ViewBug

This is a small competition based website which I found through links while researching, I do not think that they are a major organisation but the recognition and the images are still of a high quality.

Some of the previous judges have been highly recognised in their field:

They also work with many different brands as these supply the prizes, many of the prizes include:

-          Camera bodies

-          Lenses

-          Tripods

-          Cash prizes

-          Gift vouchers

-          Apple products

-          Camera bags

-          Speedlite flash

One of the competitions that is currently on the website is about layered compositions,

Above are the rules that are given on the front page of the competition details.

Prizes for this competition include a Canon 70D or a Nikon D5300 body.

I wanted to know what the difference was between foreground and active foreground was so I googled for a definition and found the definition of foreground was:

I cannot find anything about the definition for an active foreground but I am concluding that this means that there is an element within the foreground be it person or object.

This is the photograph I am going to enter into this competition:

I am going to enter this photograph because I think this is a strong image and is very eye catching, I also think the foreground element works very well with the background as it breaks up the image.

These are the price plans for the Viewbug membership, I think however that I am going to just stay with the Lite account as I do not feel it is worth upgrading yet until I have more time to invest in entering these competitions.

Website Design

I had some trouble connecting my domain name that I had purchased because I had purchased through two different companies, I know this is something I need to resolve and I am going to speak to an IT technician to try and resolve this. Also to connect my domain name this mean I must purchase an upgrade and unfortunately this is something I can not afford to do currently.

I have completely redesigned my website because I knew my previous one was not professional. I have used the black, white and red colour scheme that has become part of my branding. I designed my website after creating my business card so I had this design in my mind when I was creating my website; my card inspired the way I have shown my photographs on the pages.

Above is my landing page, on this website design I have not got a separate landing page which shows off my separate sections because I am mainly focusing on my photography I did not think I needed this separation. I have used a script font for my page header because I prefer this style of writing and it suits my name; the letters in my name are curved and the font only amplifies these curves. I have not used the logo I designed on the website because I did not like my website background as white and I could not make the camera design look professional in all white or red and the black design would not be seen on the black background. I do like this design though I think that the font for my section header needs changing, as it does not look professional to have everything in script writing.  I set the header bar so that it shows the page that is showing in red and when the mouse is hovered over a word it changes to red; I think that this helps viewers easily identify their way around my website.

This is my portfolio page; I have chosen to show my portfolio like this because the people coming to my website will all have a specific aim and will want to see one specific page however I do want to direct traffic to my other photography work as well as some parents might have pets and pet owners might want children included and knowing I could do this is something that they would want. I have included nature as a section because my personal work is often nature and wildlife; although this section needs filling in a little with some of my earlier works as there is not many on this section yet.

This is the section showing my layout for the children’s section, I have used a similar style layout to my business card so that my branding looks similar and parents just can scroll down the page without being annoyed by flicking through all the other children’s photographs one by one in a slideshow. I have also used this style with three of my subsections, this means that this style is consistent and is repeated enough to become part of my branding. The second image shows a zoomed out screenshot of the editor so that I can show more of the images in relation to each other to show my page styling and how it relates to my branding.

In my retouching page I have changed the way that I am presenting my images, while researching ways to incorporate the slider tool into my work I found three different ways of adding this into my website. I have shown my page in its full layout and a glimpse of the image while it is being used so that it is obvious that the image slides back and forth. I also checked this compatibility with tablets and smartphones and it seems to be in working order.

The first way looks very complicated as it involves writing computer code and I do not fully understand how I would use this because it appears to be part of an app or a piece of software but there is nothing to download and there is little help available on how to apply this to websites.  

The second way is through an app within the website host as seen above.

Shutter Heart Stories

This is a volunteer organization which provides nature and wildlife photography to people who are stuck indoors due to illness or treatments. Often these photographs are the only way people see the outdoors and the effects this has on the patient and their family are only positive. I am thinking about submitting my own works to this website because I enjoy landscape and wildlife photography and I have many photographs that I could use for this website.

