs from a great distance.

Is a lens with a big zoom. It is like a telescope.

Is used for extreme close ups, for close ups of an insect etc.

ND Creative Media Production Yr2 S2 Gregory Doherty Unit 55: Photography & Photographic PracticesMemory Cards

Compact Flash memory cards Multimedia Cards Memory Stick

Smart Media Memory Cards SD Memory Card

Lighting

Artificial lights (flash, studio lights, diffusers)

Digital Imaging

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CompactFlash is a flash memory mass storage device used mainly in portable electronic devices and was the first flash memory card.

The MultiMediaCard (MMC) is a memory card standard used for solid-state storage

Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, launched by Sony in October 1998. Also known as USB Stick.

SmartMedia is a flash memory card standard owned by Toshiba, with capacities ranging from 2 MB to 128 MB. SmartMedia memory cards are no longer manufactured.

An SD Card (Secure Digital Card) is an ultra small flash memory card designed to provide high-capacity memory in a small size.

Studio artificial lights offer us the control of illumination as well as subject as well as the camera and exposure settings.

Digital photography is a form of photography that uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors to capture images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The captured images are digitized and stored as a computer file ready for further digital processing, viewing, digital publishing or printing.

ND Creative Media Production Yr2 S2 Gregory Doherty Unit 55: Photography & Photographic PracticesP2 –Task 2a

Film Photography.

Film Types: - Slide (also known as reversal or transparency film) which is basically Colour film and meter. - Print (negative film), which is Black and white, so before you take the picture you would need to decide “does this camera have a coloured filter” etc.Film Speed: - is basically in modern terms ISO. The speed of how long it takes to burn on it. It describes a film's threshold sensitivity to light.Test Strips: - are the strips you use to test how long you should put your photos in the chemical to process your photo. You need to work out the correct amount of chemical and time to create your photo. For example you would test how the strip longs after I sec in the solution, then have a strip in for 2 secs and for 3 secs and then compare the results to work out how long it needs to get the best result. You would have to test before doing each photo as the results could change each time. Dodging and burning : - Paints onto more or less the image exposed to page, So for example if you want more brightness on page you would use the “spray can like” gadget and mask around edge and then spray on to it to lighten to give brightness to the one part of image that you have selected. And burning is the opposite of dodging using the same methods.

Immersion time and TemperatureWhen you have got your image all don it is still very sensitive to light so you need to wash any excess chemical and put in bath of fixer solution. It was so carcinogenic, potent and toxic that you would be able to smell the chemicals in your hair for days after. It is also very time consuming and you might lose 20 pics out of 30. Every time you do the process is different, that’s why you need the test strips to work out how long you should keep your image in the solution, if you didn’t use the test strip you would probably mess up most of your images as they might need more or less time in the solution.

To conclude film photography is basically an Artform, it would more than likely have to be done by a professional as it could be very temperamental. Nowadays people would take a picture on a digital camera and then imported it into Photoshop or some other photo editing software and then apply brightness etc. Photoshop is based on this film photography process.

P2 – Task 3

Camera Techniques:

Aperture:

The aperture is the size of the lens opening. It controls the amount of light that is let into the camera: a larger aperture lets in more light, while a smaller aperture lets in less light. The f/number that is used to represent aperture on a camera, is a ratio of focal length to aperture diameter.

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ND Creative Media Production Yr2 S2 Gregory Doherty Unit 55: Photography & Photographic PracticesThe smaller the f/number, the larger the opening for example see image below of the smaller f/numbers f/1.8 and f/2.0. a larger aperture (lower f/number) will have your subject in focus, and everything in front of and behind it blurry.

And an example of the larger the f/number the smaller the opening of the lens f/16 and f/22. A smaller aperture will have your subject in focus and everything in front of and behind it quite focused as well.

Shutter speed:

Shutter speed is basically how long the sensor/film in the camera is exposed to light. How long the shutter stays open depends on how much light there is. For pictures with the same aperture setting, if the shutter is open too long, the picture will be too bright, and if it's not open long enough, the scene will be too dark. Therefore, you control the overall exposure (lightness and darkness) of the scene with both the aperture and shutter speed control.

Focus:

Focus is basically the sharpness of an image. It is basically what you want to be in focus and blurry, or the main point of your image.

ISO film speed:

ISO stands for International Standards Organization, but it is actually just the sensitivity of the film or digital sensor to light. A higher number means that the film or sensor is more sensitive to light, and each time the number doubles, it is twice as sensitive as the previous ISO sensitivity. Back in the days of film, you had to change to a different roll of film if you wanted to change the ISO, but digital cameras allow you to just press a button to change your ISO.

ISO is the sensitivity of the film or sensor to light. A higher number means higher sensitivity to light.

White balance:

White balance is the process of removing unrealistic colour casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. when photographing with daylight film indoors under incandescent light. The resulting image has a reddish-orange tint. This effect is due to the difference in the colour temperature between daylight and incandescent light. So you would need to adjust the white balance on your camera in that scenario.

