brand ID billboard

this is the first billboard that I've made. I've showed my target audience and how i want my product to be perceived. I've tried to implement a famous nike advertising design so that it'll show a degree of controversy between the market my products in and nike's. the adverts below.
I've used the rough concrete and the reds in the photo to try and get as close to a grimy image as possible.

Externally lit photos

These are the sample photos where I used external light for my photos. In the first one I relied mostly on the bold colour of the bike to make the photo eye catching and increased the contrast so the colour would come out more. I also lowered the saturation of everything but the red so it would jump out even more. 

The photo below I used the same external light as before but tried a different angle. I also completely desaturated everything other than the blues and the red, the blues saturation was upped to around 30 and the red was slightly lowered to about -10. The contrast of the photo was increased and the brightness pretty much stayed the same. Note that the angle of the photo was so that the bars would be highlighted away from the sky, I did this by placing the light hidden directly behind the stem of the bike this light also gives the tyres more definition. 

The phot below is my favourite out of the samples because it's different to what I've done before. As you can probably tell I've only ever took photos of the tricks and action of skateboarding and bmx but in this photo I've managed to catch the a segment of the lifestyle. It's not as exciting as most people thing, especially in the winter. As we love in England the weathers often a factor in when we can ride and during the winter the weather takes no prisoners, it's cold, wet and the motivation to ride is strained massively. That's one of the main reasons why I love it! You get to know who is cermitted to the sport and who's worth the time. In this photo it's captured how social media and the Internet has effected action sports and how we are all connected. The overall editing of the photos was that I lowered the brightness and highered the contrast both by 50 and decreased the brightness of the yellows. I decreased the brightness of the yellows because the hat just looked out of place in the photo and stood out more than I liked. 

Why the golden ratio is better than the rule of thirds

Well neither rule is better or worse than the other, both are simply guidlines of composition. A simple way of comparing the two is the the of third is set out in a grid divided into even thirds (33/33/33) the golden ratio is approximately a 62/38 division, the golden ratio leads to the intersection of important diagonals. 

When composing there is nothing to say you can't use both in the same image, there is more than likely a built in rule of thirds grid in most dslr cameras. However, the golden ratio is a little harder to use. 

Fire photography

Campfires in particular 

It's apparently the easiest for of fire photography. 

Exposure at 1 second

F/3.5 

And play about with the ISO until the photo looks right. 

However, I didn't like the look of the fire as it was blurry and didn't show much intensity so I'd of though a much fast shutter speed would suit the photo better but I'll try both. 

Moon photography

Handling checklist:

Go somewhere dark, darker the better 

Use a telephoto lens, longer the better 

Adjust the shutter speed so the moon isn't over exposed, start around 1/250th 

Adjust the aperture to get your lens as sharp as possible - sharpest at f/8 or f/11 

Keep the ISO low to get a crisp image 

Use tripod 

Take a range of photos don't be afraid to experiment. 

Nights sky photography

Camera settings.

For a starting point you should have 25 second exposure, f/2.8, ISO 1600 or if the lens doesn't open up to f/2.8 try a 30 second exposure and f/4 with the same ISO.

Note: this type of photography will not work if there is a moon out (at all). The best place for this type of photo graphs is  deep into nature, away from a city so it minimalists the light pollution.

Why these settings? 

The most important factor of these settings is the 25 second exposure. This is because any longer and you'll start to get a star train which is a completely different type of photography. Since you are limited to the 15-30 second shutter speed you still need to let in more light. So the largest aperture you can find on a fisheye lens is f/2.8 and am this may still not be bright enough. So this is where the ISO comes in to play it will vary with different types of cameras but on full frame cameras you can usually get the ISO to 2000 without seeing much noise. However, I don't have a full frame camera so I'll have to resort to a slightly edited photo. 

Lightroom 

In this it's usually good to boost the exposure by a stop or two and the 'noise reduction tool' which is under the detail section, this will reduce any unwanted "noise".

These are the setting pretty much the settings she uses ever time.

She boosted the whites up to around 50 and took the blacks down to -50 this is so that there is more emphasis on the stars. Pushed he clarity up to 55 which also helps divine the stars against the sky and the saturation was increased so that it highlighted any sutul colours. 

In the second panel she sharpened the image slightly, brought up the noise reduction to 33 to smooth out and star trails and brought up the colour to 25 for the same reasons. 

Tips.

To make the sky appear 'magical' you can alter the hue and the temperature. 

Make sure your not just taking a picture of  the sky, put a palm tree or something in there to give the photo abit of a story and meaning behind it. 

Use apps like 'Sky Map' to see what stars are directly above you so that your not just shooting aimlessly. 

logo variations-original apple logo

this is my logo up to yet. however, in this design I've implemented the spectrum colour scheme which was famous from apple's original logo. I've decided to go down this route because it will create bit of controversy when people see it thus giving the brand a amplified amount of exposure quickly.  

as you can see I've not directly copied what apple originally did but I've explored a few different ways the spectrum/rainbow fits into my logo. 

in the logo below I've stayed with the spectrum/rainbow colour scheme but placed the colours in each individual section of the logo. 

this logo although is very simple and almost child like with the colours stands out as a its own logo even though I've used the same colours and concepts as the apple and google logo.