Work experience

I was given an assignment to develop myself as a photographer and to outline where I thought was my weakest areas of photography so I could work to improve these.

                                                On Location photo shoots

An insight into the photography industry

Product Photography

Lighting effects

Editing/Graphics Tab

I started my brief by contacting the photographer I previously had my work experience with as I thought that I could gain more experience shadowing her at another wedding.My first photo shoot was located at the Novotel in manchester and I covered all the day from bridal prep to the first dance,I captured so many details and important parts of the day such the preparation  guests arriving,cutting of the cake,vows,first dance,speeches etc.I wanted this chance to experience what it was like shooting on location all day and to execute the breakdown of the day on my own as I was left on my won covering different parts of the venue.This was a great learning experience as I took hundreds of great images.Prior to this wedding my research helped me a lot as I knew how capture certain composition when specific events happened.

My second photo shoot was a church wedding shortly after my first photo shoot as I was invited to shadow her again on this wedding.This time I only covered the vows and the arrivals of the guests. This photo shoot proved to be more difficult as it was very dark in the church and I had limitations of where I could stand. However I took my tripod and got some excellent images from the back of the church again after the ceremony I had the opportunity to stage a few of the moments such as the kissing as you can see in one of my final images, this was to compensate for the distance I had to stand when they where getting married.The couple was more than happy to do this as it was dark in the church .

This event lasted about 30mins but the priest didn't allow pictures whilst the ceremony took place and I had to recreate some of the shots as you see above,However I managed to get a beautiful image of the priest pouring water on the baby's head. I did have some difficulty with some compositions as most of the time there was not enough room to get the composition I wanted .If I photographed an event like this again I would go to the church before hand and see where I will be able to get my desired shots and see if i would need my flash or not as it was very dark in the church .

After photographing the christening I have gained essential skills to photograph on my own without anyone assisting me. I feel as this is a vital progression in the steps of developing as a photographer as I have gained the confidence within myself as a photographer .

One of the last points that I wanted to excel at was lighting and editing I decided to do some research into product photography and look into the lighting setups in order to achieve a great advertisement image.I set up my lighting using one main and two fill lights,two placed either side of the watch and one directly in front of the watch,I gained great experience from this photo shoot as I had to adjust the lighting every time I moved the subject.I shot the watch against both black and white background however I choose my final edit to be on black as I thought it added more depth into the strap .This shot was really thought out as I didn't want the hands to be blocking the logo or a main feature on the face such as the magnifying panel, so I purposely stopped the watch at 5 past 9 this is why I think this shot works really well with the advert .

 Product photography relies on the editing after accomplishing the composition and lighting as its all based on the clarity and that flawless effect.I have edited the hats by burning the background and deleting any dust.The technique was also used on the white watch for the same purpose I then used the magic wand for the background and made both of these darker as it makes the subject pop more from the background,giving it a sense of depth of filed .

Overall for this brief I have explored a range of subjects that I wouldn't normally encounter and I have researched about my subject before approaching them and I have learned essential information about these,such as the light set-up,editing,calculating distances for light and photographing on location.My most beneficial section of the brief is that I had the chance to photography two weddings and also photographing the christening as I wanted to explore on location and freelance photography.