Unit 41

Unit 41 - Undertake the Photographic Assignment

Be able to prepare for undertaking photographic assignments

For unit 41 I have been given a task by one of my colleagues to take pictures of one of the music rooms called 'the sound pod' to promote and advertise it. 
I will be taking photographs of the equipment so I can advertise the products and part of the music service. These photographs will then be used in brochures and for leaflets. 

1.1
Identify the types and purpose of photography required
There are many different types of photography but the main ones are portrait, landscape, macro, still life, industry and nature. For this unit I will only be covering commercial. There are a number of different types of photography that could be used such as black and white, wedding, colour, landscape, architectural.There is different purposes for every type of photography one of the main purposes is for promoting and advertising products or services. These can be used in brochures, leaflets or on websites. Another purpose for photographs is to keep them as a record or a memory like weddings, birthdays and other celebrations. Photographs can also be used in newspapers and magazines to accompany a story or a product.  

1.2 
I Justify selection of a conventional or digital approach
I decided to shoot digitally, as you are able to view the images immediately on the screen of the camera and can make any changes or retake the image. I will also be using my Chinon camera so some of my images will be developed as the camera only takes film. 

1.3 
Identify file formats for digital images, the differences between them and the reasons for using them
Files are used to encode digital images. Image files can be quite large which can mean more disk usage and slower downloads. The reason behind these files type is for compression. Compression means cutting down the size of a file, they can either be lossy or lossless. A lossless compression gets rid of no information, it allows the original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. Lossy compression removes data from the original file and makes it a much smaller file size. 

• TIFF - A flexible format that can be lossless or lossy. It is used mainly as a lossless image storage format that uses no compression at all. Most graphics programs that use TIFF do not compress. It is usually the best quality output from a digital camera. Although the file size is huge compared to the best JPG setting it is much better quality. 
• PNG - A lossless storage format that looks for patterns in the image that it can use to compress file size. The compression is exactly reversible so that the image can be recovered exactly. PNG is useful when you have an image with large areas of exactly uniform colour but contains more than 256 colours. It supports million of colours. It is also useful when you want to display a photograph exactly without loss on the web.
• GIF - It creates up to a table of 256 colours from 16 million. If it has fewer than 256 it can render the image exactly. Sometimes GIF uses the nearest colour to represent each pixel. It achieves compression by reducing the number of colours of colour-rich images which reduces the number of bits needed per pixel. it also replaces commonly occurring patterns. GIF is lossless only for images with 256 colours or less. For a true colour image it make lose almost all of the colours. GIF is not used for photographic images.
• JPG - Effective for photographs and similar continuous tone images that contain many colours. It can achieve impressive compression ratios even while maintaining very high image quality. It analyses the image and discarding kinds of information that the eye is least likely to notice. It stores information as 24 bit colour. The degree of compression is adjustable. Photoshop allows you to view the image quality and file size as a function of compression level so that you can balance between quality and file size. This format is the most popular as you can achieve quality images at really high compression settings. 
• RAW - An image output option available on some digital cameras. A disadvantage for taking in RAW is that there is a different format for each manufacturer and you may have to use the manufacturer's software to view images, although some graphics applications can read some RAW formats. 

TIFF, uncompressed - 901K

JPG, High Quality - 319K

JPG, Medium Quality - 188K

JPG, Low Quality - 50K

PNG, lossless compression - 741K

GIF, lossless compression - 286K

1.4
Identify appropriate camera settings and colour space
Most of my photos will be taken on the manual setting as it allows me to have more control over how I want the photograph to look. Shooting in manual lets you change the aperture which lets you change which areas of the photograph you want to be in focus and what you want to be out of focus. Although most of my photographs will be taken on the manual setting there are many other settings that I could use to achieve a good photograph. For example the other modes are program (P), shutter priority (Tv) (S) and aperture priority (Av).


Aperture is a hole within a lens where light travels through to the camera body. Aperture works when you adjust your aperture settings the opening gets bigger and smaller. The larger/wider the lens is open the more light you let in, and the smaller/narrower the less light you let in. When narrowing the lens more of the image is in focus, so when the opening is larger the more of the lens is out of focus. The iris of the lens that controls the size/diameter of the aperture is called diaphragm. The purpose of the diaphragm is to stop or block light coming in except the light that is going through the aperture. 

The larger the f/stop number the smaller the aperture.

The size of the aperture has an impact on the depth of field. The depth of field is the area where the image appears sharp. A large f/stop number will bring all foreground and background objects into focus. 

