Christmas Card

So we were asked to photograph things which could be put on a Christmas card. Well I had a few ideas running around in my head such as wrapping fairy lights around a tree, lighting them and just us them for the source of lighting and hopefully give an outline of a Christmas tree. Well when I thought about it more I realised its boring and probably been done before so I came up with the idea of painting eggs.

I decided to paint eggs in different Christmas characters, such as Santa and snowman an elf ect, and to create a scene with them which is fun and aimed at all ages.
It took me a while to create the snow as I used cotton-wool balls and unravelled them which made strips and layered them around the positioned eggs. I then made a sieve out of paper to make the flour go on the cotton-wool evenly. Then I put loads and loads of sugar over the top to create the glistening effect snow would make.
I enjoyed this shoot however it was very time consuming on getting the display accurate and it only took about 15mins to shoot it.

Portrait Studio

As a group we had to create the portrait studio. So people could book in with families, partners, possibly pets and have an hour or so having there picture taken. Well like normally the whole group never comes together and gets things sorted out however one student managed to get our very first booking. She was a young girl, quite pretty and wanted a little portfolio making and it was for her birthday. With it being friends of Joanna she was the main photographer and bossed me and Jess around. Jess was on the computer rotating pictures as we shot tethered, and then I was the assistant such as lighting and using the fan. However a few times I grabbed the camera a few times I couldn’t resist.
It went really well and she was happy with her pictures and it went quite well to say it was our first time. However we have learnt for next time we have to be more professional. With them being a family friend and a few things went wrong we had no reason to worry however next time it should be a lot more professional.

To get it up and running we decided to get a few friends to come in and give them some free studio time so we could get some pictures for a portrait book to show possible customers. This could be to give them ideas of what to do and a better idea of what we do.

Sports

For another of our brief is Sports. We need to show interesting action shots from a sport. Instead of doing a boring sport I wanted to do something interesting however with me leaving it till last minute I ended up doing football. I don’t particularly like the sport never mind taking pictures of it. However for my camera I got to lend Colleges Telephoto lens so I had to take the opportunity to use it. And I have got to say I like quite a few of the images to say it was football and my hands were that cold I thought they would drop off, also I’m glad I did it when I did because there is about 6 inches of snow on the ground and I wouldn’t of been able to get many sport action shots in it other than people sledging and falling over.

Shoe Laces

One of our briefs was to do something creative and different with Shoe/Boot laces. I had to think for a while of what to do as personally I find a shoe with the laces in pretty boring. I wanted to do something a bit more fun and me. After having a long think about it I came up with the idea to make a flapper style dress and use the shoe laces. To have the model jumping in the air or doing some sort of movement so all the laces moved.
It was pretty stressful as my model was last and I had a whole time plan in my head how I wanted stuff done and when so I was in panic mode trying to make sure everything was done. I was late for my studio time slot; however I and another student decided to put both of our time slots together so it gave us both 2 hours to get our work done.
Which as lucky.
We had a few issues with the make-up as the false eyelashes I bought for the shoot, well the glue was dried out and they hadn’t even been open so that annoyed me. We ended up using hairspray to stick them on. The model consented and was her idea so I said if she went blind in the morning it wasn’t my fault.
We got on with the shoot and it was the first real shoot since I got my new camera (canon 5D mark II ) so I was pretty excited, the lighting was correct and another student brought in a space hopper. We did a few shots on there which happen now to be my favourite then a few of the model jumping on an exercise trampoline.
After discussing my shots and shoot for next time I have learnt to shoot tethered as my shutter speed was too fast coursing a dark line on the edge of my pictures, however to fix this I used the Dodge tool in Photoshop. However I much rather get the picture right in the first place than having to edit it after. Also that brings me on to the fact I didn’t use the correct lens. If I used a longer lens I would have been able to avoid getting a lot of the background in the shots when the model was jumping in the air. I tried in Photoshop to edit it however it looked terrible and wouldn’t say I’m proud of them shots. So next time shoot tethered, ask which the best lens for the shoot is and check the glue which came with the eyelashes.

Steve Howdle

Steve Howdle has been a pro fashion and advertising photographer for seven years and during that time he has won a string of awards including BIPP Fashion Photographer of the Year.

Steve quickly gained a reputation for stunning hair and beauty images that he creates for national and international clients such as BaByliss, Wella and Patrick Cameron.

As a class we had a chance to go to one of his talks at Dewsbury College.
This was sprung on us last minute and in all fairness I didn’t really want to go, just wanted to stop at college and get some work done. However I went of course and I’m so glad. It was inspiring to see his work and watch him set the studio up as if it was a real shoot.
The model had her hair and make-up professionally done so we got a better idea and it was more realistic.
I enjoyed watching the tutorial and he explained what equipment to use and why.

Before going into the studio he showed some of his existing work and explained how he got to the point he is at.
He also did a demo on how to edit and picture, with him talking pictures of hair for companies such as Babyliss he mentioned how he wasn’t allowed to edit the hair at all, leave all wispy bits in as they want it exactly how the hair dressers styled it.
He also mentioned on how he never over edits pictures just clears the skin up and that.
This is one of his pictures, and as he said to us and I mentioned “never over edits his pictures and just clears up the skin” well from my knowledge this image has clearly been over edited and it’s not just the skin that has been done either! Also to find out the information I mentioned first I went researching him and looking online. I also came across one of his web pages...
http://www.thorntonhowdle.com/page20/page20.html
On it I noticed he mentioned and I quote 'image is everything' clearly not as I feel for his professional level his web page is appalling.

Overall I’m glad I went other than the fact to criticize his work I actually learnt a few things such as how to light hair.
Depending on the colour of hair depends how much light you need, lighter the hair less light you need. The best lighting equipment to use is a silver brolly and to position it over the head, if the model was to have more hair at one side you face the brolly at that side.
Another source of lighting he used was a beauty-dish and he positioned it directly at front of the model to bring highlights and define features of the face.

Food Photography

With me having my camera again at work the Chef asked me to take some pictures of her food for the Mid Yorkshire web page, once there up I will post a web address as my name will be mentioned under the photography.
With it being at work there is no studio, no lighting other than my flash gun so the pictures are done just by my camera and the flash gun attached to the top.
To say I didn’t have all the right equipment I think I did pretty well, and the chef seems to be please how the food has been portrayed.

Mid Yorkshire golf club junior champions

Once again work is using me to their advantage and got me to take a team picture of the juniors for Pontefract and Castleford express, and another golfing magazine.
I also did pictures of each junior holding the cup individually.
Of course the parents wanted them and the team picture, so for both prints I charged £5.

Thursday September 2 2010, in the sports section there was a mention about the juniors winning and the picture I took with my name mentioned underneath, it was a very proud moment of my life also the picture was in the Yorkshire Golfer magazine September 2010 issue.