Unit 57: Photography and Photographic Practice

Selection of final images & review (P4, M4, D4)

Image No:Image 1.

Image 2.

Image 3.

Image 4.

Image 5.

Image 6.

Image 7.

Image 8.

Image 9.

Image 10.

Theme or focus of image & reasons for choiceImage 1. The person featuring in this image and most of the others is one of my best friends Jacques Laycock. He has got a cool style and I thought it would have been very relevant to the style of magazine I was relating my photo shoot to. The theme of this image is obviously music based even though there isn’t any real relevance to music in the image. I could just genuinely image it featuring in a music magazine of the rock genre. Also as my portrait shoot was shot outside I kind of wanted to incorporate the season into it. And with this image it is apparent what season it is. With the vibrant leaves. Also Jacques body language is good as he is breathing onto his hands to warm them. And my main reason for choice is I really like how the image isn’t too busy. Because it was taken later when it was dark you can’t see anything apart from Jacques and the tree branches and leaves. It adds mystery to it.

Image 2. This image is similar to the one above. But you can see a little more in this one. It seems a little less hidden and held back. As he is smoking and you can see him more. And in this image Jacques is in colour so it doesn’t add as much mystery to the image. Again there is a focus on the season with leaves. But more focus on Jacques as well as the surroundings. I chose this one because I love how clear it is. And it’s just an overall cool image. He is looking at the camera which suggests he is directing the person or persons looking at the image. So this image would go well with a music article as though the article is addressing the audience more.

Image 3. Again similar to the image above Jacques is directly assigning his attention to the camera again. This time it is a lot different how he doesn’t look as intimidating. In photo 2 he had a certain look about him which made him look rebellious and untamed. Where as this one he looks held back and tamed. A thing I like about this image is the changing in scenery. It is a different location to the ones above. Composition wise I love this photo because of the positioning of it and the way he is stood right in the centre of the middle of the tracks. I tried to get him as centre frame as possible.

Image 4. Again another photo that Jacques features in. This is taken in a different location again. The main focus is obviously Jacques. I think his body language makes this image. The way he is generally sat like he is really chilled out. And the graffiti in the background is relevant to the style of magazine and photography I wanted to go for. It just adds that little more to the image. And the fact it is in a tunnel adds to it, makes it look more interesting, it shows good depth and the fact he is centre frame as well. I chose this one because it is slightly different from the others I have taken. Like you can see the whole of Jacques body in this on and none one the others really show good focal length and depth.

Image 5. This image is one of my favourites from the whole shoot. I was really proud of this because it took a few takes to get it right. Even though you may not think it because the image is fairly clear is that Jacques (the one on the right) actually drew the circle when the image was being taken with a red light. So he had to try and keep himself as still as possible and wave his arm about making the circle motion. So considering the movement that would’ve been going on in this image it is surprisingly really good quality. Also this is the first image that Aaron Rodgers (left hand side) features in. I had a lot of positive feedback about this image from friends saying that

you could image it being on an album cover. Because the point of the shoot was for a music magazine this did make me happy. Also with this image as it shows both people who are “in the band” makes it slightly more relevant than when they are in the images on their own.

Image 6. This image would work well in an article which is talking about their relationship in the band. How in the image it is as though they are communicating and having a bit of a joke. Aarons face is kind of jokey looking and he is looking right at Jacques. Whereas Jacques face is looking at the camera, again directly communicating with the people looking at the image and reading the article. Also the lighting in this image I love. Yes the image is dark and a little grainy but it is because I didn’t have my camera flash on because the outcome was better. This made the images harder to capture correctly.

Image 7. This is another one of my favourites featuring just Aaron this time. I love the lighting in the image with half of his face being white and the other red. It just looks effective and different. And I mentioned when talking about image 4 that the graffiti in these images add to it and make it match more to the chosen genre. And the fact he is isn’t looking at the camera which doesn’t give off that relationship between the reader and the person in the image. This would go well with an article just about Aaron maybe about his past or something strongly relevant to his personal life. This is why I like this image and why I chose it.

Image 8. Another photo just featuring Aaron. I was proud of myself for capturing this picture and it being as clear as it is. It was really caught in the moment that’s why it doesn’t look fake. Because Aaron was generally laughing and I caught be truly passionate and true laugh. This is the main reason I chose this image as one of my final 10. If Id of asked him to laugh it would have looked so fake and put on that I would rather not feature it in my work. The lighting in the image works also. With the main light being on Aaron even though it isn’t very bright. And a slight bit of enhancement on the graffiti in the background.

Image 9. Originally I had planned one trimming Jacques out of this image because I like the way at which Aaron is looking directly into the camera. But when I thought about it, it actually worked really well with them both being in the image. As like I said it almost shows of the fact they’re in a band together. And because there weren’t many photos with them both in I thought it would work best. One of the main reasons I chose it is the fact that Jacques looking away from the camera and Aaron is looking at it. Similar to the one where Jacques is looking at the camera and Aaron is looking away. It’s reversed. But works well either way. Both of them don’t have much expression on their faces but this works on showing variance in my images which I like I didn’t want them all being the same.

