Jasmine Harris External Examination AS Photography

Tuesday, 26 April 2016

Final Evaluation

My work has been influenced by photographers Fay Godwin, Ansel Adams, Rut Blees Luxemburg, and Cedric Delsaux. I really enjoyed their work and I was inspired to take photographs alike to theirs.

Personally my favourite of the four is Luxemburg, this is because her photographs show emotion through the use of colour which I thought was really impressive, I liked her photograph of the towering inferno, I think that it showed anger and sadness, which is really inspiring to see that she was able to portray that through her work.

I also really liked Fay Godwin, I think that her photographs show British rural landscapes really beautifully and I like how her photographs were a way to urge people to keep them as they are.

Ansel Adams inspired me because he wanted to take photographs showing all of nature, rather than just focusing on one part of the photograph, which I have taken into consideration and I was able to do this with a few of my photographs, however I couldn't create the effect he does with his camera very well because he had it on f/64 which my camera doesn't go to.

I was inspired by Cedric Delsaux because his photographs touch a lot of different subjects, especially on his collection: Nous Resterons sur Terre. He looks at deforestation, animal confinement, animal agriculture and fracking, all of which are very harmful to the Earth. I think that his photographs are incredibly interesting and I really enjoy his style, I think of the four, I am most inspired by Delsaux.

Lastly, I also looked at Zwelethu Mthethwa, although his pictures were interesting, they weren't what I wanted to take pictures of, so I didn't take the interest any further than analysing his photographs.

The research log was very interesting, it gave me a better idea of the sort of photographs I wanted to take for my preparatory shoots, I looked at a wide range of artists from Martin Parr, who documents British way of life, to Edward Rushca who took photographs of petrol stations in America. The research log gave me ideas that I could go back to and develop into actual shoots. It was incredibly useful for me.

My Technical development:
I learnt from Ansel Adam's and Luxumberg's work how to use a tripod well, he used a tripod for his photographs because he used a high aperture which meant that the exposure time was very long. I used this in my fifth shoot on component 2, this gave me some practise which I definitely needed so that I could do better tripod shots for my final shoot.

My Aesthetic Development:
I learnt from Fay Godwin and Ansel Adams that black and white can sometimes make a photograph look better, I only did this for one shoot, however I think it turned out really well so I would do it again if the photographs looked better like that, however in the final shoots I think that the colour makes them look better because the nicest bit of the photographs I took are the colour.

I was successful in responding to the exam paper because I took photographs that relate directly to the question, it is my personal opinion that sustainability is very important and I think that my photographs show that. I took photographs showing the contrast between the rural landscapes and the urban ones, as it is important to have both and too much urban landscape isn't good for the world. I think that I should have taken more photographs in an urban setting, without any rural landscape because that way I would be able to properly show the contrast between the two, however this would've needed a third location and I didn't have the time to be able to do that.

If I could do it again:
If I could go again I would go early in the morning when the sun is rising because I think that this would create some beautiful photographs where the sun is shining though the tree branches, I think that I didn't spend long enough in each place because although I have lots of lovely photographs, there are a few where I have rushed and taken the photograph without checking if the camera settings are right. I also should've spent more time taking photos using the tripod, I didn't use it in the first location because it was very bright, however in the second I only used it for a few photographs, I don't like it as much because I haven't used it as much so I don't know how to properly work it all and have it look good. I am much more used to taking photos without the tripod so I am definitely better at that.

Final Pieces - Shoot 2

These are my final pieces from the second shoot I did on the 19th of April. I absolutely love the photographs that I took in this shoot because they all have really nice lighting which wasn't the case for all of the previous shoot.

This is connected to the exam question because it again shows sustainability, the last set of photographs were taken at a nature reserve and this set were taken at a woodland garden in Islington, the garden is only 0.35 hectares and was abandoned by a previous owner, leaving it to overgrow. This garden is home to species like the long tailed tit, the sixteen spot lady bird and the stag beetle. Although these aren't rare species, they would not be able to thrive in many other places in London, which is why these woodlands and nature reserves are so important.

In addition, places like this lower London's or any other cities carbon emissions, which are incredibly high.

Computer Experiments - Shoot 1

This effect was created in photoshop and it is called wave, I think it looks really interesting and I like how the background looks especially, it is similar to liquify although I have no control over where it covers. To create this effect I had to upload the photograph to photoshop, I then had to create a background copy. Then I clicked filter at the top and then distort and then the wave feature. Once I clicked that I was able to chose how wavy I wanted the photograph and decided that this was enough.

Original

This photograph is showing selective colour, I think this is a really nice effect if you want someone to focus on a particular thing, I really like this effect because I think that it looks really good and I would use this effect again because it can sometimes be better than a shallow depth of focus, or on photographs where there is a wide depth of field and the whole photo is in focus.

To create this effect I first uploaded the photograph to Photoshop, then I created a second layer so that it was easy to delete a mistake if I made any, then I used the quick select tool to choose all of the flowers visible in the photograph and then went to select at the top and chose inverse. Once I had done this I then went to the adjustments panel at the side and chose black and white.

Original

This photograph was edited on photoshop, I have used the filter crystallize, it doesn't look vey good in my opinion, it looks as though I have enlarged a thumbnail of the photo.

