Photography Applications Task 1

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Photography Applications Craig Cassidy 1

Transcript of Photography Applications Task 1

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Photography Applications

Craig Cassidy

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Advertising/PromotionalAdvertising or promotional photography is probably one of the most present forms of photography you will see day in day out. Photography for the purposes of advertisement typically will consist of photos of the product which is being advertised and then other props will be used such as people or the product will be placed on some form of scenery to help and sell it. It’s essentially all bout creating a good image of the product so that people will be attracted by it.Promotional photographs is quite similar to advertising photography although is kind of a way to raise a products “popularity” and get the product out there so people know of its existence.In 1843 the first photograph with the intention to advertise was taken in the Philippines. Some renown advertisement photographers are Quentin Shih, Hervé lefebvre (one of his advertisement photographs is featured on the bottom right) and Bert Hardy who was originally a photographer for the Army during World War II and then he went onto become a very successful advertisement photographer.These photographs can appear basically anywhere now Most commonly the images which are photographed for advertising purposes are quite heavily edited to make sure that the image will look the best it possibly can do because you wouldn’t want a photograph which is intended to sell something to look bad, they will do this by possibly using artificial lighting to highlight specific parts of the photograph or to just give it that “high end” look. Also there is no specific lenses which should be used for advertising purposes because it all depends on the type of shoot which you want to do.

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Difference between Advertising and Promotional Photography

Just to recap on the above slide.

Advertising photography is photography which is taken usually with the intention to sell a product etc.. Example a photograph of a house in a estate agents which then shows the price of the house beneath would be advertising the house for sale therefore it would advertising photography.

Promotional photography is really just a way of creating awareness for something such as an event or a business. An example of promotional photography could be a photograph of a nice house and then a name of a retail estate included somewhere in the image.

The difference between promotional advertising, is that advertising photograph is taken with the intention to sell a product in the majority of cases and promotional photography is not taken with the intention of selling a product but with the intention of creating awareness for something, it could be a product still. You could also say that promotional photography might serve the same purpose as advertising photography as when you promote a business it might lead to a sale of a product.

Beneath you can see a advertising photograph (on the left) and a promotional photograph (on the right) both for McDonald’s.

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The photograph is definitely controlled , the car might have been stationary when the photo was taken. Then post-production work done on it.

Rain droplets potentially edited into the photo emphasise on speed , also suggest that the car will handle well in the rain.

From what I can see there has been artificial light used to make the car the main thing you see in the photo, also one half of the car appears to be light and the other half dark is this referring to the light and dark side of the car?

The photo is generally quite dark, that will cause the association of the BMW being a “dark horse” .

The car seems to carve its way through the rain

Colours seem emphasised, to add colour to a generally dark photo.

A high quality camera has been used to capture the vast range of colours in the image.

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FashionFashion photographs are photographs which are taken of clothes typically to try and promote and sell a certain fashion brands clothing. Fashion photography will commonly include a model whether it be male or female with certain items of clothing on, the model could just be on a plain background or in a scene which will try and help attract the audience.Fashion photography originates from early as the 1800’s in the form of a book created by Adolphe Braun which contained 288 photographs of Virginia Oldoini the Countess di Castiglione (one photograph of her is in the bottom left corner) the photographs depicted her in her official court garb, technically making her the first fashion model. There are numerous other famous fashion photographers such as Annie Leibovitz, Leibovitz was famous for he photos which were set in a fairy tale theme. Irving Penn and Albert Watson are also other famous fashion photographers.Fashion photographs are most commonly taken with the purpose to be put into an advert, you will most commonly see them in magazine such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle & Glamour magazines which are all fashion magazines, you will also see fashion photographs on Billboards and other forms of adverts as well.Most commonly Fashion shoots will take place in a studio which has been constructed for the purpose of the shoot, this is so they can get the lighting for the shoot just right, but sometimes the shoots can take place on a real location. The images which are photographed are usually quite heavily edited, not so much to do with the clothes but to make the models “look better” they will do this because , if the person who is wearing the clothes appears to be a “beautiful” person will associate that piece of clothing with beauty and ar5e likely to think that they will look beautiful wearing it.

