Third Session

Product Photography 1

This session our tutor gave us a task for this session and the next, to come up with lots of different markets and types of companies that use studio photography and studio lighting to create advertising and promotions. We first got split up into groups and thought of different items that branding companies would try to advertise via photography. 

My group came up with:

Clothes/fashion
Sunglasses
Football/sport equipment
Fruit
Cigarettes/e-cig
Beverages
Hair products and make up
Cars
Hair Styles
Cameras and camera equipment

I then decided to think about how those products are normally photographed. I thought how clothes and fashion are photographed. When advertising clothes photographically you normally dress a model with a certain image or style that would suit the fashion and make it more appealing to the buyer. The location of the where the photos are taken are important as well depending on the style of the clothing. Places like a beach or a field are used quite often, however some people in high end fashion use more contemporary ideas like the dessert or they manipulate an image to make it look like there person is perhaps in space or on the moon.

This is a photo I chose to analyse as an advert and how it's been photographed to promote the product and make it appealing. The photographer has thought about the logo of the label on the bottle and thought about placing the product in an Alaskan type scene where it's cold and cool. Then there's the ice which goes with the cold environment and makes the drink look more refreshing. The photographer and designers have used colour coordination with the blue of the logo and the sky, as well as the orange sun on the hills and the orange tint of the bottle. Also blue and orange are complimentary colours, making the photo more vibrant. There's textures in the image too, such as the wood that the bottle is on, giving the photo an authentic look. And the ice on the bottle makes you feel cool. 
The photographer has used lots of different basic techniques to take this photo. They has used a low vantage point, making the bottle look bigger than the mountains. They have also used the rule of thirds, leaving some nice negative space on the left of the photo for the graphic designer.



This was an image someone else from our class chose however I thought it was a really clever photo and thought I'd include it.
In this photo the Marmite is hidden giving that hint of the slogan 'Just don't forget it'. It's very clever because also they've used other kitchen cupboard foods and given the image a tungsten lighting. This gives that home feeling to the photo and makes it almost more personal. The fact that the jar is hidden and it almost looks as though it's peeping out, so the use of personification is in there. Again the photographer has used the rule of thirds however the vantage point is level, as if you were actually looking into the cupboard.

All this was great research for ideas on how we would create our own photographic adverts and how we could create our own product photography which we will do next session.

Second Session

The Basics of a Studio

In our second session we were shown how to set up and use the studio equipment. We learnt how to turn on the lights safely as well as set the brightness that we wanted. Then we were shown how to use the light meter which helps when taking photos with your camera. The light meter measures the brightness and speed of the studio lights when the flash and tells you on the little screen what camera settings you need to get the perfectly exposed image that you want.

This is the light meter that we use in the studio to measure the flash of the studio lights.
We practiced using high key lighting with a basic light set up; a light on either side of the subject. High key lighting is where the subject is nicely lit, and you can see every detail - there is very little shadow in the image. 



It was a good session and we were able to create some good simple portraits just by using very simple lighting. 
These are some of the shots I took. I edited them slightly but you can see what the studio lighting does.

As these were just experimental shots and also just as practice, I feel they have turned out really well. The lighting is well lit and they are nice and sharp. I am hoping that I can do a lot more high key studio shoots and get some great photos in the future of this project.