To create this effect I created a background copy and then I clicked filter at the top of the photo. Then I changed the cell size to 28 because when its very small you don't notice much difference at all.

Original

This photograph is an example of duo colour, meaning it only shows two colours, the photographs I have used in this edit are red and gold. I created this effect by using the colour balance feature on photoshop, to do this I first created a second layer, I then clicked on the colour balance button on the side and I turned it +100 to the red and -37 to the magenta. I quite like the effect that has come of this because it has created an almost sepia type filter on the photo.

Original

Final Pieces - Shoot 1

These photographs are linked to the exam paper because they show sustainability and are environmentally friendly which is incredibly important to me and is a personal opinion of mine.

For my preparatory shoots I took a wide range of photographs, all to do with sustainability, at first I thought I would focus on cars and fossil fuels because they are very unsustainable, however I decided that I would be able to get better photographs from looking at green areas in large cities like London. I did look at this type of shoot for one of my preparatory shoots towards the end and I really enjoyed it, which spurred me on to look at the subject more. Nature reserves are incredibly important because they encourage wildlife diversity in very human dense areas.

Computer Experiments - Shoot 2

I created this photograph by using the filter 'Liquify', I think that this photograph is very eye-catching because of this. The bright purple against the green is beautiful, but also when it is is sort of mixed together like that it looks even better. Originally the photograph had a very shallow depth of field, which is why I felt comfortable enough to blur the bluebells in the background as well.

To create this effect I made a background copy, so that I didn't have to re-upload the photograph if anything went wrong or I didn't like how it turned out. Then I clicked on filter at the top and then 'Liquify', once clicked it brings you too another screen to do the work and I chose a small brush size of about 90, then I liquified it, I think that this photograph turned out really well and I would definitely use this filter again.

Original

I used the filter 'Twirl…' to create this effect, I think it looks quite good like this although it's not as practical as liquify is, I don't think it works quite as well. I thought that this photo looked absolutely beautiful and I really wanted to do something to the photograph to improve it and I think that this edit has definitely given it more life, it looks like it is curving itself round to meet someone.

I created this effect by adding a second layer and then clicking filter at the top, I then chose Twirl and decided how far I wanted it to twirl round, this is how it has turned out.

Original

This is my blossom photograph, however I have increased the saturation for this photo. I think that it looks very good, except for the sky, in my opinion, the sky in this photograph doesn't look very good, it is too bright and blocky because there aren't any clouds. The flowers in this photograph are beautiful when they are saturated. I think that they may have looked quite boring before because the colours were so dull.

To create this effect I clicked the hue/saturation button on the adjustments page, I then chose how saturated I wanted it to be, because it was already quite bright I didn't saturate it too much. I dragged the slider up to 50.

Original

Work Record

Plans for the shoot:

I plan to visit two parks in London, (NAMES), I want to get pictures showing rural landscapes in urban areas because I think they are an incredibly important thing to have. They give the city diversity, meaning there is a large range of not only people but animals and plants as well. Nature reserves also give people the chance to get away from the city without having to travel far and I think that this is really good. Furthermore I think that having areas like this is important for the environment and it makes areas like London more sustainable, this is because of the huge number of plants there that take in carbon dioxide, levelling out our carbon emissions a little bit more. However the amount of carbon we are emitting is still unsustainable so we need to both lower our emissions and also create more nature reserves like this one.

What I hope to achieve:

I hope to take photos showing just the rural landscapes, and the rural and urban landscapes together, I think that this will show the contrast and help me to show how areas like this help cities become more sustainable. I hope that the weather is good on the day I go to shoot because the photographs won't look as good as I think they will in sunlight if it is raining or it's cloudy. However if it is raining I will try and make the best of it and get some good photos using the rain to my advantage.

What I actually achieved:

When I went out it was incredibly sunny which was perfect for the photographs I hoped to take, many of the photographs are in direct sunlight which looks really pretty, although some of them are in darker lighting because they were blocked from sunlight behind a tree or a wall. It was difficult at times to tell if my photograph was over exposed by a bit because the weather was so bright, however now my photographs are on the computer, not many of them are over-exposed, which is a relief.

A few of my photographs use shallow depth of field, I think that this looks very good because it keeps you focused on one thing, however I did do a few photographs that used a wide depth of field, I did this because I wanted the entire photograph to be in focus as the whole landscape was very pretty, I didn't want to focus on just one part.

This photo was taken using the camera settings:

Shutter Speed: 1/320

F stop: 5.0

ISO: 200

Aperture priority

I really like this photograph because I think it is framed well, however it is quite bright. I may have needed to take the photograph with a higher f/stop or a faster shutter speed. Although, personally I think that it looks nice quite bright because it makes it seem like it was incredibly sunny out, which it was but this creates that effect even more. I could've used the tripod to take this photograph as this would've looked nice and I could steady it more. But because it was so bright I don't think this would've worked as my camera aperture doesn't go high enough.

This photograph was taken using the camera settings:

Shutter Speed: 1/160

F Stop: 4.0

ISO: 200

Aperture priority

This photograph shows a shallow depth of field, this is because the tree is in focus, whilst the background isn't, meaning that your eyes are focused on the tree rather than other things in the photograph. I think that this looks really good, it isn't overly bright which looks good because the colours look very lush this way.