Porfolio book

Ordered my portfolio though Hartnack & Co I know people who have used there service and know the quality of service I good, back and forth emails with them I could see the level of professionalism I wanted was there, they was so committed the to their company I was receiving email on a Sunday.
I asked for for samples being I was going for a portfolio that more suited to graphic designer rather the leather one photographers normally go for this is because its more sturdy and my work mixes graphic design and photography.

I went with the charcoal grey and red. I didn't want the portfolio to be black as I don't like business cards and promo stuff to be black I prefer a dark grey. Red was chosen as the accent as it went with the cover and my work.
Hartnack & co supply the inside with a free business card holder which will be handy to keep with me when I go see photography and retouching agencies.

Blind deboss on front cover

Below are the photos of my book.

What inside looked before protective page I'm holding

Cover

Business card holder

Inside front cover red same on back

As I didn't want my book to close on an image incase it scrapes and ruins the image and wont look professional I created the simple page with my name on to protect the other first page. I think it bring the book together it felt off without it, it felt missing.  



While printing the page above the printer trashed the first sheet! but lucky I came prepared with spare.

ALL I NEED IS 60% for 2:1 at least

Worked out all I need for this project is at least 60% to score a 2:1, at the moment I on the edge to whether I get that or not I need it ideally as it will give more confidence to in the teaching program for me to go to Japan teaching year of 2017/18. As I wanna progress my photography inspired by Japan in Japan this is the easiest option for me at the moment, while contacting photography and retouching agencies there for work outside teacher assisting., also give me more opportunities to work with other people especially in the Harajuku fashion scene.

I feel I have a stronger reflective Journal this term compared to the previous but I feel my logbook might let me down compared to last terms.

Strighterning landscapes

Today at uni I was talking to a friend, he noticed my street photos of Tokyo wasn't due to the lens distortion (I thought I removed) as he sorted this a lot previous when doing landscapes, he shown me a super easy way using rulers and guides to layover edges thats meant to be straight and the warp transformation tool to them pull and push everything straight.

Hajime Kinoko Rope Artist

Hajime Kinoko is a rope artist and photographer, he make insanely intricate elaborate shibari and Kimbaku.

He challenges the negative connotations surrounding Shibari. Its frond on and seen very weird to majority of people who just see it as seedy but theres no denying that Kinokos rope art and photography are beautiful and relaxing, you don't look at his images and think they are creepy and only viewable by pervy people.

The therm for artistic or erotic tying within traditional Japanese rope bondage circles is Kimbaku 緊縛

This is an image I done, I want to do more like this but at the moment the person is unavailable with a skin condition. 

As my fiancee is not able to be tied at the moment, I had an idea of doing it digitally like the ribbons on my image above. Someone I follow on Instagram Haruka Kurebayashi for her Harajuku fashion, she is in a band called MJR-Cookie they had fun photoshoot being intwined with multiple coloured rope. I didn't know at the time Hajime Kinoko did the rope tying. I would use different coloured rope on the digital image. Images below are from Kurebayashis .
Instagram




looking in to this I saw Hajime Kinoko did a series called Cyber Rope, which  has the digital look, using florissant rope and UV light to create vibrant images.

 

Email to agencies in Japan

I'm planning on moving to Japan so I want to email agencies to as much I can to get a understanding how the industry differs to western/UK. I have asked my tutor Juneko to help me improve the email before I send it and help translate it to Japanese to help remove any language barriers.

Heres the draft Email

(name of recipient)

I hope this email reaches you well.

I have recently graduated from Norwich University of the Arts, UK and hope to move to Japan within the next year to develop my photography further and to assist in teaching English.

I’m contacting you to see if I can get some feedback on my work and any advise you can give me on improving it, what areas of the photographic markets my work fits and a general run down about the photography industry in Japan.

I was in Japan for 3 weeks in February as I get a lot of inspiration from the country especially Tokyo where I spent my time exploring. I have looked at KERA magazine for editorial style work. I enjoy retouching and adding graphics over my images.

I have attached a PDF portfolio.

I understand you must be busy I appreciate your time

Thank you,

Jason Cleaver

www.jcleaver.com

This can be adapted to send to UK agencies and to send to retouchers and retouching agencies 

Fundraising

I put £20 in the crowdfunding site and I acquired £20 pound of my parents and £20 from my fiancee money from parents and fiancee need to be giving to fundraising team as of (27/04/16).

I supplied a load of homemade peanut butter cups for the bake sale which apparently done really well :) the overall bake sale made around £240

I went to the Pub Quiz with May my fiancee which we paid to get in and we brought many shots to add to the exhibition funds.

As I'm looking at being a retoucher I put my name down to retouch corporate headshots it wont take ten minutes per photo and I could deliver the results in no time!

How Much To Charge Retouching?

Per image rate:
“At The Happy Pixel Project, retoucher Hayes says a few magazines, like some Condé Nast publications, simply stick to a standard per-image fee: $350 (£240) for an inside photo, $600 (£412) for a cover. (Commercial work pays by the hour, not by the image, so costs are higher than for editorial work.) With a set price like that, she says, “sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It’s actually pretty reasonable.” Hayes does the same amount of work whether an image is for a cover or inside page or Web site. She says that’s to save work later in case the image is needed in another format, but it could also have something to do with a perfectionism that seems typical of retouchers.”

“But there are apparently some photographers who would go beyond that.The New York Times Magazine’s Ryan says she’s seen photographers ask $1,000 (£687) per image.”

Hourly rate:

“If there’s something more a client wants—any sort of compositing, changing the elements of a photo—he sends the work out to a freelancer at $100 (£68) per hour, and bills the client with no markup.”

The primary take away from this article is that is you’re in search of a retoucher, keep in mind that there is no standard. Also keep in mind that retouching is not cheap and when someone states that they work at $100/hour, it’s a fairly standard number.

If you’re not in the industry, it’s hard to understand how we get such a high figure. You have to factor in expertise, high demand, overhead, lack of availability, and mostly due to a lack of other competent retouchers in the market that also drives up prices for such a specialized talent.

I bring this up because many people believe the cost is too high, but in reality it is fair. Price is defined by demand combined with specialized expertise and this industry is no different.

On the other end, there are also many other retouchers in the field who work for very little because they are either starting out, have very little experience, or don’t do this full time. Just don’t expect their rate to reflect the industry standard.

I appreciate the people of PDN in writing this article because it’s a great reference point that educates many people and attempts to demystify the rate structure within the retouching industry.