The brief has given me chance to explore and experiment with my specialized subject ‘lighting’. At first I wasn’t sure which angle I want to go into, previously in projects I have based my images on portraits or surreal images and heavily editing them because m lighting skills were still building.
Through this project I have experimented a lot with different styles of photography using my lighting kit, wither it is from extreme fast shutter speeds to slow shutter speeds or portraiture to still life. I like to learn new skills or even creating new skills that I can share with other people.
My future plans are to own my business specializing in product advertising and portraiture, so I wanted my work to be based around these two areas (mainly food advertising because I haven’t really explored food photography before and I’d like to practice and learn new traits involved in this style of ). I started by researching current photographers and I tried to visual learn how they took the shots using my knowledge of photography. After getting inspiration and creative I just decided to do photography using ‘water splash’ with some kind of food or product or even a waterproof product. My main aim was to capture a split section of time that showed the beauty of real life and how time would look so much better if we could slow these times down willingly.
At the start of the module Adam, Philip and myself all wanted to practice product lighting and the result to the images are positive, good lighting, strong focus on the product and creative angles. The downfall to this is that I felt I was doing all the work and wanted a totally different vision to be produced to the other members in the group, from this I learnt that it would be easier to work by myself and come together at the end as a group because are interests are different and we all are equal photographers so we didn’t have authority over anyone else (this is were a paid assistant would undertake my demands). Also I feel more comfortable working by myself because then I know were every thing is on the shoot and I learn all the aspects to taking the shot.
With the equipment and knowledge I have of this style of photography I believe my images have work really well, I have generated something to the best of my abilities. I have explored different objects in the water ranging from eggs to oranges and captured a moment in time that shows the beauty of water in a motionless state. This was definitely a new style of shoot to me and I would like to carry on with this in ‘test’ shoot in my own time.
I wanted to keep advances on my portraiture capabilities since I was learning more and more on the value of light and how it can be used to create totally different images when used correctly. As I have said I didn’t want to use these images because firstly I was so impressed by the water shots I didn’t want to use the portraits as I have done before. I believe my skills are improving every time I do a shoot wither it is leaning a new fact, tip or learning how to put a new or different piece of equipment up – I gained a lot from jut experimenting with new lighting styles.
If I had to chose a final product out of the three it would be the image with the three oranges submerged in the water purely because It is simple, attractive, eye catching and has a calm relaxed feeling to it, which I would like to portray to my clients – for example that I have talent in photography but I also know how to generate feeling and emotion behind a shot.
I had no real problems in this brief except space to set up my equipment but I had so many opportunities that this problem never arose. I have enjoyed the independence that came with this project and thrived when working by myself.
For fashion photography and advertising photography, Barry McCall is in a class of his own. His fashion photos from the top magazines, advertising features, and editorial photo shoots capture the mood and style of today's fashion designers.
