#folio 2

Image 1

For this image, I decided to use highkey lighting as it matched the look I was going for. I had to switch out the softbox which was attached to the light I was using as the one that was there to begin with was quite small. Once I done this, I attached the sync cable to the back of the light and linked up the light meter. I set my aperture to f 5.6 as this created a more shallow depth of field, meaning that I was able to focus in on the chocolate centrepiece and blur out the background. As I was using studio lighting, I set my ISO to 100, and I set the shutter speed to 1/125s so I could hold my camera without getting shaky images. After testing and adjusting the settings of the studio lighting with the light meter, I attached the sync cable to the hotshoe adapter attached to my camera.

When building the set, I used one of the bases available and grated some chocolate onto it. From here, I stacked up some caramel chocolate and opened up the top piece so the caramel would spill down the other pieces of chocolate. Despite the chocolate melting in the heat of the lamps, the caramel wasn't melting so I used my locker key to pull it down the stack of chocolates. After looking at my first few images, it became apparent that the set was missing something so I went over to the cart of food props and got some fudge pieces to add in. I believe that this pulled my set together nicely, especially as the colour of the fudge matched the caramel.

As I was shooting, I was conscious to ensure that my image was taken so the main subject was to the right of the image. I did this as I was following the rule of thirds grid on my camera, which allowed me to create a more pleasing image.

In-between taking batches of photos, I went into the download room so I could look at my images to see if there was anything I needed to correct in my set before I picked out my final photo to edit. I used the review and star rating modes in Adobe Bridge to review my images.

Once I picked out an image that I was happy with, I opened it up in Adobe Camera Raw. I set my white balance to Auto as it brought out some cooler tones, which I felt made my image look more professional. I also increased the saturation slightly just to inject a little colour back into it. I chose to increase the texture and clarity too as this brought out more detail in my image, and I increased the contrast to bring out the shadows a little more.

Before completing my edit, I also went into optics > use profile corrections, as this function corrects any faults shown in the camera lens used, however I ended up disabling the function as it ended up adding too much warmth into my image. I believe that it wasn't required as I was using a brand new 18-55mm lens which presumably didn't have any faults in it.

Once I was happy with my image, I saved the edits that I had made and exported the image to my OneDrive and external hard drive.

My first final optimised image.

Image 2

As I was using the same studio space for this image, I didn't need to worry about changing out the softbox. I switched from a white to a slate grey effect background base as I wanted the background to contrast well with my subject.

I attached the light meter to the sync cable so I could test the lighting. I adjusted the studio light until it was set to f 5.6 - the same aperture that my camera was set to. I decided to use the same aperture as the first set as I still wanted to create a more shallow depth of field in my images, which allowed the main product to be in focus. I also kept my shutter speed at 1/125s and my ISO at 100.

When building the set, I started off by crumbling up some of the honeycomb that I had made. I also added a few crushed nuts that Jacqui kindly let me use, which added a bit more interest to the set. From there, I added in two large honeycomb pieces and neatly placed some honeycomb chocolate squares around it. Whilst building this set, I was thinking about creating an ‘S’ shape with my composition as this leads your eye around the image.

The ‘S’ shape I made with my composition.

The before and after optimisation comparison of my image.

Once I chose an image that I was happy with, I opened up the image in Adobe Camera Raw and made some minor adjustments to it. I set the white balance to Auto as this brought out some cooler tones in the image, and I increased the saturation too as this brought a little colour back so my image didn't become too washed out. I also decreased the highlights a touch and increased the shadows to make the composition appear bolder, and I increased the texture and clarity to bring out the finer details in the image. To finish up, I added a slight vignette to my image, which darkened the border slightly.

From here, I saved my edited image and exported it to my OneDrive and external hard drive.

My second final optimised image.

Overall, I’m really pleased with the progress I made today. I definitely believe that I’m getting quicker at setting up my studio space as I’m gradually becoming more familiar with using the studio lamps, softboxes and light meters. I'm also pleased that I’m able to edit my images with ease independently.

TIL...

how to add a vignette to my images on camera raw

how to change out the softbox

I decided to try a creative shot for the product photography part of the project we’ve been doing over the last few weeks.  This was done at home 

Before and after optimising in Camera Raw

After using the spot healing tool to remove the dust specks that had gathered on the bottle

Practical Research

Part One

1. Single use plastic

Single use plastics are used in food packaging, plastic bags, straws, soft drinks and many more, The UK and USA are the biggest contributors of single use plastic per person in the world. Its not just households that need to change, there needs to be a revolution in the way supermarkets and food  businesses package food products, we need to change how we shop, how we think. Plastics do not biodegrade, instead they break up into smaller pieces of plastic called micro plastics.

2. Green Travel

The plan for the uk is to only sell electric cars from 2030, at the moment electric cars are very expensive, there are not enough charging points and not enough car mechanics are trained in maintaining and servicing these cars. We have a long way to go.

3. Poverty

It is thought that child poverty rate in Scotland will be 29% by 2023-24. Did you know that in the Glasgow area alone 16,000 children go without a Christmas present. There are so many filthy rich people in the world but still so so many poor people.

4. Climate Change

This has been a topic of conversation for a long time and yet we still haven't managed to educate people or change that much. Ive been telling people to wash @ 30 for years, save the polar bears (and everyone else).

5. Food Waste

This is something we can all tackle quite easily, I know how easy it is to get a takeaway rather than cook something, then the food in the fridge goes to the bin, what a waste of money.

I also see all the food that comes back from the restaurant to the bin as the portions are quite large, although our food waste is used to make bio fuel.

Camera Settings

Aperture F 6.3

Shutter Speed 1/125

ISO 100

I discovered this method while playing around with photoshop and I really like how it looks like a planet and I want to try it with different images and better landscape photos.

Here is the image that I have made

Step 1 - Load an image of a landscape that has a base, middle and top layer like a landscape with the ground and images. (Mine is mainly middle and top layer as it is what I have available right now)

Step 2 - duplicate your background layer by right-clicking and selecting duplicate. Make sure you have rulers activated by pressing  Control+R on PC or Cmd+R on Mac

Step 3 -  Make sure you are on the background layer and double the image width by going to image > image size

Step 4 - The duplicate layer needs to be flipped horizontally you can do this by going to edit > transform > flip horizontally

Step 5 -select the move tool and move the image copy so it is like a mirror image of your original photo...the pink guidelines should appear when it is exact.

Step 6 - Use the crop tool if needed and figure out where you would like your images to meet in the middle.

Step 7 - To create the sphere your image needs to be square, this can be done by going to the top menu and click on image > image size, when the window pops up click on the chain to unlink it and make the width the same as the height then press okay.

Step 8 - Before moving onto the sphere flatten the image so that all the layers are combined. This is done by going to the top menu > layer > flatten image.

Step 9 - Next you will need to flip the image vertically which is done by going to image > image rotation >flip canvas vertical.

Step 10 - On the top menu go to filter > distort > polar coordinates

I think I should stick to just eating it ..... Disaster

Here are my images from today ☹️