Disaster strikes

Disaster strikes

Whilst taking images for my friend’s wedding I realised that my camera was not focusing properly. I then went to see a friend of a very dear friend of mine to get some pointers on portrait photography and mentioned this problem to him. He noticed the problem as well and suggested that I should take it to a specialist shop to get it looked at.

 

I went to the London Camera Exchange in Salisbury and spent about 45 minutes with them checking the body of my camera, lens, SD card and battery. We realised it was the body of my camera that was over exposing automatically and not focusing as a result. No matter which setting we chose, it was still doing it even when we fixed all of the settings. I nearly cried, especially when they said that it would cost the same amount for a new camera as it would be to fixed, something that I cannot afford at the moment.

 

I thought it was me who was taking bad out of focus pictures, I never thought for a second it would have been my camera. So, dad to the rescue, he lent me his Canon 500D and I noticed the difference immediately, I took all of my fourth assignment photographs with this camera.

 

Luckily it was my birthday not long ago and luckily I have the best dad ever as he bought me a new camera. It is the same one as I have now but it is not defective, so I will be using this for my fifth assignment. 

P&P-Part 4; Exercise 5; Selective processing and prominence

 

Exercise; Selective processing and prominence

 

In this exercise I have to select an image that I have already taken from an earlier project in which the issue is the visual prominence of a figure in a setting, by using digital processing methods that I have available to me, to make two new versions of this image.

For the first image I have make the figure less prominent and for the second I have to do the opposite.

Here is the original image I chose to make the corrections too.

 

1/15 seconds at f/5.6 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

 

For this image I used a low aperture to focus in on the woman. I decided to use this image as the colours are very neutral and in a way you notice she is there, but for a split second it may not be so obvious.

 

 

This image is the less prominent one.

 

For this image I changed the following.

·         Dulled the brightness

·         Increased the contrast

·         Lessened the vibrancy and saturation

·         Used the burn tool to darken her and the rock behind

·         Used the dodge tool to lighten the white sheet on the floor and the wooden structure in the foreground

·         Choose the selective colour and edited the following;- Cyan +, Magenta -,Yellow -, Black +

 



I used the brightness and contrast to flatten the image, at first I thought that I would have to decrease the contrast but that made her more prominent. The selective colour helped as I could dull the colour of her skin tone to make her blend in more and used the dodge and burn tools to decrease and accentuate the areas that I thought would benefit me in making her less prominent.

 

This image is the more prominent image.

 

For this image I changed the following.

·         Increased the exposure

·         Increased the vibrancy and saturation

·         Added a warming filter (85) at 21% density

·         Choose the selective colour and edited the Black –

·         Used the dodge tool on her

·         Used the burn tool for the white sheet and the wooden structure in the foreground

With this image, all of the tools did what I thought they would, I highlighted her and used the warming filter to bring out her skin tone and darkened the more prominent areas of the image so to exaggerate her more.

 

 

Summary

I found this an interesting exercise. As I said previously I really thought that increasing the contrast in the first image would accentuate her more. I think if you flick between the two images, you really notice the dodging and burning that I added, however I looked at them on their own and you do not notice the highlighting and shading individually.

 

  

P&P-Part 4; Exercise 4; Balancing figure and space

 

Exercise; Balancing figure and space

 

For this exercise, I need to vary the balance in any one picture situation by producing a set of two images using the same general viewpoint and composition, varying the balance of attention between the person and setting they are in.

 

1/100 seconds at f/22.0 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

 

 

Using the same settings and composition for each image, I decided to photograph the walk way by the O2. I kept the aperture high to have everything in focus and as it was a bright day I had a fast shutter speed.

I chose the walk way due to the slight curvature, as I felt it balanced the people in the image composition well and I knew it would lend itself to people coming towards me, rather than walking off in a different direction. For this exercise it stands to reason that the further away the person is, the less prominent they are.  

 

1/100 seconds at f/22.0 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

I feel this image does not have a good balance to it, however when looking at this image I can see where the rain has missed the walk way and it creates a good lead in line, I feel this is not so apparent in the first picture. With the man being at the forefront of the picture, I think it threw the composition out, even though the sense of scale is still apparent.

 

 

Summary

I think the first image makes for a better composition which balances well with a large sense of scale and in saying that the second image does still lend itself to a sense of scale in a different way, however I will be mindful of this when taking images in the future and probably use the first composition more than the second.

P&P-Part 4; Exercise 3; Making figures anonymous

Exercise; Making figures anonymous



 

I have to take between two to four photographs that include a person or people in a particular place, but deliberately make them unrecognizable and as a result, less prominent.

In the exercise there are a few ways listed that I would be able to achieve this.

·         Small and many

·         Facing away

·         In Silhouette

·         Partly obscured

·         Motion blur

 

To start off with I chose to show “Small and many” with this image that I took recently whilst I was in Barcelona of the Basilica I Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia.

 

 

1/60 seconds at f/18.0 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS



 

I used a high aperture to get everything in focus and I wanted to “freeze” the people hence the reason for the fast shutter speed, it was also a sunny day so that helped.

I think this fits the brief well, at first glance you cannot see the people at the bottom due to the enormity of the church. It is a good image to show its function as it is a major tourist attraction and everyone is standing as far back as they can, in the grounds of the church so to be able to view it.

 

 

 

1/4 seconds at f/22.0 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

 

I tried to do motion blur on London Bridge and it worked quite well, however it does not make the people less prominent. I think this is because there are more people in the foreground, I have noticed though the further away they are, the less blur there is and the man on the left hand side is quite prominent, I think this is because he was walking slowly!

