Light Painting

Light Painting

The Light Paintings were created in the studio after blackening out the room and using a black background as the backdrop. For light painting you need first of all a good quality camera (preferably a Canon or Nikon) and a tripod to connect your camera to. To do light painting, the Shutter needs to be open for between 15-30 seconds depending on the detail of light you want to draw in the photo. To keep the shutter open for 30 seconds you will need an aperture of around 1/10.

However when we did the light paintings, we found it better to have the settings on 'Bulb' which is when you hold the shutter button down and you can decide when to stop the shutter by taking your finger off the button. We experimented with different people and different drawings to get different photos.

Projections

Projections

The First thing i did was to pick a night image because i thought a shadow in front of a city life photo would look great. However after experimenting, i figured that i was wrong. So i went back to finding an image that i thought would look creative on the background of my model. I picked an image of Big Ben with Westminster Abbey and a bus in the scene. I experimented with different standing positions and the most effective look was when he held both of his arms up, looking like he owns the place.

After i played around with this picture on Photoshop, i gave it a threshold look
which gave it an old fashioned effect which i quite liked.

Scanograms

Scanograms

My First Step was to upload the Scanogram to Photoshop. When it first started off it didn't look effective, however i saw potential in the photo as i knew i could give it a unique style. The first thing i did was crop out the bottom bit of the picture so that there wasn't an empty space in the bottom of the picture.

The Second Step was to change the color of the scan. I opted to go for a black and white effect and i gave it a higher exposure to show the face details.

For the Next Step i used the 'Curves' tool which you could use to higher the light exposure or darken it within certain areas. By using darker areas on the face, it gave the scan a balance of high and low key lighting. Using this toll you can change the amount of light balance on the photo by dragging the line on the chart and bringing it to a curve. Hence the 'Curve tool'.

The final effect i made on the scan was to add a coloured effect to the photo. For a few minutes i experimented with different colors and effects. I found that by increasing the amount of red and green it gave it a gold effect which in essence made it look unique.

World Snooker Magazine

Ideas for magazine covers

Ideas

Idea 1

For my First Idea i would like to recreate a snooker magazine cover, this is done in the studio as light boxes and a flash is needed. To create a magazine cover like the one below, i will need to shoot it with low-key lighting on a dark background. However i will experiment and see whether high-key lighting is better for the cover or not.

Ideas

Evaluation

Evaluation

I have created a magazine cover for a snooker magazine, which I have called ‘World Snooker’. I used a model in the studio for the cover. I tried various lighting effects using both High-key lighting and Low-key lighting. However after experimenting, I realised that the low-key lighting didn’t have a good effect on the model. It didn’t show all of his face features, which I had hoped for. So I opted to go with High-Key lighting. This was because all of his facial features showed up under bright direct lighting and it gave the model a great effect. As this was for a snooker magazine cover, I chose to use a snooker ball to show that it wasn’t for any other magazine. Using two light boxes with a flash, getting the right brightness was to be experimented with. So I concluded with an ISO of 400, and an apature of F11 and 1/100. I used this because I needed to allow a lot of light into the photo. So by using 1/100 it gave me a wide apature, in conclusion letting a lot of light into the lense. I think the magazine cover I have created is unique and I like the captions on the sides of the magazines because it gives the reader an insight into what is inside the magazine. If I was to make the magazine cover again I would experiment more with low-key lighting on a black background because I think a dark background makes the model look more serious and deep into thought. Whereas on a white background its fairly plain and the model doesn’t look as serious which is a downside to High-key lighting. I would also do a portrait and zoom up closer to the models face showing more facial features in more detail. I could also tell the model to pose with a serious face and look as though he is more into deep thought. Either that or a confident look as the model is imitating a professional Snooker player playing mind tricks on his opponent. A confident look in the models face would give the reader a more positive look on the magazine cover, rather than look serious because this could give readers a negative view on the cover. The cover is the most important part of the magazine because it draws the reader into the magazine. If it was a dull colour then few readers would be interested in reading it. Other than using a different key lighting and facial expressions on the model, I wouldn’t do anything different to my front cover because I think its attractive and more than enough to get the reader interested to read it.