The next year Charles H. Taylor, who is a basketball player from the Akron Firestones, bought his first pair of All Star shoes, and while wearing his Converse shoes, he introduced basketball as a sport to Americans across the country. That is where the Converse phenomenon expired. I’ve learnt many things from creating the images on the theme, ‘Converse’. I’ve learnt to manipulate photos, by being able to change colours, remove dirt from an image for example the dirt on the shoes. I’ve also learnt how to remove certain parts of an image, for example when I took a picture of the converse, there was a pen in the picture, of which I then chose to remove in the editing process.

I enjoyed taking the photo’s as it was really fun thinking of different ways to position the feet in the images and also had fun changing the different colour shoes with different types of patterned socks. Overall I believe it went really well and I think people will enjoy looking at my collages I created.

Research

The image that inspired me to base my photo-shoot on the make ‘Converse’, was an image taken by a photographer named Jessica Joy. Jessica lives in Roseville, USA and bases most of her images on her favourite style of art which is surrealism. I searched on Google to find various images that I could maybe find as an inspiration for me to use in a photo-shoot. The image below is the photo that inspired me.

I enjoy looking at this image as I believe it tells a story behind it. The background is plain and simple and then you are struck by the bold blue image of the shoe which stands out and gives an edgy feel to the picture. I also came across other photographs when searching on Google that gave me different ideas for my shoot. I then felt that I wanted to construct a collage for my first piece as it would show many different types of images all collaborated together as it would look cool. Here are other images I found on the internet when searching for the topic ‘Converse photography’.

When i look at the images above, I think about having a fun time, as the colours are vibrant and I found the collage on Google after already deciding to make one myself. However, the design of the image is one that I would like to use ideas from. The photographers of the image obviously enjoy working with colour as the pictures are very bright and also imaginative. I decided to pay homage to the images above as I enjoy the work that has been created.

Image 1 ♥ :

From the first glimpse of the image it looks as though there are many more than 6 pairs of legs, it’s almost is portrayed as an illusion. Hopefully the collage makes people smile just from looking at it.

Image 2 ♥ :

I really like the way this image has turned out. I know that Converse is a very popular make therefore I wanted to create a message beyond the picture. Me and my brothers stood in this certain way when posing for the photograph to show that the shoes all join together as a team. The shoes link together and therefore link people together. I edited many things to make the image finally look this way.

The image before it was edited -

I changed the colour of the carpet to make the image more effective and also cropped the picture as I wanted the iage to be close up. Also there was a pen on the floor that disturbed the picture, however I didn’t want to delete the photo as I like it so much, therefore decided to improve the image instead of delete it.

Image 3 ♥ :

I like this image because of the way the shoes all link together. As the shoes are overlapping it creates a casual feel to the photograph and makes the shoes look like something comfy to be wearing.

I also removed the tattoo from the image by using the ‘spot heeling’ brush tool, however I don’t feel that I used it effectively as the part of the image is very blurred and not a sharp image anymore. Maybe I should have used a different tool for example a ‘clone stamp’ photo tool to make the removing of the tattoo more effective, however it was one of my first times using the photoshop application, and with more experience I will learn from images that I have produced such as this one and know how to improve my next caption.

Aperture

The camera lenses main function is to collect light.  An aperture in itself is a hole or a type of opening which light travels through. The aperture of a lens is the diameter of the opening when taking a photograph. The larger the lens opening the more light that will reach the image sensor. The more narrow that the aperture the darker the image. This therefore shows that a wide aperture would create an image that is sharp around the image that the lens is focusing on and blurred otherwise. An example of using a wide aperture lens is shown below…

Shutter speed

Another word for shutter speed would be exposure time. The slower the shutter speed the lower the effect of the picture. Slower shutter speeds are often used in low lighting conditions, and the faster the shutter speed the more detailed the photograph will become. The shutter speed is measures in seconds, an example of the time it would take for a photograph to be taken when pictured in sunlight would be  1/125th of a second.

This is an example of a fast shutter speed image.

Flash

In photography a flash makes a big impact on a image,  it produces an ‘instantaneous flash’ of artificial light. The speed of a flash is measured at around 1/1000 to 1/200  of a second. When taking a photograph , flashes can be used for a wide number of reasons , for eg.. creating  different temperature light than the ambient light, also it is a good extra to use when wanting to capture an image of a quickly moving object for example ‘trains’, cars, any type of transport, any type of object that is fast moving will need a flash being used with the camera to be able to capture a good image. Flash is mainly used to illuminate scenes that don’t have enough available light in the surroundings. Therefore a flash, will mostly always be needed to be taken at night, when there is insufficient light available. The trick with flash photography at night is to make it look as much like a natural light source as possible.

