Location risk assessment:

>Room hasn’t got anything dangerous in it which could be effected by water

>Put towels on the floor so there is no danger of slipping over

>No spraying in the room whilst the doors and windows are shut so the air is safe

>Make sure the water isn’t too hot for people the model getting into the shower

>Make sure the model is wearing grippy shoes in the shower so that they don’t slip over

>Keep camera out of damp room as much as possible so not to ruin it

>If using lighting that needs plugging in do not plug it in in the bathroom

>Make sure there aren’t cables near water or anywhere that could get splashed

>Don’t keep people in the foggy room too long as it’s not healthy to breath for too long

>Walk slowly around the room so not to knock anyone/anything over

Studio risk assessment:

>Plug the lighting into the generator by putting the head into the socket tip first and then the back (like a dolphin) this is to prevent the plastic tip snapping off

>Take the light off the stand to remove covers or heads

>Always put a cover over the lights when done with them so that the bulbs can’t be smashed

>Hang up any unneeded equipent so it’s not all over the floor

>Use the fan while in the room so that it doesn’t get too hot and start a fire

>Let the light covers cool down before removing it as it’s made of metal and will burn

>Try and keep wires limited so you don’t trip over them

>Don’t take food and drink in their as it might get onto the equipment and break it

>Don’t touch the bulbs with your fingers as the mousture off them will break it

>Put the legs out as far as possible on the tripods so that the lights are stable and won’t fall over

>Tape the paper down on the floor so that you don’t trip over it

>Pull the tape off from paper to floor so that it doesn’t rip it

>Get people to help change anything on the crane lighting as it has a weight on it and this could make it dangerous to people near by

>Always discharge the lighting before using it – make the lighting go off once before you actually use it so that it is working properly

>Don’t have too many poeple in the room as there isn’t enough space

>Don’t sit on the products shooting table as it is like glass and will break with too much weight

>If you put the camera on the side be careful that the cable from it to the generator doesn’t get bodged as this will cause your camera to fall on the floor and possibly break

>When using the teddy bear stuffing keep it away from over head lighting as it could set on fire

>Don’t let anything hanging touch the lighting or knock anything over

>Make sure everyone in the room is being sensible

 

Final photos in the studio

After changing my ideas and testing what I wanted my final pieces to look like I took my final photos. Here are the ones I took in the light studio but ended up changing to the dark studio so that I could get a stormy look and be able to control the lighting in the photos.

I firstly started by making thunder storms on A3 pieces of card and then cutting them out and connecting them to string. I then once they were connected to the string put them onto a bamboo stick using tape and made sure they were all spaced out and at different heights. I then connected the bamboo stick to a camera pole that was in the studio using tape and positioned it over the set where I was taking my photos. Then to create a cloud I bought 5 bags of teddy bear stuffing and spread out on the studio floor under the clouds that were hanging. I then used yellow face paint to paint my model so that it looked like he’d been shaded.

Here are some photos of me setting the studio up:

I got him to wear fashionable clothing and to look like something that someone would inspire to be like. I wanted the feeling of the photo to be as if it was taken in the clouds and that my model is asleep up there and meanwhile there is a thunderstorm happening above. This is why he has yellow on his body so that it looks like the yellow from the lightning has caused reflections of yellow onto his skin.

Here are the four photos I chose and edited:

I feel the top two photos are my strongest out of the four I have taken for my final piece as they are from a flattering side angel. I also like the placement of the clouds over him as they bring your eyes down but don’t take full concentration away from the model. I do like the bottom two as well though as they show a different perspective of the cloud world I created and could tell a different story to views. I like the clouds in the last photo as they are placed differently compared to the other photos which shows that I’m experimenting and not just sticking to the same plan. I took them all in portrait as a magazine would need them to fit on the front cover. I feel that they worked really well and when I went out and tested it by talking to people within the age specification about what they thought about the photos, I got positive feedback.