Shutter speed is the amount of time that the shutter is open to expose light into the camera sensor. Shutter speed is measured in seconds; the bigger the denominator the faster the speed. For example 1/1000 is faster than 1/30. If the shutter speed is slow it can create an motion blur effect. Most photographs will probably be taken by using 1/60th or faster as it is difficult to capture anything slower than this without camera shake. So that this doesn't happen it is key to use a tripod. Another thing to consider when looking at shutter speed is the focal length of the lens. Longer focal length will show up camera shake so you will need a faster shutter speed unless you have a lens stabilizer. 

I took this photograph below without using a tripod but resting the camera on a pillar. It is very difficult to take an image like this of light trails without a tripod although you can see the light trails clearly the background of the image you can still see camera shake.

ISO is the level of sensitivity of a camera to available light. The lower the ISO number the less sensitive it is to light. A higher ISO number increases the sensitivity of a camera. The component in a camera that can change sensitivity is called image sensor which is the most important part of a camera as it can gather light and transform it into an image. With a higher sensitivity a camera can capture images in low light but it can also be an issue as it can add noise to an image. To get the highest quality image it is better to stick to the lower ISO numbers such as 200 or the base number which some cameras do have as a setting. Each number doubles the sensitivity of the sensor. 

Colour Space 

When taking a photo a digital camera captures information from the colours coming from the outside world. I recently found out, by doing some research that you can choose the level of colour detail that a camera records. A bigger colour space captures more and has more combinations than a smaller one. 

1.5

Identify the subject, composition and lighting required 

The subject is the person or thing that you show when you take an image. The subject that I will be taking photographs of will be the sound pod room, instruments and models using the instruments.

Composition

Lighting 
As the project that I will be doing covers some types of photography, I will be using a range of different lighting. Light is not just how bright or dark it appears, it determines the look, mood and atmosphere of photographs. The direction of the light affects how the shape and texture of your subject appears. There is three basic characteristics of light which are how soft/harsh it is, the direction and the colour. Direct light creates strong shadows while the shadows created by diffuse lighting are softer. 

White Balance is adjusting colours so that the image looks more natural. Adjusting colours to get rid of colour casts to match what we saw when we took the photograph. Most light sources do not emit white colour and have a certain colour temperature. The human brain processes the information that comes from our eyes and automatically adjusts the colour temperature so we see the colour correctly. Digital cameras can only guess the colour temperature by observing the ambient light and most of the time get it right but sometimes they can get it wrong and the pictures might appear blue or yellowy in colour and skin tones may appear unnatural. 

1.6 
Check that permissions permits have been acquired in advance, as necessary 
To carry out a photography assignment forms or permits need to be signed by either a person or company so that I or the photographer has permission to take images of them. Even if someone is not the main subject it is important that you get permission from people that are included in any part of the shot so that you are covered. It is important that this is sorted prior to a shoot. 

This is an example of a property release form

1.7
Amend the agreed approach to take account of the circumstances of the assignment as required
When undertaking the photographic assignment there is several things that I need to consider. One of the main things that is considered is the weather. This is not considered an issue for me because the photographs I am taking will be inside. But if it was raining outside I need to take care as I don't want any of the equipment to get damaged. If any of the equipment is damaged it could be unusable or it could potentially cause a fault. If any of the equipment was faulty I would need to bring an alternative camera so I could still capture images. Although a camera phone does not have the settings that an SLR has, most camera phones these days are pretty good. Before I went out to take the photographs I would plan what equipment is needed. I would also need to organise which locations I would be going to and plan the route of how to get there. I would need to think about who or what it is that I am taking photographs of and make sure that I am close enough to the subject if I need to be and able to capture from different angles if needs be.

For the purpose of my assignment I will not need to go outside. If I was outside and it was raining then I would take an umbrella or use a plastic bag to put over my camera and make sure all equipment was safely away in the bag so it could not get damaged in any way. I would also need to make sure that the lens has no rain or smudges on it as it would affect the quality of my photographs. The equipment that I would use, would need to be tested before I took it out so that it was set up ready to use. I would need to plan which locations I would be going for that day and how I would get to them. 


1.8
Comply with the relevant organisation's dress code, behaviour and language
When carrying out photography assignments it is important that the correct clothes are worn. Although photography does not have a particular dress code there is a few things that need to be considered. One thing that is essential is wearing comfortable clothes and shoes that have good grip. Dressing to make your clients feel comfortable is important that's why it is key that you don't overdress but don't undress either, clothes that are loose could get caught on things. Blending in so that you are not attracting attention is important so not wearing bright and colourful clothing but wearing darker and solid colours. If you were taking photographs in a building site or somewhere similar you would need to wear a hard hat to prevent any risks, soled shoes and possibly a hivis jacket. 

