Week 1: Assignment 20| Studio Silhouettes
Outside you will need to do a TTL meter reading of the background, set your aperture then focus back on your subject.
Inside the studio, you will need to light the background with two studio lights, meter them and set your aperture to the metered exposure.
Watch: YouTube Video: Profoto Live – How to light a silhouette
1. Research Studio Silhouettes.
2. Take studio portraits demonstrating Silhouettes Lighting.
3. You must shoot 12- 24 images and make a contact sheet of your work.
Week 2: Assignment 21| Time-Lapse
Objectives: Understand how to use the time-lapse in your camera and smartphone.
Watch: What is time-lapse photography? Check out this Studio Time-Lapse!
Time lapse photography records an event that happens over a long period of time from an hour or longer and shows it quickly in a few seconds. If done correctly and creatively, the results are often dramatic and visually attractive. The technique of shooting time lapses has been used since the early twentieth century. However, the use of time lapses as a cinematic tool has grown tremendously over the last few years. One reason, of course, is the arrival of digital SLR cameras with in-built time lapse features. Earlier cameras could record images at regular, pre-set intervals and later they could be merged using a video editing software to create a time lapse video. The interval timer is available in most Nikon DSLRs. The process was lengthy and required knowledge of video editing software. However, time lapse photography became very easy with the arrival of an in-camera time lapse feature in Nikon DSLRs. In-camera Time Lapse also shoots images at regular intervals, but the camera compiles the images into a time lapse movie and shows you the result almost instantly. With the whole process of making the video taken over by the camera, making time lapses has become incredibly easy
The set up. First ensure your DSLR supports this feature. Go to the Shooting Menu and if ‘Time-Lapse Photography shows up, then your camera supports it. Select this menu item. Choose an interval by using the multi-selector
(up, down , right left buttons). If you select 10 second, every 10 seconds, one image will be shot.
Choose a shooting time. This tells the camera for how long it will continue shooting. Let’s understand the mathematics of shooting time lapses. If we take one image every 10 seconds, then in a minute, we get 6 images. In an hour, we get 6 X 60 = 360 images. With these 360 images, if a video is created at
30 frames / second, we get a (360/ 30 =) 12 seconds long video. This 12 second video will show us the events of an hour. If you shoot for longer, you get a longer time lapse video. Length of a time lapse will increase if you reduce the frame rate. This has to be done from the movie settings.
Video Assignment: Your assignment is to create 4 time lapse videos with your camera or a smartphone.Think about what you want your time-lapse looks like and find the appropriate location for achieving that goal.
- Setup the tripod on a stable platform.
- Turn the mode (of your camera) to M (manual).
- Turn the focus mode switch on your lens to MF (manual focusing).
- Set appropriate aperture opening, shot speed, white balance and ISO setting. Once set, those values should not be changed throughout the shooting process
- To test you have the appropriate settings, take a few photos while the camera is still in your hand and confirm the result is desirable.
- To test you have the appropriate settings, take a few photos while the camera is still in your hand and confirm the result is desirable.
Week 3: Assignment 22| Floating Food
Objectives: Understand how to create floating food pictures
Ever wonder how some photos were taken? For this assignment we are going to explore the idea of floating food. This can be done with a whole meal or something simple, but there needs to be a lot of planning and some setup. You can do this with a single item, but using something that has several layers (sandwich, or hamburger, or a stack of pancakes) adds to the interest of the final image. How about holding your hand below to levitate the food. Or what about throwing something at the camera (please fake throw) to make it fun?
Watch: YouTube Video: How To Shoot Floating Product Photography!
Read: How to make floating food photos
For your first assignment start small. Follow the directions below.
Find a subject that is of age to hold a knife.- Cut an onion, orange, apple ect. in half.
- Fork the end of the cut subject. (see below)
- Place the knife in the middle of the shot, then add in your cut onion, orange, apple ect. on each side.
- Set your aperture to 2.8 for great DOF.
- Take 12-24 images.
- Photoshop the forks out!
- Post your final work.
Photo Assignment: Your assignment is to create 3 floating food images. Remember, items with more physical layers are more interesting, but having those layers be easily attached helps to make them interesting (i.e. it is very hard to float a layered trifle or an ice cream cone). You will need to take several images of each food to give yourself options, but the setup is most important. Think about a clean background to make it easier to use the content-aware fill option, also think about your lighting.
Week 4: Assignment 23| The Flat Lay Photo
Objectives: Understand Flat lay photography and tell stories through the arrangement of objects on a flat surface.