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This photo has been shot in a studio and artificial lighting has been used as you can see by the strong shadows which are coming of the model, also there is a slight glow on the background.

The photo has been heavily edited, as you can see from the multiple shots of the same women in the image, this will have been done by the women posing separately and then the all the images will have be compiled into one image. Another way in which it has been edited is the models face will have been airbrushed which is just a standard procedure for a fashion shoot.

The photo will also have been controlled as the model will have been told to pose in the certain ways she has, one way you could argue that it could be observational is that it might be a ballet dancer and a photographer might have taken images of her dancing and then compiled them together.

The lens which might have been used on this image would have been 25-30mil lens on the camera. Again because it has been shot in a studio and the lens will have been to compensate for the studio size.

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PhotojournalismPhotojournalism, is photos which will usually contribute to a news media whether it be on the television or in a newspaper article. Seeing the news can be based on pretty much everything it means that you can be a photojournalist in a vast range of areas such as you can be a war/conflict photographer, natural disaster and music events. The first know photojournalist was a man called Carol Szathmari he photographed the Crimean War (one of his photos is featured on the bottom left hand side). Some other famous photojournalists are Phillip Jones Griffiths he was best known for his photojournalism work in the Vietnam War .David Burnett & Robert Frank are also other very well know photojournalist.As I said above there are intended mainly for the purpose of reporting something, my own personal definition for why we have photojournalism is, because sometimes words cant do an article justice and pictures can portray emotions better.The issue of editing the photos taken by a photojournalist has been a big issue, because some people feel that there should be no editing done because they are trying to document a matter and make the photo will most commonly be of a real life event and sometimes editing photos can give it an unrealistic feel. Others feel that a small amount of editing is acceptable.All the photos are observational rather than staged and the photographer will just take photos as an event occurs

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What appears to be a gun shot through the glass has been faded slightly but is still easily noticed, the fade could suggest that these people aren't covered in the news and forgotten about.

Wide lens camera has been used to capture the village and the mountains and the sky in the background.

Doesn’t seem to be that heavily edited, documentary photographs do this to keep the “real” feeling there.

Documentary photos like this will be shot on location all the time and aren't likely to be staged.

Natural lighting, has been used. In this photo it might be stress the “darkness” of the photo with the only light source is what appears to be the sun behind the clouds, this could be a message about the part of the world they are in

The majority of documentary photos of this kind (reporting on war & conflict) seem to be in black and white, this always gives the place a less advanced feeling and promotes sympathy.

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Portraiture Portraiture photography is probably one of the most common forms of photography. Its often commonly referred to as portrait photo’s and its basically the art of capturing facial features and facial expressions as well. So basically any photograph that you capture with people in were their face’s are showing is a portraiture photograph.The earliest portraiture photograph which was taken was a photo taken of a man called Robert Cornelius in 1839, he even took the photo himself by setting up his camera and after he removed the lens cap he sprinted into the frame. Since that photo was taken the art of portraiture photographs has changed a lot as they are usually taken to kind of tell a story at the same time some famous portraiture photographers are Diane Arbus, Angus McBean and Steve McCurry.There are two main approaches towards portraiture photography are the Constructionist approach which is where the photographer will construct a photograph around an idea such as a happy family photo or a romantic couple photograph.The second approach is the candid approach which is were the photo is taken without the person knowing, in my opinion this captures a more realistic outlook on the photograph because sometimes the constructionist approach can feel staged and awkward. Portraiture photographs can be taken in two locations; in a studio usually with artificial lighting which is were the constructionist approach comes in and then in an outdoor environment where you photograph just what you see this us were the candid approach comes into it.Editing can play a large part in portraiture photographs especially in studio photographs because the client might want the photo “re-touched” so it looks better and the people appear better.

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In portraiture photos the background always seems to have a blurred effect on it, this is to bring all your attention onto the main focus of portraiture photos, which is the face and what expressions are being pulled.

High quality camera’s are required for portraiture photos so you can capture all the details of the face and all the necessary shadow as well.

Little post production work seems, to go on really in portraiture photos, other than the retouching of the facial features..

