Evaluation

While I origionally found the Billboard project a little hard to start, mainly getting to grips with the difference between above & below the line advertising. Once this was understood the project started quite happily, I chose Dalmore Scotch as my subject.

I chose Dalmore specifically as to me it gives an air smoky, dark, gentlemans clubs style feel, a finer drink. I tried to mimic this in the photoshoot and I got close to what I wanted but it was in no way perfect.

Ideally I would have wanted to use a large peice of fine stained oak with some skillfully crafted edges and a background of burgandy studded leather. Though cash flow contraints forced me to just use a soft black background. Though I got round the lack of background props by adding in more mid/foreground props such as the crystal glasses and the leather bound flask. Personally I believe adding the glasses and flask made the image feel far less empty and gave the gentlemans club feel.

As for lighting I chose to use a Elinchrom light with a custom super long snoot. It had the effect I wanted during the test shoot however on the shoot day the lighting was not as good as the test though still did the trick. In order to get the bottle and the glass correctly lit I chose to stick very thing sheets of copper foil behinde them, this gave the light a chance to reflect back into the bottle illuminating the scotch inside. Also used was a polyboard behinde the bottle and a reflector on the front right for a little more light.

The biggest problem I ran into when shooting was that the snoot light was causing some horrendous glare on the front of the bottle though any time I tried to move it nothing worked ,so I removed the stopped from the bottle and placed it infront of the glare. This is turn lit the stopped nicely but left the bottle untouched.

At the beginging of the projetc I though the post production would be daunting especially if the copper backing made its way into the shot, though I had cut and stuck the copper so precisely this did not happen.

When I was actually fully able to look at my images properly after the shoot I was slightly upset to find most shots where slighty darker than I wanted and the bottle had not been lit well enough. Though in post production I did managed to bring some of the detail in the bottle back which went along way to solving this issue.

Given the chance to do the shoot again I would ensure the lighting was perfect and everything was exellently lit.

Clear Channel Mock Ups

As per the Breif I have used the clear channel website to create mock ups of what my billboards shoots would look like in the real world.

Print Screen of the Clear Channel website

Research - Jack Daniels Billboards

When looking into similar advertising to mine I looked at Jack Daniels. Their posters are often posted up around the tube and trains generally in a portrait faishon and rarely in showcase squares. However it is the most similar.

While the adverts are comlicated than most they are very good. As each billboard has a new interesting peice of information unique to JD, the audience is captured by the first tag line such as 'This is no place for an effiency expert' which in turn cuases the audience to read the rest. This gives insightful information into the product and causeing the audience to think long after they past the advert and eventually causing them to buy the product.

Though there are many (9 by my last count) each uses a different main photograph, which oddly enough is never a photograph of a bottle of Jack Daniels. If there where less constraints on this breif I believe creating a similar set of mock adverts in the same style could be very interesting and would be somthing I may do anyway.

Second PDF/InDesign Mock Up

After doing some more work on InDesign I created a Mock Up which im quite happy with though, still needs some tweaking and fine tuning.

Studio Shoot Outcome & Preliminary PDF

After getting into the studio for my Scotch Billboard shoot I did run in a couple problems in which I overcame. Mainly a lighting issue causing glare and reflection on the bottle which I did not like, however partially solved the issue by using props.



When reviewing my photographs from the shoot I did unfortunately find them to be too dark, painfully I did not realise this during the shoot, as I was having issues with both the memory card and Capture One.



I have managed to lighten the images in post-production however I would have preferred not to have to in the first place.





Given my previous problems using Capture One I managed to get it working on another laptop, in which I did get to use the Overlay tool, however it then crash 10 minutes later.



Though I did get to see if the images worked with the Billboard layout, which they do very well.



Below is a preliminary PDF of preliminary photographs, post production is nowhere near finished.

Billboard Scotch Studio Test Shoot -

As I was not entirely sure on what lighting to use for this shoot I decided to do a test shoot in the studio using the same equipment I would be using on the actual shoot day.

I found that using a large snoot inconjunction with reflectors created the exact lighting I wanted. Dark, moody and simple; Using a shutter speed of 125 and F13.

What I did find from the test shoot was that the scotch bottle was far too shiny and must be dulled, also the bottle must be polished as finger prints would show up like theres no tomorrow.

