D.R

Photo taker, Scotland, 24

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// HyperRealism.

This was my image for HyperRealism. It was made by using Photoshop techniques such as using Layers and Blending, to merge the two images together whilst keeping it looking as realistic as possible. 

Using the first image of me standing at the beach in Tarlair, Macduff. Using this image i cropped out the centre section, where the sea and beach where.

Then using the second image, being a landscape of Glen Coe in Scotland. I shot this image whilst out shooting my Fashion Major.

Creating two different folders, one for the background adjustments and one for the foreground adjustments. Using the mask, i masked out the area that i wanted to remove, then using adjustments such as Feather and Radius, changed how soft the edges would be on the mask. This tied in well with making the whole foreground blurred, as to resemble it being out of focus. Then just using the layers, positioned the background landscape to where it would suit best. Did some minor colour grading and a slight tweak to the brightness and contrast of the background landscape image after that to make the tones of the two images match each other. To not stand out too much from each other.

I feel the images work well together and works for the HyperRealism Genre.

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Workplace Documentation - 03

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WorkPlace Documentation. Personal Development.

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COGC HND2 Exhibition

From starting college two years ago, iv found that this is really a new chapter to my life.

Meeting everyone in the course, and seeing the infectious passion that everyone has for this medium, has really shawn a new light on it for me. Meeting all the lovely characters and personalities that everyone has, has been the upmost pleasure to work with and be around for the past two years!

Seeing all the different interpretations and ideas of similar subjects, was really wonderful!

These images that i took at the exhibition, are there to give a small insight into the work, the venue and to the most wonderful people i have every had the joy of knowing and/or working with. 

I want to thank everyone that made the exhibition possible, everyone that helped with moving boards and frames, to everyone that worked out marketing, budgeting etc. All of yous, i am grate-full! The exhibition was a real wonder to be a part off and seeing the vast array of work that these amazing people have produced over the year is astounding and really captivating.

Going onto BA next year, filling me with stress and anxiety even before i have finished this year, makes me want to take that, and turn it into fuel to push me forward creating new and intriguing work.  

I wish everyone, the upmost congratulations on this year and wish you all the best in wherever your life’s take you next! Hopefully have the joy of working with yous again in the future!

Also to my lecturers with having to put up with us for a hole year! Keeping us enthralled in the medium and making us push ourselves to create the best work possible! Again i will forever be grate-full.

D.R

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James Pfaff: Walk & Talk - Street Level Photoworks

Street Level provides inspiring encounters in art photography locally and internationally; a creative setting to exhibit, produce, participate, and buy photography.

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Hope to see some people there! 

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Documentary - Macduff, Scotland.

“Zen. This place to me summed up in one word.”

It has a sence of pure bliss, the crisp ocean air, mixing with the piercing squaks of the seagulls, sends me to a surrene place like no other.

For this brief i have decided to take images of Macduff, Scotland.

This town has had a long a rich heritage and from a very early age thanks to my parents, would frequent the town as we had a small holiday home on the holidays.

The images to me are a small reflection of what i used to enjoy and what i hold dear, being such a nostalgic place to me.

They reflect my early years, jumping around the rocks beside the coast, walking through the shipyards and goking at the shere size of the ships, and just taking in the fresh ocean air that, to me, you will not get anywhere else in the country.

The small fish shop that we always, no matter what, had to get some fish from, as you couldn't get any more fresh than just of the ship, 20 meters down the harbor!

Nothing and nowhere will ever take this place from my heart, and will always be that one place to me that makes all my problems and worries, go away.

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Fashion - Brand ‘Vans’

These are the two final images that i got for my Fashion brand brief. Decided to go with these two shots as i feel they give the feel and atmosphere that i was looking to create. 

Using the beach and the fact that we are having abnormally sunny weather at the moment, took these images inspired by the Californian Beach atmosphere that you get in a lot of ‘Vans’ marketing material. But adding my own flair to it that i feel gives it a unique look and would make people interested in buying there clothes.

The first image being of the model wearing the ‘Vans’ Jacket and shoes, being on a pier, decided to use a low depth of field than i normally would (F4.0) for something like this, and felt that it worked well in making the model stand out from the background whilst keeping the detail on the subject and the clothing. The pier, having the water in the background separates the subject from the background nicely also, whilst still giving the viewer the feeling that she is beside the seaside. 

The second image being the product shot of the ‘Vans’ shoes, propped them up on a rock that we had carried over from the other beach as this gave a more natural position and showing off the shoe in the best light, whilst still keeping the beach, sunny atmosphere that i was looking for. Again using (F4.0) and a reflector to bounce some light back onto the shoes, gave nice depth to the image whilst keeping the shoes the main focal point of the image.  

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Fashion - Brand Contacts

For my Fashion - Brand project i decided to choose ‘Vans’.

This is a clothing company, that are now pushing into the mainstream from the skateboarding routes and have made a real punch into the fashion scene this year. 