Portraiture photos can be a mixture of both controlled and observational, for example this photo appears to be observational and in a natural environment . Lighting is also mainly natural because the portraiture photos are heavily based on facial expression which are a natural thing and if you start including light sources it might look unnatural.

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High street photographsHigh street photographs can involve a different range of photograph types such as portraiture photographs and

weddings photographs as well. In a photo shoot there will be hundreds of photos taken and then the client will look through them with the photographer and select the ones that he likes.

There are lots of little independent high street independent companies out there, but due to the price of renting high street studio’s being extremely high they seem to be “dyeing out” and the big companies are buying the high street studio’s companies who specialize in high street photography are studios such as Hamilton Studios, Portland Studio, Venture and Barkers.

The studios which the photographs are shot in use a lot of artificial light to create a whole range of moods. Once the image has been taken they will go through some post production process to edit them and make sure they are looking just right, this is an important stage because now with the big companies producing high quality high street photos there is a lot of pressure on the other studios to follow suit. A wide angle lens is commonly used in high street photography as the studio might be quite small and the wide lens can eliminate the feeling of the photograph been taken in a small place.

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Artificial light /high key flashes have been used in the photograph

Some post production work has been done on this photo, quite poorly as well as you can see the two light boxes which have been used in the shoot, the light boxes should have been airbrushed out because if you notice the light boxes it just looks unprofessional.

This photo is definitely controlled because the child will probably have been told to act in a certain way as well as the adults will have been told to act in a certain way.

The lenses will probably have been used for this particular photo will have been a 50 mil lens this will of been to compensate for the small studio that they will have been in.

Despite some of the bad post-production work has been done, some aspects of the photo have been edited well such as the face looks airbrushed and it has a professional outcome as well.

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Architectural Architectural photography is were photographs are taken of buildings or other structures. For example the photography

of a really old and historic building such as the Leaning tower of Pisa would be classed as architectural photography.

The first architectural style photo which was taken was by a photographer called Nicephore Niepce and it was just a simple photo of some buildings in a line (see the photo in the centre) but because it was a photo of some buildings and only really about the buildings it was classed as a architectural photo. Some of the most recognized architectural photographers of now are Hutton + Crow and Adam Mork.

Obviously the only approach that you can take when you do architectural photographs is to actually go out and take photos of architecture, in my opinion its on of the hardest forms of photography I have talked about because it is hard to take a photo of a building which people might be used to seeing and make it look like a good photograph what will keep people interested.

You can see architectural photographs in quite a lot of places whether it be in the form of a real estate magazine or even if it has been included in a advert as a setting in the background. It can also be used for construction purposes such as for engineers, surveyors or other building related items.

Some editing can be done to the image but some prefer it not to be edited.

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Wide angle lens has been used in this photo as in the majority of architectural photos, this is to make sure the shear size of the building is captured.

In this photo from what I can see there hasn’t really been that much post production work done if any. Maybe there has been abit of work done were the arrow is pointing from because it looks abit edited down there. There might have been some post-production down, such as to bring all the colours out and make them stand out more, but its nowhere near as edited as fashion photos are.

This photo is definitely observational, as there aren’t any controlled elements in this photo because its just taking a photo of the building as you see it at the time.

Natural lighting has been used aswel, as in architectural photography, especially when it is taken outside it will be hard to set up artificial lighting.

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Illustration Illustration photographs are photos which are supposed to go along side newspaper articles to give the reader more

information thank what the text can put across. An example of this is if a flood had recently happened and a newspaper was publishing an article about it a picture could be used to show the scale of destruction further. Some people believe that it can heavily influence someone's opinion about something, I think this is true also because if someone's publishes an article about a celebrity and then the illustration that they choose to use is of that celebrity in a negative light then the reader is likely to have a bad opinion about them.

Illustration can take many forms, whether it be in the form of photos which are used to convey information in text books or photos for the purpose of illustrating educational literature.

Seeing you can illustrate a lot of different articles there isn't really a set technique for the method of getting photos for illustration purposes, because you can take photos in studios if they need to et in a certain way e.g for educational books, or you can take them outside were the photo hasn’t been stages this is the case for illustrations for articles in newspapers etc….Also any lens can be sued really it all depends on the conditions of the photo that you take.

