jordanyoung94

[jordanyoung94]

Self Initiated Evaluation/Report

The initial idea behind my SIP was to generate a response from people that made them shocked that my images were taken on an iPhone. After showing people my project, I seem to have gained the right response. 

By completing this project, I wanted to show that an iPhone, and in fact smart phones in general, are no longer just for those who want to take a quick selfie while out with friends. I wanted to show that smartphone cameras are now so advanced and so equipped that professionals can use them to work with and create images so amazing that they could be mistaken for DSLR images.

I feel like my pre-production wasn’t as strong as with my FMP but that was mainly because I left my SIP planning until after I had completed my FMP so I could have spent more time working on it, but I felt that my tumblr was stronger than I initially thought it would be.

The shoots themselves were easy and I found them fun to complete. Shooting on an iPhone is an interesting experience, it made me feel like I wasn’t actually completing a project and that I was just taking photos for fun, which seemed to add to the project even more.

The post-production was a little harder as I hadn’t actually specified in my brief how I was going to present the photos for hand in. I knew that I wanted to create a magazine layout for it, but I wasn’t sure how to present the images. Putting the images in seemed a bit lazy and I wasn’t happy with how they looked. So i decided to present the images in square format to match with the instagram vibe that I wanted to create.

Overall, the project was a lot of fun to carry out and I think that the reaction I wanted to create was successful.

[jordanyoung94]

FMP REPORT

Whilst completing my FMP I found that it was one of the best projects I have done whilst here at Ravensbourne and I really enjoyed not only the production phase but both pre and post production.

I found it difficult to plan my FMP alongside the other projects, even though we had plenty of time to prepare for FMP (I started planning mine in October of 2014).

Location + Pre Production

The first thing I needed to figure out when I decided my FMP subject was to decide where I wanted to travel to complete it. My initial plan was to travel to Scotland because of the wild landscapes and rugged atmosphere there but I feared that it wouldn’t be far enough away to get the exotic feel that I wanted for my magazine.

My next option was Western America. The U.S. is my favourite destination in the entire world, and to be able to travel there to complete my final and most important project was definitely an honour.

I knew that I wanted to start in Los Angeles, because myself and Amber, who was travelling with me, had tickets to Coachella Music Festival, so it made sense to start with that.

Before I started, the plan that I had was to make the trip lengthy and to make sure that it was long enough to make it worth 30 credits. Of course, the issue that arose after this was cost. I was sure that the cost of my trip was going to be quite large, and having seen the costs of other people’s FMPs, I knew that it was going to cost a lot.

When looking at a map of the US, I tried to figure out a route. The itinerary for the trip changed often; I think in total it changed about 5 times before I actually went ahead and booked everything.

I knew that I wanted to go as far north as Canada. It seemed like quite a long journey, but I knew that to create the magazine and the project that I wanted, I knew that it would be worth the money and the time.

The trip worked out at 6000 miles and would take 3 weeks to complete, so I was definitely sure that it would be worth the 30 credits I needed alongside all the other work that needed doing.

I began writing my tumblr posts in February to make sure that I had a head start when it came to finalising FMP plans in April before I left for America in mid-April. I had written down all my planning as I was going along to make sure I had a record of everything that I had planned so that when it came to my tumblr, I was well ahead of everyone else. The only issue here was photocopying everything to make sure it was scanned into tumblr, which took time.

I think my pre-production went well, I was definitely more prepared than I had been for previous projects and I was definitely well prepared when I left for my trip in April.

Equipment

Before I left, I had to make decision of what equipment to take with me. Of course, I was restricted by the amount of weight I could carry on the plane so I needed to be frugal with the amount of equipment I took. I decided to take with me:

Canon 5D MK III Body

Canon 17-40 f/4 L lens

GoPro Hero 3

Instax Camera

Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens

It didn’t seem like a lot when I put it in my suitcase but I found that when I arrived and started shooting in America it was the perfect amount of kit and the 17-40 lens was a perfect lens for shooting landscapes. I didn't want to take too much that it was difficult to carry or became a liability if I left it in the car for too long (I didn’t want to get anything stolen while I was there), so making sure I had the essentials was ideal.

Other non-tactile items of kit that I needed to take with me were things like insurance for my kit and also travel insurance, without which I wouldn't have been able to claim should I have had an accident or had anything stolen. It was definitely well worth the £45 I paid, even if I didn’t make a claim on it.

Time Management

I had a lot of people saying to me before I left that I wasn’t leaving enough time to get around the country and to make sure I got everything I needed, and right before I left it became a genuine worry that I hadn’t left enough time to see everything I wanted to see or get photos of everything to fill my magazine up.

There were other people who were saying that the trip was too long. I had some people saying that I had overstretched myself and that I was seeing too many places, and that I needed to shorten the trip and see less but spend more time in each place. I agreed up to a point, in that I wanted to fill the magazine with as many articles about different unheard of places as I could in the time I had allocated.

