A little journey
It’s been a little bit of a journey. I was actually struggling with some shooting skills as it isn’t something I am familiar with, however, I got to be able to learn and get it quite quickly. At the beginning, I couldn’t figure out why the background in the photos did not turn out as blurry as I expected, turned out it was because I set the setting quite low. First photoshoot with a friend, just walking around the city went quite well, however, the quality of the photos are not as I wanted which made me wanted to take more. The shots and everything were great, but they are just not good enough. One thing I learned from this session was that even though the sky was quite cloudy, the pictures actually turn out quite moody as I hoped for. As I aimed to shoot outdoor photos, natural lighting is the most important aspect to be aware of. I have to say the photoshoot went quite well, we went to a bar to take some rooftop pictures and wanted to get the style as Elie usually takes.
So I decided to try again, this time I worked out all the settings and hoped for the best. I solely went to the basketball court behind building 80, hoping to get some good shots in action of people playing basketball and might as well asking people to take pictures of them as a group shot. Then there was a guy came up and asked what I was doing. Told him I was doing an assignment, in photography class, trying to get some shots of people. He was interested and wanted to help so he got to be my model.
And the other guy came along and was also interested in what I was doing, he wanted to me my model as well so both of them were playing basketball for me to be able to get some action. Then one of them suggested to get rooftop shots, which is perfect as it is what I wanted to shoot. They took me to this rooftop carpark in Chinatown, so we began to do some photoshoot. The light was just perfect. Tried to capture all the moments as much as possible. All the shots are great. I have to say I am extremely with how all the photos turn out.
Everything was in manual setting which was a little of a challenge to get all the shots right, some of them were out of focus from time to time. Didn’t have much problem with exposure and the speed of the focus. The natural light on the day was spot on, even the location was just perfect. Have to say that this project brief went quite as I expected. It went smoothly.
Even though the shooting session wasn’t such a struggle for me after all, the most challenging part I find during this project brief is to be able to edit the shots to make it similar to Elie’s style. Basically, he does a lot of high contrast, low saturation, and cool tone. I used Adobe Lightroom to edit the photos, which was quite easy, however, to get the photos to be similar as Elie’s ones is a different story. I tried to do it differently with every photo, hoping to be able to make it close to his style, some of them came out quite similar.
Overall, I am very happy with all the photos and how they are completed. My original aim was to get the look of streetwear fashion kind of shots, which I got them. Then the style of ‘urban’ photography, which I honestly think I still need to work on that more. What I have learned throughout the project brief is how the tone, the contrast, highlight, shadow, and everything else really effect the mood and the style of the picture. Photography isn’t all about taking pictures. It takes a lot of efforts and time and the right skills of editing and shooting to get to the style you’re aiming to. The more time you spend on each photos, hoping to get it right really helps a lot to get to where you’re expecting. Throughout the progress, I have enjoyed the whole process and everything. Hopefully the next project briefs will help me get to professional level and be able to enhance my skills to the next next level.
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