Researching Hardware Photography.

So part of our assignment for class is to research studio shots that can help us creatively with our own shoots. This sounds lame but I really do believe that looking at other commercial shots can help when it comes time to doing it yourself. I'm always the dork at Applebees looking at their photos in the desert/drink menu. Thats right I look at the menu for the pictures. So in class when we were all told about the tear sheet assignment I said to myself "cool I like doing that anyway". That is until I started looking for images of hardware (tools) for our upcoming shoot on Monday. My god finding photos of hammers, which is what my group is doing, has to be the most painful research I've ever done for a photo shoot. You'd think that there are tons of images of hammers all nicely lit, selective focus, perfect reflections but NO, None. This isn't to say they don't exist but my God where are they?! Is there some super hardware magazine that only exists in some underground tool world? Sorry for the rant but the only images I could find were plain shots with a white background or an old picture of MC Hammer, or some band named hammer or images of a new video game called hammer or. . . . you get the idea. Even Home Depot and Lowes have ebay style images. I guess it just comes down to the fact that people shopping for tools don't need any pretty glossy imagery to sell a tool, especially a hammer. Below are some of the great images out there of hammers, my favorite one is of a hammer thats been in outer space! Woooooooo.

Review of sketches for project #2

During class it was brought to my attention that half of my sketches were of kitchen ware which apparently is different from hard ware. So after having my ideas cut in half and the realization that we can't really be swinging an axe in the studio we decided to go with the hammer and rock idea.
So after the idea was pinned down we as a group made sure we were all on the same page. Each of us is going to bring in a hammer so we can see whose got the best. I'm going to collect more rocks from my apartment complex, Richard's going to find a piece of wood that can be used to fill the negative space between the rocks. The reason for the wood is more precautionary that it is actually needed for the shoot. We figured it would be better to have some wood fill the negative space apposed to the table top used in the studio. Film and Polaroids have been acquired, roles designated and props are being acquired. All is on track for a quick and successful photoshoot.

Final images from first shoot.

The first image is file number 93. It was shot with the main light placed behind the subject with no scrim or bounce. 1/10sec at f/11, half stop over meter reading.

Second image is file number 72. The light is coming from the left of the subject through a diffusion scrim with out bounce. 1/10sec at f/4.5, half stop over meter reading.

Ideas for project 2

Here are some shots of the shoot via Pepe.

Post Production

After the shoot (which by the way went smother than a hot knife on butter) we continued to work as efficiently as we did during the shoot. Again roles came in handy. Immediately after the last shot I took the memory card and began transfer. We made sure not to break the set down until the files were successfully transfered to the computers work folder. While this was happening we turned off the lights so that they could be cooling. Once the shots were transfered Pepe and Richard broke down the set. Upon finishing we all went through the files and selected the best files. After narrowing it down to about 6 we made one last cut and came up with two winners. I then copied the two files to a flash drive and began printing the images on the epson 7800. While I was getting the prints going Richard batched the shoot in Photoshop and created a contact sheet. 15min later Pepe had finished breaking down the equipment/turning it back in, Richard had finished the contact sheet and had it ready for print and I had finished the prints. In less than 2.5 hours our group completed assignment one with no bumps, knicks or bruises. All together the experience was efficient and professional. I hope the rest of the shoots go as smoothly as this one did.

Exposure notes.

I know what your saying "dosen't your digital camera record all this information for you?".
Yes, but a back ups always handy and its easier to read during the shoot. Plus it helps keep track of where the lights and scrims were for each shoot. This is by far the closest thing to math in my sketch book.

Planing for shoot.

I've found it helpful to assign roles to each member of a group. The purpose for roles is simple, it gives everyone a task and keeps a project on time, on task and most importantly keeps people from stepping on each others toes. Its been my experience that too many cooks in the kitchen is a bad thing. That said I took it upon myself to delegate roles to the group. Since Pepe had come up with the concept, acquired the prop and painted it white he assumed the role of art director. This meant he gets control of composition, easily the most important role in photography. The major plus to being the AD is that you don't have to worry about the technical or more importantly problem rarely fall to the top. Richard who provided the light meter and backdrop took charge of metering and equipment such as lights etc. (simple but none the less very important). Myself I took the role of grip, which meant I pressed the button on the camera, held the scrim, bounce reflectors and most importantly took the notes on the exposure. Any other task was rotated as needed.

sketches for project 1

Here are the sketches I came up with for the first studio shoot. My plan was to implement the K.I.S.S. rule (keep it simple stupid). I wanted to create paper cubes or purchase some kind of sphere or triangle to create some sort of simple space/shape design. The cubes were the idea I was most interested in shooting, mainly so I can use the shot in another one of projects. After getting together with the group it seemed that Pepe had the best idea and already had the prop to execute. His idea was to use a mannequin arm and stage some sort of fake suicide. Since the project had to be all white his concept was to depict a dark subject (insert irony). The red arrow in the above image indicates a rough sketch of how the arm would be framed. Below the sketch is a side view of the studio setup.