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A lot of post production work has been done to this photograph, its evident in the “zipper” which appears to be “un-zipping” him from his head downwards, there also appears to be some sort of gradient or glow which seems to be in the background or glowing outwards from his head. Also there seems to this kind of gray, almost like talc effect all over the ,mans body as well, which will have been some more post-production work.

This will have been shot in a studio most likely, just so everything was just right, such as artificial lighting will have been used in this image also another reason why it will be shot in the studio is so there are no background distractions in the image.

This might also be classed as a fine art photography.

This photo will have been controlled, but not all illustrational photos will be controlled because if the article is describing something in real life then the image will most likely need to observational, so it gives the image the same real feeling as the image.

This image will probably of been shot with a wide lens, because if it was shot in a studio then it will of most likely of been a small area.

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Medical PhotographyMedical photographs are taken with the intention of accuracy or fulfilling their objective , they need to be accurate

because they can be used with the intention of recording images or diseases and if the photos aren't accurate somebody might come to the wrong conclusion about an important matter. The work that the photographers produce can be used for a variety of different matters, they can be used for the purpose of coming to a conclusion by taking accurate measurement and analysis of the photos, or they could be used medical reports or even for the purpose of education in the form of educating medical students who aren't ready to come face to face with the “real thing”.

The first instance were medical photographs took place in 1840 were someone called Alfred Francois Donne took photos of sections of someone's bones and teeth.

With medical photography being a specialist subject there aren't really many companies which will specialize in it, so the majority of medical photographers will work in small departments and work for the hospital or a medical school.

The technique that the medical photographers will use will normally be using a digital camera and normally a flash to photograph patients, they will also use the same technique to take photos in the operating theatre. When photographing more complicated situations such as on bodies were a simple, photo might not be good enough evidence so they can employ specialist equipment and photo imaging techniques such as a thermal imaging camera, time-lapse cinematography(to show rate of decomposition)and endoscopy which is used to photograph internal organs.

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This photograph will have been controlled, because it’s a dead body so there is no chance it will change what it is doing. Also it appears to be controlled with the faded out image of the computer and other equipment to maybe stress the technicality of medical work.

Artificial light will be the only light source in this image and there will be no natural light because a morgue is inside, so the only light source there will have been will be the lights which are fitted in the room

When you first look at this photo the first thing what draws your attention, apart from the dead body is the post production work which has really obviously been done you can see the editing which has been done because the entire background is blurred, this will be so your attention is drawn straight to the body because nothing else in the photo is actually important.

Definitely a high quality camera has been used for this photo to capture, this would be to ensure that all the different details of the body are captured.

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Fine Art PhotographyFine art photography is what it says it is, photography of what somebody would consider as fine art, the most common

form of fine art photography that you will see is photographs of naked people, photos of architecture and also wildlife photography might be considered as fine art photography. My personal opinion on this form of photography is that it is a very vast area, because who defines what fine art is? I think that anything could be classed as fine art as long as the viewer see’s it as what they would consider as fine art.

Fine art photography isn't really taken for any specific reason, I think that the only real reason why it would be taken is just simply for “appreciation” of the art. Fine art photography might also be featured in magazines, the photos which are featured in magazines usually aren't accompanied by that much text as the picture are “worth more than a thousand words”

The first photo to be taken which was considered as fine art was a photo by Alfred Stieglitz, he was also notable for introducing fine art photography into museums. Other notable artists who are famous for their fine art photography work are Ansel Adams he specialized in taking photos of “fine environments” he was also a activist for the environment and the wilderness maybe this is why he tried to out across the beauty of society in his work. James Nachtwey was also a notable photographer he was know for his work in the “fine art of war”.

Fine art photography is not taken in a studio at all really because the fine art usually only exists outside of a studio and cant really be stage apart from a woman who stages her fine art in a studio called Grace Weston an example of her work is in the bottom left corner. Also a range of lenses can be used it all depends on how you want the image to come out.

