Digital Photography

at McFatter Technical College/ High School

Quarter 4-Jr

Week 1: 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 2: 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 3: 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

Conceptual Photography part 2. You’re assignment is to watch all 3 videos and try 1:

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 4: Assignment 25| 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: Take the Photoshop ACA Exam

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 5: Assignment 26|Advertising Photography

For this assignment you will create a photograph that will be used for advertising purposes. First you will research advertising photography on the Internet to generate ideas. Post 3 ads that you really like and write a sentence about why they catch your eye. Before you begin to create your advertisement, write a proposal by answering the following questions:

  1. Who is the client, or company you are representing?
  2. What is the product?
  3. Who is the target audience?
  4. Where would you expect to see this advertisement?
  5. What kind of lighting are you going to use to make this look professional?
  6. What props do you need?

Shoot the product and use of variety of compositions. Think about: lighting, composition, depth of field, product placement. Use Photoshop to tweak and enhance your photograph. Add necessary text and captions. Post your best advertising shot, EDITED, to your blog with the proposal. Samples below:

Week 6: Assignment 27|Magazine Cover

Look online and find 3 magazine covers you like and post to your blog with a sentence or two explaining why you like them. Then, create a magazine cover using your own photographic image. Include a cover title and a list of articles, which would be within the magazine. Make your cover 9×12 @ 300 resolution.

Week 7: Assignment 28|Whats in your head

Week 8: Assignment 29-End of the year portfolio

Create your photography portfolio using ADOBE EXPRESS https://www.adobe.com/express/

  • Make a folder in your desktop called Portfolio Images. Select 1 image from each assignment you’ve created during this school year.
  • Log into Adobe Express with your school credentials.  Go to the Presentation or Slide Show tab
  • Add a title to your portfolio. Add an image to the header and then add introduction text about yourself, your hobbies, and your experiences in photography.
  • Keep adding your images with the Adobe Express layouts: single photos, photo grids, slideshows and split layouts.
  • Write the title of the assignment for each photograph, or series of photographs.
  • Begin and end your presentation with your strongest images.
  • Go to the share button and make sure to publish and update your portfolio often. Post your portfolio presentation as a widget on your site and also post to the Teams Channel Final Portfolios.

Week 9: Make-Up Week/Print

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