Shoot 5-Hainault country park

Shoot 5-Hainault park

Contact sheet of both shoots

Plans for shoot-

This shoot will be my last shoot taken in a rural area, so i plan to incorporate all of the things that i need to improve on from my previous shoots in this shoot. E.g using a tripod, framing, shooting in camera Raw for better quality images.  I think that Hainault park will be the best place for my last shoot as it has quite a nice diversity within the park, and not that many people go to the park during the week.

Images that need improving

I took this photo because i wanted to use the grass as a leading section to the landscape of trees. However the framing of the photo is too wide and so a small section of the lake is visible, which makes the photo look disorganised and not framed properly. So to improve this photo i would firstly move the tripod to the left so that the leading grass section is more straight and so the lake is not visible and i think that if i had taken the photo from a lower level it would have added to the effect of the leading section of grass, leading to the trees and sky. I would also shoot on a clearer day, so that the sky thats visible in the photo would be more blue and so that would add to the colour and vibrance of the photo. However because of the greyness of the sky, it makes the colour of the photo less bright and vibrant. If i had shot on a clearer day the natural lighting would have been more focused throughout  the whole photo, instead of being brighter in some sections. So if i was to go back to Hainault park again, i would like to try and take some more whole landscape photos, of grass, trees and the sky. (This photo was taken from the first shoot before i had gone back)

For this image i did use a tripod so that it allowed me to capture photos without being affected by blur. However when i took this photo i was greatly affected by the windy conditions, and the trees branches were long and flimsy so they moved around fastley. As i was using a tripod i thought that i would be able to capture a still image without any problems, however after taking multiple photos i couldn't get it right. So for this photo i used a small aperture of f/18, an ISO of 200 and a slow shutter speed of 1/30 seconds. So where i went wrong with this image is withe shutter speed being surprisingly slow, as to take this photo i would have needed a fast shutter speed like 1/200 so that i could capture a still image. So to improve this i did try and use the amount of photos that i had taken on a tripod with the same frame to try and create a GIF, however the GIF was quite short so i thought that it wouldn't do me any good to include the GIF.

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

This shoot is the last rural shoot for this project so i needed to make sure that i incorporated the styles and techniques that i had used in all four of my previous shoots and make sure that i improved upon all of the faults from my previous shoots, that way it would mean that mu body of work was fully developed and means that i have reflected critically on the progress on all of my previous shoots. So one of the major aspects that i haven't improved on though out all of my rural shoots is shooting in Camera RAW file and going back to the location to improve upon and develop my photos further, which i did in this shoot. So with this shoot i shot in camera RAW, used a tripod, previous techniques/styles of photography and went back to improve further. I think that by me doing all of these things it shows that i have paid attention to the aspects that needed improving with this half of my project and i have reflected critically enough that i ahem been able to gradually develop my work to the point where in this shoot i have shown full development by producing a similar body of work to all my previous shoots.

This shoot consists of photos that I took on two separate days. The first 10 photos in the contact sheet are from the first shoot that I did on (date) on this day I took a tripod and shot in camera RAW file, so that I could produce higher quality images than when I shoot in jpg file and as I knew Hainault country park would have a lot of detail, I thought camera RAW would help me produce better photos than I had previously. I decided to go back after I had technical problems shooting for the first set of photos because I was not really satisfied with the photos that I had taken as during the shoot I was greatly affected by strong winds and being next to a body of water did not help either, even though I did have a tripod it still shook slightly. My intentions for this shoot was to try and capture the natural beauty of this environment and show how this rural environment has been kept clean and doesn't suffer from the same effects as urban living environments do, where people often litter and don't care for the environment. So for example the photos that include the entire landscape e.g grass, sky and trees, show how an untouched environment can look beautiful and even though people do use the area regularly there is no litter or vandalism. I think that the photo below really captures British landscape as the wether was overcast as it is most of the time in the UK, i also really like how even though the tone of the photo is quite grey and unsaturated the trees still look full of colour.

Straight images

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

The image above mine was taken by Ansel Adams, when i took my image i did not have intentions to take the image in the style of the artist as influence, however once i had taken the image it did remind me of this Ansel Adams photo. Even though the location and background of the photo are not similar, i still think that these photos link to each other because of the framing and the way the trees are overlapping each other. So for my image i originally took it in colour and so i had to go on Photoshop to edit the photo black and white to make the link clearer. So whilst i was editing the photo black and white, i realised that i needed to edit it as white as i could without making the photo too white-washed because Ansel's original photo is more lightly tones with only the trees being slightly darker. So i edited the black and white colour scales using mostly the yellow, blue and green scale to make the sky and the background trees more white and the foreground trees more black like Ansel. I think that i was able to show my artist influence though this photo, as even though i did not have the intention on taking this image because the scene reminded me have an artists photo, i was still able to edit the image so that the photo was still influenced by the style of the artist that i ahem researched, in this case Ansel Adams.

