Documentary-Cliffside

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Evaluation-

This is part of my documentary project is called Cliffside. To capture the photos in Cliffside I travelled to Great Yarmouth of the east coast so that I could document the landscape of the coast and try to capture how peaceful and tranquil the environment is. To capture these images I used my Nikon D3100, at first I used my landscape pre-set setting on my camera because i didn't have much time as it was the most relevant setting for these types of photographs I was taking which was around just after noon. However i did change the setting to manual after taking 1 or 2 photos as the lighting was quite varied depending on which was i faced. I think that this collection of photographs are some of my bet because I tried to capture certain aspects like the lines of the sand and the water meeting and how there are leading lines going along the coast. However I don't really like how the majority of the photos have quite a low colour saturation because the cloudy conditions, until the sun did start to come up and I changed my iso settings slightly, which is why some photos have a lens flare. And because there wasn't really any thing along the coast some of the photos look quite repetitive. I would like to go back to where i took these photos, Great Yarmouth, as some of these photos i would like to try and capture them again but at a different time of day so that certain aspects can be more predominate, like the sea of the colour of the sky because then the photos in general would just be more bright, vibrant and saturated. Also i just feel like i needed some more variation in the photos that i had taken, as it quite hard to take more because i only went to one place so there wasn't much to actually capture, but if i had walked furze down the coast line i probably would've capture a few photos that varied from my collection.

Best photos/Straight photos-

For these 6 photos I'm quite proud of how they turned out as I wanted  to try and have a different meaning behind them or what they represent to what you just see in the photo. For example the photo with the road in I wanted to try and get where the road splits then the horizon of the grass and the sky mixed into that which I did capture, however the road wasn't perfectly in the centre so that the spilt is equal which is quite annoying but I still think that the photo came out good. Also the photo with the lens flare I didn't intend for that to happen but I still really like the effect that it has made on the photo as where the sun is coming from that section is all bright and you cant really see it but gradually that effect wears off, also because of the sun the grass has been highlighted in certain areas so the photos has a few different tones. My favourite of the six photos  are the two photo graphs where I tried to have a shallow depth of field so that the closest objects in the photograph were in focus ad the rest of the photo behind it was out of focus. I achieved this by adjusting the aperture levels on my camera to the point were only the grass was in perfect focus in theses images. The first time I tried it was on the photograph of the tall grass and the sea and sand that is blurred. I like the effect that it has had as the grass almost appears as if it has been inserted on top of the sand and sea as there is now a clear distinction between the foreground and background. To overall improve the photos I would have gone on a day with better weather conditions so that I would have had the best lighting for the photos as the natural lighting would have been more direct so it would have given more shadows and highlighted areas in the photos so there would have been more of a range of tones, also I would have gone at a later or earlier time so that I could have the sunrise or sun set in my photos, which would've given my photos better tones too and more saturation in the colours. Or i would've taken photos from a different perspective, for instance behind me where all of the cliffside bungalows were, instead of just the actual beach front. If i had of done that, then i would've been able to compare the photos in terms of what uncivilised and civilised looks like.

Photos that need improving-

I wanted to take this photo because I liked the concept of capturing the wind turbines in the sea as it contrasted with the peace along the beach and how there was nothing insight but nature and people until you looked at the wind turbines. When I was taking this photo I had to use my AF70-300mm lens because I had to zoom in quite a bit to be able to capture the wind turbines as they were far away. However when I was taking this photo it didn't quite come out as expected as the photo is very unsaturated and dull so then the photo isn't very captivating for the audience, and nothing really stands out as everything is morphed into one instead of having one main point of focus. Also if I had shown more sand in the photo then it would add more contrast to the photo, as the sand is a bit brighter than the background of sky ad water which is just grey. Even though the photo does look boring, at the same time its good because the greyness of the photo could link with the manufacturing of the wind turbines by humans which has made the world more polluted which then creates more clouds and greyness. To improve this photo I would either try and edit it on Photoshop to increase the saturation or I would turn it black and white so then it looks more dramatic.