To remedy this Im going to polish the bottle to remove prints and the spray with hairspray in order to dull it.

Unfortunatley during the test shoot I accidently broke and smashed one of my crystal scotch glasses, however on a lighter note it did add a new feel to the photographs which I will be using in the actual shoot.

I have also used strips of copper fitted to the back of the bottle and crystal glasses in order to further illuminate the scotch in the glasses.

Test photographs -

Lighting 'diagram'

While I realise I will have a little work to do in post production I believe this is a step in the right direction. The only thing that did annoy me about the images was that the stags head on the bottle would not fully illuminate the way I want it too; hopefully with the use of another reflector this will be solved.

Scotch Preliminary Photoshoot & Lighting Ideas -

Since I am not sure what kind of lighting to use for the my Billboard Scotch photoshoot, I attempted to create a mini studio style shoot at home. However I only have access to 1 Speedlite & Softbox and other general home lighting so was not particulary helpful.

Though I did learn that backing the Scotch bottle and glass with reflective foil greatly impoved the lighting and 'glow' within the glass and bottle.

Since I have essentially hit a brick wall at home I have decided to set up a quick mini shoot using the Rave Studio in an attempt to find the best kind of lighting to use for this.

I also found that if I could light the glasses from the top without runing the photograph then I shall as it makes the glasses appear much clearer.

As well as using a black soft cotton/velvet background added greatly to the overall photograph.

Here are a few very basic and low level photographs for testing -

Attempting using a backlight to light glasses
f5.6 Shutter 1/10

Testing with foil back ground with better results

f14 Shutter 1/125

Most preferred thus far. A real studio should be much easier to get better results.

f9 Shutter 1/125

Scotch Shoot Ideas & Planning

Scotch Studio Billboard Shoot –

Props –

Bottles of 12 year, 15 year, Grand Reserva, 19 Year First Cask bottles

The corresponding boxes for the above
Crystal Scotch glasses
Whiskey stones
Cheap scotch
Red cloth for table – possibly with touches of gold
Possibly a brown cloth background or smooth black

Lighting –

Softbox Flash
Strip lights

New Idea - Scotch

After looking into above & below the line advertising, I changed my idea from band photography to Scotch. Mainly the single malt Highland, Dalmore.

My idea in order to have it meet all of the criteria is to photograph the 12, 15, Grand Reserve, 18 year bottles in varying compositions. I will attempt to create a 'Gentlemens Club' type of atmosphere.

Similar to this -

Above & Below The Line Advertising

After further research on above and below the line advertsing I have found the following.

Above the Line -

Mass Media
Televison
Aimed at the masses
World Wide
Relies on advertising to sell a sepcifiic product

Below the Line -

Does not rely on campaings to sell their products
More subtle, more directed and more personalised

Based on this I have changed my ideas, which will follow in the next post

Preliminary Ideas - Advertising Billboards

We have been tasked to create 1 photograph that would fit across 3 different types of Advertising Billboards; 48 sheet, 96 sheet & Showcase Square Poster.

So far my ideas for this project are -

Band - Sepuku
Film Company - How Bizarre
Comic Book/Graphic Novel - Arturas Project/Personal Project
Video Games

Band Photography - SEPUKU

My first idea was to use band photography which I am comfortable with and have easy access to the band in order to get the photographs needed.

It would also work throughout the 3 different poster sizes needed.

Film Company - How Bizarre

My next idea was slightly different in that I was going to use my friends up and coming film company which deals in creating short films, video remixes and the like. Though trying to photograph the company in order to correctly portray what they do may be a difficult task.

Comic Book/Graphic Novel - Arturas Project/Personal Project

A friend of mine is working on a Graphic Novel/Animated Series for his own Uni project which I also thought could be useful and benificial for both parties to use for this project. As I would actually use the work I create to advertise his Animated Series. While I have access to his work and help very easily if I cannot I do have my own Graphic Novel Project which I could also use.

Video Games

In recent years due to the advancement in both CGI, experitice and budget of video game companies many have decided to create 'live action' trailers and posters. Such as Mass Effect, Halo and Call of Duty. The trailers are very effective and give the audience a much more realistic view of each game.

Due to this I could create my own 'live action' photographs for an existing game. Though I would have to be careful not to make it look too much like my previous work.