Skills Development 5th November 2010

One skill i have learnt during my practical lesson is using shutter speed. This controls the length of time that the light can pass through the lens. For example, a slow shutter speed is very good to use in low light, and to capture movement. Whereas fast shutter speeds are used to capture a frozen ( freeze frame ) movement. Examples shown below.

I think i used the slow shutter speed more effectively as you can tell in the image above with the lights. I think this is a strong shot as you can tell the image has motion towards it even though its a still frame. A strength of this picture would be that its a very bold shot, it stands out and draws you towards it as it's a motion shot not just a still image. A weakness of this shot would be that it looks as though its just shot in the middle of the picture, maybe if there was a little bit more room round the edges or if it wasn't so center it would give the image a bit more edge towards it.
 The image to the right of the girl and the leaves, i think this is a little bit more of a weaker shot than the other image, just simply because it doesn't draw your eyes straight to the image itself. Although i still think i used this skill effectively by the way the leaves are in the air and she is slightly off the ground giving life towards this image. I think a strength would be the way the image is laid out. Basically i think the positioning of the image fits with what it is trying to show, although i would think it would work better if it was a bit closer in to give it more emphasis. 

These skills will benefit me when it comes to unit 3 production as it will help me to get better and more varied shots to choose from, to get the best out of the image. Using these skills will help me get a shot that will stand out towards an audience and draw them in and make them want to know the background towards the image.

Skills that i would need to develop to progress further in this unit and overall would be, the ways that i could position my shots that i take. I feel this will help me more as to get the best out of the image i need. For example, as said before, with the picture of the girl and the leaves i feel if i would have positioned it at either more of an angle e.g, from the side, that it would have gave off a more direct effect rather than having it straight on and from a distance.

Independent.
For this i looked at a tutorial on lighting on Photoshop. I chose to look at this one because it, to me, is an important one to look at for photos. This video basically showed me how to edit your lighting in images by being non destructive. This showed me how to adjust the lighting in dark and light areas of an image. On the example he used an image of some flowers on a bush, the original image was the bush was darkened and the flowers really stood out, but he wanted it to all be one but still stand out. So what he did was he, leveled the image out by using a tool to make the bush come out brighter and using another tool on the flowers to dull them down slightly. This gave off a really good effect in the end as it didn't damage the image, and it still stood out.
From watching this video i now know how to create my image to make it seem like it has not been edited. Basically i can now recreate my image to make it look natural and more professional rather than have a light that maybe hides a certain element of the photo that i would want showing, so i would dull that down but still have a bright cold effect.

Initial Skills Order

Introduction Project

Photographic Storyboard.

Print Project





Project Evaluation


The skills I have developed during this production was one, using photo shop in a lot more depth. The skills I have developed in photo shop are how to make a certain part of a picture, colour and the rest black and white, as this comes along as a very good effect that I will certainly use in future projects. I have also learnt how to create a final advert from basic tools, like going out using the camera, taking my own photos for the advert etc.
      Some of the skill weaknesses I still have are, how to create a detailed storyboard as there could be a lot more detail put into what I have already wrote, or in more technical terms. Another skill weakness I still have is how to use certain tools on photo shop, for example the overlay tool, as I need a lot more practise on how to do that perfectly.
     I think the way I am progressing is rather well. I’ve picked up on things a lot better than I thought I would have like using the camera for photos etc. The skills I would say I have to develop further are remembering the technical terms such as different camera angles, medium long shot etc. Also like mentioned before, some of the tools in photo shop I could do with more practise with them to get better at certain things and make my adverts stand out a lot more.

The skills identified on my ,skills development initial assessment, that I have used in this project are, Manual focus features, Photoshop, text control, layers, brightness and contrast control, magnetic lasso, cropping, cloning and retouching tools. I think I’ve used these tools rather effectively as they show in my final advert, especially the Photoshop tools as my print advert as a range of them that you can identify when looking at it. However I could have used the layers a bit more effectively as you can only just tell that my print advert is slightly out of line when putting the two boys back together, as one is in colour and the other is in black and white.

The work that I’m blogging shows my skills progression in the way that my initial skills sheet shows what I have already used etc, and my storyboard and final print product reflect that, and also it shows some of the things I’ve said ‘no I haven’t used’ to be on my final product. This shows that I am progressing in order of skills because I’m trying new things I haven’t used before, especially on Photoshop.

