Thursday 27 January 2011
Thursday 20 January 2011
Sports (write up)
For the topic of "sport", we had to use different lenses. As i've never played around with many different types of lenses, and though I'm not majorly interested in sport itself, I was quite excited to shoot something involved with sport!
The planning aspect of the topic created problems for many of us. Due to the risk assessment forms, etc. It was actually difficult to take photographs of people in the campus sports area. It's opened my eyes to the amount of planning involved in such a shoot, having to ask every individual's permission to take a photograph. This reminded me of writing my ethic of photo-journalism essay. I find it unsettling that a journalist can take a photograph of a celebrity who may not be in the right frame of mind, or in a compromising situation that could see them in to trouble. Yet it's challenging to take a couple of photos of a fellow student running a few metres on a university sports track.
The idea for the shoot was to play pool. Compared to my other topics, I suppose this is my most basic and simple idea. I wanted to keep it low key so i could concentrate on the action and what was going on around me. The risks involved with the topic were minimal, though using expensive lenses close up to the action raises the risk of damage towards the camera. My favoured setting as you can perhaps tell from reading my blog is a small aperture setting, as it emphasizes the object in present. On the majority of photos, I kept the aperture at roughly f4 - f5.3 with the occasional f3.5 for the close ups of the pool balls. With the shutter speed, I varied the speed to try and capture different images. EG. on one of the photos, the ball has been hit and is moving at some speed. I slowed the speed to 1/30 to create a blurred action shot. I tried not to use flash whilst we were playing as I didn't want to bleach any of the images out, however there are a couple of photos with a small shadow reflecting the flash. The ISO on the photos used without the in-built flash are quite high (around 1000) due to the room being quite dark and not having a tripod with me caused issues. I played around with the white balance too, which usually I don't touch. However, I gained a cold effect on a couple of photos whilst changing the white balance to a high incandescent; I really liked the cool, harsh effect it gives. The lens in which I took out from uni was a wide angle lens, which I'd never used before until today. I was quite excited to use it, but whilst I was taking photos the result I found wasn't a profound difference. Next time I think I'll take out a wider angle lens. I tried to capture photos of the room itself with the pool table, as you could tell you were using a wide angle lens. It gave the effect of a fisheye, that the room is being wider, yet pushed together.
I'd perhaps say that out of all of the briefs we were given for intro to photography, sports has been my least favourable. I'd like to try again in my own time a different sport, perhaps with a little more action. In my opinion, rather than "sports" being tied with lenses, I would have preffered it to have been with shutter speed, and perhaps "tropical world" to have been set with lenses. I think I would have gained a lot more knowledge and practise.
The planning aspect of the topic created problems for many of us. Due to the risk assessment forms, etc. It was actually difficult to take photographs of people in the campus sports area. It's opened my eyes to the amount of planning involved in such a shoot, having to ask every individual's permission to take a photograph. This reminded me of writing my ethic of photo-journalism essay. I find it unsettling that a journalist can take a photograph of a celebrity who may not be in the right frame of mind, or in a compromising situation that could see them in to trouble. Yet it's challenging to take a couple of photos of a fellow student running a few metres on a university sports track.
The idea for the shoot was to play pool. Compared to my other topics, I suppose this is my most basic and simple idea. I wanted to keep it low key so i could concentrate on the action and what was going on around me. The risks involved with the topic were minimal, though using expensive lenses close up to the action raises the risk of damage towards the camera. My favoured setting as you can perhaps tell from reading my blog is a small aperture setting, as it emphasizes the object in present. On the majority of photos, I kept the aperture at roughly f4 - f5.3 with the occasional f3.5 for the close ups of the pool balls. With the shutter speed, I varied the speed to try and capture different images. EG. on one of the photos, the ball has been hit and is moving at some speed. I slowed the speed to 1/30 to create a blurred action shot. I tried not to use flash whilst we were playing as I didn't want to bleach any of the images out, however there are a couple of photos with a small shadow reflecting the flash. The ISO on the photos used without the in-built flash are quite high (around 1000) due to the room being quite dark and not having a tripod with me caused issues. I played around with the white balance too, which usually I don't touch. However, I gained a cold effect on a couple of photos whilst changing the white balance to a high incandescent; I really liked the cool, harsh effect it gives. The lens in which I took out from uni was a wide angle lens, which I'd never used before until today. I was quite excited to use it, but whilst I was taking photos the result I found wasn't a profound difference. Next time I think I'll take out a wider angle lens. I tried to capture photos of the room itself with the pool table, as you could tell you were using a wide angle lens. It gave the effect of a fisheye, that the room is being wider, yet pushed together.
I'd perhaps say that out of all of the briefs we were given for intro to photography, sports has been my least favourable. I'd like to try again in my own time a different sport, perhaps with a little more action. In my opinion, rather than "sports" being tied with lenses, I would have preffered it to have been with shutter speed, and perhaps "tropical world" to have been set with lenses. I think I would have gained a lot more knowledge and practise.
Tropical World (write up)
For the 3rd week’s project, the theme “tropical world” was introduced using the technique of shutter speed. Though the idea of the topic was to visit Tropical World in Leeds, I actually visited Eden Project in Cornwall – which essentially offers the same things such as plants, waterfalls, etc. except on a much bigger scale. I absolutely loved Eden Project and any lover of photography must experience it. I went with my brother’s family, including my 10-year-old niece as a day out. Therefore again, there wasn’t planning as such involved because it was a fairly spontaneous trip. As like with the Urban Landscape project, there weren’t many risk assessments or safety issues as such except protecting your equipment from water, crowds, etc.
Being my biggest set of images from the entire module, it’s safe to say I produced a great amount of photos, which was quite time consuming choosing which images were the best/most appropriate to use. I’ve found it’s a great way of criticising and evaluating your own work – much like choosing a set of images for a portfolio, being hard on your self I feel is important.
From the set, I have a few favourites that stand out. Focusing on shutter speed and depth of field mainly, I tried to capture wasps and bees surrounding the photos. Looking at the images now it’s obvious I’ve taken to a shallow aperture to focus on the flowers, whilst using a fairly high shutter speed of around 1/200 to capture the insects landing on the flowers, whilst keeping the ISO at a minimum as the light inside was overwhelming. I think in particular these are my favourite images of the set and I was really pleased with them. Going to Eden gave me a new love for natural photography, I feel I have matured within my work and become more open to new ideas. As shallow thought as it is, flowers never interested me before visiting Eden – I’m glad my opinion has been changed for the better!
As the weather worked in my advantage, I got some beautiful shots in the sun. From remembering work during “natural and artificial light”, I always think ahead how I’m going to position the object to the background, e.g. a flower in front of sunlight will produce a silhouette. Learning, remembering and practising this has helped improve my skills and initial planning thoughts as a photographer. As the weather stayed the same during the day, it kept me focused on what I was doing rather than fiddling with settings. Criticising myself however, I feel I didn’t adequately use shutter speed to its full advantage and concentrated more on the aperture. When discussed in a lesson, it was said that we could swap a couple of techniques that we were assigned to certain themes. For example, instead of concentrating on shutter speed with “tropical world”, we could perhaps concentrate on it more with “sports”. I struggled to capture the waterfalls at Eden without a tripod, which I regret not taking. But overall, I was extremely pleased with my images and really enjoyed myself on the day out. I would say this was one of my favourite projects out of the module.
Being my biggest set of images from the entire module, it’s safe to say I produced a great amount of photos, which was quite time consuming choosing which images were the best/most appropriate to use. I’ve found it’s a great way of criticising and evaluating your own work – much like choosing a set of images for a portfolio, being hard on your self I feel is important.
From the set, I have a few favourites that stand out. Focusing on shutter speed and depth of field mainly, I tried to capture wasps and bees surrounding the photos. Looking at the images now it’s obvious I’ve taken to a shallow aperture to focus on the flowers, whilst using a fairly high shutter speed of around 1/200 to capture the insects landing on the flowers, whilst keeping the ISO at a minimum as the light inside was overwhelming. I think in particular these are my favourite images of the set and I was really pleased with them. Going to Eden gave me a new love for natural photography, I feel I have matured within my work and become more open to new ideas. As shallow thought as it is, flowers never interested me before visiting Eden – I’m glad my opinion has been changed for the better!
As the weather worked in my advantage, I got some beautiful shots in the sun. From remembering work during “natural and artificial light”, I always think ahead how I’m going to position the object to the background, e.g. a flower in front of sunlight will produce a silhouette. Learning, remembering and practising this has helped improve my skills and initial planning thoughts as a photographer. As the weather stayed the same during the day, it kept me focused on what I was doing rather than fiddling with settings. Criticising myself however, I feel I didn’t adequately use shutter speed to its full advantage and concentrated more on the aperture. When discussed in a lesson, it was said that we could swap a couple of techniques that we were assigned to certain themes. For example, instead of concentrating on shutter speed with “tropical world”, we could perhaps concentrate on it more with “sports”. I struggled to capture the waterfalls at Eden without a tripod, which I regret not taking. But overall, I was extremely pleased with my images and really enjoyed myself on the day out. I would say this was one of my favourite projects out of the module.
Urban Landscape (write up)
I was quite excited for the week topic of “urban landscape” as I had in my mind exactly what I wanted. I’m currently living in the centre of Leeds, which inevitably gives you a brilliant view of the city if you’re lucky – which I am. Living on the 13th floor of my halls, I had the ultimate advantage for this project to begin with as the view is utterly astounding whether it’s day or night. Without balconies, I had to shoot through the window of my flat, which created some mild issues of light reflections from lights within the room. However, it’s easily solved. As I was shooting within my bedroom, the risks and precautions involved were very minimal so I had quite an easy point and shoot routine. As the building is one of the highest surrounding the area, it was absolutely ideal for the panoramic images. I used my own tripod on each windowsill of my room and my 2 other flat mates room, which are spaced out over the flat facing the city, with obvious permission from them to take the shots from their rooms. As I didn’t have a pano-head, I had to be very careful with positioning and composition. I took a couple of photos from each room to create a city nightlife-esque panoramic image, stitching the photos on Photoshop afterwards.
To add to the set, I took some photos on Bonfire night, again from my bedroom. Obviously with taking photos of fireworks, a high shutter speed is ideal – however, playing with lower shutter speeds can also be effective. A slow shutter speed with fireworks will create a blurred image, almost like shooting water. I kept the aperture fairly high to keep all the landscape in focus, along with the fireworks. I used an ISO of around 400 too so the photos weren’t over exposed. The shutter speeds range from roughly 1/8 – 1/30.
I was really happy with the outcome of the photographs. A couple of images in particular stand out from the set – a burst of small, bright fireworks to the left of the photograph is the main attraction. However, looking closer you can see the subtle lights from buildings from all over the city, which give the impression of stars surrounding the city centre. Overall, I had great fun playing with the shutter settings and would love to try more techniques within the area of motion.
To add to the set, I took some photos on Bonfire night, again from my bedroom. Obviously with taking photos of fireworks, a high shutter speed is ideal – however, playing with lower shutter speeds can also be effective. A slow shutter speed with fireworks will create a blurred image, almost like shooting water. I kept the aperture fairly high to keep all the landscape in focus, along with the fireworks. I used an ISO of around 400 too so the photos weren’t over exposed. The shutter speeds range from roughly 1/8 – 1/30.
I was really happy with the outcome of the photographs. A couple of images in particular stand out from the set – a burst of small, bright fireworks to the left of the photograph is the main attraction. However, looking closer you can see the subtle lights from buildings from all over the city, which give the impression of stars surrounding the city centre. Overall, I had great fun playing with the shutter settings and would love to try more techniques within the area of motion.
Abandoned - Natural Light (write up)
As the weather turned for the worst during the project, I thought I could use it to my advantage for the “natural light” side of the brief.
A couple of friends and I took a random drive to Croft Hill which is situated in Leicester, my hometown (therefore I had no planning for this shoot as it was entirely spontaneous, along with the weather). It’s a well-known hill for sledging when it’s snowing, and the view is absolutely beautiful – though, at the bottom of the hill is a large, derelict quarry, which on an average day looks ghastly. However, as it snowed the deserted quarry looked completely breath taking. Luckily, the time worked to our advantage and as it stopped snowing whilst I was shooting, the sun also started to set. As the sun went down, I took photos of my friends on the top of the hill with the sun setting behind them, painting beautiful silhouette figures. The natural light of the sun going down brings a warm feeling to the cold exterior of the snowy location. I kept the ISO low again to begin with whilst the sun was high, then raised it slightly as the sun was setting as I didn’t want to ruin the scene with my in-built flash. These select photos are possibly my favourite photos from my portfolio, as I think the contrast of the snow with the sun set works exquisitely.
To mix up the section, I’ve also added a couple of photos that I took whilst I was in Cornwall. I go Cornwall regularly due to relatives, whilst also taking summers there working. Again whilst the sun was setting, I shot a couple of photos of a quiet, deserted beach in Holywell Bay. With not a soul in sight, I had the entire beach to work with creating some similar silhouette images like my Croft Hill snow photos. With two rocks planted in the middle of the sea, the sun was setting behind them creating a silhouette figure. I think the photos are relevant to the brief being “natural light”, and the almost abandoned beach fits equally well. I really enjoy silhouettes and playing with natural light, along with aperture. They’re my most favoured and well skilled techniques, and I use them regularly shooting. I find composition is essential for light within photography and it’s a must to know the dos and donts.
A couple of friends and I took a random drive to Croft Hill which is situated in Leicester, my hometown (therefore I had no planning for this shoot as it was entirely spontaneous, along with the weather). It’s a well-known hill for sledging when it’s snowing, and the view is absolutely beautiful – though, at the bottom of the hill is a large, derelict quarry, which on an average day looks ghastly. However, as it snowed the deserted quarry looked completely breath taking. Luckily, the time worked to our advantage and as it stopped snowing whilst I was shooting, the sun also started to set. As the sun went down, I took photos of my friends on the top of the hill with the sun setting behind them, painting beautiful silhouette figures. The natural light of the sun going down brings a warm feeling to the cold exterior of the snowy location. I kept the ISO low again to begin with whilst the sun was high, then raised it slightly as the sun was setting as I didn’t want to ruin the scene with my in-built flash. These select photos are possibly my favourite photos from my portfolio, as I think the contrast of the snow with the sun set works exquisitely.
To mix up the section, I’ve also added a couple of photos that I took whilst I was in Cornwall. I go Cornwall regularly due to relatives, whilst also taking summers there working. Again whilst the sun was setting, I shot a couple of photos of a quiet, deserted beach in Holywell Bay. With not a soul in sight, I had the entire beach to work with creating some similar silhouette images like my Croft Hill snow photos. With two rocks planted in the middle of the sea, the sun was setting behind them creating a silhouette figure. I think the photos are relevant to the brief being “natural light”, and the almost abandoned beach fits equally well. I really enjoy silhouettes and playing with natural light, along with aperture. They’re my most favoured and well skilled techniques, and I use them regularly shooting. I find composition is essential for light within photography and it’s a must to know the dos and donts.
Abandoned – Artificial Light (write up)
So for the first brief, we were given the topic of “abandoned” with the use of natural and artificial light. The topic is fairly broad, so I knew there could be a good variety of things I could do with this project.
I wanted to think “outside of the box” – a lot of people were discussing finding abandoned warehouses, vacant areas that had been worn down, etc. I initially wanted to be different to everyone else with what I was going to do, so I sketched some ideas down. My first thoughts were to maybe talk to some homeless people in town, which I thought fit quite well with the brief and was relevant to the title. However, weighing up the risk/safety factors and asking the persons individually, I decided not to go with the idea. Instead, I thought to look in to toys. After watching the film Toy Story 3, I looked in to the abandonment of toys and children growing older leaving their toys behind. Initially in my opinion I thought the idea would stand out and be interesting enough to be creative with, rather than finding a couple of worn down buildings which would take a lot of careful planning and attentiveness due to the safety risks. I visited some charity shops in the centre of Leeds to see if I could find a raggedy toy to use for my project and came across an old teddy, which was ideal. I thought it was relevant to our project title, the fact of someone giving up toys to a charity shop relates to the film Toy Story and how they’re unwanted. I messed about with the toy and took it out on to the streets. I went out quite late at night to creative an eerie effect, which I thought would play out well with the teddy. Using my own tripod, I first set my camera to a low ISO, with a high aperture and a long shutter speed of roughly 20/30 seconds in order to catch the light streams of the remote cars on a cross roads next to the bus station. The idea of light streaming on roads I thought would look attractive with the toy and could relate to the “artificial light” side of the brief. I thought it could also be seen as ironic as streets and roads are never abandoned – until the night that is – and how children should never be on their own crossing a road. The streets were empty, with a mere couple of cars on the road – the photos came out dark and lonely, with the feeling of abandonment as the cars travel past the toy. I moved the teddy to a few different positions and locations surrounding the bus station and under the bridge, along with changing the settings occasionally to create different effects. I also used red and blue filter settings that are in-built with my camera to try and resemble different moods and tones within the image. A few of the images don’t actually have any light streams; therefore I played with a smaller aperture to emphasize the “abandoned” teddy along side the empty road. The images with the stream of car lights in the background are very subtle as there were limited amount of cars on the road being so late at night, though I think this adds a wonderful mood to the images. However, I’m happy with how they’ve turned out and I’m pleased that I tried something a little different with the brief. Being creative is important to a photographer as stamina is to an athlete and I truly believe if you’re persistent with an idea you can make anything happen.
I wanted to think “outside of the box” – a lot of people were discussing finding abandoned warehouses, vacant areas that had been worn down, etc. I initially wanted to be different to everyone else with what I was going to do, so I sketched some ideas down. My first thoughts were to maybe talk to some homeless people in town, which I thought fit quite well with the brief and was relevant to the title. However, weighing up the risk/safety factors and asking the persons individually, I decided not to go with the idea. Instead, I thought to look in to toys. After watching the film Toy Story 3, I looked in to the abandonment of toys and children growing older leaving their toys behind. Initially in my opinion I thought the idea would stand out and be interesting enough to be creative with, rather than finding a couple of worn down buildings which would take a lot of careful planning and attentiveness due to the safety risks. I visited some charity shops in the centre of Leeds to see if I could find a raggedy toy to use for my project and came across an old teddy, which was ideal. I thought it was relevant to our project title, the fact of someone giving up toys to a charity shop relates to the film Toy Story and how they’re unwanted. I messed about with the toy and took it out on to the streets. I went out quite late at night to creative an eerie effect, which I thought would play out well with the teddy. Using my own tripod, I first set my camera to a low ISO, with a high aperture and a long shutter speed of roughly 20/30 seconds in order to catch the light streams of the remote cars on a cross roads next to the bus station. The idea of light streaming on roads I thought would look attractive with the toy and could relate to the “artificial light” side of the brief. I thought it could also be seen as ironic as streets and roads are never abandoned – until the night that is – and how children should never be on their own crossing a road. The streets were empty, with a mere couple of cars on the road – the photos came out dark and lonely, with the feeling of abandonment as the cars travel past the toy. I moved the teddy to a few different positions and locations surrounding the bus station and under the bridge, along with changing the settings occasionally to create different effects. I also used red and blue filter settings that are in-built with my camera to try and resemble different moods and tones within the image. A few of the images don’t actually have any light streams; therefore I played with a smaller aperture to emphasize the “abandoned” teddy along side the empty road. The images with the stream of car lights in the background are very subtle as there were limited amount of cars on the road being so late at night, though I think this adds a wonderful mood to the images. However, I’m happy with how they’ve turned out and I’m pleased that I tried something a little different with the brief. Being creative is important to a photographer as stamina is to an athlete and I truly believe if you’re persistent with an idea you can make anything happen.
Markets (write up)
For one of our weekly topics, we were given the brief of “markets”, which in turn we saw the arrival of the popular German Market in Leeds. Along side the topic, the choice of technique to be used was Aperture.
The majority of the set was taken at an aperture of approximately 3.5f – 5f. My reasoning for this was to highlight the objects I was shooting, so when presenting the photos it’s clear what my subject is to my audience. Using a wide aperture is an excellent technique to highlight a particular element; which is perfect for the topic in hand. Controlling the depth of field is vital to emphasize a specific part of the scene.
As the German Market is a well-known event every winter, as predicted, the area was somewhat crowded. Particularly on a couple of the photos I’ve taken, a shallow depth of field worked beautifully – it highlighted the subject, however the blurred crowd in the foreground is subtly distracting which brought a lively feel to the image. The set of photos are mainly taken at the German Market, however I took a look around Leeds Market too. Whilst planning the shoot, I asked some friends what they thought of when asked upon the topic of “markets” – the majority answered “fruit and veg”. The two photos of the oranges and cherries, I tried shooting when people were purchasing the fruit. I thought this brought an everyday feeling of real life within the market, compared to the hectic, lively experience of the German Market. I think this brings a nice, symmetrical balance to the set of photos.
Before going to the markets, I’d already planned the settings I was going to use. In my opinion, maximising the depth of field around the markets would have resulted in a lack of atmosphere and focus; people in society go to markets to look for specific things whether it is fruit, veg, or miscellaneous objects. Therefore, for me a smaller aperture was the obvious technique to use.
Though I was pleased with the photos, I would have liked to use a variety of lenses. For example, a wide angle or fisheye lens would have brought a different feel to the images, bringing the scene together rather than focusing on a particular area or object. Generally, the choice of settings within aperture I think were crucial for this topic. I really enjoyed the German Market and it’s made me realise what interesting things you can find – and shoot.
The majority of the set was taken at an aperture of approximately 3.5f – 5f. My reasoning for this was to highlight the objects I was shooting, so when presenting the photos it’s clear what my subject is to my audience. Using a wide aperture is an excellent technique to highlight a particular element; which is perfect for the topic in hand. Controlling the depth of field is vital to emphasize a specific part of the scene.
As the German Market is a well-known event every winter, as predicted, the area was somewhat crowded. Particularly on a couple of the photos I’ve taken, a shallow depth of field worked beautifully – it highlighted the subject, however the blurred crowd in the foreground is subtly distracting which brought a lively feel to the image. The set of photos are mainly taken at the German Market, however I took a look around Leeds Market too. Whilst planning the shoot, I asked some friends what they thought of when asked upon the topic of “markets” – the majority answered “fruit and veg”. The two photos of the oranges and cherries, I tried shooting when people were purchasing the fruit. I thought this brought an everyday feeling of real life within the market, compared to the hectic, lively experience of the German Market. I think this brings a nice, symmetrical balance to the set of photos.
Before going to the markets, I’d already planned the settings I was going to use. In my opinion, maximising the depth of field around the markets would have resulted in a lack of atmosphere and focus; people in society go to markets to look for specific things whether it is fruit, veg, or miscellaneous objects. Therefore, for me a smaller aperture was the obvious technique to use.
Though I was pleased with the photos, I would have liked to use a variety of lenses. For example, a wide angle or fisheye lens would have brought a different feel to the images, bringing the scene together rather than focusing on a particular area or object. Generally, the choice of settings within aperture I think were crucial for this topic. I really enjoyed the German Market and it’s made me realise what interesting things you can find – and shoot.
Tuesday 18 January 2011
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