P2 –Task 46

ND Creative Media Production Yr2 S2 Gregory Doherty Unit 55: Photography & Photographic PracticesThere are many ways to achieve digital manipulation such as computer, software, scanner, image capture, image storage, image retrieval and printing. Digital manipulation allows you to take a basic photograph and enhance it using the methods in the items mentioned above. For example an advertiser may want to take a picture of a model and show that model in various locations around the world. By using digital manipulation a range of photographs of a model can be taken in a studio and merged with photos of iconic images from around the world such as the Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, Statue of Liberty and The Great Wall of China etc.. By doing this sort of manipulation the cost of the shoot can be greatly reduced.

Another clever use of digital manipulation is by use of computer software to distort an image which is useful if the final image needs to have a surreal feel about it. For example these images were digitally manipulated using the software - photo booth on an iPad mini.

An example of how I used digital manipulation for my calendar is; I took several photos on a number of different beach locations. I then imported on to my home Mac OSX computer. I then saved the images to my harddrive and assignments folder keeping original copies, leaving a secondary image to manipulate in Photoshop. Then using Photoshop CS3 Software program, I zoomed in on the parts of the images that I liked and then cropped the images and saved them using a file name for retrieval. I also added different colour effects and when I was happy with an image that depicted each month, I organised the images in order and when I was happy with the calendar layout of the dates and images I did a test print at home on matt and glossy paper to see how it would look. It is now stored on my hard drive for any additional prints as required.

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ND Creative Media Production Yr2 S2 Gregory Doherty Unit 55: Photography & Photographic PracticesP2 – Task 4 (Continued)

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ND Creative Media Production Yr2 S2 Gregory Doherty Unit 55: Photography & Photographic PracticesP3 – Task 5

For my planning and research of this assignment I firstly considered doing a calendar of pets, having looked at old family photographs for inspiration I came across photographs showing our collie dog Zelda dressed in various outfits, which made me inspired to produce a calendar depicting dressed up pets.

However on further reflection I considered their marketability of such a calendar. By sticking to one breed of dog I could possibly alienate potential customers who favour other breeds of dogs. For me to undertake this exercise using a different

breed of dog for each month was not practical in the time allocated for this assignment.

I was still inspired to have a calendar featuring animals but once I took pictures of a donkey in the snow. I realised I was going down the same avenue of alienating cow and horse lovers etc..

Whilst out and about on the donkey shoot I was struck by the details and the beauty of the waves hitting the beach, the sand beside the water and the rocks and pebbles with little rock pools etc. on the beaches. And because of this I then decided to focus the theme of my calendar on Sea, Sand and Snow

P4 – Task 6

The purpose of my calendar is Promotional. It promotes the different beautiful beaches in the Inishowen area, and the different areas throughout Inishowen.

Reflection of work.To produce the photographs for my calendar I used a number of photographic equipment including my;

Canon 550D 50 Mil Lens F1.8 55-250 Mil Lens F5.4 18-55 Mil Lens F5.4 Colour Gradient filters ND Filters Grading 1-5 Shutter Release Remote Tripod Fuji film 32 GB SD Cards

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ND Creative Media Production Yr2 S2 Gregory Doherty Unit 55: Photography & Photographic PracticesI also used basic equipment to keep me protected from the elements and to get to and from the destinations, such as a;

Hat Coat Gloves Scarf Skoda Octavia

And to edit and fix photographs taken, I used;

Mac Adobe Light Room Photoshop Colour Printer.

On Reflection I am very pleased with the outcome of my calendar it gave me the opportunity to use various skills such as photography editing etc. whilst at the same time getting out and about to different locations. Whilst I am pleased with the look of the calendar, I did ask for feedback from friends and family and whilst in the main the feedback was positive some did comment that as a personal preference they prefer the calendar date part to be separate from the calendar picture. Reason being that they like to be able to make notes on the calendar, which are easier to view when they are separate. I personally prefer the format I chose which allows for a larger image.

Film Poster

I researched a number of different film posters including “Lucy”, “The Girl and the Dragon” and another that I liked was LA Confidential. But for this the Film poster I decided to recreate was the movie “Eat Pray Love”. I thought it had a good layout with the girl in the front in focus with an ice-cream spoon looking to the top right and then having a building in the background out of focus, showing that she is the main focus of the poster/film.

This poster would be used as a promotional one, to promote the Film “Eat, Pray Love”. It could be used in Magazines or DVD covers etc.

To Create the Poster for “Eat Pray Love” I used;

My Canon 550 D Digital Camera with a 50 Mil lens hardware and 1.8 F stop, to have a shallow depth of field. This created the image showing the girl in the main focus at the very front of the image, Then having the background building blurry in the background.

I went out on a recce to different locations to check the suitability of buildings to create the poster. I decided on the Guildhall Square as it looked most like the original image.

I decided to do all the editing in camera to create the image. I got the girl to wear close to what the actress wore in the original poster. And I tried to get all the props looking as close to the original as possible.

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ND Creative Media Production Yr2 S2 Gregory Doherty Unit 55: Photography & Photographic PracticesFinally I used Photoshop CS3 to create the lettering and writing for the final poster.

Reflection

I feel my poster turned out very close to the original. I think the background building of The Guildhall in Derry looks very close to the original and that the actress I got looked very close to the original actress etc. I feel the colours are very good and I enjoyed recreating this poster.

I feel I have gained knowledge of Photography and photographic practices by doing these two assignments on my Calendar and Film poster, with the help of my Teachers.

I now know the difference between the different applications of photography, I know the techniques and equipment used in photography and am able to plan, produce and reflect on a specific purpose.

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