AO2 Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

For this shoot i wanted to progress on the material stat i use to help me with shoots, like a tripod and techniques that i used when taking photos, so that my work could be more refined. So with this shoot because i had a tripod with me i was able to explore my shutter speed and aperture settings. However it was quite windy so when i was taking photos of trees or leaves it did effect me a little bit. So with this shoot i knew that i had to work on my aperture mainly because in some of my previous shoots, when shooting with landscape i used aperture bigger apertures like F/5.6 meaning that it would effect my depth of field for the larger landscape photos. So with this shoot i ensured that i was on manual mode and i shot with an aperture of F/22-23, an ISO of 200 and a shutter speed of 1/25 seconds most of the time. With these settings and using a Camera Raw file instead of jpeg, i was able to achieve  good quality images that had no blur, good exposure and good framing, which were problems that i had with my previous shoots.

For this photo i used the editing options for Camera Raw files, i used this because i was able to edit the image black and white using the grayscale mix. I edited this image in mind of how the total decrease in colour shows the destruction of the environment. So whilst i was editing the image i wanted the single tree in the foreground to really stand out from the grass and the trees in the background, so to do this i made the grass lighter than the trees behind so that the sky and grass were both light creating a contrast with the dark trees, ultimately bringing out the single tree in the front. This technique for editing was different from what i have used before for my editing, so i think that this edit is unique compared to my other edits because the different photoshop programme that had been used. I found that with this i was able to edit in a lot more detail compared to the normal photoshop.

I created this video transition using adobe premiere pro so that i could make my body work more cohesive, so to create my transitions i waited until after i had finished my urban shoots because i wanted to have the best suited photos for each transitions. 

Import media, add to timeline,effect controls-opacity add keyframe to fade in and out

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements

I think that with this shoot, as it was my last rural shoot, i did want to try and improve on all of the faults from my previous shoots so that i could show the development and progression from the other shoots. To do this i chose a place that i knew had a nice varied landscape e.g lake, i ensured that i brought a tripod with me as with my previous shoots experienced trouble with some images being blurred from slight hand movement or trouble with slow shutter speeds. I also shot in Camera Raw as opposed to jpeg so that i could achieve and show better detail in my photos, i thought that with this shoot shooting in Raw would highly benefit me because of the high detail in trees and when i shoot in jpeg the trees can lose their detail and look clumped together. So from this shoot i do think that i met the intentions that i set for this shoot because i think that i was able to capture a large variation of photos that all link to photos from previous shoots for example my forth shoot-Trent park. In both of these shoots i included close up photos of trees to show the detail, photos of the whole landscape and photos with different elements e.g the sky, grass and water. However i just think that these images that i produced are better because i shoot in Raw file and with a tripod, i also went back to the location of the shoot to further improve on the images that i had taken the first time.

Shoot 4-Trent park

Shoot 4-Trent park

Plans for shoot

As this shoot will be my second to last shoot on rural landscapes i wanted to experiment a little bit more with different techniques and perspectives, so thats why i chose Trent park for this shoot, because i know that its a large area with a variety of different landscapes, enabling me to capture photos from different angles and perspectives. I think with this shoot i will be able to capture whole landscapes and then also zoom into those landscapes and look at certain objects in more detail. I think that this shoot will be more closely linked to Heather Angel so that i can keep the link of development in the style that i take my photographs that i have shown in my previous shoots, so for example looking up towards the canopy level/sky.

Contact sheet

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

I think that from the photos that i have taken for this shoot, i have achieved the best photos in terms of quality and techniques used. This is because i reflected on what i needed to develop further from my previous shoots and what i needed to start doing to help progress further. So one thing that i had not used with my previous three shoots was a tripod, by taking a tripod with me i was able to progress on the problem of taking blurry photos because of a slow shutter speed that i needed to accommodate changes to aperture. I also think that with this shoot i took a wider variety of different aspects found within the environments and i looked in more unusual places. I think that with this shoot i spent more time with the camera settings and deciding what perspective would look best for what i was photographing, for example i took more photos from high and low angles.  I think that overall this shoot shows the progress that i have made from my first shoot, because within this shoot i have  incorporated the techniques, angles, perspectives, etc that i used in my previous shoots and i have further developed those techniques. Within this shoot i have also shown influence from both of my main rural artists, Ansel Adams and Heather Angle, which in my previous shoots i would normally just focus on one of those photographers, so i have made progress by incorporating both of their styles of photography into my own work.

Straight images

Images to improve

I took this photo because it reminded me of one of Ansel Adams photographs of a large lone tree, and so i thought that by taking a photo from the perspective of the largest tree being in the centre of the frame of the photo, then my photo would have the same effect as Ansel Adams photo. However whilst taking this photo my family walked into the frame of the photo, this is a problem because in all of my rural shoots i haven't taken photographs with people in my photos because i am photographing the environment that we live in not people within the environment. Also, as the whole point of taking this photograph was to have the large tree as the most eye-catching aspect of the photo, having people right next to the tree goes against that idea. So to improve this photo i would re-take the photo and time it better so i can capture just the landscape, i would also move further away from the tree so that i could fit the whole tree into the frame of the photo and make the tree more central.

