Bibliography

Geoff Dyer, 2007. The Ongoing Moment. New Ed Edition. Abacus.

Bryan Peterson, 2004. Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition). Revised Edition. Amphoto Books.

Neil van Niekerk, 2009. On-Camera Flash Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography. Edition. Amherst Media, Inc.

Michael Freeman, 2007. The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos. Edition. Ilex.

Michael Freeman

Perfect Exposure. Edition.

George Hughes, 1988. David Bailey Masterclass : A Guide to Creative Photography. Edition. Hamlyn.

Bambi Cantrell, 2000. The Art of Wedding Photography: Professional Techniques with Style. Edition. Amphoto Books

Damien Lovegrove, 2007. The Complete Guide to Professional Wedding Photography: Creating a more profitable and fulfilling business. Edition. Focal Press

Final revisions to Assignment 5

This is my revision of assignment 5

Another decision when reviewing photos for the final assignment

Trying to decide if I really need to put in a photo of the church, it does not have much space around it and I struggled to get a nice photo of it so I used a fish eye lens for this shot turned the picture black and white and then put a texture on to it to try and give an arty feel to the photo, I have adjusted the brightness in the photo making the texture less dominant so that it fits in better with the rest of the set and am now trying to decide if it is right to keep this photo in with the final selection

decision 1 when reviewing photos for the final assignment

I found wedding photography to be very fast paced, as you have to work quickly to get the shot as it does not come again, I wanted to capture natural emotion without too posed a look. I am worried about the shots to use in revising my assignment, as I was not allowed to take any photos during the ceremony. I really needed to include a photo of the bride and her father going into the church, the feedback criticised the original photo that I used for having a blown out background although I had seen other photographer using this effect and I preferred it to the otherwise busy background. in hindsight if I had of used a wider aperture then I would have put the background out of focus more but this comes with experience in fast moving situations

Here is the original picture that I used terri had started to get really nervous and her dad looked at her with a really proud look.

This is the other photo that I took just before when they were standing with the vicar preparing to go in, I don't like how cluttered the background is and if I had a chance to retake the photo I would use a wider aperture to blur the background

I feel that I really need to add one of these as the bride and her father walking into the church is an important part of my story. but unsure about the new picture as it as a far to cluttered background.

Assignment 5 Evaluation

I was disappointed with my feedback for assignment 5 as where I had tried to add creativity to some of the photos they were seen as poorly taken shots, not working out as well as I had hoped. The feedback was helpful and made the point that I should have been more careful to have taken the bride and father arriving in the car shot from the brides side as this was on the road and the bride had to climb over to the curb side. I was distracted by this but could have planned this better and asked Terri to sit on the other side when she got into the car

The Methodist church where the wedding took place was situated on a small corner with hardly any grounds and was not very pleasing to the eye, as the church did not make a very pleasing photo I took the picture of it with a fish eye lens and added a texture to try and create a more interesting and fairytale wedding picture.

The main door to the church was boarded up inside so the bride and groom now have to use a side entrance. (Although I arranged with one of the church wardens who kindly opened the original door for a quick photo after the wedding), when the bride and her father entered the church rather than the distracting background I tried to show a more creative shot by blowing the background out, I had seen a similar photo to this in Damien Lovegrove's book Profesional Wedding Photograph which was one of the books that i based my research on. In one of the shots the tutor thought I could have directed the father better but I thought this was a real tender moment between the bride and her father as they where just about to walk down the isle and I wanted to take the shot in a more storybook style.

Quoted from Lovegrove's book "Storybook wedding photography is where record photography goes one stage further. All the detail and moments of the day are captured, telling the story of the day often through 'rose tinted glasses' even the brides shoes get there own shot! This is still essentially record photography, but usually the 'people pictures' take on a less formal style with only a few of the people showing eye contact with the camera."

I took lots of photos of the wedding starting at the brides house with her getting ready, and then meeting up with the groom and taking preparation shots with him before proceeding to the church.
I only selected a few photos for my assignment as the brief said to include 6 to 12 image and I also thought that these would clearly tell the story of the event without showing the whole day which I think would go on too long however I must have misjudged this and did not show enough of the day according to feedback, so I have revised this and added more photos though I was not allowed to take any photos during the service.

I found expressing myself in the learning log quite difficult but when discussing this with another photographer they suggested including evaluations. And I found this a more structured way of getting my thoughts across, something I had not thought of doing before.

Assignment 4 Evaluation

I find lighting to be a bit overwhelming and try to stay in my comfort zone as I am afraid of making mistakes with it. For the research stage of this assignment I used a book On-Camera Flash by Neil van Niekerk but found some of the technical aspects of the lighting quite difficult to get my head around as I am more of a hands on learner and nothing seemed to work by reading this book.

I then started to look into DVDs and viewed some of David Hobby's Strobist videos, as well as Zack Arias One Light videos. I found that viewing these made it easier for me to understand but had to watch them a couple of times till anything really sank in. I had a couple of friends that were pregnant and wanted some practice taking maternity shots so thought that lighting the baby bump would be the perfect subject to base this assignment on.

I found the feedback very helpful in making me rethink how I could improve my work. I had tried a different style of presentation, with 2 images on a page with text on the images. My tutor suggested that this was not the best way to present them and to avoid text on the images, so in my revision to the assignment I have altered these. Another of the photos had light on the models head and bump creating two points of interest, when my tutor pointed this out I realised that this took the emphasis away from the bump. The feedback also made me realise that where I had tried to achieve something different by including hands, detracted from the bump and what I was trying to initially achieve.

By using a macro lens I could have achieved a better result with the textured and coloured photos, but I think now that my lighting the bump idea was not ideal for this assignment as my model was quite anxious about her skin tone and wary of my taking close up shots. I have made revisions to this assignment but if I had used a movable object I would have been able to be more experimental without the worry of my models needs.

This assignment made me realise the importance of light and my need to explore this further, so I have since attended a lighting course at the Blackthorn School of Photography where I looked at direction of light and studio lighting set ups, this has made me more experimental where before I always used to play it safe with flat lighting. I have now brought a flash and am experimenting with different lighting effects.