Drop Focus

Drop focus is a narrow band of focus, a very shallow depth of field.

I had no idea what drop focus meant when I looked at my brief, but whilst doing the macro workshop Andy let us in on the secret.
I decided to give this a go whilst I was doing the macro shots.
We were told that the optimum F stop to use for these images would be F8 or F11. I used a 1:1 macro lens for this which I borrowed at Giorgio.



I took this from the top of the necklace to give more detail to the image.



This is the same image as above but this one is warmer. The image looks too yellow though. I think I used daylight balance for this image.



This is the best drop focus image from the group. I like the colours and the contrast of the image. I also like how one bit of the necklace is in focus and the rest is out of focus.

Macro wokshop

We had a workshop with Andy on how to light macro shots and to show how to use macro.
Macro is of an image that has a 1:1 ratio, this means that the macro image taken is the same size on the screen as it is in real life.

I did some research into macro photography and found out that most images are of plants or water.



The colours in this image are beautiful and the depth of field works really well against the sharpness of the rose. The petals have been captured really well, showing every single one of them in great detail.



I like how this image has been made darker towards the front of the image making it look more mysterious and how the ball of water has been lit as the centre piece.



This image was captured just at the right time. It was captured just before the water droplets fell off the plant. The image was taken either in the morning when the dew is still around or when the rain had finished. The droplets all have the same reflection, of a purple and pink plant. This looks great against the green.



I love the colours on this image and how the images is so sharp. This makes an interesting subject to photograph because of the shape of the plant, the spikes etc.



This images is really interesting because the photographer has captured one of the crayons and has somehow managed to stand all of the pencils up which is quite interesting. I like how the photographer has focused on a bit of the shavings from the pencils too. I like how the images is different from most other macro images that I have seen.



This is my favourite photographs of macro that i found. The photographer must have had to take this image so many times trying to capture her eyes and the reflection in the water, unless she edited it on photoshop which is very likely. The contrast is very interesting and I like how the water has been made dark as though it's mysterious.

I didn't want to follow this so took images of one of my necklaces. I thought that the crystals would make an interesting subject.
Here are the contact sheets from the shoot, some of these images aren't mine, they are other peoples from the work shop.









The two images of the full necklace were taken with a macro filter.



This image was taken with two continuous, cold, lights facing the necklace. I took the image facing the necklace at the same height so that I was looking across the necklace. This has caused the bottom to be in focus and the top area out of focus.




I took this image with the same lighting but changed my white balance to tungsten. I also took this image from above keeping most of the necklace in focus.



This image was taken with a macro lens that George lent me. I went in closer to the image to capture the words on the necklace. It was quite difficult to keep my hand still and to reduce camera shake.

Experimenting with light

For our afternoon session with John, we were asked to photograph an object using either window, fluorescent or strobe lighting. I wasn't sure which one I wanted to use so photographed different objects with all three types of lighting.



I saw this pot of jelly on a table next to a big window so photographed this as part of the window lighting.



Fluorescent lighting was used for this image. I like how it looks quite trampy, but bright too.



This is another fluorescent image. I saw these cups in a pulled apart locker. It looks as though they were there for a while. I like how it looks gritty.



This was taken in the studio using strobe lighting. I used a honey comb to light this image

Photographing glass

For one of Andy's session, we were shown how to photograph glass using the same type of lighting but in different positions. (The images are not in order)

My camera was set at ISO: 400 and at the widest aperture which changed on my focal length but was around 3.5 and 5.6. The camera was also set to Av so that the shutter speed was set automatically.



A top light has been used for this image. It has brought out the writing on the lid and has caused a nice reflection from the bottle.







A top and bottom light has been used for this image. This has made the image brighter but the writing isn't as prominent.







A bottom light has been used for this image making the image look like a silhouette.






A back light and a bottom light have been used for this image which has made the image look dull and the writing has disappeared off the lid.







A side light at 45 degrees has been used for this image. The image looks quite dull and a shadow has been caused. This isn't the best lighting to use for the glass as it isn't very flattering.






A bottom light and a top light were used for an image and a black card was used to block out the light on the lid. This has brought out the writing a bit more but the image is still quite dull.






This image was taken using natural lighting. It has made the bottle look like a silhouette but has brought out nice reflections from the bottle.



After being shown these ways of lighting the glass bottle, we were asked to place a perfume/aftershave bottle in different places with different types of lighting.



The first place we photographed the bottle was on the floor next to the lift. We chose here because two types of lighting were used, window and sodium lighting. I like how the floor looks textured and the light is being reflected back off the lift.



Another place we tried was underneath some direct sodium light. I like how the light has been reflected off the lift.



The final image I took was taken in the studio using a bottom light, a top light and a reflector at one side.

Fruit

For part of one of my briefs, the one for Andy, I have been asked to photograph a piece of fruit using different types of lighting. This was kind of a trial as I've completely forgotten how to use a studio after not using it for over a year! (And yes, I am aware that a pepper is not a fruit!)

These are the contact sheets from the fruit shoot:














The images of the pepper are all 45 degree lighting.









The image was taken with a reflector bouncing the light back onto the pepper as you can see on the side.













Instead of just photographing the pepper as a whole all the time, I tried photographing just a section of it. I like how this looks.




Again, I photographed just a section of the pineapple. Because this has two sections to it and photographed each section individually. These images were an attempt of high key.



Another attempt of high key.
I prefer this section of the pineapple than the one above.




This was an attempt of low key. Its kind of worked, but not in the same way. I put this image up because I love the reflection of the pineapple coming off the product table.




This is a better example of low key than the one above although I think the image is still too bright for low key.





I put a soft box behind the product table, to create a back light effect. I don't like this effect as you can't see the product very well. The light is also causing a flair behind the pineapple which doesn't look very good.



After having my assessment with John, he said to put my own stamp on to my images. So when I got home I made a brain storm, thinking out of the box on how to photograph fruit in different way.
I also did some research on how other people have photographed fruit. I found these images on www.google.co.uk



I really like how the fruit has been photographed in water. The orange will have been thrown into the water and turned upside down to get this effect. I was going to try out this but I didn't think that doing this was putting my stamp on the images.
I love fashion photography so I decided to do research into photographing models with fruit and came across with these beautiful beauty images. I decided to give this a try.













I like how the make up is linked to the fruit that is being photographed. I want to try and do this on my images.





Here are the contact sheets from this shoot:











I used 45 degree lighting for these two images, as you can see that one side of the models face is in light and the other side is in shadow.





For this image I used a top light and a reflector on the other side of the models face to bounce the light back on to the models face.








These images are high key. High key images are where you make the image bright but the model in the correct colour. I used reflector on the left hand side of the model to bounce the light back on to the model, making the image look more high key.