BRANDING: Letter Head

Now this post won't seem too exciting as I've already posted my CV, and this is pretty much the same design, but I've completed it and thought I'd share it anyway. There's not too much to say about it to be honest apart from that this is the last branding post, and I'm very happy about the consistency of my designs.

BRANDING: Business Cards

I have sent off to Moo.com for a set of 10 free business cards as before I pay for any amount I'd like to see what they look like. Here are the design I used, again my number is blurred:

The back of these cards just feature my logo, I got 5 printed with the logo on white and 5 in a dark grey with a white logo, I think I'll prefer the colour ones, but I thought as they were free samples it was worth trying both out.

BRANDING: Social Media

I thought I'd take today to link you to all of my social media places regarding my photography, that way you can keep up to date with any new information, new shoots and anything really that I want to share, this is an important part of brand awareness, and so I have created linking accounts.

FACEBOOK 

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

BLOG

BRANDING: CV

As part of PPD, and also I guess life in general, it is important that I have a creative CV for any venture in Photography, taking inspiration from CV's I found around the web and comprised into a Pinterest Board which can be found here.

I basically created a CV with subtle colour incorporating my logo into the top of the design.

I have blurred my personal information as my home address is on there and I don't really want to post that on the internet.

Let me know what you think.

BRANDING: Logo

So, this was a very difficult process, I knew that I wanted something a bit arty, hand drawn feel to it, but i had no idea how to go about creating that effect digitally, nor could I afford to hire a graphic designer. So I started out sketching some cameras and used the best pieces of each doodle to merch together and end up with a complete camera. This way I got to keep the sketchy feel without actually having to create a perfect drawing at the same time because then I think too hard about drawing it!

I tried putting this camera with hand written text on a watercolour background that I had I drawn and scanned into the computer but it still wasn't quite right, I decided to make my logo round, use a more legible font and instead of using my own water colour, I downloaded a brush set online and that meant i could have a clearer watercolour effect.

At the moment I have my facebook page in the logo because I'm yet to get a website set up, but I still have the original file and once that happens I can easily switch out my facebook url to a website url, at the moment I'm very please with how this looks.

I also created a dark background version of this so I have the option if i need it, I quite like the way it looks, but I definitely prefer the colour version.

PROJECT: Contextual Studies.

Along with an essay set by the college we were asked to create a supporting image, inspired by the work of the photographer we talked about within the essay.

My photographer of choice was Zev Hoover of Fiddle Oak who I have posted about before and used as inspiration for my Scale project last year.
Though I loved that project, after reading through Zev's blog I found out more about his process, and specifically how he shoots in the same lighting as the background image, something we weren't allowed to do for the project last year.

So while creating my supporting image, I followed his process to some extent, using the same lighting, and though the image of the model wasn't on a blank studio background, I made sure it wasn't too busy and cutting her out from it wasn't as difficult as I had expected.

I'm very happy with how it has come out, I managed to match the focus quite well, and also create shadow that is hopefully believable.

I'm hoping to continue creating images like this, almost paralleling to the images on Fiddleoak, making mine more city based rather than nature, though I'd love to do some like that too!

BRANDING WEEK

Next week, I'm going to be sitting down and sticking in with getting myself branded, so I've decided to make an effort and push myself to put a post a day during the week of the new branding things I've been up to. This promise should motivate me to actually get stuck in and work out each element of my branding so that I get to share it on here.

See you next week!

SUCCESS!

So after Emma's shoot, we went out and shot my supporting image ( blog post to follow in the next week!) and while we were doing it, I again decided to film a small amount to allow me to practice in creating these cinemagraphs.

We were shooting on one of the little walkways above building height on the quayside on the Newcastle side of the Tyne (in case you're wondering how to get there, you need to take the little steps down from the Castle Keep towards the river. It's a very lovely little secluded walk hidden right next to the busy town, I'd recommend it!) so I decided to stick with where we were, and there was a lovely view of the Tyne Bridge!

I asked Emma to stand looking out at it, and to keep very still, so that essentially the only thing moving would be her hair and scarf blowing in the wind. Obviously this is not the case, you can see in the image above that her body moves ever so slightly too, but, I think it still works pretty well, and I'm quite proud of my improvement!

It lead us to a discussion about creating them, and me and Emma decided (following from talking about the Tyne Bridge in this shot) it would be quite nice to create a series of cinemagraphs from around Newcastle City Centre, showing the beautiful city it is.

Hopefully we'll get started after Christmas and deadlines!

Keep your eyes open!

Beth! :)

Assisting Emma's shoot.

Today I assisted the lovely Emma Howe during her shoot for her contextual studies supporting image before I went off to shoot mine!

Her image will be in the style of Solve Sundsbo, with a double exposure feel to it.

It was a very smooth shoot! I met the model (whom I actually know), before heading up to college, and then while she was in getting her makeup done by the fantastic Laura Lou (who's information I will link at the bottom of this post for you.) I gave Emma a hand with her lighting.

Rebecca (the model) was really lovely to work with, she isn't shy and was happy to do anything Emma suggested while I ended up in the back directing the fan to her hair.

While Emma was taking head shots for Laura I set up to record a snippet of video to try and make a cinemagraph from, I thought it was worth it while the lights were set up to just hit record and play around once I got home.

This is what I got:

Now it is nowhere near what I was expecting and I'll explain why:

First of all, I had Rebecca do some spins and some poses, but what I need to pay attention to when making these is that the motion can be repeated seamlessly, so although she was spinning in a full circle, her feet didn't stay in the same place, and that was a problem, because it meant there was a little jump where she started the process again, and takes away from the fact it looks like almost a moment in time captured.

Secondly, the lighting was very orange, so I had to switch it black & white, that was probably the settings on my camera, and the fact it was picking up the overhead lighting aswell as the modelling lamps, so I need some proper continuous lighting if I'm to studio shoot again.
(I would have fixed this in post, but I had issues with the editing software I have on my laptop, so it all had to be done in photoshop!)

Thirdly, this is still not perfect motion, the best bit i could choose was her hair movement, and her hand still moves and slightly jumps.

However, this was definitely a learning curve and I aside from the frustration, I really did enjoy the process and I'm looking forward to practicing and improving!

Beth :)

Emma Howe:
https://www.facebook.com/EmmaHowePhotography?pnref=lhc


Laura Lou:
https://www.facebook.com/lauraloumakeupartist?fref=ts