Skills Development

Side Lightening

With side lighting, the face is lit more strongly on one side than the other. This type of lighting is well suited for men as it shows off their masculine features and young women that have smooth skin and regular facial features. Side lighting involves finding or creating a source of light that will light up or darken one side of the subject in a photograph. Side lighting can come from either side and be directed in a number of angles so as to cast shadows in a particular way. It can add a dramatic or dark element to a photograph that could otherwise have been simple or even bland. Side lighting suggests a mysterious look or a dark side to the subject, whether it’s a person or object.

Front lightening

Front lighting is when the sun is directly in front of the subject. It is quite popular because it’s easier for the photographer to take the photograph when the sun is behind him/her. Front lighting is used when you want to enhance shadows to increase the depth of your photograph. It suggests the powerfulness in the subject and it makes it look intriguing. It can also soften female features to give a more friendly tone.

Some of the images that we had taken to show different lighting techniques such as side and front lighting went wrong because they had different shutter speeds and some images were either under or over exposed. Above is one example. In this image we have used side lighting but it has a slow shutter speed because it’s quite dark.

Some images can be either under or over exposed which means that the image is either too dark or too bright. To prevent this, the image should be taken again with a different shutter speed. Shutter speeds let certain amounts of light into an image. If you slower the shutter speed it can change the darkness of the image. Also, having a slow shutter speed can cause motion blur which means the image blurs through movement. A fast shutter speed freezes the image to stop it from blurring.

On the cameras we used there was an ISO speed with controls the speed of the cells which react with light which could be night time (high speed) and day time (low speed).

This is an example of poor framing which is when a photo has a person on that has its limbs cut off or it’s too far away. In this image the foot of the character is cut off so this is known as ‘poor framing’. The solution for poor framing is to review images when you have taken them, take your time when shooting the images, put the camera on continuity shot mode so that you can get loads of that image so you’re more likely to get a decent image, get closer to your subject of use a tripod.

introduction project

AS Media Production: Induction

Evaluation

On my development initial skills assessment the skills I have used are Manual Focus features when using a camera in textiles work and using a home digital camera and I have also used some basic tools of Photoshop in my previous GSCE for Art & Graphics, using layers and brightness and contrast control. I have only used these skills very basic and briefly over the past 2 years. The work I am blogging demonstrates how I can use some of the tools on Photoshop including the font adding and changing tools. The weakness’ I have found are not visible in my work, my main weakness is using Photoshop quickly because I’m not sure where all of the looks are I have to look for them which wastes time. I can improve these weaknesses by keep working on Photoshop to get used to where all of the tools are and how to use them. If I was to do this project again I would learn how to fully understand and use Photoshop first so it will make my work have better design and qualities.

My product for this project was ‘Bovril’. I think Bovril is aimed at all ages because most people like beef with the exceptions of vegetarians and most people will like it. Our new target audience is teenagers because on our advert the pictures are taken when teenagers are recommended to try and ‘Beef it up with Bovril’. In our project I think one of our main elements is the slogan, ‘Beef it up with Bovril’ because it’s catchy and sticks in your mind. If I was to re-do my project I would use more people other than just two to laugh at the passing person to show that it’s not just two peoples point of views. I think our product with meet the target audience because the people in it are the target audience we are aiming at. If I was to change anything about our product I would change the humour of the advert to suit your target audience. Using the age group in our advert of teenager’s shows that we understand the audience of segmentation systems.

initial skills assesment

AS Media Production

Technical Skills Audit Print Production

Name:                           Tutor group:               Date:

Photographic Skills

Which of the following photographic features/equipment have you used on a camera before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Manual Focus features	x		Used basics in textiles
Shutter Speed
Aperture control
ISO Control
A tripod
External flash
Self timer facility
Light meter
Composition grids

Photoshop Skills

Which of the following features of Photoshop have you used before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Have you aver used Photoshop ever before?	x		Just a little in GCSE art and graphics at school, basics
Text control
Filters
Brushes
Layers	x		Used at school in art and graphics
Opacity control
Shape creation
Brightness and contrast control	x		Opacity control in art and graphics at school
Gradients
Load selection features
Feathering
Colour curves adjustment
Resolution setting control
Magnetic lasso, polygon lasso tool
Cropping tool
Clone tool
Retouch tool