davehankinphoto-blog
davehankinphoto-blog
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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DAILY DIARIES
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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DAILY DIARIES
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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DAILY DIARIES
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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DAILY DIARIES
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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DAILY DIARIES
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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DAILY DIARIES
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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DAILY DIARIES
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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UNIT 115: Specialist practice in photography
DAILY DIARIES
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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So I have completed the shoot, edited my pictures and overall I am happy with my work. I think if anything got in the way it was the trepidation of being alone with Aziz, I had no idea what he would be like and would have been gutted if he was a prima donna, fortunately he was the opposite.
I do regret not trying some shots with flash but didn鈥檛 want to be fumbling around and looking clumsy in front of the client, I simply had no time given the restrictions we had.
I think I have learnt that preparation is key but be willing to change things if the client see鈥檚 fit, after all they are paying for what they want, not what you want. The fact that Aziz was late on the day made me think on my feet a little more and this has made my nerves subside and I think there are some good photographs as a result of this.
In retrospect I would have liked to do a little more research on the man himself so I could have communicated a little better. I would have also liked to have explored a few more artists who do similar work, I like my pictures but they are pretty pedestrian and I would have liked to have gone a bit more experimental. Of course for my first time shooting a professional singer i cannot be too hard on myself.
In closing I think the client should be pleased with the end product. I think I have managed to capture Aziz Ibrahim in a respectful and honest light. The images could be used for a magazine layout or for his website and I am grateful for the time he gave us.
Dave Hankin
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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I took over 500 pictures on the day, most of them on the 70-200 zoom. I had to cull a lot to get to 45 and then even more to get to my final 6.
My final 6 images are above and in order of my favourite top to bottom. I love the lighting on all of them but especially on the first picture. I love the way different coloured lights are hitting the different sides of his face, his eyes look alive and I really like his expression. The slower shutter speed has made his strumming hand blurry but this adds to the picture giving it a sense of motion, everything else is tack-sharp. 5D3, 70-200mm @ 150mm, 1/90, f2.8, ISO 3200.
I always crop my photo鈥檚 right or wrong, it鈥檚 just the way I do things. I compose by eye and know when it鈥檚 right for me. Obviously I am composing when I am taking the pictures but I tend to leave it wide so i can crop in various ways if needs be. I love the composition of the second picture, Aziz to one extreme side at a slight angle and the green of the light show on the other. 5D3, 70-200mm @ 70mm, 1/90, f2.8, iso 3200.
The third shot was in front of the ivy wall that I had scouted and it worked out well, the background is out of focus but you can still see what is behind Aziz, this was shot at f2.8 on the long zoom. 5D3, 70-200mm @ 70mm, 1/250, f2.8, iso 200.
The fourth shot was again at f2.8 on the long zoom, iso was 200 because it was a bit overcast and he was walking. The picture is in lieu of my cathedral location and is a good substitute. 5D3, 70-200mm @ 200mm, 1/50, 2.8, iso 200 (i was lucky to get Aziz sharp given the slow shutter speed I had wrongly selected).
The fifth was a more relaxed photo and I used the concrete monstrosity that I had scouted earlier. The setting makes for a gritty, urban picture and his expression is neither happy or sad. 5D3 70-200mm @ 70mm, 1/350, f2.8, iso 200.
The last picture is the only wide-angle photo I chose to be in my top 6. I love extreme wide angle lenses but they are problematic, they can distort things very easily and must be used with caution. As much as I shot a lot of pictures with the wide angle, I think I favour the look the longer zoom has with its compression and bokeh. Again this shot is at an angle so to include his shadow which is my favourite part of the picture. The colours are great, like something out of the old batman tv show.聽 5D2, 16-35mm @ 16mm, 1/60, f4, iso 3200.
All of the pictures were processed in Raw and to a preset of my design. I really crank up clarity and contrast and tone down colours. I add a little sharpening and noise reduction and using the preset makes all the pictures uniform.
I then usually design another preset in Nik Software which is an add-on for photoshop. This preset will include a slight vignette to isolate the subject a bit more. I also add fade to give it a more vintage look and add a grungy colour curve to the whole picture, again to make it look a little different and pleasing to the eye...my eye at least!!
Dave Hankin
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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The day of the shoot and all was not well!! Aziz was delayed and only had a small amount of time to give us, 7 of us needed to get our own outdoor photo鈥檚 and then get back to the auditorium to take pictures of him performing. The weather was fine but we were rushed. Luckily we had decided to all stay within roughly the same area to get our individual shots.聽
The locations were not too busy and we were not disturbed. I had less than 15 minutes to get to all my locations and I hit them all with exception to the street/cathedral background (just did not have the time and I was gutted).
