Final Images

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This is my first final image, I chose this because I think that the plain white background makes what's in the picture stand out more. At first the composition of this photograph wasn't great as you could see things around the white board so I decided to edit it using Photoshop. I really like this photograph, but the only criticism I would give is that it is shot from above so you can't really see the cup properly and also the sugar has the fairtrade logo on it so the company may not use the image because of this.

 

The first thing I did was to crop the image using the crop tool. I then edited the brightness and contrast of the image by going to Image>Adjustments>Levels and Image>Adjustments>Curves.

All of the images that are entered into this competition need to be A4 size and 300dpi so I then selected File>New then international paper and set it to A4 and made the resolution 300 then clicked 'OK'.

I then used the move tool to drag my image on to the A4 template. It didn't fit perfectly so the next step was to select Edit>Transform>Scale and drag the corner of the image to resize it whilst holding shift to keep it in proportion. Once I was happy that the image fit the A4 template correctly I selected Layer>Flatten Image so that both layers would merge in to one layer, I then saved it.

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Final Shoot

These are my favourite images from my final shoot, I enjoyed doing the shoot as it was something a bit different to anything I had ever done before. To advertise the cups I thought that filling them with drinks that look good might make them seem more appealing. The downside of doing this shoot was that I did have to spend some money, but my images have turned out how I wanted them to so it was definitely worth it. The things I bought were Lavazza coffee beans, instant cappucino, hot chocolate, cream and a chocolate flake so that I could sprinkle chocolate on top of the drinks. I got other props such as stirrers and sachets of sugar from the college canteen.

I like the simplicity of this image, I think that the presentation of the contents of the cup is good, therefore makes the whole photograph more appealing.

I wanted to try to use a person in my images somewhere, I didn't really want to draw any attention away from the cup so I just asked someone to hold one. I wanted to give the illusion of being on-the-go as the cups are takeaway cups and people wouldn't usually be found sitting around drinking coffee from a takeaway cup, people usually walk whilst holding them.

This is one of my favourite images from the shoot. I placed the cup onto a plain white board in my kitchen and then poured coffee beans all around it. I think that the fairtrade sugar at the side and the stirrer in the drink work as good props because fairtrade sugar is definitely something that appeals to people and I just think that they make the picture seem a bit more real. The image would look much better if I was to crop it so that only the white board was visable rather than bits of my kitchen unit around it, this can be easily done using Photoshop. The angle of this photograph also works well, the main focal point of the picture is the top of the cup and everything else is more out of focus, this will draw the viewers attention straight to the cup which is the whole aim of the competition.

These two images are also two of my favourites from the shoot. They are set up in the same was as the image above, just taken from a different angle.  The shallow depth of field allowed the cup to be totally in focus as it is at the front of the image. This, again, means that the cup is the main focal point of the image and is what the viewers will notice straight away. I also like that the Lavazza coffee bean packet is visable in the background, I think that this gives the image a real well established coffee shop kind of feel.

With these images, I was initially going to attempt some coffee art, like making shapes in the froth such as hearts and stars or something similar, but there is a special technique to doing it and it requires an actual coffee machine to skim the milk so I decided to just top the drink with cream and crumbs of chocolate. I think that it still looks good and is definitely appealing as everyone likes a hot chocolate with cream! Even though these images still turned out how I wanted them to, I prefer the photographs of the cappucino.

I like the fact that this image is landscape rather than portrait. It means that both drinks fit in the picture better. I also like the angle, you can see the cream and chocolate so the photograph looks appealing but you can also still clearly see the cups.

Test Shoot

These images are from my test shoot, I wanted to experiment with photographic the cups before I finalized my ideas and did my final shoot. I think that this helped to show me what might look good in terms of angles and what kind of props I might use.