The weaknesses in my work had to be only one thing, the final picture. I’d say this because our final picture was supposed to be a lot more powerful than it turned out to be, as it was supposed to be someone stood on another person holding the Bovril and making a smug face as if to say ‘drink this and you will be as powerful as me’ and stood in a very superhero way. But unfortunately our picture, although there was someone stood on another person holding the Bovril, the face expression could have been a lot stronger as you can tell their slightly laughing or not taking it seriously. Also the body language, it was not as ‘in your face’ as it was supposed to be, like the superhero idea. For improving this weakness I’d say we’d have to take a couple more shots, or enough just to get that shot right, instead of saying we’ll work with that shot, when we could have got better out of it in the time we had.

The things I’d do differently if I was to do this project again would be for one, think of a lot more ideas. At the start me and my group couldn’t’t come up with real ideas, instead we had much more unrealistic ideas, or things we couldn’t’t do in the time we had. I think if we did have a bigger range of ideas that we possibly come up with a better final idea that would have been stronger than the current one we ended up with. A second thing that I would do differently is, for the photos, get the right people. People who will take it seriously instead of giving pictures that we can not possibly work with, as we didn’t get strong enough images for our advert. Another thing I’d do differently is personally organise myself a lot better. I could have got a lot more done in the time I had if I had been well organised as at one point I had to do a lot of things in not enough time, so if I did have the right amount of time they, I think, would come out in a lot better quality.

The things I would have to do to move towards the standards achieved in a professional working practise is a lot more work in photo shop. This would include making sure everything is in line, and in place. Making sure that everything is neat and tidy, and up to the standards that real advertisers would produce and advertise.

The target audience for the product ‘Bovril’ before we re-branded it was between probably late teens to early 20’s. Usually male, social grade of about C living on their own or with a partner/ flat mate. But since we’ve re-branded the product its now, aged collage students or university students, we’ve kept it male and social grade of about a C. Lifestyle position of someone who just moved into a flat or house, either alone or with a partner, friend.

The elements of this project I think work well in engaging my target audiences attention was I think firstly the story of our advert. Basically this boy is being bullied by kids that think there ‘cooler’ and made their name for it. So this boy is sat eating his lunch and 2 boys come along and one steals his lunch and messes up his hair. So the only thing left on this boys table is the bottle of Bovril, so he drinks this and then gains a load of strength. The second boy comes over and tries to do something to the other boy, but seen although he’s drank the Bovril, he can’t do anything therefore the boy who’s drank the Bovril, becomes the bigger person. Basically meaning if you drink Bovril, it will give you strength to even fight of the bully’s. I think this works well in engaging the audience of this product as there is a lot of teens out there who go through this, so it might give them some sort of boost and want to buy the product. Secondly I think my final print product works well, as the boy who’s drank the Bovril is in colour, meaning he’s full of energy and better than the bully’s who are in black and white fading in with the background. This gives off a good effect as if to say, if you drink this product you won’t fade in the background, you’ll be noticed.

Personally I don’t think our product has a good enough chance of succeeding as we didn’t have a slogan to go with it, we could only think of ones that have either already been taken, or that we not short and snappy enough to stick in peoples minds. I think if we did it again we’d have to come up with a powerful enough slogan that will stick in peoples heads, so when they hear it they automatically think of the product ‘Bovril’.

I think the project is tailored to meet the demands of my target audience as like I’ve said previously, that its aimed at them because a lot of people go through the stage of being bullied so they think that its involving them as they are either going through it or been through it. Also the positioning of the advert. The boy who’s been bullied and therefore drank the Bovril is in the centre of the page, like he’s the important one, he’s the one people would want to be in the position of, not the bully’s. Its like saying you want to be like him, you don’t want to follow the crowd of not be noticed.
If I could change my project in some ways to make it more interesting for the audiences, would be to think of more interesting shots for the final print product, as we didn’t have many to choose from. If we did this I think we could of came up with a stronger advert that would of grabbed the audiences attention more and drawn them in to want to know what its about.

You can see by my advert I know how to attract 16-18 year olds by segmentation systems. Linking the target audience to a situation, that they have most likely been in, to the product to make them seem more involved as if were aiming it at the person watching, to create a strong advert that will sell.