Flat Lay Photography is a photograph taken from directly above looking down on usually products or food. It gives a bird’s eye view of what it is you’re photographing and is an extremely popular genre of photography on social media. It’s a great way to show off products from a small business, plates of food from restaurants or just to have a bit of fun at home. 
Theme and Feeling
The first thing you need is a theme or feeling you want to achieve. Try not to go in blind, what mode would suit the things you want to photograph? Is it a dark moody scene of mechanical products or a bright fresh theme for coffee and cake?
Flat lay Backgrounds
Your flat lay background is going to be an important part of your shot and you need it to match the mood you’re going for. You can use anything for a background, piece of wood, table, piece of vinyl or even tiles.
Flat Lay Lighting The rule here is the lighter the better and generally, it’s a soft light that works best for this type of photography. Use a big window for your main light source and if there is harsh light coming through the window you can simply put net curtains or chiffon fabric onto the window which will diffuse the light, making it soft. OR a soft box. You can use hard light as well. Try both and see which one you prefer.
Balance
The next thing is to set out your products in order so they will look good. In photography, this is called composition and it’s a really important part of any photograph. For more in-depth knowledge on composition. In flat flay photos, the main thing to get right is the balance of the shot. Think of it like a set of scales, what you have on one side of the shot, try to have the same or similar on the other side. This is not an exact science and it’s good to experiment but just don’t have a big object on one side of the shot and nothing on the opposite side.
Watch: FLAT LAY PHOTOGRAPHY
Photo Assignment: Take 2 different Flat Lay images with 12-24 images demonstrating Flat Lay Photography.
Week 5: Assignment 24| Conceptual Photography
Conceptual photography means the photographer is trying to write a story in your head with a single image. A lot of the time the message is conveyed in a very abstract way using random objects and props. Although the image may be shot to tell one story, it can very easily be interpreted many different ways by each person who sees it.
- Research surreal art, artists and photography for inspiration.
- Brainstorm a few ideas and create a full page pencil sketch of your idea. Try to think of all the visual elements you would like to incorporate… consider setting, backgrounds, models, objects or props, costume, stylistic effects.
- Plan every detail of your shoot for best results. I expect QUALITY work.
- Begin shooting your photo(s) and use photo manipulation to achieve your desired look with Photoshop
- All processes are available to you, cropping, fine edge selection, airbrushing, colorization, layering, enhancement effects etc… try to achieve a worked over and artistic look to your image
-Post your image to your blog when complete - Photo Assignment: Take 2 different conceptual photo images with 12-24 images demonstrating conceptual Photography.
Conceptual Photography part 2. You’re assignment is to watch all 3 videos and try 2:
Watch:“Sprout” 🌱 Conceptual Photography–https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Watch:“Recharge” 🔋 Conceptual Photography-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VziBlRh-a98
Watch:“Rose”🌹https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYR6N_KvRuA
Week 6: Assignment 25|On Location Portraits
- Research “On Location Portraits”
- On location Portraits involves going outside, and utilizing the beauty (or the ugliness) of your surroundings You probably already know some local beauty spots, and can think of some good places to take portraits right away. But once you start observing your local area with the aim of making portraits in mind, you will begin to see the potential, even in mundane locations. But how do you find great backgrounds for outdoor portraits?
- Plan every step of the photograph including subject, location, lighting, props and clothing. (see examples above)
- Location – Find an area to set up your photograph. Look for good lighting and an appropriate background. How will you control the background (in focus or out of focus, lighter or darker than your subject)
- Choose the correct lens to achieve the look you want for your photograph.
- Use a hand held light meter to find the correct exposure.
- Choose a subject of subjects, an appropriate pose and any props needed.
- Who would buy this photograph?
- Post at least 2 of each lighting (+ a contact sheet) of your best photos for a grade.
- Edit your photos in Photoshop and do any cosmetic retouching that’s needed. Post one of each lighting with a contact sheet on your blog. Think about COMPOSITION and POSING when doing your photo shoot.
Adobe Photoshop:
Week 7: Assignment 26|Glass/Metal
Objectives:
In this assignment you’ll learn…
Photograph highly-reflective products like glass and metals products.
Photographing Glass: The way to photograph glass objects is to back-light them, a common studio lighting technique that involves placing the light directly behind the glassware. You can use the Plexiglas product-shooting table or a regular table. Place one White Lightning lights with Photo-flex soft box on each side of the Plexiglas product shooting table facing the background. Then take a meter incident meter reading of the lighting falling on the background. Set your aperture according to the meter reading.