I took this photo because i thought that the branches were interesting and unusual, however i think that the overall outcome of the photo needs improvement. This is because some of the photo is blurry and out of focus even though i used a tripod all throughout this shoot, however when i took this photo i was on a very uneven surface and so i may have moved the tripod without noticing, ultimatly causing the photo to be slightly blurry. When i took this photo i was suing manual mode and i had just come out of an area with darker lighting which means i needed to change my settings, I used an ISO of 200, a shutter speed of 1/160 seconds and a large aperture of f/4.6. Due to me using a large aperture the whole photo isn't in focus and is effected by the lighting behind the branches because more light than necessary is being let into the camera sensor.  So to improve this photo i would have to re-take it, as to improve the photo i would have to use a smaller aperture to accommodate the lighting

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

(Ansel Adams )

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I took the image above because at first the type of tree reminded my of trees in Ansel Adams photo above mine, so therefore if i took a photo from the same perspective and have a line of trees in the foreground that contrast against the trees in the background then the photo would be like Angels'. However as i had originally taken the photo in colour i needed to edit it black and white so that the photo would be the same style as Angels'. Ansel's photo also has dark background with the trees contrasting against the background due to the brighter tone, so to try and get the same effect I used the polygonal lasso tool to individually select the trees one by one, after i had fully selected a tree i would edit the brightness adjustment of the section to +35 so that i would have the same effector the trees in the foreground being brighter than the background. However i still found that the background was too bright and so the trees didn't really contrast against the background, so i selected sections of the background again with the polygonal lasso tool and adjusted the brightness so that each section i selected was of a -15 brightness. I think that by this photo i have shown the influence of Ansel Adams within my work as i fully developed this photo so that would look more like Ansel's style of photography. I think that even though the original photo is similar to Ansel's style because of the perspective, it was still missing some of the key aspects of Ansel's work, like black and white and a range of tones, which after editing my photo i was able to achieve these aspects.

AO2 Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops. 

For this shoot i used a tripod so that i could progress past the problems that i faced with previous shoots due to not having a tripod with me, so for example using a tripod allowed me to shoot with faster shutter speeds if i needed to. I also shot with a jpeg file, however i now know about camera RAW file so on my next shoot i will use RAW. I used an ISO of 200 most of the time as i shot during the day so i didn't require a high ISO unless i took photos in dark area, which i would then use an ISO of 800. As i had a tripod i was able to use shutter speed ranging from 1/80-1/1250 seconds depending on what i was taking a photo of  aperture of f/22 to f/32 for photos of whole landscapes as i needed to have everything in the photo in focus, and when i took close-ups i would use a larger aperture of f/5.6.

My plans for this shoot was to experiment with different techniques, photographic processes and to develop upon current techniques and styles of photos from my previous shoots. So in my first shoot i had taken a photo of a reflection and so in this shoot it had been raining early and i was near a body of water so i thought i would incorporate reflections as a technique. For example one of my straight images, the photo of a reflection of a tree in a puddle with leafs, was somewhat difficult to take because to successfully take the photo i had to make sure that i had the correct depth of field so that the reflection of the tree in the water was clearly visible and in focus in stead of the leafs on the ground.  So i think that a common technique with this shoot was depth of field as i have numerous example where i had to have the right depth of field for the photo to be its best or i experimented with the depth of field like the photo of the blueberry.

I edited this photo by creating a vignette effect, so that the centre of the photos is lighter compared the rest of the photo, which then draws the audiences' attention towards the centre of the photo. I think that by adding a vignette effect to the photo, it makes the photo more interesting because the light gradually fades from the centre to the corners, creating darker tones throughout the photo which to me makes the photo eery. The vignette is a new editing technique for me, so i think that i would use it again in another shoot to see the different effects that adding a vignette can have on a photo.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements. 

For this shoot my main intention was to focus on different photographic techniques, as in my previous shoots i had focused more on photographer research and improving problems i had faced within those shoots. Which, in this shoot I do still have clear influence by Ansel Adams work and I improved on my issues that would occur because of a lack a tripod, I still thought that it would important to try different techniques. Ultimately, I think I did meet my intentions for this shoot because I experimented with both new editing techniques and photographic techniques that have developed my work and improved its quality. For example I experimented with creating a vignette effect and creating more tones in my photos, I also used more photographic techniques, like depth of field, reflections and close-up photography. For my initial ideas when i started this project i wanted to take photos of the environment as a whole and then zoom further into the environment and take photos of different aspects within the environment like the photo below of the blueberry.