Film Noir (Image manipulation)

I was commissioned by a friend to shoot some images of a 30th birthday party. I was given a brief to produce some old style images and the theme of the party was 20's 30's film noir night,which roughly translates to old black and white films and characters from this era.The party goers were all dressed as different characters from this era in time and I was asked to manipulate the images to possibly reflect and emulate this era in time

The images were all shot in a local hotel.The images were shot with a Canon 5D3 and a Canon 430 speedlight. The ceiling of the hotel was very low so I bounced the flash to give an even spread of light to eluminate my subjects

I mainly used photoshop for this procedure using various layers to change the images structures. I firstly desaturated the images to black and white then added a texture from my library of textured images to give the images an aged feel

I used a third party piece of software which has some in built filters to shift the focal point of the image of centre to another part of the image and also added a blurred vignette to the edges of the images

Shown here are the finished images which I think portray the 1920's-30's era that my client requested

Shown below are the original images shot on the night before manipulation

I have also included some screen grabs of the meta data taken from the images which shows aperture, shutter speeds and other data that my camera was using at the time when the images were shot

Shown here are some more screen grabs of the techniques that I used to desaturate and blend layers together in Photoshop to give my images a sort of old/worn appearance, I think the technique works quite well

Shown below here is a screen grab taken from Bridge of some of my textures that I use to add to my images. I have a library of textures which I collect and add to and it's amazing how many different textures there are out there if you just open your eyes and look for them

The texture I used in the images above here was taken from a very old tree which had some interesting patterns,shadows and grooves,which when desaturated produces the ideal layer to give my images an old /worn look

Shown below are some of the images I used for ideas and inspiration for this project.These were general images taken from the Internet which gave me posing ideas, information on hairstyles and ideas to create the ambiance of the images

The final images were sent to print at an online print processor named Loxley Colour one of the best online photo printers in the business. The prints were requested in various sizes and printed on an extreme matt paper which gave the images an authentic look and feel which the client was really please with. The images were then mounted in a photographic album of the clients choice and presented to my client as the finished article

Fashion Shoot Planning 23-03-2013

Fashion Shoot Planning

I had planned to shoot some fashion images this weekend and had organised a Fashion shoot in the college studio on Saturday 23rd March.Unfortunately, due to adverse weather conditions I had to cancel the shoot as the college was closed due to heavy snow and freezing temperatures

I now need to re-arrange another date to complete the shoot as all of the planning went out of the window

Planning is a key part in organising a photography shoot and it's critical that everthing comes together for the few hours that a model will be posing behind the camera lens for you

These are the elements that I had to manage and control to bring my shoot together:

Arranage and hire a photography studio
Arrange and hire a model for the phtography session
Arrange for a lighting and prop person to help out with changing of sets and lighting configurations
Plan lighting setups in the photography studio
Research and plan detailed shots and poses of various fashion models

Shown here are some images taken from the Internet which i have used for ideas and inspiration

I was inspired by this very excellent London Fashion photographer Jarek Duk,shown here are some of his images

Inspiration London fashion photographers

I am in the process of studying various photographers especially those that live in London and those who are in touch with the latest fashion scene and everything en vogue

I came across this photographer from London his name is Jarek Duk and I found his photography to be exceptional, with excellent lighting techniques,great models,locations and an excellent website. Shown below is some of his work from his website

It's essential to look at other photographer's work's to gain more knowledge and to acquire a better understanding of styles,lighting techniques,modeling/models,poses equipment etc

I would like to emulate this standard of photography and I have to analyse the elements of this persons photography to ascertain how he has achieved such a high standard of work

These are the key elements that I assume has helped this photographer to produce such stunning photography. 

Fantastic Locations

Great looking professional Models

Lighting. Most of the shots here would have been produced using portable studio lighting

Camera, possibly medium format Hasselblad's etc

Posing and composition

Excellent post production

On analysis of the the images above it's plain to see that all of the images were produced using various addititional lighting which enhance and embelish the subjects even further

Recent Portraits

I have recently been increasing my knowledge and understanding of portrait photography by shooting some different shots of various friends and family within my conservatory studio. This is not an ideal location due to it's size but is fine enough to produce some good head and shoulder shots

I have been using a mixture of flash and studio heads to produce the various results and shown here are some of my latest portraits

Here I used 2 Bowens 500 heads to achieve this shot, the main key light was set at a power level 2 using  an F Stop of F8. The second light I used at power level 1,whch was used as a fill light also at F8. It's very impotant to try and keep the catch lights in the eyes at either the 2 or 10 o'clock positions. This mimicks the natural light of the sun whch gives a more natural looking effect to a portrait

I used to 2 umbrellas for the shot, 1 used as a shoot through to give a nice soft difusion and the second to defuse the fill light whch gave some quite pleasing results

Again I used the same setup as above but introduced some colour to the hair using layers in Photoshop. I enhanced the image even further using various software's to smooth the skin tones of the model

The shop above was taken using 2 Canon speedlightlights whch I think gave quite pleasing results. They lack the power ang light quality of studio monolights but still give outatanding results

