Assignment 1 - Workflow

For this assignment I was required to construct an effective workflow.  I had received  a request from a friend for a family photo shoot with the aim of having a couple of a high enough standard to have printed onto a canvas for a particular room in her house with shades of green and orange, as it was October and the leaves turning it seemed a mutually beneficial opportunity. 

We set of just after lunch when the sun was lower in the sky in order to get the best of colour and positioning of the outdoor light. The location was Hartsholme Park a local nature reserve with lakes open grassland and mature woods, I had previously been around the park so was aware of some nice spots for images. As the family also knew the park a discussion had taken place of the type of images were wanted and the best locations, I planned the route of the photo shoot so as not to spend too much time in one area and loose the sunlight.

• The workflow for this photo shoot is :
• Shooting images
• Transfer images from memory card to hard drive on laptop
• Examine the images in a browser and delete mistakes
• Identify selects, process
• Save and archive all images

The setting on my camera was for jpeg, although I am experimenting with RAW and intend to switch as soon as I am confident and knowledgeable.

I remove the memory card from my camera and put directly into the appropriate slot on my laptop which automatically asks me where I want the images to but located, I select my hard drive.

Currently my workflow is evolving as I am using two software processing systems. Since starting my course I have used Photoshop Elements 7, mainly because it was seemed to be quite easy to use, as a beginner to processing this was the preferred option. I use this software at the moment to carry out simple tasks like cropping, but it’s not as obvious to view the histogram as is Light Room 3 which is fast becoming the preferred option.

After progressing through the course though I have started to use Light Room 3, which although I am told performs more than PSE appears to be very complicated and has been quite difficult to get my head round, but following discussion with student colleagues is the preferred option for photography for this very reason so I have persevered. Therefore I have started to use both PSE and LR in tandem whilst learning to use Light Room 3, which as time progresses and I learn to use Light Room 3 more and Photo Shop Elements less, as is clearly a superior software option. I started as usual with the photo shoot by putting the images into Photo Shot Elements but quickly changed to Light Room 3.

I imported the images from the hard drive of my laptop, de-selecting those which were obviously out of focus. I am feeling more confident with Light Room 3 now and will soon use this before Photo Shop Elements, in which case I would need to ‘flag’ the images I wish to keep and create a separate folder.

I then zoomed into each image, which is quite easily done in LR, and immediately deleted from LR and from the hard drive.

Once I have my final selection I carry out the following, although this list isn’t exhaustive, I am happy to explore what processing options can add to an image, but I tend to start with the following:

·         Cropping

·         Contrast

·         Blacks

·         Saturation

·         Noise reduction

·         Sharpening

Using LR enables me to easily see the histogram which for this image show the under exposure, the look we were trying was a silhouette effect, as seen in this image my flash gun had also fired, thus loosing the effect, this image wasn’t included in the final selection.

This image was also one of those deleted due to movement of the subject and camera shake.

This image appears to have a reasonable exposure, the histogram values aren’t too close together and are spread out across the histogram.

What I also find useful in LR is the ability to zoom into an image quickly to see how sharp it is. With this image the sharpness isn’t great due to the ISO of 400 which was set on auto.

This is the orignal image before sharpening.

After sharpining at 79%

I didn’t think this added a great deal to the image so set the sharpening back to ‘0’ and changed the noise reduction instead.

Noise reduction of 24%. This seemed to soften the noise a little.

When I have completed editing a photo shoot I save it to C:\Users\Caroline\Pictures\Photoshoots and create a new folder with an appropriate name.  

 

Files are then backed up using the laptop programme.

The following images are the final selection from the workflow.

We started the shoot with the family sat together  with the low sun coming from the side I used my flash gun to try to balance out the light.

Tutor comments: The family group is nicely posed.  The background is neutral and allows the bright reds to stand out of the coats and scarfs.  Positioning the two girls with the red on the outside edges allows for them to frame the shot.  I would consider cropping in even tighter around the group and trying to lose the hint of sky that can be seen, as it is so bright on the frame.

On a side note – do watch out for people wearing hats – they can cast shadows over the face and prevent the eyes from being seen.  The use of the flash here may have helped to add some fill onto the faces.

My comments: I've cropped the image to exclude the sky, which does take out that area of brightness & greatly improved the image:

Tutor comments: A nice casual shot, which shows a dynamic pose for the boy.  He could do with a little more space on the left hand edge as his knee is only just in the frame.  I would also consider lightening his face a little – actual image may be brighter as they could be something that word is making appear darker.

As one of the children walked away I though the red of her coat would make a nice image against the autumnal colours, as it happened at the same time the sunlight was streaming through the trees creating  haze and streaks of light.

Tutor comments: A lovely image where the sun rays have been used to really good effect.  The bright red of the coat stands out well as an accent colour.  The framing is good to have her offset to one side.

Tutor comments: This is a very well framed portrait.  The post is relaxed and the framing excellent.  The use of a smaller depth of field has allowed the foliage to blur so it is not distracting.

Tutor comments: This is in a similar vein to the previous.  The pose is not quite as effective – she has hunched her shoulders, a little which stops it being so relaxed.

Tutor comments: A fun shot – the use of the diagonal framing allows for the image to be more dynamic.

I thought a peeping behind a tree might be a nice idea, while we waited for the children to join us I took just Mum & Dad Tutor comments: A nice image with a different edge – they do need to be both looking at the camera I think for it to be more effective.

I thought placing the children behind a tree in the background might work with red being a strong colour leading the eye to the children

 

Tutor comments: In this image the concept is very strong.  There is too much background however, which is cluttering the framing.  Using a longer lens may help as it not only helps you zoom in but also compressed the distance.

Tutor comments: Again an idea with potential.  Do you think this has worked?  What would you change if you were to take it again? My comment: I think the idea of the eye leading from the parents to the children in the background helps the image to work, helped by the red colour, if I were to take it again I would find a spot without the fallen tree in the middle which is a bit of a distraction. I would also have used a wider aperture to get the children more in focus.

Tutor comments: This image has a fun quality to it.  However the image in the word document does not seem completely sharp.  A more neutral background may help as there is a distracting line caused by the edge of the water against the trees.  The other option is to try in black and white.

My comments: the image does look better in black and white, the colour of the trees is no longer noticed only the shape created by the children.

Tutor comments: A nice group shot.  It is always hard to get a group of people looking at you, smiling and not blinking!  Do look at the framing here.  A tighter crop may help as the girls are at the edge of the frame and seem to unbalance it.

My comments: the tighter crop seen below puts the girls in a better position in the frame and adds more balance and I also note an earlier comment from my tutor regarding the wearing of hats which create shadows across the face, demonstrated well here.

Tutor comments: This image could be taken out from the selection.  The concept is there.  However the feet are clipped out of the frame and the action is not clearly captured.

My comment: will remove from selection

Tutor comments: In this image the sun is too bright across their faces and has caused very harsh shadows.  Although it shows a bright sunny day, the danger in reproduction is that detail will be lost in the highlights.

My comment: will remove from selection

Tutor comments: An interesting image where you have used the large canopy of the tree to fill the frame.  The family group stands out due to the red drawing the eye in as colour accent.  In this image it is hard to see if the family group are sharply in focus.