EXERCISE 1 YOUR WORKFLOW

objective-

devise a workflow that suits you for a short portrait assignment.

brief, head shots for website for group of charted surveyors.


PLANNED WORK FLOW


brief from client
rough head shot plan
location planner- what are the lighting conditions
planned requirement of equipment needed
equipment check
location -where, when
set up
shot
upload images
editing and selecting images for reprocessing
editing and reprocessing
catalogue of images.
back up images onto external hardrive
client link to web site for image review
burn cd to send to client.


PRE SHOT PLANNING.

required relaxed head shots for a group of charted surveyors
to update there website.

expected head shots to be taken in a board room in there offices
on the southbank.

notes
I looked at the company's website and concluded it had a modern
feel and the images on the site are of a high quality. I chose to 
shot in natural light as I wanted the images to be relaxed and to
have a modern feel. I will take artificial light with me to enhance
any shots and to allow for maybe difficult lighting conditions.


The website shows there offices as modern and light and bright
with white walls and lots of ceiling to floor glass windows which
would be ideal for natural light  shots.


EQUIPMENT PLANNING


All equipment will need to be carried to the location as the offices
at the Southbank in London.

kit list.


Nikon d70s
two fully charged batteries
28-70mm lens
70-300 mm lens ( may go to external locations)
1 malfratto tripod
1 external flash ( sb-700)
1 soft box hood for external flash
1 set of circular reflectors
1 remote control shutter release
Location planning.
detailed map of location and how to get there.
preplanned transport timetable to ensure I am at the location
in time for the shot.

PLAN SET OF HEAD SHOTS

I researched on the Internet some examples of relaxed head shots
one great source of inspiration was
www.petebartlettheadshots.co.uk
I piratically like the cut in shot of Alan Yentob and the blur
background on the shot of Minge Cambell.

I will use this as a benchmark for my shots.

I also like the lightness of the skin tones and the
use of monochrome processing on the image of
Alan Yentob where the levels of brightness are
high.


notes from the actual shot.
I arrived at the location with plenty of time.
Unfortunately the site was not the predicted 
light office but a grey/dark boardroom with
some external windows but light is blocked
by new buildings being built close by.
It also did not help that the lighting that morning
was very grey and overcast so the quality of light
was poor.
I set up in the board room and started by planning
where the light was at its optimum so I could achieve
the best available lights. I also set up the external flash
with the soft box and did some test shots. The flash was
too harsh and also the sitters were blinking allot with the
intense flash light. I decided that the natural light was
the best and placed a silver reflector close the the sitters
face to bounce the soft natural light back on the subject.


The four major issues faced.


relaxing the sitter.
the sitters were feeling really uncomfortable by having
their photograph taken. I tried to engage in conversation
to start to relax them. I also bought in some of their colleges
into the room so we could start to chat as a group which
meant that they started to feel relaxed and I got some shots
were they were not looking directly into the lens


quality of light,- limited light/overcast light


I used a tripod but still need to use a wide aperture setting which
means that the sharpness of the images is not as sharp as I would
have liked. I preset the white balance to the available light. I found 
the images to be one stop under so had to do some additional processing
to lighting in photoshop


size of room.
the space available to me was limited  and as I needed the sitter to
be close to the light source I 


backdrop.
I feel the backdrop was very muddled and detracted from the head shot
I spent a lot of the time processing the images to reduce the backdrop.


UPLOADED SHOTS FOR EDITING




https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4epykXPrpZVYlV4NlJDNVNSNHVKZlNJUkJSZUNmdw

EDITING AND PROCESSING


notes.


all images shot in raw.


raw conversation in photoshop


I needed to lighten all the images and colour balance
all the colours and add more blue to balance the
tungsten background. I also wanted to reduce the busy
background and add more blur to all the background
and also crop all images. I want the image to be about
the sitter and not include to much background.


The client wanted all the images to be monochrome
so I processed them in photosop to black and white.
As preplanned I wanted the skin tones to be lighter
and so added extra brightness

IMAGE STORAGE


all original raw images saved onto external hard drive


Cd burnt and stored of all final processed images


images uploaded to my flickr account for client to
see


http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaybay/sets/72157629198245182/ 



LESSONS LEARNT


It is essential to plan your photographic sessions
so you can make sure you are fully equipped and
that the photographic session can be relaxed epically if
you are taking more formal shots. Adapting to unforeseen
circumstances can be essential and having the right equipment
to had makes it easier to cope with unplanned lighting conditions.

Don't rush. I wish I could have more aware of the background
especially the white door rim as I spent a lot the the editing time
removing or masking the background in all the images.