Thinking about assignment three.

As I am working on the last exercise before assignment three, I have started to think about what I am going to photograph for the assignment. This is a monochrome task so building on the last exercises in part three I have started to look for a subject that will allow me the maximum of scope to show form, tonal contrast and texture. I also want the subject to be easily accessible so that I can visit it on more than one occasion should I need to.

So far I am considering two ideas. The first is the local pier. This gives the opportunity of  pattern and rhythm as well as tonal variation in repetitive constructs such as the deck planking and railings, the pier legs etc. To bring variety there is also the tonal range of the sky if I photograph this in a manner that it forms part of a pier view and choose the right time to do it.

My second thought is a little more abstract but something I will investigate. This will be a series of photographs of one of the pedestrian bridges across a nearby A road.  Might sound a bit strange but it has some great shapes. My only concern is being able to get enough variation across 5 to 10 images.

Catharine Portfolio Shoot

I did some more portfolio photography with Catharine last weekend. The location was an old ruin not too far from where I live.  The idea was to get the shots as 'fashion' looking as possible.

Catharine had three outfits and a number of accessories. For my part I paid a lot of attention to the lighting. I was using a Strobist set-up of a shoot through umbrella with a remotely fired flash gun. As part of getting the look, I set the lights to eliminate quite a lot of the shadows on the face and aimed to also get a fairly even lighting across Catharine.

Final touches were carried out in post production. The colours were slightly de-saturated and a certain amount of toning has been added. 

My influences for this type of work come from magazines such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar as well as the online work of many fashion photographers.