The shoot was really good, Aziz was a lovely guy and very professional and understanding...nothing was too much for him though he did say he preferred more serious shots of himself.
I found talking to Aziz quite easy and think this helped in us both relaxing and getting better shots.聽
I took along my canon 5d3 and canon 5d2 along with 70-200 IIL and 16-35mm f4 and two speedlights. Whilst the cameras were a good choice I do regret not using the flashes. I just didn鈥檛 have the time to set up on a stand for off-camera flash and unfortunately because of the rush I had no assistance.
I was lucky enough to get some well exposed outdoor shots but some of them were too back-lit and could have used fill flash. I managed to pull them back in post production but lost out on blown out sky because of it.聽
The time of day was about 2pm and I had been to this location before at the same time so there were no big surprises.
Indoor was a different matter, we had the stage lights on so I had no real control at all. I did decide to move around a bit as I had the freedom to do this, this is rarely the case for gig photography. By moving around I was able to block light and get silhouettes and some nice light effects and flares which added to the creativity of the pictures.
Aziz was quite animated, often moving, tapping his foot or breaking out in guitar poses so it was not easy to get sharp shots. I pretty much had to run and gun and pick the best.
We had about 20 minutes to capture the 2 songs he performed and I think my running around and composing using different and obscure angles has really helped set the pictures aside from usual gig photos. The light was my enemy on the day but also my friend when I took control with my feet.
Dave Hankin
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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A bit of a mood board I knocked up quickly in class. Varios photographers have taken the pictures and various lighting set-ups have been used. The red guitar picture (second row, right) is too fake looking for me, I prefer the more natural pictures on the 3rd row. I think for outdoor location pictures natural light works best.
Dave Hankin
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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I recently attended a gig in London and snuck my camera in. All I had was my Fuji x-t10 and a 18-55mm 2.8-4 lens. Luckily I had really good seats about 5 rows from the stage and dead center. I managed to get a few decent shots off before raising suspicion with security!!
Dave Hankin
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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The final 3. I鈥檓 happy with the images overall. The lighting on the wide shop was not quite there but I liked the look on my dad鈥檚 face so used it. As always I tend to over-edit just a little but it鈥檚 just how I like my images to look!! I added contrast and clarity, toned down vibrance and ran the pictures through Nik software and added one of my bespoke filters which essentially crushes blacks and adds colour curves.
Dave Hankin
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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Above the contact sheets (or at least what I could rescue after a hard drive corruption). I like a lot of the images but am very disappointed with the lighting. My lack of experience really shows as I thought if my dad remained in the same spot and the lights didn鈥檛 change that exposure would remain the same if I moved around the room...not the case. Most of the shots could be rescued in photoshop though this is something I wish to avoid in future as I would like to do as much in camera as possible. I will choose my top 3 and edit them.
Dave Hankin
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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I wanted to get some decent pictures of my dad as I had none. As I had taken the wrong equipment to the food demo shoot I decided to go equipment heavy for this. I am lucky enough to have a selection of cameras so decided to take my Canon 5d2 and 5d3 as they are both full frame, act well in all light and generally produce excellent images. I also took along a 16-35 f4 ultra-wide and my trusty 70-200 聽IIL f2.8. I had recently bought a strobe kit but had only used it once...time to experiment with it in my dad鈥檚 flat.
I had a basic floor plan of my dad鈥檚 room and decided to try a 2 light set-up. I didn鈥檛 have too much time as my dad can get a little cantankerous if his routine is disturbed.聽
With regards to ambient lighting there is one medium sized window to the right of were my dad sits. The time of day was midday so the son would be at the side of my dad鈥檚 building and not glaring through the window.
I have attached notes of my settings that I made on the day as pictures above.
Dave Hankin
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davehankinphoto-blog 8 years ago
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Final pictures of the food demonstration. Not really happy with them. As I had never been to the location before I was ill-prepared with the lens that I had. I should have at least had a longer zoom with me as the view of the demo was very restricted by schoolchildren. There was no natural light at all and therefore I had to boost my ISO to unacceptable levels (although the camera does handle noise quite well). I shot ISO 800-1600 depending on where I was situated. I was getting slow shutter speeds regardless and some of the pictures suffer from motion blur. luckily the lens had stabilization built in which would have compensated for my shaky hands but not the chefs.
I have sharpened the pictures and added a little contrast in Photoshop, I have also added a bespoke saturation/colour filter of my own through Nik software.
Given the small space, the fact that we could not use flash and the lack of planning on my part I do think the pictures are acceptable for web or even small print and could not see a client arguing over them if I was getting paid for the work.
Dave Hankin
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