Competitions and Awards

In professional studies we looked at what qualities should be included in a good competition or award.
- Are there any exposure opportunities after the competitions over? (exhibitions or printed publications)
- See if your work will be exhibited online during and after the competition.
- A small entry fee means that the competition is serious and could possibly make you have a higher chance of winning as people won't just enter because they have nothing else to do.
- You should keep the full rights to your image and you should always be credited for your work.
- Receiving feedback from the judges.

We also looked at what will help you whilst entering the competition.
- Look for a student category in the competition.
- Think about if the theme is able to be done by the deadline, look through old images and see if they fit into any competitions.
- Make sure you fit into the rules and guidelines.
- Look at the work of previous winners so you know the standard of work expected and what images to avoid.

First studio session

Today we had our first session in the studio where we looked at different ways to light the subject and the background. Above is an image of Helen and we used 2 lights, on on either side of Helen with barn doors focused on the subject. To make the background dark, we used polystyrene board painted black and didn't put any light on them at all. I really like the look of a typical portrait but I think it would be good to put it in contrast with another image of the person just being themselves. The image below was an experimental shot of Helen where she was just messing around. I think changing shutter speeds is a good way of creating really interesting images, I think if I was to redo the image below I'll either make it faster to get a sharper image or slow it down so that the hair is blurred even more to create motion in the image. 

Next time I am in the studio I think I will use a white background and soft boxes to create a different type of light and see which I prefer and which I will use for my final images. 

'Faking It' documentary

A few weeks ago in Professional studies we watched a documentary called 'Faking It' where they tried to teach a radiographer to be a fashion photographer. Whilst watching this I picked up some things that I think are traits you have to learn to be a fashion photographer. 

As he is working, his mentor is telling him how to conduct himself, he has to be confident in what he is doing so that he can life morale in his team around him, ad have a lot of charisma as some fashion shoots can be very long and sometimes in bad weather so he has to be upbeat to try and keep his team in the same frame of mind. He also had to learn to work in a team because as a radiographer there was just him and his patient. As a fashion photographer he had to learn how to work with various people such as stylists, makeup artists, hairstylists, assistant, and models. And he often had to build relationships with these people in a very short period of time as most likely he will have just met them on the day of his shoot.

After we had watched the documentary we talked about how you could get into such a competitive industry and what makes the industry. Like additional people to the team, if its a commissioned shoot you could also have an editor and art director there to help direct the shoot. We also spoke about who commissions the shoots and how they pay and how much they get paid. It is usually art directors and editors for magazines, the creators of the clothes, or promotional teams for high street shops. And most of the time they will either look through agencies to find the photographer they like or if they want a certain style they will find someone who's work represents that. The salary for fashion photographers can usually be quite high as it will have to cover all other expenditures such as the teams salary, equipment, travel to/from the location, and even other things such as retouchers. 

The most common route into the profession is becoming an assistant first. Other routes include joining an agency, or multiple agencies to get a wider spread audience, or work freelance and try and promo yourself as much as possible.

Types of photography

In last week's lesson we researched into a few of the different areas of photography. My Group got given architectural photography. That was a good one to look into for me because I thought it was just photographs of buildings, however when we started researching it we found out it can be pretty much any type of man made building such as bridges, towers, etc. There wasn't particularly much specialist equipment you needed for this type of photography,  for exterior shoots, you should use a wide angled lens, and try to pick out the interesting details in the buildings, something that gives it character. A wide angle lens can be used for interior shots too. Architectural photography can be used for a few different reasons, it can be used for things as simple as just capturing the building for advertising purposes, such as hotel leaflets and websites. Or you could use this type of photography for showing an artists sculptures, or even to recreate a building that has been knocked down and needs to be rebuilt.

Social photography is classed as things such as weddings, family/pet portraits, and night club photographers. These types of photographers normally have to have a quick turn around form the images being taken and the clients receiving them, so they usually have an online portfolio where you can preview the images. around 50% of photographers work in social photography. There are also more female photographers in this area of work. They are also more likely to use a company name rather than their own name as their copywrite/ trademark.

Photojournalism photography is usually made up of spontaneous images. It is a way of portraying news through a visual form. photojournalists usually work for a newspaper or magazine not freelance. Usually the photographer  has to write a column with the image to explain its context. It is an interpretation of fact as the images can be biased very easily. Citizen journalists and bloggers are taking an amateur approach to photojournalism as it is the same type of work, only they aren't getting credited or paid for the work they do.

Editorial photography is an image or set of images that illustrate a story in a newspaper or most commonly magazines. Editorial has a huge overlap with fashion photography. It tells a story to the viewer without having to use words. It also has more of an option for creativity to be incorporated into the images. If you are an Editorial photographer you have a high chance of being commissioned for work.

Corporate photography is an area that can cover so many areas of photography. It is mainly used in magazines, adverts, products, and press. A common use is Corporate portraits, PR images, and advertisements. It can be used in any business at all and portrays the subject in a positive way.

Advertising photography is about the lifestyle that is portrays to the viewer. Sometimes it needs words alongside it as the item it is selling isn't always clear. Advertisement sometimes overlaps with editorial photography when used in magazines. The photographer usually works in a team when shooting for advertisements. 

Ying Tang

I really liked the idea of shadows in Ying Tang's 'under the sun' collection. Its something I wanted to incorporate into my work as I think the contrast of a bright light and the dark shadows on black and white film works really well. 

I have tried to shoot some images that have a similar look using shadows and I think they have come out really well and could be part of my final prints. 

There is also the idea in her images that there isn't one single thing to focus on. The images are fairly busy so theres a lot to look at which I quite like as you can notice one thing the first time you look at it and something else the second time you look at it. Or something that stands out to you, might not be the point of focus to someone else which I think is a really interesting concept to try and put into my images. 

Juan Buhler

Juan Buhler's style of street photography is something that attracts me because the subject of the photo is not centred in many of his photographs which I think is an interesting composition and is something I would like to take into consideration when doing my work. 

Again I think his work is a perfect example of the street photography genre. It is simple yet draws your eye to something that you possibly wouldn't notice in your everyday life. It makes you see the everyday as something interesting. 

He started to pursue a career in computer graphics and special effects and then in the meantime he worked on street photography. I think this really helped his work as it could give him a different perspective of what 'real life' looks like as he works with animation most of the time.

Markus Hartel

Markus Hartel is a street photographer based in New York. The image above really stood out to me because it has a similarity to my work in the way that there is a lot of open space in the images like in some of mine. Another thing I like about Hartel's work is that he has high contrast in his work which I think works really well and would like to include in some of my images. 

On his website he talks about what his impression of street photography is. He says that it is 'candid pictures of things that you don't notice in your daily grind.' which is what I love about street photography. Its things you don't notice on an everyday basis composed in a simple way that everyone can see, the photographs are just pointing it out to people. 

The attention to detail in Hartel's work is what interests me. Every aspect of his images adds to the photograph. This is another thing I want to try and add into my images. 

Matt Stuart

Matt Stuart describes his interest in street photography by saying 'a fascination with people and the way they live their lives' is why he got into street photography. 

He uses both colour and black and white for his work however I prefer his black and white work. In the image above there is a lot of empty space in the middle of the images which is an interesting idea as it makes you think about what is happening outside of the frame. I really like the idea of having so much open space in images so I will try to photograph and print some similar images as the one above.

The image below doesn't have any open space however it still makes you think about what is happening outside of the frame which again is something I want to try and recreate in my photographs.