These are some of the options I am thinking of submitting:

Logo Design

In looking for retouching symbols I knew that one of them was the pen tool, I wanted to look for a different version of the pen tool because I wanted to stand out and not follow the same as what others would do.
 I looked at the feather logo because it still a pen and its semiotics is that of high class as well as old and established. I do not think that this logo works however as the pen doesn’t relate to retouching at all so people might not understand why it as been used.

Because I knew I needed to change the logo and find a digital pen I used this symbol for the Wacom tablet and the graphics pen, this is more easily recognisable as a retouching symbol because of how often tablets are used in retouching. 

If I was going to continue into retouching then I would definitely explore this tablet theme more and try to create a 3D looking logo where my name appears to come out of the tablet screen, as I think that would help me stand out more, however as I have been hired by a photography studio I am going to redesign my website with my photography to show off my skills in the work that the studio does so that I can advertise myself as a studio photographer and direct personal clients to working with the studio; I have permission from the manager to use the studio for personal clients when the studio is not busy as this will still generate advertising and repeat clients.

I personally like the logo designs where a camera has been incorporated into the designs; I have experimented with different camera shapes and different fonts to design my logo.

These are the camera shapes I used to work with my logo:

These are some of the designs I have created, as I was creating the designs I did not save all of my designs however these are the major changes that I have created:

For the first designs I used a camera shape and placed my initials into the lens, this is a common design in photography logos and I wanted to see if I could make this work for my own name. I started with the black text but decided it looked to plain and that I needed to change the font, I scrolled through the list of fonts available within Photoshop and found that I preferred the script type writing over fonts such as Arial and Times New Roman. I think that curved writings look more open and friendly whereas Arial would be good for business’s which need to come across very serious and professional; in the creative industry there is more leniency about the ‘look’ of the business and what is expected. My favourite from these first designs is the final one with the red coloured font. I think that is I was going to be shooting mostly new-borns and children after I left university then I would only play around with the purple font more as this seems to be a good match for that kind of photography; but because my focus is on retouching I do not think I will use this colour.

I do like the contrast that the red has against the black and white so I think I am going to be focussing on that, as well as this being related to the branding of GC Photo-Grafics.

For the second designs I wanted to use my initials to create the shape of the camera body, at first the font seemed too rounded and curved to be part of the camera design, I changed the font through the available options but nothing seemed to be working, I think that if I want to use this design I will have to draw out the initials myself using a line tool in order to get the look I am wanting.  At first when creating this design I had my text black but I decided to use colour in order for my initials to stand out against the camera and make it obvious that that is what I was doing.

The third set of designs was a redesign of the first set; I used a different camera outline that made it look more like a digital camera rather than a film camera. However I do prefer the first set as I prefer the camera shape. I think what puts me off is the line above the shape that would be the “shutter” of the camera, this is distracting and I do not think it fits in. I did not experiment with this design, as I did not like it that much, but out of the set I prefer the middle design, I think that shade of purple works really well with the design.

The fourth set of designs did not work at all; I think this is because I removed the circle from the middle so it just appears as a square. At the time I could not work out what was missing so I changed from using my initials to using my full name, this works better but I still feel that this design does not work.

The last camera shape is my personal favourite, I think this is because of the detail within the camera shape; it fills it out and makes it look more professional. I put my name in the camera lens like I had previously but I found I preferred the shutter detail in the lens; this has more connotations of photography.  I then tried to find a way to make my initials emerge from the side of the camera however I did not like this design. I went back to changing the font, I tried to find a more suitable font, and I found that the curved fonts looked better as this looks more professional and friendly than the hard and rigid square designs.

 I like the last design the most because my name appears friendlier yet still remains professional, I have mixed it up for the ‘photography’ to add contrast and draw attention to it, I think minor changes are still needed as I want to blend my name in more with the camera lines so it appears as one rather than my name just stuck on top of it.

One thing that I had to pay attention to: is the spacing between the letters, in the first few designs my name appears too spaced out and looked like two different words.