Assignment #4 Lighting Technique Final due 9-26

As Commercial Photographers we are often asked to make something fabulous out of products that may have very little interest if any at all.  This is the point at which you have to begin to pull camera, lighting, propping, and special effects techniques out of your tool box and let the image scream excitement even if the subject doesn’t.

Sometimes you may be shooting a common everyday item that the art director wants to see presented in a different way than usual.  A combination of lens selection, lghting effects, special effects, propping, and post processing can lend a very different point of view to products or themes that have been done to death through the years.

For your assignment you will research specific lighting and special effects techniques on the web and apply your findings to a common household item.  This item could be a shoe, a basketball,  a bowl of cereal.  Anything that we could all recognize and would easily find around the house will work.  Next, do the research.  Look at all of the options from the perspective of achieving a result you have not seen before by trying a technique you have never tried before.

This could include light painting, home made light modifiers (lots of web sites show how), cross processing film, or using selective diffusion during exposure.  Either way, the idea is to create an image that has much more going on visually than simply showing the subject well.  Basically we are trying to compensate for the subject by making the image exciting in other ways.

The image can be digital and can be retouched.  Drop your untouched jpeg along with the final jpeg on the server under a folder called Assignment #4

Photographer Inspiration- Final due September 19

Whether we know it or not, or care to admit it, we all have one or more photographers whose work we aspire to. Their work either facinates, excites, or inspires us in some way. It may be that their work is what motivated you to this place in your life. This person whether you know them or not can be considered your mentor. In small ways you look to them for guidance or reassurance, or just some visual inspiration.

For the first phase of this assignment you will identify your photographic mentor and present their work to our group. You should be able to tell us what it is about this person’s work that interests you, and tell us ways that your own work has been influenced by them. This person does not need to be a name we have all heard of, but we do need a way to see their work, preferrably a web site or book, so that we can discuss what makes them different from everyone else.

Phase one will take place on the afternoon of September 12th

Phase two of this assignment is to really explore what it is about this photographer that inspires you, and create an image of your own in honor of their style. For example, do you like a certain photographer’s use of light, digital manipulation, use of color, conceptual themes, lavish productions, work with people? These things and more go into creating amazing images and can be used in infinite combination to achieve great results. After presenting your mentor in class we will discuss as a group some ways in which you might go about creating similar imagery for yourself.

The final part of phase two is to execute the image. Choose a subject matter that is in keeping with that of your mentor and try your best to figure out what things you would have to do to get that look. Obviously there will be significant production and budgetary differences between your imaging process and that of the person you aspire to, but that’s kind of the point. Once you begin considering all of the mechanics of an image and the production behind that image, then the real photographic work has been done and the rest of the effort is in styling and making the shot “pretty”.