WBL: Competition: Professional Photographer of the Year 2013

WBL: Competition: Professional Photographer of the Year 2013

About the competition:
There's a total of 13 categories to choose from these are:
Movie Short
Black and White
In the Studio
Medium Format 
Student of the Year
Weddings
50mm
Street Photography
News
Location Flash
Travel
Lifestyle
and Portfolio of Three

Link to competition:

http://www.professionalphotographer.co.uk/News-and-Reviews/2013/4/Professional-Photographer-Of-The-Year-2013-open-for-entries


Today I decided to enter one of my images into Professional photography of the year 2013 awards, under the student of the year category. This image was selected from recent project work; the series on fragmentation's of the body through generations. 

Image I entered:

Hugely influence by the self portraiture works of John Coplan to create this image. I love the tones and texture being created from the expansive and stretch of the flesh.

Katie Minchin © All Rights Reserved

WBL: Shoot for Contemporary Craft student at PCA

WBL: Shoot for Contemporary Craft student at PCA
22nd April 2013
The Cove Studio


Today I was in the Cove Studio at college photographing a contemporary craft students' work that they are entering into the 2013 Pewter competition. The client wanted images that showed of her final design (pewter hair clips) in alternative ways of styling it in the hair and she also wanted the lighting to be dark, contrast shadows to represent a Gothic aesthetic and most importantly to reflect the piece. I began the shoot experimenting with different lighting setups this began with using a main light situated on the right side of the subject, a snoot as hair light and a light with soft box on the left side of the subject, to tone down the shadows slightly and bring light back into the image. However the client and me both agreed that we found that the images were to much of a 'catalogue style' and she wanted the background a lot darker with more tone. This is when I experimented more with the light firstly taking away the light with soft box from the left side, but we saw that the white/grey background was still dominant. I decided to remove the main light and only use the hair light snoot from above the subject and this completely transformed the outcomes of the images - the background became darker, the lighting had a lot more definition and shadows within the frame and the client loved this approach and wanted to stick with this setup - I did however suggest that we add a white to bounce light back into left side to avoid blocked in shadows which she thought was appropriate. Overall the shoot went smoothly, didn't struggle technically and produce some successful images that the client is really happy with. I have given her the original images in TIFF format and a few edited images that were really strong again in TIFF and she said she would let me know if she wanted any edited in particular but wanted the originals for research and development.

Kit used:

Studio lights
Sky Port
Soft Box
Snoot
Nikon D800E
24-70mm lens
Reflector - White


Images with first lighting set up: (Main light, snoot, and light with soft box)

A few final outcomes:

All Images:

Katie Minchin Photography - All Rights Reserved

WBL: Observing and Assisting a Photographer

WBL: Observing and assisting a Photographer for my work based learning module.

Today I observed and assisted a fellow photographer on my foundation degree, Liam Mercer.  He had the small studio booked in college from 9-12am and again in the afternoon from 4-9pm where he photographed models wearing the garments his client wants photographed for the website, I went along to both shoots.
The 9-12am book slot I observed Liam being directed by the client's art director informing him of what images they are expecting to capture. Early in the morning he photographed a young baby wearing various garments. I decided to take notes on what kit Liam was using and his lighting set ups for his shoots to help me in the future. 

The set up for the first shoot, was for a young baby so Liam used a small Broncolour power pack, flash lighting, a Broncolour key light and soft box to diffuse the light and make sure the light isn't harmful to the child's eyes.

The set up for the second shoot involved two young children, therefore the lighting set up was changed slightly. Liam used a Broncolour A4 power pack, one key light with dish lighting directly upon the subjects to create subtle shadows and a broncolour ring flash, with honeycomb head attached to the camera (as seen below in the images)

The lighting set up was the same for his last morning shoot, again photographing different garments.

Although there wasn't much physical assisting with equipment I enjoyed observing, and I offered the client(art director) and models water to make them feel more comfortable and relaxed. I helped assist Liam with packing up the equipment and store in the Equipment Resource Centre (ERC) for our afternoon, late evening shoot.

The afternoon shoots involved photographing two male models and 3 female models. We set up with lights in the same set up as the two morning shoots - Broncolour A4 power pack, key light directly on the subject, Broncolour ring flash with honeycomb head attached to the camera. The models had to interchange their outfits quickly as there were short times allocated to each garment so Liam had to work hard to ensure they got a perfect shot for each garment quick. This was particularly an interesting insight in what to expect when dealing with a client or clients, they expect the shoot to run fast and smoothly and you need to be able to have good understanding of time management and to work under pressure in a professional manner, which is what Liam was able to do. There was good communication between director, photographer and the models, and it is clear  you have to be good at taking direction and be able to give direction to your subjects to really get the ideal shot.