One issue I found with my trip with regards to time was that the drives I had between each place were sometimes too long. The longest drive I had in terms of distance was the drive between Salt Lake City and Montana at a total of 483 miles; to drive that distance in one day was definitely a challenge and one that I will never forget, if only for the sights I saw, but it will definitely stick with me for the sheer length of the drive.

If I was to do the trip again, the changes I would make with regards to time and time management are that I would most definitely make it longer and spend more time in each place and also visit more places so that the drives in between each were shorter, meaning I wasn’t spending most of my time on the road. The amount of time I spent actually taking photos was quite minuscule in comparison to driving and travelling.

Post-Production

When I got back from travelling, the hard work began. I had started making my layout whilst over in the US to make sure I knew what I was shooting and to have an idea of what the magazine would look like. I had realised soon after starting that the magazine was going to be long, I wanted the images to be full bleeds mostly to make the most of the colour and beauty of the landscapes I had shot.

We had used InDesign before in other projects, but I’d not had a chance to make my own layout from scratch, especially not one as long as this. I hadn’t been the best of friends with InDesign in the past due to issues with exporting or other issues with text boxes, so when I worked out that I wanted to use InDesign to finish my project, I knew that I was going to have issues.

What followed however, was a new love affair with InDesign that I found myself in. It became such an easy program to use and I was almost like a professional by the end of it, knowing how to wrap text around images and being able to change the ratio size of paper, plus add margins.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to enhance my skills with Photoshop because I didn't have any portraits of people or any skin to edit, or any blemishes to remove from my pictures (this may have been because both my lens and camera are relatively new), so I wasn’t able to improve my skills with Photoshop, but regular shooting in studio allows me to do this.

Once the magazine was complete, I exported the pdf file and began finishing all the rest of my post- production. I wanted to get the magazine printed but I found that the website I had originally earmarked to use to print ended up being one of the most difficult websites to use. Blurb looked pretty simple from the outset, but once I tried uploading it for print, I found all sorts of issues arose with page size and margin errors etc.

My solution was to upload my magazine to Issuu, an online magazine hosting website, and then they had an option to print from there. At time of writing this report, I am still actually waiting for the magazine to arrive in the post, but I’m hoping that it will be an acceptable quality to present at my final exhibition in a few weeks time.

Overview

All in all, I seriously enjoyed this project and everything that came with it. I thoroughly enjoyed the planning, the production and the post production stage, which is unusual because I don’t normally enjoy every stage of a project.

My planning was well thought out. I am happy with the fact that I wrote down all my planning well before I left for my trip and well before I even started my tumblr for my project. It really helped to get the ball rolling and start my work in earnest before I left.

I thought that my trip was the perfect length on reflection and I really don't think that it should have been any shorter or longer. The places that I went to complimented each other well and they work well together in the magazine.

In post-production, I feel like I have really gotten to grips with InDesign and I have made myself able to use it so competently that I would be able to use this skill to get a job in the future. I made the magazine specifically so that if I wanted to, I could carry it on should I travel further in the future.

If I could do the trip again, I would take someone with me for the entire duration. I think that any issues I had with my trip were because I was alone for most of the duration, driving around by myself. Having Amber with me for the first week definitely helped me to get used to being in America, getting over the jet lag in particular, but it also helped to take the edge off my nerves about being by myself in a huge country.

This project was a success and I think the magazine that I produced was as professional a quality that I could make it.

[jordanyoung94]

My final layout uploaded to issuu so it is easy to read.

[jordanyoung94]

My final images as a contact sheet.. really happy with the selection of images.

[jordanyoung94]

A BBC documentary for Click was filmed entirely on iPhones - link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31765627

[jordanyoung94]

A couple of examples of portraits after post production in VSCO Cam. I'm really happy with the film quality that they have.

[jordanyoung94]

The portrait images I edited in VSCO Cam as I felt that the breadth of editing tools it provides are far greater for dealing with skin tones and shadows than Afterlight or Enlight.

[jordanyoung94]

An example of a still shot from a picture from the Phhhoto app. I'm not sure about the grain it produces on the images, it's not as good as after light, it's to strong.

[jordanyoung94]

On an iPhone you can like and favourite the best pictures and it puts them in a separate album a lot like Lightroom and flagging pictures.

[jordanyoung94]

Editing a portrait photo in Whitagram iPhone app is easy especially as the app allows me to edit out blemishes. This is what I used the app primarily for to edit spots and blemishes out of images.

[jordanyoung94]

iPhone Fashion Shoot

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fstoppers/sets/72157624296312079/

At this website you see images taken on an iPhone 3GS in 2010 by photography website FStoppers. They used a studio with all the professional lighting equipment but shot the entire thing on an iPhone to a) test themselves and b) test the camera.

I think its a great way of showing what the iPhone is capable of and the images look amazing especially considering they were shot on an iPhone which is now nearly 6 years old.

