Photoshop Skills

One of the areas that I wanted to focus on in my PDP was my Photoshop skills. I feel that it is imperative that my skills are up to scratch and if I am to continue with my experimental photography and post processes then I need to come up with some new techniques.
I like to use repeating patterns within my work and recently I created this from a photograph of some clouds I had taken.

Upon researching experimental photography, it all seemed to be multiple exposures and long exposures and there was nothing that really inspired me or anything that I wanted to emulate.
I realised that maybe I should be taking more photographs and trying new things with my camera. My confidence with Photoshop does need building upon but I think this is a more gradual thing rather than something I will be able to do straight away.

I think that adding a new objective to my PDP which involves me being more creative with my camera would be an excellent idea and I have added this in on the post explaining my objectives. I would then also have a lot more to work with on the Photoshop side of things.

My Stock Images

Here are some stock images that I took. On my PDP my objectives were to use the studio more and familiarise myself with it and to develop my skills on Photoshop.

Guest Speaker - Paul Herrmann

Our class had Paul Herrman who is the director of Red Eye come in to give a talk to us. He told us a lot about Red Eye and what they do. I found this quite useful as I hadn't really thought about joining it before and it would be an excellent way for me to network.
He told us about the market trends which was interesting to know how it had changed and to have some up to date information about it.
We were told a few things about the market such as:
- Photo businesses have halved
- Royalties are down by 80%
- The is a decline in staff photographers
- Internships/unpaid work is increasing
- If you retain copyright of your work you can earn 33% more
- Fine art print prices, particularly vintage ones, have increased over 30 years
- Cross-boundary work is increasing

We were also told of the photographer jobs which earned the most. Here they are in order:
1. Commercial and advertising
2. Social/high street
3. Education
4. Assisting/management
5. Staff
6. Editorial
7. Projects
8. Personal/amateur

Another interesting part of Paul's talk was the part about starting a business, which is something I am considering after I graduate, and how much to charge per job. He told us how to get business help by giving a website to look at and also referred us to Red Eye's site where there is more information.

Stock Photography

We are required to take some stock photographs to illustrate the development objectives on our PDPs.

My objectives are:

- To do more studio based work
- Gain more knowledge on how to produce higher quality images using Photoshop

What is a stock image?

"Stock images are professionally designed or photographed images sold or licensed for use to the buyer or licensee. Designers often incorporate stock images into their designs to provide clients with high-quality photos without having to put resources into creating their own images."
(http://99designs.com/customer-blog/4-things-you-need-to-know-about-stock-images/)

The best known companies that provide stock images are Shutterstock, Getty, Fotilia and Alamy but there are hundreds more that sell them.

There are normally two types of stock image that you can purchase; royalty free and rights managed.
Buying royalty free images means that once you have paid for the license to use the photograph, you will not have to pay to use it every time you want to do so.
Rights managed images are restricted to time that the image can be used for, geographical location or for use within the industry only.

Here are some images that I found relating to my development objectives that I could use for inspiration:

Briefing

Our class received a new brief entitled Professional Frameworks 3 which will help us to prepare and know how to work professionally when we graduate. We will be setting ourselves targets to achieve throughout the year, learning to organise portfolios, exploring our options for future employment and also be hearing from professional photographers.

We were given a sheet to fill out which was called a Personal Development Plan. It asked what skills, knowledge and experience that I was missing, what activities I would need to undertake to achieve my objectives, what support/resources I would need to achieve my objectives and a date for these to be completed by.

I think that I need to gain more confidence within fashion photography and I would be able to do this by spending more time within the studio and possibly undertaking some street photography. I would like to achieve this by Jan '14.

I would like to have a better knowledge of Photoshop and how to edit to a higher standard than what I am already working at. I might be able to do this by using online tutorials, asking for help and requesting for a Photoshop workshop to be set up. I would like to achieve this by Jan '14.

New objective - added 28/10/13: I would like to create more experimental images using my camera. I would do this by exploring new objects and people to photograph. I would like to achieve this by Jan '14.

Upon filling this PDP in, I felt that there were more things that I would need to improve on that I would realise over time and when I would be completing projects. I intend to add more development objectives over the course of the next few weeks.