Photographing Metal: Metallic objects, especially those with smooth surfaces such as stainless steel, are highly reflective. Keep in mind the Laws of Reflection in physics, one of which states that the angle of incident light equals the angle of reflection. This means that when your light hits the metallic surface, it is reflected back at the same angle in the opposite direction. This can be a problem for on-camera flashes which are so near the lens that light used to illuminate the object can reflect back directly (since the angle is identical) into the camera lens, creating serious blown out highlights.You must shoot 24 images and make a contact sheet of your work.
Watch: YouTube Video: Laws of Light: How to Light Glass
Watch: YouTube Video: Lighting A Highly Reflective Object
Adobe Photoshop:
Photo Assignment: Glass and Metal Product Shots
1. Research Glass and Metal Product Shots
2. Take studio product shots using a Glass & Metal.
3. You must shoot 12-24 images and make a contact sheet of your work.
Week 8: Assignment 27| Pet Photography
Objectives: Pet photography is a fun and profitable business that allows you to combine a love of animals with technical skill in photography.
Photographing pets is a bit more challenging than photographing people. It is due to their unpredictable nature, and due to the fact that they don’t understand what the photographer is actually doing. Some pets can be startled by the camera flash, or be afraid of the big black thingy you are pointing at them. However, there are also pets that completely trust their owner and, therefore, are easier to photograph.
- Get on their level – If you photograph your kitten while standing, the photograph would be taken from a bird’s-eye view. Rarely when that is fun or looks good. Getting on their level will give you much better angles to shoot from, as well as photos that look more natural. In addition, pets are afraid of people, and tend to loosen up when the human is on their height level since they don’t look like giants to them.
- Silent shutter – If your camera has the option to go silent (point and shoots have the option to turn off sound, since there is no mechanical shutter to produce sound), do that. Every sound and flash produced from a big black thing pointed at them (the camera in the pet’s point of view) will frighten them and may spoil the shot.
- Natural light – As mentioned before, avoiding flash will help you because flash can startle and scare off pets and cause them to be permanently afraid of the camera. Think of the flash as a thunderstorm for the pets. Most of them hide during a thunderstorm because it scares them to death. Using natural light and a silent shutter is more humane way to photograph the little fellas.
- Focus on the eye – As in photographing people, eyes are the windows to the soul – that applies to pets, as well. Only issue with this is, that pet eyes are quite smaller and pets don’t tend to pose, so it will be a bit tougher to get it right, but when you do, the images are quite rewarding. Just make sure that you use the central point for focusing, or one or two other cross type points, and you’ll have no issues.
- Capture emotions – It is the same as when you photograph people – you need to capture the expressions just right in order to transfer the emotions via the camera. Pets have emotions too, and you need to capture them perfectly in order to have a photo that “pops”. If you fail at that the photograph will be just another snapshot of a pet.
- Have patience – Patience is a virtue. Pets will be pets – some wild by nature, some lazy. Some pets will be scared by the camera, some won’t. They will be unpredictable and you’ll have to stick with it. Being patient will keep your creative process strict and functional, and eventually, it will result in good shots.
Watch: YouTube Video: How this photographer captures the essence of a dog (2019)
Adobe Photoshop:
Photo Assignment:
Your assignment is to take photos of your pet or a friend’s pet.
1. Research Pet Photography
2. Choose a location in which you would like to photograph this pet.
-Studio Location- Pet photographers usually set up a high key lighting.
-Home/Outdoor Location – Find an area to set up your photograph. Look for good lighting and an appropriate background.
3. You must shoot 12-24 images and make a contact sheet of your work
Week 9: Assignment 28|Final Documents & Final Portfolio
*Register on College Central Network, you have access to the employment postings, interview, and resume skills, and can always make an appointment with the Career Service Team through the platform. Finally, schedule an appointment to meet with Mr. Preston Selvanik Employment Service Specialist regarding a resume.
- Copyright Release Form
- Model Release Form
- Price Sheet Form
- Invoice
- Logo
- Cover Letter
- Resume
&
The portfolio you build will reflect the industry in which you are going to look for work. Each student needs to print all portfolio images OR create a portfolio book using iPhoto or Lightroom.
- Studio portrait
- Lifestyle portrait
- High key studio portrait
- Low key studio portrait
- Monochromatic color portrait or product photograph
- Contrasting colors portrait or product photograph
- Advertisement portrait or product photograph
- Glass product photograph
- Metal product photograph
- HDR photograph
- Optional photographs to complete a portfolio of 24 prints
*Depending on your portfolio, all photos must be on a 8×10 canvas at resolution 300.