Here are some of the things people said about these photos:
“the cloud images are very imaginative and you have shot them very effectively”

“I like the clouds as it’s a unique idea especially with the face paint”

“The cloud ones are cool and well thought out – tells a story behind the images”

“I like the fluffy cloud photos, incredibly unique”

Improving my Final ideas

After trying my first ideas out and thinking about if it would work for the front cover of a magazine, I came up with improved ideas and ones that I felt could be front page quality.

1)

For my first idea I wanted to create a photo in a studio with someone lying down and have them surrounded by things. Well that idea has changed quiet a bit but the basics are the same. Instead of patterns and the person being on a silk blanket, they’d be lying on a cloud of teddy bear stuffing and have massive drawings of thunder storms hanging over them from the ceiling. The person would be wearing fashionable clothing and would probably be a boy so that it could interest girls and boys. I want to make it like a drawing so that’s why the storm clouds are drawings. Also the boy would be shaded with yellow to match the lightning colour and give it the drawing feel. Here is a drawing to show my idea:

This is a rough sketch of my idea and I will be shooting the actual Final piece of it soon. I really think this would make a perfect and new idea for a front cover of a magazine. It would easily make people pick it up and it could make people want to feel as awesome as the photo.

 

2)

For my second idea it hasn’t changed much from last time but now I’ve changed it to being in a shower or somewhere weird. This would be my location portrait and I would use a girl to make it something both a girl and boy would be interested in. I would want the person to wear clothes and makeup to still show the fashion side of it and so it’s really weird. Here is the photo I took:

I took this without lighting or setting up properly as I just wanted to see if it would look how I expected and that you could still see the face enough. The only thing that I don’t think worked is that there’s no proper lighting making the photo very dark and grungy. When I take my actually final piece for this I think I’ll use bright lights and do noticeable makeup with a fashionable outfit.

Skin Smoothing and editing – photoshop

In this lesson we were taught how to use the studio and then we got to take photos of each other and then used them in photoshop. We were taught how to smooth the skin and apply makeup with the paint brush.

 Do this by:

 Get image of a persons face and shoulders

Make new layer

Make new blank layer

Zoom in to blemishes

Use spot healing brush

Press alt and select the area you want to use to correct the blemish

Use skin that is close to the area but not too close that it doesn’t help

Get rid of any spots or marks you don’t want

Don’t go to fast as the long you take the better it’ll be

Select the background layer with the new layer and press cmd E to merge them

Make a copy of that new combined layer

Name it softening

Set this layer to soft light – this will look orange

Invert the layers with cmd I – this will look grey and hardly there

Right click on the layer – convert the layer to smart object

Filter, blur, Gaussian blur

This will sharpen the image

Change the pixels to 25 so that the freckles can be seen

Filter, other, high pass

This will make it look normal again

Click on the softening layer

Creat a layer mask

It’s all in white

Invert the colours so it’s black (cmd I)

Go to the brush

Paint the face with white on the whole face but not the main focuses eg.eyes, nostrils, lips

Change the opacity if you need to

Studio health and safety

Plug the lighting into the generator by putting the head into the socket tip first and then the back (like a dolphin) this is to prevent the plastic tip snapping off

Take the light off the stand to remove covers or heads

Always put a cover over the lights when done with them so that the bulbs can’t be smashed

Hang up any unneeded equipent so it’s not all over the floor

Use the fan while in the room so that it doesn’t get too hot and start a fire

Let the light covers cool down before removing it as it’s made of metal and will burn

Try and keep wires limited so you don’t trip over them

Don’t take food and drink in their as it might get onto the equipment and break it

Don’t touch the bulbs with your fingers as the mousture off them will break it

Put the legs out as far as possible on the tripods so that the lights are stable and won’t fall over

Tape the paper down on the floor so that you don’t trip over it

Pull the tape off from paper to floor so that it doesn’t rip it

Get people to help change anything on the crane lighting as it has a weight on it and this could make it dangerous to people near by

Always discharge the lighting before using it – make the lighting go off once before you actually use it so that it is working properly

Don’t have too many poeple in the room as there isn’t enough space

Don’t sit on the products shooting table as it is like glass and will break with too much weight

If you put the camera on the side be careful that the cable from it to the generator doesn’t get bodged as this will cause your camera to fall on the floor and possibly break