I filled the cup with hot water so that it would create steam coming from the top of the cup. I was originally just going to take the cups down to the college canteen and experiment with them, I passed an empty plain black display shelf on my way and thought that the steam would look good against it as it would be able to be seen clearly. I then placed the cup on the shelf and took some photographs. I like the idea of this image but it is blurry and slightly too bright as the camera obviously wasn't set to the right shutter speed. Another thing I would change would be to turn the cup around as I think that the line down it makes the image look slightly messy, although I do like that the 'Caution:Hot!' text is visable - this works well with the steam.

These two images are my favourites from this shoot. I used the idea of photographing the steam coming from the cup whilst keeping the 'Caution: Hot!' text visable from the first image. Again, if I could change something it would be to position the cup differently so that the line wasn't visable to make the image look slightly untidy, but I think that the photo still works well regardless. I like the shallow depth of field in this photograph, where only the cup is in focus and the rest of the image gradually gets more and more blurry.

Research

Huhtamaki



Huhtamaki is one of the largest packaging organizations in the world. The provide packaging for a wide range of products such as food, pet food, fast food restaurants, take away coffee cups and frozen desserts.
Huhtamaki was first established in Kokkola, Western Finland, in 1920 by a village bakers son called Heikki Huhtamaki. The world headquarters for the company is situated in Espoo, Finland, and there are 13 facilities located in North and South America.

Capture the Cup 2009 Winner



The 2009 Capture the Cup Photographic competition was won by 3 students from Leicester College - Laura Webster, James Chambers and Armarpreet Brar. This image was the winning photograph, I think that it works well because it is such a simple idea. The person who took the photograph has just edited it in photoshop to make the background black and white so that only the cup is in colour, this makes the cup stand out more and makes the image more eye-catching, therefore works well for advertising the product.






Coffee Art

One of my initial ideas is to fill up my cups and use coffee art on the top of them, I think that this makes the drink look more appealing. Coffee art is usually found in well established high street coffee shops and is a difficult skill to master.
It would be difficult for me to do it exactly as it is done in the shops, but alternatively I could just fill my cup up with coffee, put a layer of cream on the top and buy or make some templates so that i could make shapes on the top of the cream using chocolate sprinkles or something similar.
A downside of doing this would be that I would possibly have to spend money but even so, I think that the end result would be worth it if it was successful.

Initial Ideas

• Use props (e.g. stirrers, tea bags, sugar cubes, kettle, coffee beans).
• Portrait of someone holding or drinking from the cup.
• Cup being filled in a coffee shop.
• Full cup with designs on the top of the drink (e.g. hearts, stars).
• Cups arranged to spell companys name or something similar which is appropriate.
• Simple, minimalistic photograph of a cup.
• Build of a tower out of the cups.
• Cups being carried in the carry tray.
• Someone carrying the cup whilst on-the-go.
• Cups in size order.
• Front and back of the cups on 1 photograph.
• Portrait of someone drinking from the cup whilst reading a newspaper/using a laptop.
• Depth of Field - A line of cups with only the one at the front in focus.
• Panning - Use a slower shutter speed, get someone to hold the cup whilst walking, press the shutter and follow the persons hand holding it with the camera so that only the cup is in focus and the background is blurred to show movement.

Capture the Cup

Introduction

Capture the Cup is a Photographic Competition run by foodservice manufacturer Huhtamaki.

Using paper hot cups from their packaging range I am going to create at least 3 striking images for the company to use.

The popularity of coffee, tea and other hot beverages which consumers can drink whilst on-the-go continues to rise rapidly. Using the selection of different paper cups, sip lids and carry trays I have been given, I am going to take at least 3 imaginative pictures which shows the use of these products.

I have been given 2 days to complete this assignment and will send my final images, full name and place of study to capturethecup@rlpltd.co.uk, there will be no text on my images and they will be A4 size, 300dpi and between 2mb and 10mb.

The overall winner of the competition will win £500 and the two runners-up will both win £250 each.

I am looking forward to this assignment, I think that as it will only last 2 days it will be good practice for working towards deadlines as you would for a real job.