For this photo I wanted to get a deep depth of field so that everything was in focus and so that I could have a long leading of the grass and ending with the sea and the sky, so that i could have a leading line which would then lead the audience onto the sea/sky. However partly because of how the lighting on the day was, the sea and its colour is not very visible as its very unsaturated and grey so it just morphs into the sky. But I would have preferred the sky and sea it to be blue and saturated so that the green of the grass would be separate to blue sky then some clouds so that there would then be about three or four levels in the photo. However this photo is just leading grass to some grey sky. Also the photo would look more professional/cleaner if the houses were not visible in the photo as they make the photo look very untidy and stop the audience from focusing on the grass. But it does show how humans have impacted on some landscapes. However the photo would look better and more appealing if those houses were not there, and to further improve the photo i would edit it so that the line of the dark/muddy grass would appear darker so its more visible as a leading line by using the burn tool, and i would make the area of grass generally a bit darker and the sky more bright.

Edited photos-

(Original)

(Edited)

For this photo I wanted to edit to emphasise on the slight colour that was in the sky because of the sunset, which made the photo have four different levels in it, so originally I just used levels to made the lower section darker so that the sky was more outstanding, then I increased the saturation but it looked too simple so I used the hue/saturation tool to change the colours of the sky but I kept the colours quite natural like a sunset and I increased the saturation of the colour so then it looked more like a painting than a photo. After that I wanted the grass to make the sky look better and more eye-catching, so I selected the area of the grass and darkened it by using levels, then I turned it black and white so that it was plain in comparison to the sky which added contrast. I like this edit because it looks like a painting as it is very grainy because of the saturation, and even though its obviously not natural it still looks like it would be natural. Also I like how the wind turbines in the background break up the section between the sea and sky so that its not just one straight line.

(Original)

(Edited)

For this edit I didn't really know what to do with it but I wanted to edit it like water as its a photo of water. So I used various filters that distorted the photo, like the ripple or zig-zig filter. The filter that I used and kept was the wave filter as it waved the photo like waves would, I only used very minor waves with a low amplitude and frequency as I don't want to be over dramatic with the waves and change the photo too much. Also I would have preferred it if only the sea was waved and the sand was left as it is because then that would be even more natural. To improve this edit I would do something else to it so that it doesn't look so basic and simple, for example it could look better in black and white, however that could make the stones look weird as they are so close and clumped together it wouldn't really empathise on the stones much.

Documentary-Town

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Evaluation-

This shoot was the third shoot for my December project, i travelled the Colchester to take the shoot because i thought that Colchester was quite an interesting town. I would have preferred to have done this shoot in London city or North London as i thought that it would have more contrast to Great yarmouth and the beach type of landscape, as London is very busy place and it would have been better for capturing built up city life. However as i done my shoot in Colchester it was more of an  historical village type of town so i wanted to try and photograph the historical side of it like the castle. Because of the time that i had arrived to colchester it was around 4/5 so the sun was already  setting so some of the photos have quite a dark tone to it which has created a variation of tones but i would've preferred it to be lighter so that i would've had more time to take the photos in the actual town it self, because by the time i had walked to the town throughout the park it was just too dark. I would go back to Colchester as an earlier time and take photos in the town to show the shops and how busy the town was around christmas time because of the sales, then i would've shown in contrast how quite and peaceful the park was and take photos the lake to show the animals and nature of the park. Furthermore, i would've liked to have gone inside the castle so that i could capture the view   of the town and the park from inside of the castle, so i would have a greater range of perspectives and angles in this shoot as in the other shoots i have more variation of different angles but with this shoot i only have one photo that differentiates from all the other photos.

Straight photos-

Photos that need improving-

For this photo i wanted to try and capture the silhouette of the trees and the houses alongside with the sunset so that i could just have two different levels in the photos, the sunset and then just the bottom level of trees. However i did create this two level contrast, but not how i wanted to be. The bottom level is just too dark and so it morphs all of the trees into one dark section and having a few of the larger trees visible, but i wanted all of the trees outlines to visible but still dark. So the photo would look better if all of the individual trees were visible and maybe had different tones in them, so the larger or closer trees were slightly more visible than the smaller one. Also the photo is slightly out of focus so this is making the bottom appear more grouped together as there was nothing of the lens to clearly focus on because of the lighting. I still think that how the sun is setting adds a good effect to the photo as the sky has different tones of the colour of the sun, so it starts off blue with the white clouds over it then just gradually fades into the orange and light. On photoshop i would edit the sky section so that the colours are more visible and saturated so theres more contrast between the sky and the ground. Also i would try and lighten the bottom half of the photo so that some individual trees outlines can be seen more clearly.