This coming from the trends in fashion at this time, lending themselves to ‘Vans’ trademark skateboard/Californian lifestyle look that is represented to heavily by there brand. With this though they have been making major pushes to open themselves up to far more markets by catering to younger markets and even producing some more high end collaborations with other companies such as ‘North Face’ and alike, that also give there brand a more boutique, limited edition feeling, and have been highly successful doing this.

These are contacts taken from a shoot done recently, up near ‘Loch Lomond’, where i was looking to create that Californian beach style imagery, so heavily prevalent in ‘Vans’ marketing material, and re-create that, with my own Scottish flare and using the Unnaturally good weather we are having at the moment to my advantage.

Going for some product shots with the ‘Vans’ Shoes and using a black ‘Vans’ jacket as-well, this was my idea to use the black clothing that ‘Vans’ are so well known for in the skateboard industry and has been making a comeback in recent fashion trends with black being a prevalent look these days.

For these images i was looking to use a lower depth of field to give a soft, dreamy feel to the images, whilst using one of my own pre-set’s to create a orange and teal feeling to the colours, giving it a warmer feel and lending to the sunny, Californian feel that i was looking to re-create. This works well in keeping the product and the subject separate whilst still keeping them in frame to give a good context to the image and where and what she is doing. 

This lended well to what i was wanting, and feel that the images that i got were really good in conveying that style that i was looking to re-create.

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Fashion - Major Finals

These were the Final images the i chose for my Fashion - Major brief. 

The theme was “Instagram” and how the new age style of photography seems to take in a lot of wilderness images where the model is standing with a sublime background out in the wilderness somewhere. 

These shots where taken on location at Glen Coe. 

These spots, I have been too on many occasions and have found that i kept wanting to use it for a brief as i thought it would give a unique background compared to a lot of other photographers work. Taking inspiration from Vince Perraud,  i had thought about giving it a BTS, although through working with the model i found that these shots would be far more bold and sticking. Giving a very new age, abstract look at some chic, lazy day clothing, with the contrast of the bleak mountains and grasslands in the background.

Model: Lena Heckel 

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Graded Unit - Final Images

These are the final images that i chose to use for my Graded Unit.  

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GCU Fashion Showcase.

Couple of weeks ago i was asked by Suzanne if I would be up for shooting some images for the advertising material for the GCU Fashion Showcase.

This event is showcasing the students that have been taking part in creating a magazine, in collaboration with Gant, and were awarded prizes for certain for creative ideas and methods in producing a slick and professional appearance in line with Gants image.

The art director @illbeyourmirror wanted to have a Lillac Hue over the images and wanted a very soft and low contrast style image. The poses where to be strong and bold, keeping with very abstract movements and postures.

Starting off at the shoot we set up two sets at either end of the studio, since we were lucky enough to have it all to ourselves. One being natural light and the other being artificial. The artificial background had a soft pink background on it which did work but wasn't giving them the desired effect that they were looking for. Then trying the natural light set up and finding that it seemed to work a lot better and gave a far more soft contrast feel whilst still keeping the detail in the model and the clothing. Then in post, making a Hue Preset so that i could adjust the saturation on the preset and apply it to all the images then tweak it based on the outfit. 

Sticking to a low aperture and trying not to bump the iso too high, looked at bouncing some light into the set using some of the white covered boards. This gave me a softer light and lended to the low contrast, soft feeling they where looking for. Apart from that, the shoot was very fun and was clean and professionally done.  

I really enjoyed this shoot. Everyone was highly professional and were giving clear concise orders on what they where looking for and how they wanted the end product to be. 

(Only got used for the pamphlet inside the showcase, was expecting them to get used else were, although must have been mistaken.)  

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Advertising Talk

Thursday 03/05/2018

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Fashion Major - Research

For my “Fashion Major Brief” i decided to take something that we all use everyday, Instagram, and used that to create a theme for my shoot.

Instagram. One of thee biggest apps, growing in popularity day by day, has allowed people to tap into genres and industries that would other wise have been of limits to them. 

Fashion being one of the biggest genres on the app, allowing people from nearly every walk of life, take there own adaptation and style to what they are wearing and being able to show it to the entire world. This being impossible nearly 10-15 years ago, when the only way to get your material noticed would be to know the right people or be in the industry already.

Being a very cut-throat industry, has been melded around “who you know” idea of networking. Although this has been shifted nearly on its head by Instagram, allowing people from nearly all walks of life, no matter who you know or what your style and interpretation is, as long as you can consistently post and have a niche that you can do better than other people, you are set to get a following.

My main inspiration for this photoshoot was taken from looking at Vince Perroad’s work, and how he has a very low contrast, instagram style feel to his images, although one thing made clear in the images is that they are in a set style of composition.

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Fashion Brief Final

For this brief we were tasked at looking at Artists and Directers and where to choose one, and replicate/take inspiration from there image and create our own intuiting interpretation of it.

