Alamy Session

The Real Thing!

This week we got told that we would be able to take photos for stock photography company, Alamy. A stock photography company like Alamy is often based online and is a website where photographers can upload and submit their images to sell them through the company. Other companies that need images for their businesses, websites, or magazines etc, can then go onto the stock photography website and buy a photograph. The photographer then gets paid for every photo they sell. 
Alamy is one of the leading stock imagery websites however there is lot's of companies in competition. Shutterstock is arguably another huge stock imagery company, as well as Getty Images and Istock. However I chose Alamy because for students (as I am) they don't take any commisions for what the buyer pays for the image. Students get 100% of the money the buyer pays. If you're not a student they still offer 60% of the money which is still a very good deal. 
Stock photography can be pretty much anything, from landscape to macro, to black and white imagery. You can be so free and random with you photographs as you like, as long as they are sharp, quality photographs. There is a rules and regulations page on the Alamy website that tells you all the dos and donts of how to submit your images to Alamy. Before you can upload any photo onto their website you have to submit only 4 photos through Quality Control (QC). Here is their submission guidlines:

They then go on to say that they reject any images that contain:

These are things I needed to make sure I didn't have in my photos. My plan was to shoot objects and scenes in my house that could possibly used for companies. I also thought about doing some macro photographs with an emotion incorporated into them. These are my four images that I chose from my independant shoot.

Session Eight

Fashion Shoot

In this session we were given a brief and a task to produce two shoots in the way that fashion labels advertise and sell their clothing. One being a studio shoot, and the other a location shoot. We had to choose from two labels: ASOS and BOOHOO, and shoot in the style of our chosen label. I chose ASOS because I thought that the style was more professional and to my ability. 

I looked at the ASOS website and at how they photograph the clothing, the model's poses and how they frame their shots. I looked at some of their boutique stuff. the photography was a little less professional, however it gave me ideas for locations. I also looked at Pinterest and made a board of lots of different fashion photography to give me ideas of what to photograph but importantly, ideas for poses. 

Topman came in handy when I was coming up with ideas for my location shoot. I looked at some of their location shoots advertising their coats. The photographer used an open field and cold misty tones to give the photo a cold look making you want to wear the coat.

Here are screen shots of the research I did.

This is all ASOS research

Topman research

Pinterest research

My ideas were to combine a lot of the techniques and styles of all the research. For my studio shoot I first used mainly inspirations from ASOS, using similar male poses. Then using female poses and framing of the images, such as fitting the whole model in the frame.

These are my final studio images.

Then for my location shoot I wanted to use a simple background. I wanted to shoot in a field or something that was bleak and basic, much like the Topman images i researched. However when I came to do my shoot that kind of location wasn't available, so I decided to use my garage door. I liked it because it was white but also because it had textures and patterns on it. It didn't distract you or clash with the subject and the outfit, it complimented it and made the outfit stand out.

Session Seven

Creating Acting Head Shots

In this session our objective was to collaborate with a model and to create some acting head shots. Our tutor showed us a shoot he did himself with one of his friend actors. This was a good help in giving us ideas of how to create acting photographs ourselves, using the studio. different lightings such as high key and low key lighting, but also how to interacting with the model and collaborate to get the best result. I used one of my friends that had done drama in high school, although isn't an actor. I thought this might help somewhat in her perhaps knowing what an actor would be looking for. Here are my 10 images. 

I edited these in Lightroom. I have created multiple edits so that there is more variety of tones and moods. Also to make sure I had ten photos. A lot of the photos I took when shooting weren't actually in focus. This was down to the fact that the camera lens and little specs of dust on and so the camera couldn't focus properly. Over all I really like these photographs and I feel they are very strong and definitely quite professional. I got a lot of my ideas from looking at images on Pinterest. 
Here's a small screen shot of my board that I made.

Session Six

Beauty In The Eye of The Camera Holder 2

In this session we got the chance to photograph all our ideas. Here are my best shots. I have edited them in Lightroom and given them colour cast and split tones. This was to create that retro feel that I was aiming for.

These two photographs (above and below) were taken outside and were meant to relate to the old photography adverts. They were meant to portray the fun of photography (below) and professionalism (above). I chose the colour cast because they were vibrant yet have an 'old school' tone.  

  

I am really pleased with these photographs. Obviously I took a lot more, however these are mostly the best images that I captured of each angle, scene or frame. It was great fun as well, getting out lots of old cameras and 35mm cameras and using them to experiment with different ways of making photography and taking photographs 'beautiful'.

Session Five

Beauty In the Eye Of the Camera Holder

In this fifth session we were told that this session and the next will be all about the beauty of photography. Looking at photography and thinking about how we can 'sell' the idea of taking photographs and making photography look 'beautiful'.  We thought about what is appealing about photography. I also did some independent research into how photography was advertised when it first became available in small compact cameras. Here is my Pinterest mood board -- V

I think that I have gained a lot of ideas from just looking through Pinterest and Google. One of the main things I want to take from my research is the retro old fashion tones and styles of the images. I want to also use some old format cameras, as well as some compact 35mm cameras. I want to use them to make photography look like it's not all about just snapping photos with your phone, that the beauty is often purely in the camera itself. 

Session Four

Product Photography 2

This is the second session we had on product photography. In this session we were able to bring in our own items and shoot our own photographs of our products. I brought in two Lynx deodorant cans, both of the same scent. One was the body spray and one was the actual deodorant. My ideas were originally to take a photograph of the cans together in some sand or something, as they are both Lynx Dry cans. I thought it would be a good way of advertising the product. Here are some of the images I took.

As you can see I didn't take photographs of the product in sand, because it wasn't available to me. However I thought that I could spray the cans with a bit of water, giving them a cool and potentially professional look. I like the fact that the water contradicts the 'Dry' can and that it could potentially represent sweat which I think could be a clever way of advertising it - perhaps in quite a twisted way.

I used the studio to shoot the photographs and then edited them in Lightroom. I desaturated all the colours except the blues, making the blue pop out more.