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This photo will have been conditional, because the model will have been told to pose in the way they have. Not all fine art photos are conditional though because some people consider just everyday life as a fine art. This photo will also have been taken in a studio

Artificial light has been used in this photograph, I think it has been used in this photo to light up the mask, and other features of the body such as the hipbones .

There also appears to be some post-production work done on this photo as there seems to be a slight glow around the mask and the body of the women as well.

The women is placed in centre of the image , maybe they did this to further represent the feeling of sorrow because the women appears trapped in the centre of image

The women has also been placed on a black background, I think is to further represent the feeling of depression and sorrow

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DocumentaryDocumentary photographs are used to often tell a long story or project the same as a documentary you watched

would, for example if you watched a documentary on the first world war it would tell the story of a section of the first world war so a documentary photography of the world war would probably would try and do the same but by conveying messages through the photographs. Documentary photographs are seen as very powerful images and usually quite emotional (as you can see from the image in the bottom left)

One of the first instances were documentary photography was used was by a man called Lewis Hine who's images were mainly of children in a work place, he documented the photos in such a negative way that he helped pass the Child Labor law in America. Other famous documentary photographers are Tim Hetherington who photographed peoples experience’s of war the images all seemed to be from the perspective of an individual. And another notable modern day photographer is Corey Arnold.

Documentary photography is usually done with observational photographs rather than them being staged, this gives a more realistic feel to the image, as they should have that feel as well because they are supposed to look as real as possible. Some post production work is also done on the photos but not so its that notable and nowhere near the extremities that fashion photographs undergoes.

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This photo will have been controlled, because the guy is quite clearly “posing” for the photo

Some post production work might have been done to this photo I think the bear might have been shot separately and then edited into the photo.

Natural lighting has definitely been used in this photo, because they are outside and it’s a very nature orientated photo, so it needs to looks as natural as possible and if they started including lots of artificial lighting it would start to look un-natural.

In the majority of cases photographs documenting nature will use a telephoto lens because if they get too close the animal will run away, but in this case they will have probably used a slightly wider lens than normal.

The rule of thirds also applies to this photograph as one of the man’s eyes are at one of the points and also the bear will fall near another one of the points in which the rule talks about.

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Should Post-Production be carried out on images and if so when?

I don’t really agree with post-production work being done because I think that photography is a method of capturing still moments of life and life doesn’t have any glow on it or a filter on it so why should the photos? Also in fashion photo I don’t agree with post-production work because there are many examples of what a model looks like in the original photo and then what the model looks like in the final photo and in some of the photos there is a drastic change, I disagree with this because some people will see these photos and then aspire to look like the model, they will go to extreme lengths to then try and look like the person in this final image and the person in the final isn’t even technically “real”. There are a few examples in which I think that post-production work can be done and that is in the example of fine art when you take photos of landscapes and the photo might not do justice to the what the landscape actually looks like, so you can put it into Photoshop and bring out the colours in the photo.

To what extent should post-production be carried out on images and in what context?

I think that if any post-production work is going to be done on an image it should only be done to bring out the “real” image or it should be done so that the majority wont be able to notice it and only the “trained eye” will be able to notice them. So the only work I think that should be done is slightly re-touching the images, such as removing red eye or any other slight faults which might be the fault of the photographer.

Fashion photography is less important than medical photography?

I disagree and agree with the this statement, firstly I disagree with it because in my eyes medical photography does serve a purpose and that purposes can be to benefit patients because they can send a photo to a medical expert in an area and get there opinion on that matter, also medical photos can be used in medical text books in the hope to educate medical students who might not be able to come face to face with the condition that they are studying. The only real practical reason for fashion photography is the purpose of advertisement in magazines etc.. In my opinion helping someone and educating someone is more important than showcasing someone's beauty and advertising the latest brand of clothing. My reason for fashion photography being more important than medical photography is in the terms of advertisement because fashion photography plays a huge part in the advertisement for new clothes etc.. Also fashion photography is featured are in a lot of fashion based magazines and medical photography has basically no advertisement capabilities so in this instance fashion photography is more important than medical photography, but my opinion still stands that fashion photography is less important than medical phootgraphy.