My Images from the afternoon/evening shoots:

The images will likely appear on his website soon.

http://www.mercerphotography.co.uk/home

WBL: Photographs for Illustration Student

WBL: Photographs for Illustration Student

I was recently contacted by an illustration student from Plymouth University to take photographs that they want to use for an animation where he wants to draw over each frame or photograph digitally (this technique is called rotoscoping) 


Brief statement from Student:

My plan is to create a sequence of a giant coming out of the water by Plymouth Ho and animating it using a technique called rotoscoping( where i would draw over each frame/photograph digitally... leaving me with an entirely animated sequence. It took 2 shoots on separate days to collect all the images for the sequence, but it will take a lot lot longer to edit all if them into an animation. Once i have drawn over the photographs i would see the animation becoming my own, but the photographic sequence was entirely down to katie. She has been an invaluable part of my project.

Link to stock motion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1rzmo9chk8&feature=youtu.be

FMP: Shoot 3: Mollie

FMP: Final Major Project

This is my third shoot for my final major project, but my second shoot using my sister. I used the same lighting set up: One key light with soft box situated on the right side of the body. Using light meter and flash synchronisation. Concentrating on the flesh, using a soft box which diffuses the light emphasising the soft and smooth texture of young skin. I would have liked to had longer to photograph the model, and perhaps experimented more with body angles/stances however I think generally the shoot overall was a success, I think I got a few really strong images as final contenders along with the strongest images from the previous shoot I did with my sister.

Shot on 29th March 2013
Mollie
Age: 11

Images from the shoot, that I think are the most successful:

All Images:

Katie Minchin © All Rights Reserved

FMP: Shoot 2: Mum

FMP: Final Major Project

This was my second shoot for my final major project, my model this time was my mum. Repeating the process I did with Mollie, concentrating solely on the body parts again looking at hands, flesh and so forth. I used a key light, and instead of a soft box I used a dish I wanted harsher lighting for the this shoot to emphasis on the texture on the skin, as I found 'older' skin was more interesting to look at, so much detail to focus on, lines that followed each other, repetitive lines. As you get older you lose the firmness and skins becomes more 'stretchy' and 'loose' which is what i've found intriguing while researching and shooting for this project.


Shot on 27th March 2013
Ann Marsh
Age: 50
Fragments of the Body: Four images from the shoot:

All images:

Katie Minchin © All Rights Reserved

Exhibition on Photographer: IDA KAR

Today I visited an exhibition in collaboration with the national portrait gallery (London) at Plymouth City Museum on Bohemian Photographer: Ida Kar

Ida Kar (1908-1974) is a portraiture photographer, she was also the first photographer to gain an exhibition showing at a major london gallery in 1960s. The exhibition is based on a selection of about 40 of her portrait photographs of artists in their studio or natural environment mostly artists from St. Ives - strong connection with Plymouth. She is not extremely well known but is recognised for her encouragement in the acceptable of fine art photography.  Although my style of photography is not really the area of portraiture as such, but I feel my work falls in the fine art category and like Kar, I hope that my work will be able to influence and encourage people to see photography as art and except it for it's incredible abilities.

Ida Kar, 1962

Terry Frost, 1961 - Ida Kar 

Bridget Riley, 1963 - Ida Kar

For more information about this exhibition, visit:
http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/museumidakar

FMP: Shoot 1: Mollie

FMP: Final Major Project:

During the easter holidays i travelled back home to Bath, taking a lot of kit with me, to ensure I do a few shoots for my final major project over my week stay. As you know i'm focusing on the body as my final major project and the idea was to look at the generations of the body, through time as age begins and slowly takes its course. Instead of photographing the body as whole, I want to photograph it in fragments studying the areas of the body that change dramatically over time that give away the signs of age some of these parts included the flesh, hands, teeth and eyes. The idea is to show the body as a form to celebrate and inform the viewer to appreciate it while we have it and however much you try to slow the process by changing it, distorting to try to hold onto youth; it will still decay and death is inevitable.

This was my first shoot, my sister being the model. I used one key light with a soft box for this shoot as i felt using soft lighting will emphasis the young skin more, its smooth with limited textured.

Shot on 26th March 2013:
Mollie-Ann Marsh
Age: 11
Fragments of the Body: Four images from the shoot.

All Images: 

Katie Minchin © All Rights Reserved.