Portraiture photography

portraiture photographs from shoot

Evaluation for pack shots

How it went -
We chose our own products that we wanted to take photographs of (the ones below are what I chose) we then had two different set ups. One of the set ups had the flash lighting and the other used hard lighting. In my opinion the flash light technique wasn't very good and I wasn't happy with the outcomes of my photographs where as the hard lighting technique was much better and the quality of the images looked more professional. Flash lighting is a device used in photography producing a flash of artificial light at a colour temperature to help illuminate a scene. A major purpose of a flash is to illuminate a dark scene. Other uses are capturing quickly moving objects or changing the quality of light. Flash refers either to the flash of light itself or to the electronic flash unit discharging the light. Most current flash units are electronic, having evolved from single-use flashbulbs and flammable powders. Modern cameras often activate flash units automatically. Hard lighting is a light that creates shadows with a sharp edge. There is a negligible transition from light to dark. Hard light is created by strongly focussed light travelling from a small (or relatively small), single-point light source like the Sun, a focussed beam of light, or an undiffused light bulb).

Hard light is found where the lighting is direct, undiffused, and is not bouncing or scattered by local objects or conditions. The flash on your camera is a hard light source. When direct and undiffused by clouds the sun is also a hard light source. A hard light source is relatively small and/or large and distant.

Firstly, In the group I were in we started off taking pictures using flash lighting and we all agreed that we did not like this. The photographs we were taking came out looking awful as it was either too dark or too light, at the wrong angle and the lighting made it look worse, and there were light marks on the products. We had to create our own shadows by using paper or other objects within the room that we thought would work but after spending enough time trying to get nice photographs we decided to move on to hard lighting.

Hard lighting was much better and we all agreed on this. The lighting was perfect and all that needed moving was the product we were taking images of to get them at the correct angle to look professional. Hard lighting created shadows (due to the products) for us, so we didn't need to try and create our own. The images looked sharp and in focus and non of the images had a light mark on the product therefore we could see exactly what it was.

After taking the images in the studio we then chose the ones we thought were best and edited them in Photoshop. My skills within this software are not great so I had to learn more whilst trying to edit the images. Luckily I chose the images from the hard light set up so nothing really needed changing. The only tweaks that were needed on the image were things like the label on the bean can that wasn't straight and the light shone on the bottom and top of the bean can making the silver look different shades so I used different tools to try and make the can look the same colour.

Here are a few pictures of the finished images after being edited in Photoshop.

food photography power point

Airbrushed image of Jennifer Aniston

 Original image
I looked on Google and chose an image of Jennifer Aniston to practise airbrushing on.
Opening up this picture on Adobe Photoshop the first tool I used was the clone tool. This helps take away blemishes, spots or strands of hair that are across faces. This happens by selecting am area on their face to copy and then brush over the blemishes.
The next tool I used was the surface blur and the layer mask. I duplicated the layer meaning I have to pictures of Jennifer Aniston just in case I go wrong some where. I then used the surface blur, this covers the pours in the skin making it look smooth.
After I used his I then made a new background copy and added a new layer mask. This makes features on faces, hair and clothes sharper so they stand out.
After I added everything together I then changed the opacity of everything so she didn't look fake, so it's around half the real image and half airbrushed.

Airbrushed image

Pack shots