Photography is the basis of most modern industries such as Graphic design, film and the magazine industry. I have chosen to research the production roles in a Photography organisation such as lighting, photographer, make up artist, developer, set designer, event manager for the exhibition and wardrobe design. I am focusing on consist of Development and Photography. Within the industry there are many types of photography such as wedding, sport, fashion and many more. I chose this organisation as I have an interest in this industry and I hope to carry my education in the industry further. I chose these roles specifically as the industry has limited roles because most independent photographers will carry out these roles alone to save expense. The pre-production team includes: the lighting professional, make-up artist, set designer and the wardrobe designer. This ensures that the content of the images are in order before the shoot begins so that there are minimal interruptions throughout the shoot. The photographer is then the main job in the production of the shoot and the models (if necessary). The post-production team includes: the photographer, who will edit any images, which they feel, are suitable to meet the brief they are working to. The developer will then take the edited images and by using equipment:
The equipment will include safelights, enlargers, EM10 exposure monitors and multigrade filters.
· The EM10 exposure monitor determines exposure from one slide to another, from black to white or colour to negative. This is simply measuring the level of light of a particular area on the image.
· Safe-lighting depends on 3 major things- the colour of the light, the exposure time and the intensity, which depends on the strength of the light source, strength of the filter ad the distance between the filter and the material. These factors all contribute towards ensuring safety.
· Multigrade filters provide the simplest way of controlling contrast through the whole of the range achievable depending on the type of the filter:
-Contrast control for multigrade papers
-Current multigrande filters
-Older multigrade filters
· Enlargers - there are several types of enlargers, varying the way they handle the light they project:
- Contrast control for multigrade papers
- Colour enlargers
- Multigrade heads
- Diffuser vs. condenser enlargers
- Digital enlargers
Once the images are ready to be printed the exhibitionist and event manager can organise alongside the photographer how the images are to be presented to the public.
Lo1 KTA2: Roles in the Industry:
A Professional Photographer shoots images and displays them with the purpose of making money whereas an amateur photographer takes photos for personal enjoyment. Professional photographers can work either independently, and choose their own style of photography where they work to contracts to cover events such as weddings or sport; or for companies such as newspapers where they will have to take photos that meet a specific brief or criteria.
The responsibilities within being a photographer require you to know all the camera settings and which would be appropriate for the shoot resulting in the best quality photo. This depends entities such as light, weather or time of day. If a photographer has studied the subject at higher education and has qualifications in the subject, then they tend to know how to do development, as it is included in the course. However photography companies employ people specifically for development. A photographer tends to have a specific camera make, which they work with most of the time, depending on the photographers personal style and preferences. Being a photographer requires skills in communication both verbally and written as being able to communicate with the customer is crucial. Written skills are needed to carry out tasks such as health and safety forms, location reccee and call sheets. Verbally, a photographer must be able to communicate with a client, as they need to make sure the photos are comfortable and if that includes models then they need to appear confident in front of the camera for the best result. Being able to communicate with people well verbally also helps in this industry as the job includes negotiating with people to use their equipment and space.
A Film Developer creates printed images in high quality from raw film footage. A film developer must know how to use the correct chemicals on the printed images, highly technical instruments, darkroom equipment and photographic processing machines. Certain careers in the photography industry require different abilities when it comes to film development. Photographers who work in Black and White tend to stick to the more traditional development in darkrooms whereas photographers who work in fashion and retail tend to operate computers, printers and high quality machinery. A developer must have the skill to use this equipment and treat the work with delicacy, as it is art. The equipment they use depends on their personal preferences and abilities but the more equipment they are able to use the better as it allows a broader range of outcomes from the images.
Comparing the two roles they may seem rather similar and can be at certain times. The main difference between the responsibilities in each role though are quite different however, looking first at a professional photographer you would be required to be able to take competent and technically impressive images on just about anything you take photos of and its your job to make sure all of the images are taken well, this might be down to things such as focus, using the right exposure, lens, white balance, aperture etc. On the other hand as a film developer you are required to have high technical skill but in the post production in the form on a darkroom or technical skill on things such as photoshop and other computer biased editing software. All in all the major difference is that a photographer although will have some say in the post production is mainly part of pre production of images and the developer is mostly, although will have some input into pre production, part of post production.
Lo2 KTA3: My Suitability for the role:
Photographer:
To have assessed my skills to carry out the role of a Photographer and I think I am suitable to work in this industry because I have good communication skills both written and verbally. In written communication I am able to write health and safety reports for all circumstances as well as fill a location reccee to a great standard. Also I am able to make call sheets and release forms for all people who will be involved, as well as this I have the full ability to email all team members and keep everyone organised and aware on any changes that could happen. I have previous experience making production and contingency plans, so in conclusion I am fully capable to handle all written communications in the industry. In the practical production side of photography I am able to; operate the settings on a Cannon 650DSLR camera and my own Nikkon D5600, assemble a tripod securely and use image-editing software such as Photoshop. In the creative aspect of the role I am able to come up with my own ideas and making a shoot unique and eye-catching. Through my college course I have met a local professional photographer Chis Saunders, who has shown me his personal work and who has given me critical feed back to improve my work.
