Final Print Skills Audit

Camera Skills

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Manual Focus features	Y		Whilst creating the long shutter speed photography on my blog, I had to use the manual focus feature to allow the camera to take the picture, and to make it focus effectively, because there wasn’t enough light for it to focus on a subject. It also created a better effect, as if I focused on the background, the light trails became out of focus, and had more depth to them
Shutter Speed	Y		Again whilst creating my extended shutter speed photography, I altered the shutter speed to allow the light in for between 15-30 seconds on my camera, this allowed the vehicles to go past and for them to create trails, as opposed to them being frozen within the frame.
Aperture control	Y		Whilst taking the picture for my double page spread, (the one of the car and the industry plant), I had to adjust the aperture control so that it the depth of field included the plant, otherwise it would have become a blur in the background, and them not knowing what it is.
ISO Control	Y		I had to adjust the ISO whilst taking my DPS image. Because it was beginning to get dark when I took the image, and I needed a fast shutter speed to freeze the pollution in the image, I needed to boost the ISO, which then allowed me to use the other settings as I liked.
A tripod	Y		Whilst shooting my extended shutter speed pictures, I needed to use a tripod to make sure that the camera stays still whilst taking the picture; otherwise, the trails would come out wobbly, and not straight, meaning it doesn’t give the same effect and looks rubbish.
External flash	Y		Whilst taking my front cover image, I needed to use the external lighting in the studio. This comprised of two Bowens flash units with medium soft boxes on the front. This allowed me to light up my model effectively but without causing any harsh shadows on the image.
Self timer facility	Y		Whilst taking a group family picture, I needed to take the picture and be in the picture, so I needed to put the camera on a tripod, and use the self-timer facility so that everyone could be in the picture.
Light meter	Y		I have used the light meter on my camera many a times whilst taking photographs in Manual mode. It allowed me to see how much light was going to be put in to the image, so I knew whether or not the light meter
Composition grids		N

Photoshop Skills

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Have you ever used Photoshop ever before?	Y		Yes I have used Photoshop now to an amateur level. I have used it within my final unit 3 product, and have used it during my own time as seen on my blogs, and whilst designing logos and images for websites.
Text control	Y		I used text control whilst designing my front cover for my product. I used it to create the sell lines, the heading and the strap across the bottom. It allowed me to create a more professional and attractive front cover.
Filters	Y		I have used many filters whilst working in Photoshop, including the Unsharpen Mask to sharpen my images ever so slightly, Gaussian blur, to help blur the background in images a little bit more, and add noise whilst making a grass effect on a logo image.
Brushes	Y		I haven’t used brushes a great deal, but I have used them in the past when desiging my ICT logo, as when I used the pen tool, it uses the brush tool to make the line once you have told it where to go, so I had to set up the brush tool in order to get the right effect.
Layers	Y		I used layers on my final product to enable me to make sure that all the items on my front cover where as they needed to be and where all visible. I also made sure that everything was on a separate layer. This meant that I could arrange things individually and not many items at once.
Opacity control	Y		I used opacity whilst creating the image of the light trails with the gradient. The opacity level allowed me to put the gradient over the top of the light trails, so that you can see the trails behind,but the picture has a colour gradient to it.
Shape creation	Y		I used shape creation to create the triangle in the bottom left of the front cover, which highlighted a key feature of the magazine. Because you cant create triangles in photoshop, I used a rectangle that was rotated 45° to create a triangle on the edge.
Brightness and contrast control	Y		I have used brightness and contrast to enhance some of my images in my personal time, but also in the final picture for my double page spread. I used the brightness and contrast to create the right level of light in the image before adjusting the colour.
Gradients	Y		I have used gradient overlays in some of my own photography, including the one of the light trail. I used a gradient overlay to give more of a colourful effect on the image.
Load selection features	Y		I have used load and save selection whilst creating text effects and making logos. It allows you to create better text outline, as it allowed me to load the selection of the outside of the text, and expand it and fill the selection to get a good effect.
Feathering	Y		I have used feathering on many occasion on images so that the edges are a bit more broken up for inserting into documents or onto websites, it just makes it look a bit less harsh.
Colour curves adjustment	Y		I used colour curves on my DPS image, as it allowed me to change the colour of the image slightly to give it a more sunset time of day feel to it.
Resolution setting control	Y		I have used the resolution setting tool on many photographs to limit the size of images, whether it be for a product, so it reduces the file size, or for websites, as the images need to be small so the webpages load quickly.
Magnetic lasso, polygon lasso tool	Y		I have used the lasso tools recently to cut out a picture of a man on a bike, so he was separate from the background, which then allows me to adjust the background without effecting the subject, and then I used the polygon tool to cut out the wall to place over the top so the glow didn’t show over the wall.
Cropping tool	Y		I used the cropping tool on my DPS image so that you could tell more that the subject was the car and that the sky and clouds weren’t as important. I also used it on the image of the biker to get rid of excess background image.
Clone tool		N
Retouch tool		N

Equipment Evaluation

Poses Pictures

Here are a few different types of poses within photographs. Poses make photos more interesting. If all the photographs were taken with smiles on, they set of photographs wouldn't be very varied, where as, if you use different emotions and poses within your photos, you can make the photos more interesting. Below, i have 3 different emotions being betrayed.

Worried

Startled

Laughter/happy

Skills Development

Here are some of my own images that I have used to develop my skills throughout the course. I have taken quite a few different images, but have chosen some of the best ones to put in my Blog.