This is a photo of colchester castle, i tried to get quite a few photos of colchester castle from different perspectives because i wanted to show the history of colchester. With this photo i wanted to try and capture the side of the castle and get the majority of it in as well as having the sunset in the windows.  However the trees were blocking the sun from the angle i took the photo from and the composition of the photo hasn't been executed as well as it could have been. Also the lighting of the the sky is too bright so the clouds and the section thats brighter just looks too exposed, there also seems to be no main point of focus and so the bench looks out of focus and it takes attention away from the castle as its just right in the middle of the photo. So to improve this photo i would try and make the sky less exposed and around the same tone all over but i would try and keep it light because it breaks away from the castle. I would crop the bottom section of the photo so that the bench is no longer visible and it would just make the photo look more professional. As there are already reflections of the trees and the sunset i enhance them so that they're more predominate, this would then add effect of reflections to the photo.

   

Edited photos-

For this edit i wanted to try and improve this photo in general because i thought that the photo needed to be improved by making the silhouettes of the trees more visible and less clumped together as one. When i did try to improve the darkness of the photo what became visible just made the photo looks unprofessional and just randomly placed objects, as there was a hedge down the middle of the photo. So i decided to lighten the photo by a touch which i did by using levels so the outline of the trees are a bit more visible but the area is still very dark, i then selected the section of sky and used hue/saturation to vary the colour of the sky which is now a pink/blue. I choose that colour because i thought it still looked natural but obviously different to the original, at first the colour was very saturated so i lowered the saturation to about -50 which made it natural and not so contrasting with the bottom half which is pure black. I then cropped it so that i could have a rule of thirds with the sun   and i cropped the bottom so that the black area wasn't so big, but i still wanted some in the photo as it breaks up from the sky, otherwise it would just be a photo of the sky and a small bit of tree tops, it also just made the photo look more appealing and properly edited. 

(First edit)

(Second edit)

For this photo, i didn't really know what i wanted to do with it, as i just really liked the photo in general because of the reflections in the river and how it had many colours and tones in it because of the sunset. Also i liked the composition of the whole photo because it has the river at the bottom then the trees just lead upwards from the river and even thug the trees take up quite a lot f the frame you can still see the background of the photo, so the sky and the grass. So with edit i dint really want to do anything experimental or change the photo that much, so at first i wanted to try and add a boat on the river but it just dint look right, so i turned the photo black and white which then brought out the trees a lot more which i then noticed the leafs at the top of the photo, which i liked as they kind of add framing to the photo, it would've looked better if the leafs went all the way around the framing of the trees so that it looked like the camera was looking through another trees leafs or a bush. After i had turned the image black and white and adjusted the colours that were darker than others, i liked how it looked but it just looked to plain so i used the filter gallery and chose to use the grain filter and type horizontal so that the grains would then travel in a horizontal line, this then added an eery type of effect to the photo as the photo is slightly darker and just the lines mixed with the trees looks off.

Documentary-Beach

Contact sheet-

Evaluation-

Straight images-

Photos that need improving-

Edited photos-

(Original)

(Edited)

(Original)

(Edited)

(Original)

(First edit)

(Second edit)

Joiners straight images

1.

This was my first Joiner, to create this joiner I used the studio so that I could try and get good lighting however I did take the photos quite zoomed out because if I had taken the photos zoomed in I would've had too many photos to be trying to fit together, but then this has reduced the quality of the joiner because you can see the ground so it make the photo look untidy as normally in the studio it would just be the background and the model of the photo. In the end for this joiner I only ended up using 7 photos to fit it all together, as the photo others were either taken more zoomed out or more zoomed in so it was very had to insert them where they were supposed to be. For this first joiner I didn't really like the outcome of it s the model is very out of proportion because of the different distances in the photos. However joiners are not supposed to be perfect and as it was only my first one I was fine with it. To improve this photo I would try and stay the same distance and use the same zoom for all of the photos, or f I purposefully wanted to have the joiner a bit jumbled up I would've has done that properly and had certain sections larger than others.