I like this image as you can clearly see that a flash has been used, because of the direct light showing on the boys face. The image has been made to look bright.

ISO

An ISO system measures the sensitivity of digital imaging systems. In film photography and digital photography the reduction of exposure corresponding to use of higher sensitivities generally leads to reduced image quality. Basically, the higher the film speed, the worse the photo quality.

Focal Length

The distance from the surface of a lens or mirror to its focal point. When a lens is set to a wide angle, it therefore has greater focal length, which means that objects stay in focus when both closer and farther away from the lens. ‘As the lens moves out and the telephoto value increases, the focal length decreases, causing an increasingly narrower band of the field to stay in focus while the rest begins to blur’.

http://www.indie-film-making.com/glossary-of-video-terms/

Tripod

Photographers improve the whole aspect of the photograph taken by using a tripod as the camera is still when attached to it. The tripod holds the camera as shown in the image, which will prevent the camera to shake for example when holding it, it’s very hard to keep in a still position, therefore using the tripod will create a sharper image. When using a fast shutter speed with a camera without using a tripod, the sharpness of the caption would be to a high degree, however not as sharp and as in good detail from when using the tripod. Even though the tripod will give a much more clear image, photographers tend not to use them as they are sometimes known as being awkward to manage.

The difference between film and digital cameras.

There are many differences between the two different types of camera. When first talking about the sensor within the camera,  film cameras have a film sensitive to light, placed behind the lens. When a photo is being taken, the shutter on the film camera opens for a very short period of time and light hits the film. Digital cameras, have a fixed electronic sensor which is also known as ‘CCD’ and this is situated behind the lens. The sensor is built from tiny light sensitive sensors each representing a pixel. When each pixel is put together it creates one photo.

There is a big difference speaking about the cost between the two types of photos, a digital camera keeps the images in an erasable memory folder which allows photos to be deleted at no extra cost. However have to pay only a small fee to have photos developed. Film cameras, on the other hand can become expensive as you firstly have to buy the roll of film and also will have to pay for the developing of the negative and the printing of the photo. It costs to erase an image too.

Digital manipulation on photo shop.

By manipulating a photo, you use the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion. For example, if there was an image of a face which didn’t look, ‘picture perfect’, you could manipulate the photo to make the image perfect, e.g removing spots, softening skin, adding teeth.

Below is an example of Alicia Keys:

You can see here that the image has been ‘touched up’, and Alicia has a much cleaner complexion on the right hand side image.

For this task, the two types of photography that I’m choosing are fashion photography and portrait photography. Each in them self very similar, however they are a millions miles apart when considering contrast, exposure and lighting. Fashion is almost like a drug, no matter where you are it’s around you, for example high street stores, magazines, billboards, advertisements. Each of these categories portray the revelation of Fashion to us and makes us as a society want to look like the ‘perfect’ model who is being photographed, therefore we will buy the ‘pretty dress’ being shown, to make ourselves think that we could look the ‘pretty picture’. A portrait photograph mainly focuses on the emotions of the person and also most portraits shows a person looking directly at the camera.

Fashion: Fashion is a influential part of society that has an impact on every individual, each with their own style, however this style will ultimately become a fashion. I have chosen fashion photographer Miles Aldridge to talk about, from searching through various images on Google, i felt that he’s images attracted me and came as an interest as they stood out.

Here are some examples of Miles Aldridge’s work:

Miles Aldridge, a very successful photographer was born  in the city of London in 1964. He moved to America to fulfill his dreams and has published his photographs in well known magazines such as American Vogue, The New York Times and many more influential magazines in America. Miles Aldridge’s choice of location is key to success of his images.

I like this picture as it stood out when I was searching for various beauty images, I believe that Miles Aldridge has a very exaggerated type of work as the pictures are colorful and out of the ordinary. The images are very out of the ordinary, which I believe is much more effective. The image has been edited vastly by photo shop, the whole face has been removed and the lips are the only part of the face left showing. The black background to the image makes the purple color of the lips stand out and seem effective. The outline to the lips has been carefully edited as you can see from the image as the outline seems an almost perfect shape in contrast to the black background. The lighting is based behind the photographer as you can tell from the shine that is shown to us on the lips.

Miles Aldridge’s choice of location is key to success of his images.

This image is  a classic example of fashion being exposed. The model wears a bright red dress whilst standing in front of a dull, Grey background, this makes the viewers eyes draw to the dress as it stands out. The model stands with a firm and assertive posture, expressing the confidence inside. She almost makes you forget about the harsh back lighting.

The image above is another example of the extravagant work by Miles Aldridge.

Portrait photography:

Lara Jade – Beauty portaits