A week in Photography

A week in photography.

During the two lessons spent in photography I learnt about many different aspects that went into creating a good photo. Learning about the importance of composition and lighting, looking at both high key and low key. 

Manually focusing on rowan in the classroom

 

short range image.

At the beginning of the lesson looking at how different artists used compositional techniques in order to create a visually pleasing image, inspired me when looking around the college and taking photos. At first we had to learn how to focus a camera using both manual and auto settings. Experimenting in the classroom showed me how to use the camera properly. In order to manually focus a camera you must turn the front of the lenses and focus on whatever object you want to be the focal point of the image. There is a benefit to this, that with auto focus it focuses on what the camera believe to be the main focal point with this technique you can tailor the photo to your choice. However with manual focus you're focusing to your own eye sight and to other people the image may look out of focus or blurred.  With auto focus it provides a quicker way of taking an in focus image, by holding the shutter button half way down it focuses the image and keeps is focused until the photograph has been taken. The only issues with this is that up close photographs do not focus well on a small image in front of you and focuses on the background which may not be the desired outcome. 

focused on background rather than foreground

It was at this point Jeskirt asked us to go round the college and take some pictures of our own based around three of the themes that made a good composition. This could be one of:

- Rule of thirds           - vantage points

- visual cropping        - perspective

- framing                    - leading/ converging lines

- action                      - negative space

The Gnome is intersecting with the right hand third of the image making him the focal point of the image. With the background not in focus but the Gnome being in focus also adds to the attention being on him. I enhanced the blacks in the image to make the background darker, and brightened the Gnome to draw more attention in.

An example of the rule of thirds using an art students project.

I chose to look firstly at the rule of thirds, after briefly looking into this in a previous art lesson and then again in the photography I decided this was a compositional element I wanted to explore. This technique requires the photographer to imagine or use a grid over the image they are taking, for a aesthetically pleasing image the focal point should land on an intersection point of the grid lines in the thirds of the image. I found that after taking all of the images on the day that two of the photos I used turned out to be ones using the technique of rule of thirds, I then decided to edit these photos in Photoshop using the levels tools to enhance and change the contrast on the photos. 

This photo also uses the rule of thirds with the boot entering on the right third of the image. I enhanced the contrast on the photo and the saturation to make the reds darker and the reflection more noticeable as I wanted the boot to be the main focal point of the image. I also chose a rather plain background to offset the colour of the shoe. 

 

 The second technique I explored was the idea of converging lines this is a technique that explores the idea of fabricating depth and an idea of geometry within your photography. Within the entrance to college there is an vast amount of opportunity to create the technique due to many poles and beams being used within the architecture. In the image to the left I exploited the use of harsh angles created by the poles of the ramp and the geometric pattern of the tiles in the wall and lined the two up. Where the too lines meet creates a convergence which creates a focal point and leads the viewers eye to the centre of the image. I edited this photo in Photoshop to make the white of the pole more vibrant in order for it too stand out in an otherwise dark image. I also experimented with the clone and stamp tool to edit out a section of hair in the top left corner of the image. 

In the image on the right I experimented more with focusing on nearer objects and making the background of the image out of focus. In this particular photograph it caused the effect of converging lines as the audience of the piece follows the lines of the railing back into the photograph creating the illusion of depth. In the background of the image it also converges with the horizontal beans and the curved ceiling of the walkway creating a vantage point in the far back of the photograph. 

 


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The last of the techniques I explored was the idea of both moving in close and framing. Looking at what was available to me around the college and the door heading towards the gym had a window in a circle shape, this allowed me to frame Rowan in the image to ensure that she was the focal point of the image. I also moved in close when taking the images which cropped some of the circle off by doing this it creates the idea of moving in close and zooming into Rowans face. When taking this image I did encounter the problem of that flash on the camera did mean that there was a glare, as I was new to these cameras I wasn't aware on how to reduce this problem, however the glare can be edited out on Photoshop. The photo to the right I think was the least successful of the ones in this style as due to it being off centred it takes away from the idea of the photograph I also encountered a lot of glare which I found difficult to counter act in Photoshop.

In this photo I did manage to remove some of the glare on her face however after editing a large amount of it away the photo began to look choppy as the skin tones did not always match the natural tones.
 

 On the second day of the photography we expanded our work on Photoshop by looking at the ways photographs could be layered and edited in order to re-contextualise them. This consisted off double exposure editing and selective layering. Also looking at the work of Jerry Uelsmann whose photography takes on a surreal feel as he warps images of natural forms with man made objects.  In this Photoshop session resulted in using different tools in the Photoshop tool bar, the first technique I explored was using the lasso select tool to select a section of the image to remove and to insert another one of the photos I took in its place. I chose to use the image of Rowan in the window as I thought by altering the background of the window it would appear as if the door was a gateway to another place. I first had to select the part of the image I wanted to remove.

I next had to select an image that I wanted to layer behind Rowans head. I chose an image taken of an A2 art students as it had quite a surreal feel and would make it appear that Rowan is somewhere else looking to the audience making them wonder where she's looking from. To insert the image you had to copy and paste the picture from another tab on Photoshop and then go to Edit > paste special > paste into. This would make the image paste into the section I had previously selected with the lasso tool.

 The next style of photo I decided to work in the style of was double exposure layering two photos and changing the opacity of the image to create the idea of a different background. I used the image I previously mentioned when talking about rule of thirds with the boot on a wet pavement paired with an image of a droplet of water on a bush in college as if the boot was walking in a forest. To do this I had to drag and drop the image of the bush onto the top of the image of the boot as a new layer.

 The next stage was to use the tool which makes a separate layer on the second image to make sure the editing is non destructive to the image below. Taking the paintbrush tool in black with the second section of the layer selected I removed the layer of the bush on top of the boot to make the boot prominent within the image. Doing this both the texture of the foliage and the original texture of the gravel can be seen making for a more successful image as it links with the themes of texture i had been exploring in my work within the studio.

The last technique I decided to explore was to create a reflection in a window of one of my images using the same process as before. I first needed to crop the image then layer this over the window image.