6 chosen images

I have now managed to narrow my final images down to 6 images which I will hand in. I chose these images because I felt these were the best photographs to show Levis Curve ID as a brand.

  This first image is quite basic and doesn't show how I have used painting with light but I like how it shows my jeans set and how the set looked before all the experiments started. In the image I used a soft box.
shot: 1/60 F 4.5 with soft box

 My second image is where I have assigned a colour to each of the curve ID fits. The first jean shows a purple colour using the glow sticks this colour is for slight curve. The jeans in the middle have the colour red this colour is for demi curve and lastly the colour green indicates the bold curve.
If I was to develop this further I would always use the same colours for each fit and show more of the colours through out the photo shoot. I would do this so that the brand begins to have a specific identity to its fits and the audience might pick up on this also.
Shot: 30" F18 with soft box

As most of my images so far had been photographs of the 3 sets of jeans I wanted to include more close up pictures of the jeans to get some of the brand identity in the Photograph. I wanted in these photographs for the audience to be able to see the brand logo Levis. 

Shot: 20" F13 with soft box 

 This image has to be one of my favourite out of the chosen 6. Again I wanted to take more notice of the brand identity of Levis as I new this wouldn't get picked up on in the images of the 3 sets of jeans. I wanted to use painting with light in this key which is why I used a key light to create a thin outline light around the jeans. The glow sticks look really bright and I love how you can see the texture of the liquid that is inside of the glow sticks.
shot: 8" F29 no soft box

There is something about this image that I really love. I think it is the most crisp and successful image out of all of my images. For this image I pegged the glow sticks across the line as I was getting a little bit bored of it just looking like a piece of string. For this image instead of drawing the outline of the curve round the jeans I decided to try and draw it onto of the jeans to almost look like the skeleton outline of a humans body. I did this using a key light. I absolutely love how this turned out.

Shot: 30" F18 No soft box 

Finally this image is where I wanted to try and show the brand name in my images. I used a key light to do this and found the more I tried the trick was to write as close to the wall as possible.
Again I have incorporated the 3 colours to each curve, purple red and green.
I do really love this image as I love the Levis name being in the photograph but I am slightly disappointed with how dark the image has come out once I have printed it. If I was to do this again I should maybe try using the soft box or brighten up my image on photoshop before I send it to be printed.
Shot: 20" F13 No soft box

Lighting diagram

Here is how my shoot was labelled. The bricks in the background show where my brick wall was and the lines in front show the 3 pairs of Jeans. My camera was centred using a tripod and for some images I used a soft box which was also centre behind the camera. The torch is an example of how I would run round the jeans painting with light once the camera was taking the picture.

About my Images

I was so happy with the outcome of my images. I absolutely loved taking the photographs and the not knowing of how they would turn out was nerve racking but also exciting.

I set up a piece of string to hang on my brick wall in my garden. I originally had planed to use a brick wall but felt it wouldn't be enough to just photograph here which is why I tried to start planning other areas and locations to photograph. When I actually set up my set against the brick wall I realised this wasn't the case and the brick wall looked really affective.

I hung my yellow tape measure over the string and pegged up my 3 curve id pairs of jeans.
Equipment wise I used a tripod the original flash from my camera and for some the images I used a soft box outside. This really helped with shooting the images but also helped with providing light for me when I needed to see what I was trying to set up.

I shot all of the images on a really high shutter speed of 30" and sometimes experimented with it at being 20"-10". As i shot in manual the aperture that I used changed between F13-20. I wanted the jeans to all be in focus which is why I used a wide aperture.

My ISO was put to its highest as I felt this helped to provide more light in the images and also felt it would look effective have a grainy look when photographing for an urban brand.

The different light sources that I experimented with was glow sticks (all different colours), phone torch light and a key light. The phone torch light was really good when drawing round the jeans and the key light was good to draw on top of the jeans to outline them. The glow sticks didn't leave much of a light trail but they were good to use for adding colour and make the images look more effective.

Final IMAGES

Second expeiriment

I found this experiment quite unsucessful. I used glow sticks on a slow shutter speed to try and paint with light but I didn't feel the glow sticks lit up enough in the photographs unless they were really close to the camera.
Next time I try this I will use a soft box to help light up the jeans and it may help to show the outline of the lights more. As I will be shooting the images quite far away to make sure I get a full shot of the 3 jeans, it's important the light is picked up strongly enough.
I will draw the lights onto a wall as they may help also to show the outline of the lights.

Levis Brand

Levis Brand is an upper market brand which reaches a large target audience of both men and women roughly round the ages of 20-35.
The curve ID brand is specifically for curvy ladies fitting to women with a slight, demi and bold curve. The jeans range from a price of £80- £100.
When I do my photo shoot I want to make sure that each of the curves are recognised and the brand Levis is visible in some photographs.
I will try and highlight the curves through painting with light.

When I looked at the Levis website I noticed that they use very plain images with a white background to show the fit of the jeans. The brief stated to think more that just white backdrop when working in the studio or outdoor. I want to make sure when I paint with light my images look really creative and different to the usual plain white background.