Image 10. I was unsure on this image but I hadn’t used one with this background it’s got a lot of cool graffiti on it and it makes it more interesting. Jacques is the main feature not looking at the camera. I used the red light again in this image and you can see it reflecting in the white of his eye. All the images get tied quite well together because they’re all of a similar style with the choice of lighting I used. This one shows off that choice as the whole image is a vibrant red colour.

Techniques usedImage 1. The main technique in this one was positioning. I needed to make sure I had the leaves in clear view but make sure I had all of what I wanted of Jacques in the frame. This image is quite crisp as well purely because I had my flash on for it. The images I took without flash were a little grainy. Also as there was a lot that could be focused on in this mage I had to make sure Jacques was the main focus of to the lens by manually focusing my camera I got it.

Image 2. All the factors in this image were basically the same as the one above. Except for the fact I needed to stand further away to get more of Jacques in the frame. As well as doing this I needed to avoid exposing too much of the actual tree and only show the main branches and leaves I wanted.

Image 3. Getting this image centred and straight was irritating. When I originally took the picture it did look fine but after examining it in Photoshop I noticed that it is slightly off centre. Jacques is a little more to the left from the centre but if id of tried to crop the image to get it centred it would’ve looked worse so I left it. I got him to stand centre tracks and I stood not far in front of him. Its more the slight angle the image was taken at which made it off. Apart from that I love it. This also was taken with the flash present. It looked too blurred without it. The lighting was pretty important or you wouldn’t have been able to understand the image. You wouldn’t know he was on tracks and you wouldn’t be able to see any of the background.

Image 4. For this image I had the flash triggered. This was the last one I used the flash on. Again it helped in being able to see a little bit of the background. When positioning myself for this image I had to basically sit down a similar level to what Jacques at. I also manually focused it because it was struggling focusing because of how dark it was. I had to take a picture like this in this tunnel because it looked so cool. The depth is great because you can see the other end of the tunnel and how eerie it looks.

Image 5. With this one there was a lot to consider. I had to have the shutter speed quite a lot slower for this image in order to capture the circle light trail in the middle. I had it 1/2s which is the slowest I had during the shoot. It allowed enough time to get the light painting in the middle and for the image to not blur as much as I thought it would. I also thought it would have exposed more light into the image but it didn’t. I had to put the ISO on the highest which is 3200 to try and prevent blurring as much as possible. That’s why the image is so grainy. I also used the rule of thirds grid to get this photo perfectly positioned it didn’t look that bad to start with actually as I had the camera stabilised.

Image 6. As I didn’t have the flash active on this picture the majority of the camera settings were a bit crazy. The shutter speed was slow at 1/4s and the ISO was at 3200. It only worked well without the flash though this image so I had to figure out which camera settings would be best. One thing what was hard to decide was who to have the main focus on. As Aaron looks a little cheeky with the light further away it only made sense to have him more in focus. It works better I would say because more attention is drawn to him in the first place because of the light in his hand.

Image 7. The light positioning in this photo was the main thing I had to focus on. I had one of my friends holding the red light at his face and another holding the white light at the other side of his face. I was with my camera looking through the view finder and telling them where they had the lights best. And because this image took a bit to get right I just had to have Aaron stare into space to make it look mo0re affective. I manually focused it before obviously to make sure that the focus didn’t keep changing whilst we were trying to get the shot ready.

Image 8. With this image is where I turned down the ISO to 100 and the shutter speed up to 1/100s. So that’s why this image is so much sharper. Preparation wise for this image was that I had to get the camera back to a better and more reasonable setting. I also had to get the lighting right. Just the red light was used in this image and it actually lights up Aaron really well and a little bit of the background.

Image 9. Again this is another quite sharp looking image. Taken with the same ISO Shutter Speed and Aperture as photo 8 above. Similar image just that there are 2 people in it. So therefore it was harder to get the both of them well lit with just one red light. Managed to do it though and it does look effective.

Image 10. This images ISO and Shutter Speed was changed. Iso went up to 400 and Shutter speed went to 1/4s. Surprisingly this image was taken with a higher exposure it actually doesn’t look that grainy. It was a different location at which this one was taken at so the changing of scenery may have played a part in this. Unlike the majority of the above images I was stood up to Jacques head height when taking this picture.

Strengths & suggested improvementsImage 1. Strength wise I would definitely say the vibrant colouring of the leaves, they stand out and look great. And by making Jacques black and white rather than colour added more to the overall feel of the image. Improvements maybe have Jacques positioned differently. Even though when I did the shoot I took a selection of similar images but just different positions and these were this was one of the best natural looking ones.

Image 2. Again similar to the one above I love the vibrancy in the colours. As Jacques is in colour in this one also makes it cool. It shows the slight variety in it this way. Improvements maybe not include the smoking; people may feel it is encouraging others to do it. And maybe to slightly switch it up as this image is quite similar to the one above.