I used a high aperture and slow shutter speed as I wanted to get everything apart from the people in focus.

 

 

 1/40 seconds at f/7.1 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

 

I know the people in this image are extremely prominent, however I included it as I think it is a lovely image of a family taking in the view and it makes me feel very serene.

I used a low aperture to concentrate solely on the family, but I think the view is still very prominent in the frame due to the way I composed the shot.

 

 

 

1/30 seconds at f/7.1 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

I included this image as it includes two of the situations with “facing away” and “motion blur”. I feel that in this image the figures are less prominent due to the composure of the image and the woman who is facing away is far away.

As with the image above I used a low aperture to focus in on the woman looking at the view and a slightly slower shutter speed to capture the bike. 

 

  

 

1/160 seconds at f/8 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

I found this image in the bank of images that I have of the USA, hence the reason for the settings not being correct. I decided to include this image as I really like the vignette and bold colours. Even the people are bold in there colouring, but do not overtake the image therefore they are less prominent.

Summary

This was a great exercise to be able to experiment with ways of photographing that I have not really done before, as I said previously it was really interesting to see how distance really affects the motion blur, I feel I have composed the pictures well in this exercise.

P&P-Part 4; Exercise 2; Busy traffic

Exercise; Busy traffic



 

Going from one extreme to the other, in the last exercise I had to do a single person and for this exercise I have to photograph a lot of people.

I had to choose a busy location, either interior or exterior and watch how the flow of people works and the patterns that they make, any surges or lulls in movement or numbers.

After getting kicked out of quite a few shops I decided that this was not the best place to photograph, even though the January sales lent itself to this particular exercise, I did not want to cause any trouble.

So I instead opted for two slightly different locations, the first was opposite London Borough Market.

 

 

1/15 seconds at f/18.0 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS



 

When I first saw this crowd of people I wondered what they were doing, then I realised they were queuing for the cash point.

I tried to shoot this from behind of the queue and on the other side, but it did not give an image of busyness. It is probably the longest queue for a cash point I have seen as they are completely blocking the pavement for passersby, forcing them on to the road, hence the reason I included it in this exercise.

 

 

 

1/10 seconds at f/3.5 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS



 

The second location is of London Bridge train station, I managed to take it whilst I was in the Shard and I initially wanted to have a high aperture for this and my wide angle lens. However, because I had to use a polarising filter due to the glass in front, I could only use the lens listed above as I have only the one filter and as you can see the polarising filter did not eliminate all of the reflection of the glass.

I also used a low shutter speed as I also wanted to get some motion blur in the image as well. I think with regards to the exercise this is a good representation of the busyness of the train station, I wanted to get the people coming and going, the families standing around, people meeting, people resting waiting for their train and everyone who looks at the display boards that hang down from the ceiling, without getting the boards in themselves.    

 

 

1/10 seconds at f/4.0 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS



 

Using the same filter, lens and settings, I wanted to include the boards as that was where most of the people were. I wanted to get some of the foreground in to the image to show how crowded the area in front of the boards was and how the people dispersed the further away from the boards they were, as this was how the flow of the train station seemed to me.



 

Summary

This is by no means my best work, I feel I have conveyed the busyness in each image in a different way and been able to achieve the look that I wanted. It would have been good to be able to get the same images of the train station without the glass in front as you can still see a slight reflection in both images, which was difficult to eradicate.

 

P&P-Part 4; Exercise 1; A single figure small

 

Exercise; A single figure small

 

 

For this exercise I have to take an image of a place which is free of people yet with an occasional figure passing through it.

It is to represent that the scale of the place is larger than expected, or on the other hand, the point of this style is lost if the viewer fails to notice the figure.

 

As the brief suggests, this is quite a difficult image to achieve and I had to be on the lookout and take advantage of the situation when it arose.

I managed to find a few situations for this exercise which surprised me as I thought it would be extremely difficult. However if you find an iconic structure or large space at the right time of day, even in London it was possible.

 

1/50 seconds at f/22.0 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

 

 

I took this image at the O2 and waited for the right moment for someone to be walking past, I wanted to take the photograph here as the structure is so large and people look tiny in comparison. I think if there had been a different background the person would have stood out more, but as there are pictures of people on the board behind him, it makes it slightly more difficult to spot him.

I kept the aperture high as I wanted everything in focus and I was lucky that day as the light was good. I think this image defiantly represents a large sense of scale as the comparison between the person and the structure is massive.

 

 

1/15 seconds at f/18.0 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

 

 

I was visiting the Guildhall Art Gallery and when I came out this man was walking around talking on his phone. As with the first image the sense of scale is large but not as much, he is not as far away and the building is not as tall. This man stands out exceptionally well obviously due his luminous jacket.  Again I used a high aperture which was as high as I could go, due to the building being constricted of light as this was taken in a square of buildings.

This image represents the large sense of scale without the person moulding in to the background.

 

 

1/200 seconds at f/10.0 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

 

 

This is an image of my friend at Mount Washburn in Yellowstone National Park, which I took well before taking this course hence the reason that the camera settings are not as how I would have them now.

I wanted to include this image to show how a person can get lost in an image and if you can spot her, it really shows the enormity of the place we were in.

 

 

Summary

I think the images are composed well, I managed to place the people off centre for a better composition. This was an interesting exercise to be able to relate to size and scale, also to help me with future photography as I feel this is a really effective tool.