I really like how the jeans have been photographed as a 3 on the Levis website. I think this could work well with my set idea, but may be hard to do if trying to paint round all the jeans with light at one time.

Experiments with painting with light

I had my first go at painting with lights yesterday.

I chose an object from my house and set it up in a dark room. To draw round the object I first used a phone light to try and draw round it.
I set my camera to shutter priority and set the shutter speed to 30 seconds. I found it quite hard to draw round the object and was bait disappointed with the outcome.
I also tried used a key light to draw round the object.

Next time I practice shooting with light, I will use a pair of jeans and start practising outside.
I will set my camera to Manual as this is what the blogs I looked at previously recommended I do. I will also experiment setting the shutter speed to less and more.
This time with light I will practice using a proper flash torch and also some glow sticks to see if the colour comes up.

Night time photography

This website below teaches me how to photography at night on a long exposure.

As I want to draw round my objects and make them visible it is important that I master photographing in the dark and spend my time practising this so my final photos look really professional.

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/04/30/night-photography-ideas-light-painting-your-subject-over-ultra-long-exposures/

Painting with light

After researching into Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones I have come across different examples of Painting with light.

This website tells me how to experiment with painting with light:

http://www.diyphotography.net/painting_with_light

Here is what I will need:

1. A camera capable of long exposures - film cameras will work OK, but if you really want to get the most out of the shooting session, use a digital camera. You will be able to see the results in "real time" and make corrections as you go.

2. A nice tripod. Since you will be doing some long exposures you want to make sure your camera sits still. 

3. A flash light - and by flash light I do not mean flash as in a speedlight, but the flash light or what our British will call a torch.

4. A dark location. This one is tricky. If you are going to shot at home - a dark room will be OK. If you are going to shoot outside - make sure that you are not doing this under a street light, or where a car can come by and "paint its headlight" all over your shot.

Photography experiments with light

As I might be shooting my images outside its important I see how my jeans look photographed outside.

I tried shooting outside, which I had to use a trip pod for. I noticed that when I used a high aperture the jeans looking more blue, which I think looks really good.

Because of the weather the jeans kept blowing in the wind. I found it really hard to photograph and get the jeans in focus because of this.

 If I decide to shoot outside its important that I try and shelter the jeans from the wind so that my images are focused and clear. 

Painting with light- Warren du preez and Nick Thornton Jones

When researching I have come across two photographers called Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones. 

These two photographers have often experimented with light movement and how this works in fashion photography. E.g Big magazine / Swarvoski project. 

I really love the colours in this image and how the movement has been photographed. 

http://www.wnstudio.tv 

This is Warren and Nick's official website.

I aim to take inspiration from their work and use it in my own experiments with photographing the Levi  jeans.

Ideas

Here are my ideas for the levi's shoot. I made a mood board to show my ideas and inspiration.

Like I have already mentioned I like the idea of using models and making a set for the jeans so it is important  I experiment with both of these too see which works best for me.

One of my main ideas is to incorporate a washing line or incorporate the jeans being hung somewhere I think this would look really effective and different to the normal white background studio effect a lot of fashion brands use.

As the brief is to promote a curve range I would like to incorporate the tape measure aspect as I think this would link in well.

Current Levi's curve ID Imagery

Here are a few examples of what curve ID have already done for their own campaign. It is important that I don't copy this as the brief states I must develop a concept that goes beyond the obvious and that illustrates your ability as a creative thinker. 

I really like the way that these images show all the styles of jeans next to each other through the use of space and text. 2 of the images have the style and fit wrote on the images in a curve like way which fits well with the name and concept.

Due to using a model for my last project I had decided that I didn't want to use a model this time and explore using still life. I think before I decide this I must consider both areas and practice different techniques with and without a model.

Inspiration

I really like this image that I found when researching into Levi's curve ID. I really like how the image has been set up and all of the 3 pairs of jeans are shown.
This image also proves that you don't need a model to show the jeans different style and that a nice set up image can look just as effective.

http://freakdeluxe.co.uk/levis-curve-id/

Levis Curve ID

The brand my brief is set on is Levis curve ID.
For this I need to create a suite of imagery for the website that needs to be unique, exciting and outside the boundary of stark product shots on white background.

Curve ID has been specifically made for women who carry more curves than usual so they can be confident about their body.

LOVE YOUR SHAPE

Finding the perfect, body-loving fit should be as easy as identifying your shape and selecting a rise. That’s why we created Levi’s^®Curve ID, a revolutionary way to find your new favorite jeans.

Love Creative

Who are Love creative?

Love creative are a company that advertise and design brands through digital. They call this Brand activation.
Brand activation is bringing brands to life in a way that starts conversation with consumers.

They use lots of different sources to show their brands such as television, print, digital (online), retail and telephone.

'Love finds the most interesting things to say about your brands in the most interesting ways"

They work with a number of brands such as Diageo, Levis, Virgin, CAT, and Umbro just to name a few. 

New Brief

I have now been giving a new brief from Love creative which I am going to carry on with on this blog. The brief is to produce images for Love creative of Levis Curve ID section. The task is based on a real brief that Love Creative have received from Levi's.