[jordanyoung94]

Shot on an iPhone 6

Apple has jumped on the iPhoneography bandwagon recently by creating a series of adverts using real peoples’ images that have been shot and edited using an iPhone 6. It is a great way to get people to see the technology in use and is a great way to sell iPhones to amateur and professional photographers alike.

Mainly in America, the billboards have shown a wide variety of subjects that have been shot using an iPhone in various parts of the world. The billboards did make it over here to the UK as well, but due to the great scale of advertising in the US the images made more of an impact and were shown on much bigger billboards and on the sides of skyscrapers.

I think its a great way to prove to people that a smartphone camera isn’t just a toy, or a novelty, its a pro camera that needs to be taken seriously because more and more people are using them, and more and more people have them in their back pockets just waiting to be used as great cameras.

On the apple website they have created a gallery of the best images taken on iPhones by people around the world as well as video shot on iPhones which are now being shown in TV adverts around the world. I think this is a remarkable stage we have reached where the company who have created these pocket cameras have realised the way in which they are being used and are now capitalising on the artistic and real ways people are making the most of this camera.

Go to: http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/world-gallery/ to view the full gallery.

[jordanyoung94]

Editing using Afterlight - 8 step process

When I edit with Afterlight, I follow an eight step process to make sure the images look as best, as clean and as professional as possible.

^ 1. Open the app and choose the image I want to edit.

^ 2. Clarify the image, this brings out highlights and sharpens the image to bring out detail.

^ 3. If the image needs cropping, crop now before editing the image too much.

^ 4. Bring out the contrast. No image is complete without a bit of harsh contrast to show the detail even more.

^ 5. Bring up the highlights even more. In this image it brought the sky back into focus by adding more blue to it.

^ 6. Sharpness may add a bit of grain to the final image but it will keep your image looking crisp.

^ 7. Add any final touches like any extra cropping or film effects such a light leaks or dust, or maybe overlay another image on top.

^ 8. Save the image.

[jordanyoung94]

Afterlight

The best app I will use, and always use, is Afterlight.

This is my favourite editing app as the images it produces are so sharp, detailed and well-edited that it’s hard to believe they came from an iPhone. Here are few examples of images I’ve taken in the past that I had edited using Afterlight:

I love the filmic quality it gives the images. The grain that it adds is sometimes a little jarring to view especially if you want a crisp clean image but sometimes (particularly in the image with the neon light) it adds a darkness to it which can’t be found using a DSLR.

[jordanyoung94]

Some of the best Apps I will use...

1. Enlight

This app has a gorgeous editing platform that will create some stunning images however I find it difficult to use and sometimes too complicated.

2. Whitagram

This app started out life as an app to make rectangular images fit in a square box for instagram, but now I use it to remove blemishes from faces or from landscapes, and then I export them and crop them to the original size. It is a great little app with an excellent editing platform, one of the only ones I know that can photoshop images with supreme detail. I used it a lot in my project and there would be a lot more blemishes in it without it.

3. PHHHOTO

This app has quickly become my new favourite app (within about a minute of opening it and signing up). It is basically an instagram for moving images, not video or still photos. It takes 5 images in quick succession and stitches them  together to create what looks like a gif. You can then add captions and hashtags and post them for all your followers to see in a similar way to instagram.

4. Instagram

The original, the classic. This app is the most used app on my phone and I am always uploading new images to it. I’ve found that the more attention I put into the images I take, the more interaction they get. People are becoming more interested in beautiful photography taken by iPhones.

[jordanyoung94]

What do I hope to achieve?

By completing this project, I hope to show that an iPhone, and in fact smart phones in general, are no longer just for those who want to take a quick selfie while out with friends. I want to show that smartphone cameras are now so advanced and so equipped that professionals can use them to work with and create images so amazing that they could be mistaken for DSLR images.

Okay, so there are few limitations, such as low light capabilities of a camera smaller than the head of a screw are going to be limited; the ability to capture moving objects is going to be difficult when the camera, or even the phone, becomes slow; and it’s often difficult to shoot when your phone's memory becomes full with songs, contacts or apps, where your DSLR can have a card changed and carry on shooting.

But there are so many things you can do with smartphone cameras now. With the help of apps and accessories, we are able to take smartphone cameras to the edge and still produce amazing, instagram-worthy images that people want to see and this is what I want to achieve.

[jordanyoung94]

ACCESSORIES - 3. MONSTER JUICE PACK

I found my phone often running out of battery when I am out taking images on it, especially if I happen to have the brightness too high on it, so I purchased the Monster Juice Pack for it.

This credit card sized power pack allows you to keep your phone powered up but is small enough that you can keep it in your wallet or back pocket for safe keeping. The only downfall I found was that it doesn’t come with a shortened iPhone cable, which means you have to use a 1 metre long cable, which becomes very impractical if you keep your phone in your pocket. It did give my phone an extra 80% battery so it meant I could keep shooting for longer, especially while out away from a power socket.

Price $40 - Los Angeles Airport