Evaluation

Overall, I found aspect of my first advertising shoot challenging but also interesting. There are many things which I feel I could improve on such as experimenting with different lighting techniques before I finally chose which one I want to shoot with. I think this would help my confidence in being able to set up the lighting and use different colours of gels when shooting. I also feel that I chose a difficult subject to shoot as it was hard to control the exposure on different parts of the bottle due to all the different uneven shapes within it. Next time I think I would think more carefully when choosing a subject to shoot.

My final images

This is my final finished image which I have edited and placed on an a3 canvas for hand in.

Editing Process

After reviewing all of my images I chose which one I felt was most successful.

this is my final image before any editing.

There were a few things about the image which I did not like and therefore I planned on correcting these things using photoshop.

Firstly, using photoshop raw, I lightened the highlights, and darkened the blacks, thus creating more of a contrast within the image.
I then darkened the blue within the image a little to get a deeper blue colour.
I then adjusted the white and  shadows to make them lighter.
I then darkened the shadows within the image.
Later I went onto cropping the image the get the correct amount of framing which I wanted, as I wanted the bottle to be the in the centre of the image.
I then used the clone stamp tool to take away all of the little bubbles that the water inside the bottle had created making it looking smoother with no bumps.
As I had realised that the lid of the bottle was too dark, I then decided to look at my other images and take the lid from one of them and add it to my chosen image. I done this by creating a new layer and painting into the image making it appear. I used the feathering tool whilst doing this so I wouldn't get any harsh lines.
After this, I had my most challenging part of editing. As I wanted a completely black background I had to paint on black around the bottle very carefully. To do this successfully, I lowered the capacity of the paint to 35% when doing it around the edge of the bottle so I would not paint inside it.

This is my image after the editing process.

Reviewing my images

After shooting with variety of lighting techniques and background, I had to review all of my images and narrow it down to few which i felt where the best and that best fitted the brief.

Using adobe bridge, I used to starring system to pick out what I felt where the best images and I was able to narrow it down to 4. Below are the 4 images which I chose.

The reason i chose the first one was because I liked the lighting in in and I felt it is correctly exposed. What I do not like it about it the fact that the blue tones are very dark which causes the bottle to lose detail.
I chose the second image because I felt the blue tones were lighter and there was more detail within the bottle itself. I also liked the central framing of the image and the reflection at the bottom.
I chose the third image because it is very different from the first too. This was created when I changed the background from black to blue. The reason I did not chose this image was because I felt that the top of the bottle was too dark and a lot of detail was lost within it.
The fourth image is the image which I decided to use for my final hand in. The reason for this was because I liked the way the bottle was sitting and I also liked the contrasting colours and tones within the bottle. The only thing I didnt like was the fact that the you could not see the lid of the bottle and that also half of the background was blue and I would prefer it to be all black but I felt i correct these issues later in the editing process using photoshop.

My shots from shooting day two

Below are my contact sheets from my second day of shooting.

This is my first set of shots from shooting day two. I started off by using the same black background to test my exposure. I then went on to using the same technique as before by having the white and blue background. I felt i was getting closer to the image which I wanted but many of the images where not framed correctly and the lighting was slightly too bright.

After looking at all of my shots, I felt that the most successful where the last few which I had shot. This was because I preferred the framing and position of the skull compared to before. 

Second Shooting Day

After my first shoot, I realised there were a few things I would like to change about my shoot.
I did not alter my equipment list in anyway, it was just a case of rearranging my lighting in order to get a successful image.

Below are the images of my lighting set up which I used on the second day of shooting.

This is the lighting set up i used, I placed the softbox at the back of the skull, and instead of the same previous black background I placed half of a blue gel over the light and this created a lighter effect on the skull.

This is an image from the angle of view which I shot the image at.

Further review of images before reshoot

After my first shoot, I felt that none of the images where up to a high enough standard that I could have used.
The lighting was too dark which meant I was losing detail in the bottle. In this post I will review some of the images which I previously shoot and think about what I could change to make them better.

These are two of the first images which I took. I firstly shot these in order to test my lighting to see if the image was correctly exposed. After looking at them on the computer on a larger scale, I realised there were many things which I needed to change in order to get the image I wanted to achieve. I realised that the image looked very bland without any colour being out into it, this is when I decided to add the blue gel. I felt that by adding the blue tone the images would become more interesting and there would be various shades of blue within the image which would create a variation in interesting tones. 

After then adding the blue tone, I realised that I then needed to change the lighting arrangement as the blue was also causing me to lose tone and textures. By changing the position of the light I felt I would be able to lighten the skull. 

I then decided to change the background entirely as I still was not getting the image I wanted. I also moved the softbox so that the skull was now getting lit from behind. This was so I could stop the very overexposed area on the chin from lighting up. I realised that from this process, I was getting more interesting images and the tones and detail were much better. I also decided to then move the skull into different positions to see what I could achieve from this.

What I learned/to improve on....

Coming away from this shoot I realised that I had to change my lighting set up and rearrange it so that the skull was being lit from behind. I also learned that instead of having a complete black background, I should instead have half of a blue background so that I could get better tones and contrast.

Equipment List

In order to create the specific effects I would like on my Crystal Head vodka bottle I must acquire the correct equipment so I will be able to create the type of image I want.

Firstly I thought about the type of background I thought would look best and I decided to have black card places behind the skull. I then felt it would add a nice effect to the image if I placed reflective black paper under the skull thus creating a reflection and adding more detail to the image.

I thought about various colours I would like to reflect into the skull to add more contrast, texture and colour. I finally decided that adding a blue gel over my barn door light attachment would give me the colour which I wanted.

Below is the equipment list which I used on the days of shooting...

Nikon D800

Crystal head vodka bottle

50mm lens

105mm macro lens

2 lights (soft box and barn doors)

blue gels

blue gel for background

black card x 2

reflective paper

white card x 2

large reflector x 2

small reflector

large pegs x 4

tripod

light meter

sync lead