Here i have taken a picture of the dripping tap. I like this image, as it is well lit, and it has a lack of depth of field, which makes the drip and the tap stand out from the rest of the image.

This is a picture of a mate of mine doing some bike trials. I Took this image and also photoshopped it. I like this image because of the diagonals, it produces and adds more energy to the image. I cut the bike and the person out of the background and placed him onto a separate layer, added a soft outer glow, and blurred the background a little bit more to add more Vibranceto the image.

The above image was taken in my back garden. again, I have slightly manipulated the colour and brightness/contrast of the image, and also added a slight vignette on the corners. I also like this image because of the colour variance and the the Diagonal.

This image was taken under a tree, so the image captured dappled shadows. I like this image, again i have manipulated the colour to give it a bit more vibrance, and I added the vignette to the corners once again. And it is on a diagonal, which adds more energy to it.

Photos with lines in always appeal to me. as you can see there is a line carried out throughout the image. Again i have manipulated the colour, contrast, brightness, and saturation to give more vibrance to the image. I also added a little bit of vignetting to the corners.

Finished Unit 3 Product

Finished Unit 3 Product

Front Cover

As you can see that my front cover is much better than the one we did with the music cover. The image is much more professional looking and is better lit. It also has a much more professional look to it, with the full width title, and i have used margin guides to alighn the text up on the left and right hand side, and used a broader colour scheme to make it work better.

Double Page Spread

As you can see this double page spread is a large improvement on the work that i did at the start of the course on the disability spread. There is a full page image, that provides it with a wide, professional look to it, and allows the article to stand out in the white box. the overall layout is much better than the first product i did, meaning that my skills in InDesign have improved over the last year. I have used text wrap. And the shape tool to create a arrow for the website at the end.

Production Monitoring Blog 28th March 2011

Progress

This week i have made some progress on my front cover. I have set up my front cover ready for the image from my photoshoot to be inserted after my photoshoot on wednesday, and i have started writing my article, so it will be entered into the double page spread on thursday afternoon. I have also fully prepared my double page spread ready for the article and have now writen the kicker and headline. Everything went acording to plan, with no faults or problems what so ever.

This is my Front cover, it still needs to have some sell lines added to it and the image and its good to go.

This is my double page spread, all it needs is the article and its finished.

This week i just need to finish the sell lines on the front cover and the article for the inside, then it is all completed. I also need to complete the photoshoot, and build the lego model. the main problem i have is if my source doesnt bring the lego in on that day I will have to find another source but will not have long to do so.

Production Monitoring Blog 21st March 2011

Over the last 2 weeks, I have completed a location photo shoot, manipulated images, and started to design my double page spread. For the photoshoot, I went to redcar to take a picture of my friends car against the industrial background, as seen in the post below. I then put it into photoshop and manipulated the image colour and white balance to be able to get the effect I wanted. I also laid out my double page spread read for my article. Everything went according to plan, everything ran smoothly and went very well.  

I used a Canon 350D with a sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens, I have learned how to set the camera up effectively in manual mode, and know how to frame pictures effectively.

Over the next week i need to write my article and set up my front cover so that it is read for my article and the picture from my photoshoot. I will need to use indesign and photoshop to do this, I will make sure that this is done, so that all I have to do next week is complete my photoshoot, manipulate the images and put it onto the front cover.

Shutter Speed Experimentation

Long Exposure photography is when the shutter is opened and a significant amount of time passes before it is shut again. This is used to photograph in dark conditions, and by photographing moving objects you can make some interesting effects. In the images bellow, the Shutter has been opened for between 10 and 30 seconds. It allows the light to come into the camera, and as it goes past it produces a streak of light. as  you can see, to start of with i wasn't getting very good results, but once i started to get the hang of it i got some very good results. When taking images like this, we need to use a tripod... unless you are incredibly steady, there is no way you can take a picture for 30 seconds without shaking.

Worse ones to start with

As you can see the first few images i took were very glarey, this tuned out to main be down to the fact i was zoomed right out, there was more light getting into the camera. once i zoomed in a bit, there was less light entering the camera, and it wasn't picking up as much white light straight into the camera, which was creating the glare. Both of the above images were taken at 10 seconds, aperture f/9 and ISO 400

Better Ones

The above images are much better. They are taken at the same settings, but are zoomed in, and are staggered to make sure that the white light does go past whilst taking a picture of the red trails. 

This picture was taken in a different location, and with different settings. Because it was white light, it needed to be a much lower aperture. the aperture setting was set to f/40, shutter speed 10 seconds and ISO 200. 

Photoshop

The above image was taken using the same settings as the red trails above, but after it was taken, i took it into Photoshop and added a rainbow colour gradient overlay on the image, by creating a new layer, filling it with the gradient, then adjusting the opacity of the layer so you could see the image underneath. 

Final Product Image

This image was taken for my double page spread in the final product. the image was taken at Redcar using my friends car, and the Corus plant. I used one of the colleges Canon 350Ds and their Sigma 10-20mm lens to allow me to get a wide angled shot. The picture was shot on full manual. The picture took a while to shoot as i was using various different settings to allow the picture to be perfectly exposed. The settings I settled for were:

Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
Appeture:f/5.6
ISO: 100

This allows the image to be a nicely exposed as shown below.

Because the image was taken around 4 o'clock, the colour wasn't quite as I wanted it to be, meaning it didnt suite how i wanted it exactly, so i put the image into Photoshop and adjusted the exposure level, the white balance, the tone curves and added vignetting to create this image: