Tuesday, 26 November 2013

P&P-Part 2; Exercise 1; Developing your confidence

 
Exercise; Developing your confidence

This exercise is to do exactly what the title suggests, develop my confidence with taking photos with people being unaware that I am taking them. I have to choose an outdoor situation where there are lots of people and activity where I will feel confident.

I have to admit that this was not as easy as I thought it would be, at first I tried the market by London bridge, and the only photos that I got were people weren’t looking at me were these.
1/25 seconds at f/7.1
 
 

 1/25 seconds at f/7.1
It was extremely difficult as this kind of situation, I found was not conducive to taking images for the first time, perhaps when I get used to it, it would be easier. People kept looking at me as I don’t have a small camera and I felt uncomfortable taking the images, as you can see, they are not the best of pictures, so I had to come up with a different plan.
 
 
I chose to take photos of people with a monument/point of interest behind them, I went to the millennium bridge and stood just off to the side, taking photos of St Pauls Cathedral, this proved a lot easier and better for me as I could concentrate the camera on people’s faces without them really noticing that I was actually taking photos of them!.
In this set I used a shallow depth of field to be able to really concentrate on the subjects in front of me, so I could gain the detail in the people’s faces, rather than the background.

 
1/800 seconds at f/7.1
 
 
 
  1/800 seconds at f/7.1
 
 
1/800 seconds at f/7.1
 
 
1/800 seconds at f/7.1
 
 
For the next set of photos, I wanted to create an effect of shadows and reflections, so after walking over the bridge, I used the light behind to create this, I like the effect but I found it difficult to get the clarity of people’s faces. Even so, I think they still make good images.
 
1/800 seconds at f/7.1
 
 
1/800 seconds at f/7.1
 
 
  1/200 seconds at f/7.1
 
 
After doing this exercise, I felt a lot more confident, not massively but I think it’s a start to the exercises, so I can develop my skills and technique a bit further, I also think it’s really also about choosing your situation, where people don’t think you are taking photos of them. I learnt that it’s good to do this where there are tourist attractions, but I’m sure there are other situations that I will find along the way.
 
 

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