Shoot 1
Plan for the shoot:
During this shoot i am going to look at the first place for secret areas of London.
Location:
Tottenham Court Road + Covent Garden
This area is known well for food and decoration during holiday seasons however i'm going to the area as i know that it is also has a lot of ally ways. What i am going to look at is how the streets and building are on on the everyday and then later in the year maybe and Halloween / Christmas i will go back and see what the difference is.
I am planning to see what i can find in the area that is colourful as i know that most of London is rather grey in colour. Even though this area is in the middle of London it is known to be rather colourful so i may find some great areas that will contrast the dull, grey stone. As a result i am looking to find a good contrast.
Resources:
- tripod
- Nikon D3100, 18 - 55mm camera
Techniques:
- RAW shooting
Research influence
Paul Reiffer's collection ' 2016 - London in Blue '.
This photo was taken of St. Paul's Cathedral from across the Millennium Bridge, at night. The bridge forms a leading line so it pulls you into the picture by going up the bridge and into the distance where you can see St. Paul's in the light. The angle at which the picture has been taken makes it seem like the viewer could just step straight into the photo and walk up the bridge. I really like this photo as you when you see photos of London you next to never see a large amount of colour and lights. This photo completely contrasts this and makes me think about what could i find during the day that would give the same effect.
David Gutierrez photography
This photos location is in Camden Town by the Lock at night. There is obviously the technique of Motion Blur in the photo as there is the movement of possible cars and busses. The good thing about the angle that he has taken this at is that is the road and the streams of lights have become like leading lines. As they are guiding the eyes through the photo from the spaced out ones on the left to the more condensed lights at the end of the road on the right.
Both of the photos for my research influence are during the night in London however i am looking for the colour during the daytime in this shoot. As well as this they are quite aesthetic looking photos, as a result i am also going to keep an eye out for those sort of photos as well.
However i am thinking that later in my shoots i am going to plan one or two night shoots.
Image Bank ( 3-5 )
This image has been added to show some of the odd and colourful things that you can find in London. I am planning on finding similar streets and buildings in this first location. The coloured umbrellas cover the street creating a beautiful flow of bright colour down the street. Due to all of this it has created a bright and aesthetic looking photo.
This house in the image has been painted along with the cars. In the design you can see many different cultures, for example around the top right hand windows the sugar skulls come from mexico and the day of the dead festival. London is known to be a city of culture and i think it will be interesting to see and photograph some of the thinks that are inspired by things.
Contact sheets
Best Photos
In this photo you can see that the main focus is a tutor styled building that really brings some character to the photo. This is because these old buildings where covered with wood framing really showing the frame and structural differences between then and now. The old windows are also rather small and instead of one big piece of glass and they are broken into little rectangles. This building is really different to the normal buildings you find, shown on the right, i really liked the big contrast between the two.
In this photo there is a bright yellow bike that someone,who had just gone into this restaurant had put down in front of the plants. I saw an opportunity as the colour of the bike matched the colour of the chairs the restaurant was using outside. The bright colours are really brought out by the black wood pots and the dark green leaves of the plants within them. This photo is really aesthetically pleasing and is a splash of colour in the otherwise grey street. When i edit this photo i am going to use the healing brush to clean up the pavement as it is distracting, as well as that im going to try and really extenuate the aesthetics of the photo. So it will relate back to the same notion that my research photos have.
For this photo i really took on board both of the research photographers photos and there use of leading lines. As a result when i was framing this i made sure to have the lines on the ground at a diagonal implying movement, this creates the effect where it appears that you can just step into the photo. I also like how i have taken the photo at such an angle that you can see the repeating aches and all the colours of the signs. When i put this photo into Photoshop i am going to look at a little bit of angle correction to bring it straight.
In this photo i loved how much of a contrast the colours are to the normal areas of London. This area reminded me of the image of the house in my image back with the amount of colours used. I liked how it wasn't just the signs that were colourful but the building themselves and the windows. I kept the idea of leading lines as the diagonal lines formed by the window sills and the angle of the building. Like David Gutierrez's photo above the way i have taken the photo allows the eyes to move through, only stopping long enough to read/look at the signs.
The final photo is of and old street in London, you can tell this because is really thin and cobble stones so most likely built in the Victorian times. It is like a forgotten street as there was nobody there and the only sign of life was the green plants and the fact the bollards had been painted as a repeating rainbow. I really like how this photo continues the theme of leading lines. With the street and buildings curving down a hill to the left. I also took some inspiration from Paul Reiffer's photo where it was like you could step into the photo. I like how instead of stepping into the photo mine creates the feeling that you are already part of the photo.
Needs improvement
In this photo the angle at which i took the photo is what has really let it down. The only issue is that i couldn't get up high enough to take the unique shape that i wanted to. However i believe that even then it wouldn't go well with this series of photos as it lacks the idea of a leading line, not top of that there is the lack of colour.