I have recently purchsed a new lighting system whch will enable me to shoot in studio or out on location as the system is portable. I will be mixing these new lights with speed lights and I am hoping to increase my lighting experience even further. I hope to be shooting lots more portraits outdoors when the weather gets a little warmer and the days become a little lighter

Zach Gold

Im in the proces of studying world renown fashion photographer Zach Gold. Zach Gold began his professional photography career soon after graduating with honors from Parsons School of Design. Shortly after he was selected by the New York Art Directors Club as one of the top 100 artists in New York City under 35 years old. He was one of the first artists in the world to successfully blend the subtle complexities of both camera and computer to produce photorealistic digital art. Articles about his groundbreaking work have been featured in Vogue.com, French Photo, Rojo, Photo District News, Creativity, AdWeek, Bild, Profifoto and many others 

I have a passion for digital art and want to combine some of my digital photography with the world of fashion. I would like to emulate some of the style from this photographer and will be creating photography of a similar nature over the coming weeks

I will be photographing some models in the college studio and out and about at different local locations in my local area. The weather is a governing factor at the moment but as the weather warms up in early spring I hope to be phtographing many local models

Shown here are some of the images that have inspired me

A lot of the the images created by this photographer have been manipulated mainly using different layers and textures using the software Photoshop

I have a very good knowledge of textures and blend modes using photoshop and will be using theses techniques to modify my fashion shoot images

Over the next month I will be concentrating on producing some really good fashion photography images to add to my portfolio

I will be trying to introduce some of this kind of style into my own photography

In the studio I will be using mainly a 4 light setup, 1 main 500 watt key light and 3 more additional heads to produce some funky images

I have placed a casting call for models on the model agency website Pure Storm and the response is normally quite good

I find that with fashion photography the lighting rules go straight out of the window,

you can use a variety of different lighting from harsh to soft light styles from Rembrandt to horror and low to high key

I will be using various coloured gels on various lights throughout my shoots which give more interest and added variation to just a plain normal shot

Shown below is some of Zach Gold's work

Business Planning ( Model shoots)

At this moment in time we are lacking some really killer images to be used on our website to promote our wedding photography business. This spring I plan to get out more to some of the more classical locations such as stately homes to photograph some models for fashion type wedding shoots

I have written to a local bridal wedding/boutique to ask if they would like some free photography taking of their models and dresses. This is a very good way of acquiring free models to assist in your photography.With this approach the boutique and the photographer are both gaining something for virtually nothing for very little outlay

I also plan to do some more studio fashion shoots here at the college to enable me to move forward with my knowledge of lighting techniques and studio setups

Local Wedding Boutique

Customer Service

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back for repeat business, your business won't be profitable for long

Good customer service is all about bringing customers back and about sending them away happy - happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers

If you're a good salesperson, you can sell anything to anyone once. But it will be your approach to customer service that determines whether or not you’ll ever be able to sell that person anything else. The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers – a relationship that that individual customer feels that he would like to pursue

How do you go about forming such a relationship? By remembering the one true secret of good customer service and acting accordingly; "You will be judged by what you do, not what you say."

Providing good customer service is a simple thing. If you truly want to have good customer service, all you have to do is ensure that your business consistently does the following things.

1) Answer your phone.
Get call forwarding or an answering service.Hire staff if you need to but make sure that someone is picking up the phone when someone calls your business.People who call want to talk to a live person, not a fake recorded message on an answering machine

3) Listen to your customers.
Is there anything more exasperating than telling someone what you want or what your problem is and then discovering that that person hasn't been paying attention and needs to have it explained all again. Let your customer talk and show him that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to solve the problem.

4) Deal with complaints.
No one likes hearing complaints, and many of us have developed the attitude "You can't please all the people all the time". Maybe not, but if you give the complaint your attention
you may be able to please this one person this one time - and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service the next time problems arise

5) Be helpful - even if there's no immediate profit in it.
The other day I popped into a local watch shop because I had lost the small piece that clips the pieces of my watch band together. When I explained the problem, the proprietor said that he thought he might have one lying around. He found it, attached it to my watch band – and charged me nothing! Where do you think I'll go when I need a new watch band or even a new watch? And how many people do you think I've told this story to?

6) Train your staff (if you have any) to be always helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable.
Do it yourself or hire someone to train them. Talk to them about good customer service and what it is (and isn't) regularly.Good customer servive how to help a customer explains the basics of ensuring positive staff-customer interactions.) Most importantly, give every member of your staff enough information and power to make those small customer-pleasing decisions, so he never has to say, "I don't know, but so-and-so will be back at..."

7) Take the extra step.
For instance, if someone walks into your store and asks you to help them find something, don't just say, "It's in Aisle 3". Lead the customer to the item. Better yet, wait and see if he has questions about it, or further needs. Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good customer service, take it. They may not say so to you, but people notice when people make an extra effort and will tell other people.

8) Throw in something extra.
Whether it's a coupon for a future discount, additional information on how to use the product, or a genuine smile, people love to get more than they thought they were getting. And don’t think that a gesture has to be large to be effective. The local art framer that we use attaches a package of picture hangers to every picture he frames. A small thing, but so appreciated.
If you apply these eight simple rules consistently, your business will become known for its good customer service. And the best part? The irony of good customer service is that over time it will bring in more new customers than promotions and price slashing ever did!