2.

This is my second joiner, I decided to create on of a tree because I thought it would be interesting to see how the colour and pigment of the photo would change as soon as I moved position and took a photo of a different part of the tree. When I was taking the photos I tried to get them all from the same distance and zoom so that it wouldn't be like the first joiner and it would all be proportional with each other, however it was quite confusing in the process on Photoshop of merging the images together, as I had taken a few images on the same section of the tree so I had to eliminate a lot of them. With this photo it seems as though the bottom and left section of the photo is less saturated and vibrant in colour and almost looks as though it is in black and white. This is because when I was taking the photo I didn't really have enough time to change the Iso settings and It was a cloudy day so the brightened of the sky was changing. To improve this photo I would either edit it on Photoshop so that I could improve this saturation of the photo and try and make it balanced, or I would make half of the photo black and white, then the other half of the photo in colour but change he hue/saturation so that its not its normal colour.

 

3.

 

This is my third joiner of a Christmas tree. For this joiner I found it quite difficult whilst I was trying to put this images together as the building was hard to match up as I had slightly gone around the tree whilst taking the photos and this also made some of the photos blurry as I was walking. For this joiner I had to use a lot of the photos as a lot of them were the same but still slightly had more coverage. This joiner has a different form to the other ones as it more square because the photos seem to be bigger than the other joiners and it looks like one big photograph then a few little ones on the left side. To improve this joiner I would probably just take it again without rushing so that I could avoid the blur and so that  could capture the left side of the gate properly, or I could just crop the left side of the photo so that the bottom left side wouldn't look so odd.

 

4.

This is my last photo of the joiners. For this joiner I spent a lot of time putting it together as I had captured quite a lot of the area around the main subject of the photo which is the statue so it was quite difficult to filter all of the photos and merge them because of all of the signs and the shops, also I had to think of how all of the shops and lights looked because at one point it was all very jumbled up. This joiner is probably the best out of the collection of them as its matched up the best and the saturation is the same with the acceptance of one photo, also I like how the photo had taken shape o how the statue is shaped as though its mimicking it. To improve this joiner I would probably just edit it so that its in black and white or I would just use a filter so that its more interesting. 

George logan research note

George Logan

George Logan was born in Bellshill, near Glasgow, Scotland, George studied at Blackpool College of Photography before moving to London where he established himself as one of the industry's leading talents, receiving critical acclaim for his work both in the UK and on the international stage.

As a boy, George's fascination with the animal world was clear as he regaled classmates with stories of the African farm he'd been raised on and the exotic surroundings he'd left behind. Tall tales these might have been, but the imagination and passion that inspired them is clear to see in George's fine art work today. His work is always imaginative, often poignant and not without a healthy dose of humour, George's work is regularly exhibited at many of London's galleries. His work was also shown at the Shanghai International Photography Exhibition in China and earlier this year he was shortlisted in the Sony World photography Awards.

Whiskas-

This two photographs are from George logans collection of photographs for Whiskas advertising. This photos are very interesting as they

Ikea in Costa Rica-

composite image bank

 

All of these composite photos has been created digitally by blending multiple photos which engages the imagination and makes it possible to tell a complete story with a single image. For example the first photo of the dinosaurs and the people with the time machine from the film back to the future makes you think of a number of reasons how the people are there and what kind of story the photo is trying to portray. Or like the photo with the little girl who appears to be fishing but she is sitting on a fish, this shows juxtaposition as she is fishing for fish but at the same time she is using a fish to get across the water, with composite photographs many photographers use it for comedy like this photographer has with the fish, or it can used in a bit of a serious manner like the photo of the people on the bikes, the hand is holding up a photograph whilst its in the same place where that photo was taken but at a later time. So here its been used for memories which is how I would like to do one of my composite photographs as I find it creative and interesting.