I decided to go with a Vintage 50′s inspired theme for my image. Also using the theme of red, big and bold, just like the 1950′s.

Clothing - 50′s biker inspired, hair up in a bun, maybe using a bandana. Also using some high waisted jeans, a loose fitting top so that can be worn around shoulders. (insert research Image)

Mackup - Red Lipstick, pin-up style, glamour style. (insert research Image)

Background - Using some fabric for my background, hopefully find something either Red or black. (insert research Image)

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Face

This is my final image for the “Face” brief.

This was a very laid back shoot for me. I was taking pictures of my girlfriend for this shoot after having 3 models both friends and people that i was going to get in for this shoot. Didn't want to miss my studio space and risk waisting the time.

This first couple of shots from the shoot where good, deciding to go for a unconventional lighting setup. Using one of the setups that john had taught us form the other week, when doing studio lighting situations. Having a long straight light-box and having it shooting straight down onto a table, where you have an angled whiteboard to bounce the light against the subject. Also making sure to light the background separately as usual. Don’t pay attention to the diagram, only to show how the set-up worked.

This light i found to have a really warm glow that came from it and projected that onto your subject. The light was really defused that came from this set-up, bouncing it off all the whiteboards.  The glow that gets projected adds to the front of there face and gives nice shadows and doesn't over expose the model whilst keeping a warm glow from there face.

This shot was fun as i found that obviously because i knew the subject and was comfortable when we where there i could spend  a lot more of my attention on getting the right just right. After going through 3 different lighting set-ups for that day ended up choosing this one. The glow on her face was the first thing to attract me to this. Also how the light being diffused off the whiteboard means that you dont get any real direction to the light, meaning that its even all the way across her face, hair and neck.

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Fashion - Editorial

- For this brief we were tasked with taking a shoot that was inspired by a Lifestyle shoot for Sunday Herald as a reference for what we would be producing. We were to organise a self-initiated shoot, contacting MUA, stylist or any other assistant or models that we would be needing.

- Were were to create a shoot that was inspired by Sunday Herald or a publication of your choice.

- Seeing as recently before me and a few other students had been meeting up with University students and collaborating on a “Gant” Inspired shoot. This gave me a huge amount of experience and made me get a real confidence boost. Main take away from this was being on a Team that were all looking to create a good product and weren't afraid to give there input and ideas on what they where looking for, also being very professional. That to me makes the experience just that bit less stressfull, when time is in a crunch but your wanting to get the best possible shot, having the client tell you yes or no to what your taking as your taking them made it that bit easier.

- This Shoot was to get a *London/Business* feel to the images. We chose to go to Caledonian University. The Metal buildings and small areas of gardens gave a really nice aesthetic buildings, which gave us that feeling your in the City Centre and around a Business orientated area. 

- The models and that being already booked by use, although having to get the relevant model release forms signed by them so that we could use the images afterwards. They were more than professional which makes my job a lot easier. They did everything i asked without complaint, couldn't ask more from your models than that. 

- For the outfits, the stylist wanted to go with a *Autumn* feel, having them wear the heavy coats and such outside, with the front open as to be able to see there shirts and formal clothing underneath. We experimented with a few different ideas in terms of having them carrying there jackets and even having him sling his over his shoulder. Although after review didn't feel like they fit what we were looking for and was a bit too relaxed for the atmosphere we where going for.  

- This was my cover image that i chose for this brief. I had several differing angles, trying to get the light on to them as best i could for the situation. Using a small reflector bouncing some light back onto them just to give the sharpness on there face and bring the detail out in there outfits. Also making a few mockups for a *Front Cover* in photoshop just to make sure to leave some room for text. It gives you the feel of them being fashionable business types. 

- Detail Shot. Trying to get some of there outfit in, whilst keeping main focus on the shoes and the watches that they were wearing. This ties in well with the business theme and also going with a short depth of field gives it a close up feel, making it feel a lot more intimate and drawing your attention to where the focus is, on the details. 

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Barber / Hair and Beauty Show

Earlier this month I was asked to take image’s for the Barber / Hair and beauty show that was on at the SECC .

Tasked with showing off the atmosphere of the show and trying to obtain pictures that would accurately show off the atmosphere at the event.

I am happy with how they turned out. As i have been shooting events like this for a few years now on the annual trip down south to Eurogamer, that happens every September, gives me brilliant opportunities to improve how i am taking my images. Being one of the more difficult locations to shoot in, meaning that the light was pretty terrible. Often with how many booths and exhibitions that are on at these events, the lighting can be the complete nightmare. Having bright LED’s shinning multiple colours, to the really moody tungsten lights that are up above, getting the right settings to create the shot your looking for can be quite a struggle. Adding in the hardest aspects of shooting an exhibition, being that you have to do all this while walking through crowds of people and trying not to bump into them and/or make them feel uncomfortable, if there are in a shot that your looking to take.