Sunday, 6 January 2013

DPP-Part 1; Exercise 1

 
Exercise; Your own workflow part 1

With this exercise, I have to devise and then put in to practice a workflow that suits me personally for a specific short assignment. Doing this as a portrait session with limited time.

The workflow that I planned before this event was the following;-

Choosing a subject
I wanted to choose a subject first, so I could see what equipment I needed. I decided to choose my mechanic; firstly because he has a very interesting face, secondly, he smokes a pipe, so I thought it would be an interesting dynamic shoot.

Choosing my equipment
I choose to use my 72mm lens as I think it’s best for portraits and it’s a good lens, I didn’t bring my speed light as I wanted to have a dark dynamic image, also I think it can be more intimidating to the subject when you have a speed light and as he was reluctant to doing the shoot, I felt it best to not use it.

What to ensure was ready
I charged all my batteries the day before, bought an extra memory card with me and I had my lens cleaning kit.

When I arrived
I fired a few test shots of where I wanted him to be, without him in the spot and with him in the spot.

Timing
I made sure the shoot would be with a 15 minute time frame, enough time for me to get him relaxed and take photographs, but long enough for him to smoke his pipe!

Settings
I then adjusted all of my settings (ISO, Aperture etc) to ensure the lighting was how I wanted it to react with the camera and took some more shots.

Shoot
Throughout the shoot, I wanted him to be as relaxed as possible, so, I talked to him a lot, made jokes and let him do his thing as I wanted the shots to be as natural as possible.

After the shoot
I went home and uploaded via bridge.

Organising
I then put the images in a specific file and kept them in the order that I shot them at, I deleted the images that were no good, then I went through every image and choose the images that I liked the most, expression wise, and put them in a separate file.

Sorting and Editing
From there, I zoomed in on every image and checked to see which one was in focus, sharp and had the best lighting; I then put them in another folder named final edits.

Final stages
From the 5 I had chosen, I edited them all and them I chose the best images, which I then put in another file. I chose 2 images as I liked both equally, for different reasons.
 


For this exercise, I have shown the work flow that I used above, but for the images on this exercise, I have shown the photos that I chose as my best images and then the final two images.




Here are the images of my workflow;-

Best images
 







Here are the final two images;-

























I chose to edit the 1st image to black and white as I felt it was more dramatic and the detail and focus were on his hands, which I think are really detailed, I especially liked the ash that is on the end of his finger and I feel the black and white, makes it stands out.
 

I chose the second image because of the clarity and focus on his face and I like the gazing look that he gives whilst thinking. I like the composition of both images.

I found this exercise really interesting, I liked taking the images and it was also really good to pre plan my shoot as I had never done it that way before.

I found the workflow worked for me and was easy, as I’m an extremely organised person!  If I had done it any other way, it wouldn’t have made any logical sense, in my head. However, I can see that different styles may work for others.


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