Today was THE day!

Contact sheet from field shoot.  "Emotion & Motion"

Conceptual Design

Commercial Shoot

There were several different portions of the competition. 

On location shoot: We had 2 hours to shoot the festival out front and capture emotion and motion.

Commercial shoot:  We had do a product shot of an eye-one color corrector.  It was a white box on a black background.  This had very specific rules.  The box had to be at a 25 degree angle and the camera had to see the front, left side, and top of the box.  Not done... The front had to be light at an f22 with the main light.  The top had to be light at an f11 with the fill light, and the side had to be light at an f8 with a bounce card.  We had 25 minutes and only four shots.  I wish I would've had 5 more minutes, but I gave it my all!

Contact sheet: We had to make a contact sheet using photoshop's automate option.  It had to be an 8x10 and our 4 best un-editied images from the field shoot.

Conceptual Design:  We had to make a "fine art" work with the 4 images we chose.  We had to use at least 3 of the photos, and we had pretty much all day to work on it.

Interview:  This was a professional business interview conducted by some old guy.  I dropped that I volunteered for the PPA IPC last week and his little ears poked up!  Overall, this went well.  But... I forgot to swallow my gum. :(

Written Test:  This was a general knowledge exam.  It covered things from photo history to photoshop.  I was pretty confident with this one.  It was 50 questions, and 15 were about photoshop.  Anyone know who the official photographer of the Invasion of Normandy?

Troubleshooting:  There was 10 prints laid out on a table with letters.  We had a clip board with a problem and we had to walk around and match the photo to the issue.  Term like blooming, jpeg artifacts, and ashing... or something like that.

Photoimaging:  This was very specific!  We were given a reference photo and 2 stock photos.  We had to take a bottle with blue fluid in it and remove it from the back ground, impose it on a background we had to create.  Give the bottle a reflection.  We also had to make a skillsUSA label for the bottle.  The placement of everything was so exact, 1/4" from the left side and a 1/2" down...etc.  We were given 30 minutes to do this.  You could have given me 5 minutes and I wouldn't have known the difference!  I wasn't able to finish.  I gave a presentable image, but I wasn't able to warp the label and add the gradient to it.  What I did finish though was flawlessly down.  I noticed most people using the eraser tool rather than layer mask and what not.  I hope my cleanliness is taken into consideration.

We were also asked to turn in 4 of our personal photos for a slide show they will be putting together and showing us tomorrow.

Today was great.  The competition is over, and there's noting else I could've done.  I hope for the best,  but if I don't win I wont be upset.  I stayed true to myself and met some amazing people/friends while I've been here.  I've already won.