Development:
In order for me to be suitable for this role I must know how to use certain machinery and have some knowledge of chemicals in order to achieve the best results possible and over the last year I've been working on an A-Level photography course in which I've learn many skill from how to achieve the perfect image using black and white film cameras and then developing them by hand. To using a DSLR, editing the images to create a greater image and then print them out using high quality photographic paper along with a high end laser printer.
Gaps in my skills and knowledge:
I do feel like I would be quiet suitable for both of the roles I have researched into I do have a few gaps in my skills that can be improved upon in order for me to have a better chance moving into this role. Starting with organisation, I can be quite organised at times and am good with it on the most part I do get distracted easily and can become quite unorganised when I do so. I need to learn to follow closer to deadlines and working with a structured plan I think would help do so. Another issue I think I would need to work on is personally I don't feel I know quite as much about certain photography techniques as I would like to going into the industry and so would need to do some experimentation prior in order to advance this.
Gaps in my skills and knowledge:
I do feel like I would be quiet suitable for both of the roles I have researched into I do have a few gaps in my skills that can be improved upon in order for me to have a better chance moving into this role. Starting with organisation, I can be quite organised at times and am good with it on the most part I do get distracted easily and can become quite unorganised when I do so. I need to learn to follow closer to deadlines and working with a structured plan I think would help do so. Another issue I think I would need to work on is personally I don't feel I know quite as much about certain photography techniques as I would like to going into the industry and so would need to do some experimentation prior in order to advance this.
Areas for further development:
Although we used a lot of equipment, I did not get the chance to use equipment such as a dolly, which are used to stable the camera on to get a smooth pan motion in filming. If I was to carry out this role in the production of film development again, I would aim to be more organised with my time as I believe some of the work was left to last minute and as a team we could have been better prepared. I would try and use less time filming because I believe that some time was wasted due to work getting repetitive and the cast loosing enthusiasm because the filming days were very time consuming and required focus throughout.
Lo2 KTA4: My contribution to a production:
Role and Responsibilities:
Previously in the course when I was required to work in a group and create a short film, unit 41: Production and Post Production of a Short Film- http://hartleyounit41.blogspot.co.uk/ In my group we chose to create a short film on a local downhill mountain bike event called Steel City Downhill. My role in the group was Camera Operating and Editing, using pre-production and shot plans, following instructions from my teammates so that we all agreed on the end result. Filming required creating call sheets and having the people we interviewed during the day out to sign a release form so that they could take part and be in the end video. I had to be very organised in order to have all the equipment I needed prior to filming and have all the footage finished in a limited time period as we only had the one day to shoot the event.
Contribution to media product:
My contribution to the post production of the filming was organising shot plans for the day, filming along with my two team members and organising all equipment borrowed from college and returning it by the date and time it was required for.
In the post-production of the video, I had the job of going through all of the footage and picking out all of the best shots and laying them out so that they would be easy to cut down and slip together in premier, selecting the music that would fit correctly with the type of video we were going for. My skills and qualities in this role require me to be very organised as a personal quality and have good people skills both verbally and written in order to communicate with all the people involved in the production of the video.
Interaction with my team:
My two-team members and I all had to work together throughout the whole production of the video as all our roles affected each other. On a regular basis we could meet and discuss the progress made in the editing and what we all believed worked and what should be changes. In the pre production of the video we all had specific roles in paperwork such as location reccees, shot plans, risk assessments, call sheets etc. which we would have to relate who was in what shot therefore the shot plans had to agree with the call sheets. In the production of the video both my team members and I filmed, as it was a requirement of our criteria. This was also the requirement in editing however I focused mainly on the editing in my role with the additional help from my team. I believe that my team worked well together as no one dominated the work or others in the group, everyone pulled their weight equally and no one let our team down. If I was to work in a group again I would happily work with my team members from this unit because I think that we worked well together and were very organised through out the production and completed the task with in the deadline.
Development of skills:
In my role I utilized my skills with the Cannon and Sony cameras as I had previous experience with the DSLR’s as I have used them quite a lot in other units and at home however I had not done much filming on them if any with the models we had at college. Therefore my skill development in the production of the video required me to learn a lot about the software and equipment very quickly so that I could get the best out of the cameras.
Before this unit I was unable to use editing software confidently as I had never had experience with it in the past. Also I had never used the specific camera models that were available at my college, therefore the whole unit was a new experience to me and I developed my skills throughout from the help of my team members and my teacher. I learnt how to use the Sony camera, which was a lot bigger than the standard sized DSLR’s we used in other unit of the course such as photography.
Lo2 KTA5: Overall suitability
My overall suitability for this role in the industry I believe is good because I understand thoroughly what is needed to make a production successful and the amount of dedication it takes to the pre and post production of the product. Although I am at a student level of qualification, if I carry on to degree level I believe I will be suitable confidently in the industry.
