Black on Black

In another shoot in the studio me and my friend also tried to shoot some black shoes, we know we can shoot white products on white backgrounds so we wanted to try lighting black products on a black background.

I think the shoot was successful however I do not feel as though they can be used in a product sense because the overall photograph is too dark and many of the details are lost.

I moved the light to behind the shoe in order to create a spotlight effect at the back of the shoe, this had an interesting outcome. I also played with the shadows that were cast from using the snoot up high.

My Outcomes:

Zombie Jelly Babies

So after the workshop I wanted to try out creating my own Jelly Baby advert. This was not a very "technical' successful shoot however I think I was very creative during this shoot.  I played around creating the jelly babies in little scenes and I set up a scene which made it look like the jelly babies were that tasty that they just had to eat themselves and I set them up to look as though they were zombies chasing a "human" jelly baby (I don't know else to describe the difference in the zombie/non zombie jelly babies)

My Outcomes:

Product Workshop

In this workshop I had to work with another group to produce each of the items on the brief :

- A white golf ball against a white background
- A Package shot
- A creative advertisement for Jelly Babies

In our workshop allocated time we only managed the first two because we were struggling to light the golf ball and not get any blown out highlights while still retaining a well lit photograph. For our golf ball we lit overhead from behind with a soft box and used white reflectors to bounce light back up into the bottom of the ball.

We also had to work on a packaging shot, my group had the Oakcakes packaging; we found quite a few problems while photographing this because the top of the box would not shut properly and kept lifting, we tried to fix this with masking tape however this did not completely solve the problem. Another problem was the shadows cast from the box made some of the text hard to read, we managed to fix this with reflectors and changing the lights around eventually.

We also tried to create some styled shots (ones that also included the oat cakes as well as the box) I prefer these as an overall photograph although I know the purpose of the packaging shots would be so it could appear in food catalogs it does not need to be a visually pleasing photograph as long as it fulfils its purpose of showing off the product.

Unfortunately I do not have these photographs to show as while I thought I had copied the Capture One session onto my hard drive I had not and the technicians have cleared the computers memory so I can not recover it.

Comercial Advertising Photography

Commercial or Editorial ? Whats the difference?

The differences between Editorial and Commercial are quite simple:

- Commercial photographs are being used to sell the product by only using the photographs

- Editorial photographs are showing the product but this also being accompanied by an article of text which goes into more detail about the product, such as recipe books or magazine pieces.


Commercial photographs are being designed to persuade the viewer to want and need the product, this is done more effectively when the photographer understands Semiotics; this is the meanings and significance of objects and colours within the photograph. The visual elements will connote specific thoughts and reactions in the viewers, all of the viewers look at the work with preconceptions of the world and it is the job of the creatives to understand how people will read and react to the work so that the can create the most effective advertisement.

Brands are cultural entities that need to be understood as they have all created an identity that fits with the target audience and the culture that they have been created in. To create a new brand the culture that it will be presented in needs to be understood in order to reach maximum potential.


In this lecture we also looked some product photographers:


David Parfitt

He shoots a variety of products but the most interesting to me is the perfume bottles that he shoots, to shoot a perfume advertisement the brand identity and also the style and the purpose that the perfume has been created for (days, nights, who is the target?). Semiotics will help the photographer understand how his photograph will be coming across as even something as the colours used in the background will affect how the viewers read the photographs.


Ray Massey

This photographer specialises in shooting with liquids and splashes, he also does his own retouching which is useful because he understands his vision and he can execute it himself without having to rely on another to understand his vision. The way he photographs liquids is a talent I would like to improve on as I think it creates an usual look that is not typical.


Eugenio Franchi

Both a photographer and a retoucher he creates extraordinary works that showcase the products, he has worked for many companies in creating advertisements. The drinks portfolio he has on his website shows spilling drinks and I think that this would be a great project to try myself.

Products And More Products

Me and my friend were in the studio shooting some products against a white background, during the shoot I photographed some CD's because I wanted to see if I could manage to photograph them without any glares or reflections. That was easier than I thought because of our set up there was no glare on any of the CD's and the only thing I had to change was the position of the CD because the reflection of the glass it was stood on created a line through the middle of the front cover.

We also photographed a box of eclairs as both just a packaging shot and also in a styled advertisement shot with some of the eclairs visible as though they have spilled out of the box. I like these shots because the eclairs and the angle of the box invite the viewer in to the image and creates a desire to have some for yourself which is how an advert works. We had trouble being able to angle the reflector to bounce light into the back of the box so that all the text was visible.

I also tried to light some Fanta bottles although this did not turn out very well because I was not familiar with shooting clear objects and the lighting needed for that (or in other words because I just didn't know what I was doing.) I tried out backlighting the bottles so that the colour shone through however this blew out the edges of the bottle at the top where there was no Fanta to show the edges.  I will have to revisit these bottles later on.



My Outcomes:

Just Chilling

So this weekend I have set up my home made studio space in the kitchen again and photographed some cans of coke against my white tablecloth using a remotely triggered flash gun.

I was photographing a closed can that was still full however I did not feel it was working and I thought that maybe an open can would be more appealing so I opened the can and instantly it looked better.

Then I wanted to play with creating a sense of the chilled sensation you get when having hold of a cold can. I had bought some Glycerine after the tutor told us about the way it was used to create the droplets so I decided to try and create my own droplets. I mixed the Glycerine and water in a spritzer bottle and tried it out, the droplets were a little too runny however I added some more Glycerine to the mixture and this worked better so I kept adding until they stayed in the same place they landed. Then I cleaned the can so that there was no running water marks down the sides and resprayed with the new sticky droplets.


The droplets were so effective in making the can look cold that I expected the can to be cold when I picked it up myself, even though I had known it was room temperature from the beginning of the shoot.



My Outcomes:

Product Photographers

Production Paradise

http://www.productionparadise.com/spotlight/still-life-photography-460.html

This website has a collection of photographers who have signed up, I have looked through some of the still life photographers so that I can get some ideas on shooting in a commercial style.

Bruce Anderson

http://www.productionparadise.com/spotlight/still-life-photography-865/bruce-anderson-25997.html#photo

This is one of the photographers from the Production Paradise website, he is an advertising and editorial photographer. He produces very high quality close ups of the products, I think this is useful in product shots because then the details can be seen clearly and easily.

Julian Dann

http://www.juliandannphotography.co.uk/Commercial-Product-Photographer.html

On his website is a range of the different styles that he shoots in, he shoots to match the clients vision and gives them the shots they desire. Being able to shoot a wide variety of styles is very useful as although clients may come to you because of your specific style, more clients will be attracted to your work if there are more styles available as each person has a different style and taste.

Dont Daydream .. Too Much

This lecture was about ways to expand our creative horizons, I think this lecture was useful to me because in many projects I have struggled to come up with an idea instantly like many other people can do.

Don't Daydream .. Too Much
- it's good to daydream and think about things, but dont spend all your time doing this, you need to get out and create those daydream ideas

Observe ... EVERYTHING
- people on public transport, trees, the way light falls, food

Work The Hours
- when am I most productive?

Solitude Time
- Thinking and refreshing time purely for me

Problems into Positives

Gain New Experiences
- small as a new route to work or travelling to a new country

Fail Up
- learn from mistakes, make yourself better from it, redo it

Ask The Big Questions

People Watch

Take Risks
- being a student I have the possibility to take risks and explore things without worries

Funding
- Crowdfunding, Kickstarter

Follow my Passions

Get Outa My Head