When carrying out photography assignments it is important that the correct behaviour and language is given. For example when talking to clients it is important to be polite and not swear. Even if you are talking to someone who isn't a client there could be clients around and it is key to not use bad language as it could give the business a bad reputation. No matter who the client is you must use the correct behaviour and it's okay to be informal but you must act professionally at all times.



1.9
Maintain a professional manner when undertaking photographic assignments
It is important to maintain a professional manner when carrying out photographic assignments. As the equipment that is required is costly and valuable, it is important that it is handled with care. This would also include being professional when involving clients. Being on time is key as it shows clients that you are reliable, competent and shows you are working towards their long term best interests. 

Be able to take images for photographic assignments

2.1 Assemble, secure, position and set up the equipment safely

2.2 Connect lights correctly to their power sources as required
I have not taken the photographs in a studio so I don't need to connect any lighting or cables. If I was using a studio I would need to check that cables are neatly together and not in the way or causing any hazards. 


2.3 Adjust camera settings and lighting to meet the requirements of the assignment
I will be taking the photographs in manual as it allows me to have more control over the photographs that I am taking. When taking in manual I can adjust the shutter speed, aperture and ISO accordingly. I will be using an external flash for some of the photographs I am going to be taking as it can be used for filling light during the day.

2.4 Resolve identified problems with equipment where possible
One issue that could happen could be not having access to the correct equipment. Other issues could be not having access to software needed to edit the photographs. My tutor provides the software so I am able to adjust and edit my images when I am at work.  

2.5 Compose the images to fulfill the assignment
These photos were test shots taken to experiment and try to get a few ideas. None of the photos below were edited on Photoshop as I didn't have access to the software at the time. I have shown my colleague the test photos and we will be organising a meeting to discuss what types of photographs he wants to use for the brochures and leaflets. I will be using a range of different equipment and using software (Photoshop) to adjust the images.

2.6 Take appropriate and sufficient photographs

2.7 Unload film safely or download digital images, as appropriate

2.8 Store images safely and securely

2.9 Record supporting information for the photographs as required
Using the copyright symbol helps to protect photographs from being used by others. Some photographs put their name and copyright in the bottom of the image or put across the photo they have taken. I have copyrighted and dated the photos I have taken. 

The location of the photographs was in the sound pod in the Tees Valley Music Service building. 

2.10 Dismantle the equipment safely

Be able to evaluate performance in relation to photographic assignments

3.1-3.2
I have been given feedback from the client about the photographs I have taken. The whole purpose of the assignment was be able to use the photographs to promote the sound pod to young children and teenagers. My client is happy with the photographs that I have taken and given me relevant feedback on what he would like me to change. I have adjusted images to suit the clients needs. Some of the photographs that I have taken for this assignment were seen as artistic, although this appeals to teenagers, I would need to take into account that it is also for younger children so I needed to create simple eye-catching images in order to grab their attention.


Understand legalisation, ethics and business requirements relevant to undertaking photographic assignments

4.1 Identify key aspects of legislation relevant to undertaking photographic assignments
When taking photographs in the workplace I only need permission from my line manager. Although if the photographs were to feature children then I would've needed parents to sign a release form. Originally I was going to take photographs of the children playing the instruments but as this would mean sending multiple forms to parents, I decided to just take photographs of the instruments with one model I was given permission from, as this makes them look a lot more professional. This unit was also covered in unit 40 4.1. 

4.2 Identify aspects of codes of ethics/conduct relevant to completing the photographic assignment
As the organisation works with schools, teachers and pupils it is important that codes of conduct are carried out. This involves daily decision making that clarifies the organisations missions, values and principles. This unit was covered in unit 40 4.2.

4.3 Comply with own organisation's business requirements
Where I work the organisation is looking to promote the business in a different way to appeal to a younger audience. The requirements of the business and the photographs were to attract schools, teachers and pupils to see what the 'sound pod' is like. I was given a month to take all the photographs so that they could be taken to print when they were needed. I had to prioritise and organise what photographs I needed to take so that they were completed in the time frame. 


Be able to comply with relevant health and safety requirements


5.1
Identify aspects of health and safety legislation and regulations relevant to work environment
I covered this in Unit 10 1.1.

5.2
Take appropriate action to minimise potential risks and hazards involved in the assignments
This was also covered in Unit 10 and Unit 40.