Smoke

Practising my cinemagraph skills! This was shot on my phone with no tripod so I didn't even have a whole second to work with making frames from. However I now know smoke will look really good done properly and I can't wait to try it out!

This was from a day devoted to test shoots, and in the middle of college classmate Steve's practise.

I'm going to link you to his Facebook page below because all his other links are on there somewhere. Always in awe of his work.

Steve Mcivor Photography

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

INSPIRED: Cinemagraphs!

Okay, so you may have seen a very old post of mine where I gave these a try with an image of my brother and had only his eyes moving. Well a few of these popped up on a feed of mine recently (I don't remember where, tumblr or twitter I imagine) and I have fallen in love with them once again.

 I probably get more excited about film than photography, which seems a little ridiculous to admit considering the course I'm doing, but I think photography is a pivotal part to film, and I do love the subject, however there's something about movement that grabs my attention, and I think these are the perfect combination of film and photography and that is possibly why I love them so much.

(That and also they remind me of Harry Potter...)

The two I've included are a couple of my favourite, and I hope to create something just as beautiful soon!

Fingers Crossed!

Beth :)

Cinemagraph Test!

Been wanting to try and learn how to do this for a long time! Thought I'd quickly try one out that was incredibly simple to do, so I enlisted the help of my brother and tah-dah!

It moves a little bit fast for my liking, and his eyes move downwards slightly creating a mismatched section, but I did this in about 20 minutes as a test, and tomorrow in the studio I will definitely be shooting some more little clips to have a play with because I LOVE how this looks!