Shutter Speeds Skill Development

Shutter Speeds,

Skills Development

With this skill we learnt that if we speed up the shutter speed to around 1/250 or 1/500, we could freeze motion without blur in mid action, for someone walking or running. We experimented with capturing people doing star jumps, running by, running at the camera, throwing leaves and we attempted to capture some motion blur.

Over all I think my images were sucessful for a first attempt, however some improvement could be had if I were to use this technique for a magazine cover or an addition to an article. 

 

Next time I use this technique I hope to capture my images with more focus, and purhaps more motion blur around the subject. I think in some of the photographs the subject is a bit far from the camera, next time I will change this, so the frame is better. I will also experiment more with other shutter speeds, faster and slower, to see what effect this with have on the final image. 

Photographic Post-Production work

This is the original image.

This is the final edit.

For the first edit on the original, I used auto-tone, auto-colour, auto-contrast.  

In the next step, I used the ajustments to self correct the brightness down to -2 and the contrast to 8.

 



After this I added an unsharp mask reducing the radius to 2.2 and the amount to 82%.

 

Finally I  added dodge and burn to some areas, in moderation to lighten or darken them using the [ and ] keys to enlarge or shrink the size of the tool. I zoomed in to edit shadows or highlights and compared the changes I had made from a distance to see there was only a few subtle changes.

As a further experimentation I looked at how to edit the curves of the colour over tones in the image, this image is the result of increasing the red curve tone more than green and blue.



I also looked into how to add age to my image, I achieved this by adding a new layer over my original image, filled it yellow and then decreasing its opacity to around 30%.

Composition Photos

This image is a good example of a use of tilt; it is tilted up, therefore creating more shadows on the face and giving this person a look of power and supremacy over the onlooker.

This image is again an example of tilting the camera, this time it is tilted down on the person, making them look small therefore weak, powerless and innocent.

I think this is a good example of an off centre composition and I believe it is also an example of a line shot, as the path at his feet leads the eye along to the tree in the background.

Here the main focus was to frame the composition from and interesting angle and I think this is successful because it looks different and interesting.

Magazine Cover,Induction Evaluation

Induction Evaluation

I am quite happy with the outcome of my first project, and I  believe I have learnt quite a bit while doing so. During the taking of the initial photos I learnt that if I was standing in a T-stance I could keep my balance and move forwards or backwards while keeping steady holding the camera, I also learnt that I had to take portrait images from a close range for them to work as my cover photo, I did take some landscape photographs at the right distance that could have worked well if I had remembered which format to use.

      Using manual focus helped get a clear image, however some places the lighting made features in the images to see or made some areas of the image look blank, therefore I found side lighting instead of back lighting worked best to avoid these problems.

      In the background I aimed to find somewhere that would frame my subjects well and not over crowed the scene.

In Photoshop I used many tools, for example I used the elliptical marquee selection tool and shift on the keyboard to draw a circle, then I used the paint bucket to fill it in, after this I learnt how to include a bevel to make the circle look like a button. In addition I also used a stroke around my text for my title. After using the shape tool to make two rectangles, I learnt that be holding 'cmd and t' I could rotate my shapes and put them on an angle, and I could also do this with my text. I used these different fonts, because firstly, I wanted my magazine name to stand out and fit with the type of magazine cover I was producing, secondly I felt my sell lines were best kept simple and easy to read and lastly I choose my final font for my 'band name' to be allocated soporifically to that 'band'. These colours were chosen because I saw they didn't fade into the background colours but contrasted with them. I think, over all, the colours and fonts work well together on the background image and make a good magazine cover. If I could improve this I think I would use a lot more effects on my image and I would experiment with more Photoshop tools.

I have included this image as an example of a good portrait image, however I thought there was a lot of empty space on the right and at the top, so  I did not think this would make a good cover image as the subjects are not centralised.



This would have been a good image for a front cover because the subjects are at a good distance, unfortunately it is a bad example as I forgot to take the image portrait.




Again this image is a good example of a portrait image, however again the distance was slightly to far between the camera and the subject. Also the subject was again not very central for the purpose and it wasn't the best pose for a magazine cover image.




If the subjects had been closer in this image this would have made a perfect portrait image for the front cover as the lighting and setting is perfect, unfortunately there was a great distance to fit the main subjects in the frame and it was too much for a magazine cover, as it was not 'up, close and personal' enough for its purpose.

Initial Skills Assessment

AS Media Production: Technical Skills Audit Print Production

Name: EMMA ELLIOTT                         Tutor group:1.18       Date:

Photographic Skills

Which of the following photographic features/equipment have you used on a camera before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Manual Focus features Creative writing classes	Y		I have done some basic manual focus in AS Photography
Shutter Speed		N
Aperture control		N
A tripod		N
External flash		N
Self timer facility	Y		Basics on my own camera at home
Light meter		N
Composition grids		N

Photoshop Skills

Which of the following features of Photoshop have you used before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Text control	Y		GCSE and AS Photography basic
Filters	Y		GCSE art basic
Brushes		N
Layers	Y		GCSE art basic
Opacity control	Y		GCSE art basic
Shape creation		N
Brightness and contrast control	Y		GCSE art basic
Dodge/Burn		N
Clone stamp tool		N
Colour curves adjustment		N
Magnetic lasso, polygon lasso tool	Y		GCSE art basic
Cropping tool	Y		GCSE art basic
Retouch tool		N

In Design Skills

Which of the following features of In Design have you used before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Margin and column guide creation		N
Inserting text in ID		N
Inserting images in ID		N
Resizing images in ID		N
Text manipulation – resizing, rotation		N
Text manipulation – controlling kerning and leading		N
Text flow creation		N
Text effects – drop shadow		N
Drop cap insert		N
Using transparent imagery in ID		N
Shape creation In design		N
Text wrapping		N
Exporting to PDF from In-design		N