With this photo the angle at which i took it was the biggest issue. I think if i ever go back to this location i would retry this photo by moving further back so i wasn't looking up so much and also twisting how i was so I have a side profile as well so it not only had the vertical lines which can be intimidating but also incorporated the idea that was in the rest of the shoot.
I actually really liked this photo due to the repeating arches and how it pulled you through the photo. However the way the movement through the photo just wasn't quite right. Think what would have been a good idea would to use a long shutter speed and had people walking through it so it didn't feel as static. Possibly the way i took this photo could have had a slightly different angle as it hasn't got the feeling of being able to step into the photo like some of the others had.
In this last photo i believe that i had the wrong aperture settings due to it being slightly to dark. Also the angle isn't quite central so it doesn't quite has the same effect i was going for to mimic Paul Reiffer's photo where it was like you could step into the photo.
AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress
Best Photos
In this photo you can see that the main focus is a tutor styled building that really brings some character to the photo. This is because these old buildings where covered with wood framing really showing the frame and structural differences between then and now. The old windows are also rather small and instead of one big piece of glass and they are broken into little rectangles. This building is really different to the normal buildings you find, shown on the right, i really liked the big contrast between the two.
In this photo there is a bright yellow bike that someone,who had just gone into this restaurant had put down in front of the plants. I saw an opportunity as the colour of the bike matched the colour of the chairs the restaurant was using outside. The bright colours are really brought out by the black wood pots and the dark green leaves of the plants within them. This photo is really aesthetically pleasing and is a splash of colour in the otherwise grey street. When i edit this photo i am going to use the healing brush to clean up the pavement as it is distracting, as well as that im going to try and really extenuate the aesthetics of the photo. So it will relate back to the same notion that my research photos have.
For this photo i really took on board both of the research photographers photos and there use of leading lines. As a result when i was framing this i made sure to have the lines on the ground at a diagonal implying movement, this creates the effect where it appears that you can just step into the photo. I also like how i have taken the photo at such an angle that you can see the repeating aches and all the colours of the signs. When i put this photo into Photoshop i am going to look at a little bit of angle correction to bring it straight.
In this photo i loved how much of a contrast the colours are to the normal areas of London. This area reminded me of the image of the house in my image back with the amount of colours used. I liked how it wasn't just the signs that were colourful but the building themselves and the windows. I kept the idea of leading lines as the diagonal lines formed by the window sills and the angle of the building. Like David Gutierrez's photo above the way i have taken the photo allows the eyes to move through, only stopping long enough to read/look at the signs.
The final photo is of and old street in London, you can tell this because is really thin and cobble stones so most likely built in the Victorian times. It is like a forgotten street as there was nobody there and the only sign of life was the green plants and the fact the bollards had been painted as a repeating rainbow. I really like how this photo continues the theme of leading lines. With the street and buildings curving down a hill to the left. I also took some inspiration from Paul Reiffer's photo where it was like you could step into the photo. I like how instead of stepping into the photo mine creates the feeling that you are already part of the photo.
AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.
For this shoot i used my Nikon DS3100 camera set to manual, with manual focusing. However I did notice that the pictures were a little grainy and i was having a bit of trouble with my camera. Due to this after this shoot i have taken it to have the mirrors and lens checked over.
The settings i used:
ISO 100
F stop 5.6 - 8
Shutter Speed 1/125 - 1/80
I had to change my shutter speed and F stop due to the continuously changing weather and due some of the locations i was in were darker than others.
AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding
For all of my photos i decided to import them into Photoshop in order to enhance them. For a couple of my photos i also used the camera angle correction tool. I also used hue and saturation to bring out the colour in a couple of the photos.
In this first photo i had used the Hue and Saturation tool in order to draw out some of the colour that had been dulled down due to the cloud and lack of light in the area. This idea of drawing out colour from the photo is due to David Gutierrez and how he pulls as much colour out of his photo as he can.
Another thing that i did to this photo was to change the angle through angle correction as the angle wasn't quite straight. As a result it creates the feeling of possibly being able to step into that area. As well as this it also makes the leading lines straighter.
BEFORE
AFTER
I repeated this technique with this photo and also added in some straight lines so you could see the before and after the correction.
Screenshots taken using the Snipping tool
AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.
Progression
Within this shoot there is a lot of uses of different lines: leading, vertical, aches, S and C curves. These lines are all applying movement and as a result at my next location i am going to see the types of photos i can create with the idea of these different lines from AS photography in mind. For this i think i am going to use 'The City of London' in order to do this shoot. This is because there are a lot of new buildings as well as old buildings. As a result i am going to still look for the odd things to find with in that area however also look a little at the lines and how they are affecting the photo more.
What i am looking for:
- Different places to the normal
- Different uses of Lines: Vertical, Leading, Horizontal, Diagonal, S and C curves, Arches
- The use to movement through a photo