Image 3. With this image it is clear that Jacques is the main feature. There isn’t anything else within the image which drags your attention away from him. You can see a bit more of him as well and he is directly looking right into the camera as though he is addressing you personally. I could maybe improve on the positioning of the image and do a couple of different takes on the image next time to make sure it is perfect. And also as this was taken on a fully functional train line I wouldn’t want people thinking it is right and clever to mess about on train tracks. We were incredibly sensible whilst taking these pictures. We timed it with the trains which had already gone by and we always had someone on look out for trains approaching.

Image 4. I would say that the colouring in the image is strong.cc the positioning of the

image as well. Similar to image 3 this image had to be central or it wouldn’t look right at all. And I also love how you can see right down the tunnel and to the end. It’s really quite creepy and eerie looking. Maybe I could’ve done slightly more with the image like played about with the rest of the colouring in the image and not just putting it in black and white around Jacques.

Image 5. Composition wise this was one of the hardest to do. But it is one of my favourites. Strength would definitely be managing to get the light trail circle in the centre of the image without completely editing it in as though it was a separate image. That circle was on the original picture when I took it. Even though this would’ve been really hard to do whilst getting the middle part perfect is the quality of the rest of the image. It would look so much better if it was clearer, not as grainy and maybe if parts of it weren’t slightly blurred. That’s what I think I could’ve improved on.

Image 6. Again I really like the lighting in this. The fact it is more focused on Aaron as he is holding the vibrant LED light just makes the picture quite strong. To me the positioning is also a key strength. As Jacques is a lot closer to the camera but in a different sort of position he is actually facing a different way to what Aaron is. And it is as though they’re communicating whilst this picture was being taken. But as the shutter speed and ISO levels were a bit crazy this image could’ve been improved quality wise.

Image 7. I have mentioned this previously but this one is one of my favourite images took that day. The lighting is just perfect and the body language on Aaron is just spot on. There is no interaction with the camera at all and there is a real even mix of colour from the different lights. An improvement maybe could be the overall tone of the image could’ve been enhanced so it’s a little brighter.

Image 8. Strength of this image to me is the quality of it. It truly does make a photo when it is really sharp and not grainy. This image is still quite dark so it will look slightly grainy but there isn’t any blur or over graininess. It is just a little dark maybe the overall red tint could’ve been enhanced.

Image 9. This picture is very similar to Image 8 but it is a little grainier. I think this is because the red light had to stretch to get to 2 people in this image and not just to 1 person like in Image 8 so if I could improve I would try and get more external lighting equipment.

Image 10. And image 10 strength wise I like the background and how it varies out the images slightly. And as the light draws quite a lot of attention to it. As well as it boldly focusing on Jacque’s the background is getting a fair bit of it. It looks cool and different with the red light. Improvements I probably could have done more with the overall picture. If the pose that Jacques is pulling didn’t look as fake as it does look it could’ve been better.

Editing detailsImage 1. I changed a couple of things within this image. The most obvious changes I made are the black and white on a certain part of the image. I made Jacques black and white and left the rest of the image with colour. I also enhanced the colouring on the branches and leaves to make them look better and more vibrant. After I changed the colouring on the image there were patches in the background which

looked messy so I cloned the black and covered them over. I didn’t want anything snatching the attention away from the main features, the leaves and Jacques.

Image 2. This image is similar to image 1 style wise. However as this image had more going on and had a stronger attitude I thought it was only right to have it all in colour. I did a similar thing with the background. After I changed the colouring I also had to do the same thing with the clone tool. To make the background completely black. I enhanced the colour of Jacques and the leaves similar with image 1. I also cleaned up Jacques face a little. He had a few spots which I went over and covered, he also had slight facial hair which I got rid of as it looked messy.

Image 3. With image 3 I changed a couple of things. One of the first things I did was change the exposure on Jacques. More on his skin rather than his body. It was the slightest bit too bright and so by just bringing it doesn’t a little it worked really well. After this I cropped the image because Jacque’s was off centre in the image which really annoyed me. But by completely making it so he was in the middle of the frame it made it look worse because the tracks on either side met at different points. I used the rule of thirds grid to try and get it as good as I could. It looks better how it is now than how it did so I’m happy. The last thing I did to this image was slightly change the background. As it is a cool location I thought It would only be best to be able to actually tell what it is. By just selecting the background I changed it and slightly brightened it. So you could see. If I’d of done it too much it would’ve gone grainy so I just did it a little and it worked better than it did.

Image 4. Again this similarly edited to the other ones above. I selected just Jacques and enhanced the colour of him so it didn’t look all dull and bland. I then reversed the selection and made the background black and white. I felt by doing this was the best option as it draws more attention to Jacques, the main feature. It took me a couple of tries to get the colouring of Jacques right. I then cleaned up his face again. Got rid of a couple of spots and facial hair. There was also a little smoke in the shot from my friend thinking it would be good to blow smoke in the way. He generally thought it would look effective but I didn’t like it. So I tried my hardest to edit it out. It may look slightly blurred around that area but I edited it as good as I could in the time I had.

Image 5. The first thing I did when I started editing this image was clean up the circle in the middle. There was a lot of blur around the thick main circle. So I used the clone tool and selected the black parts of the image and went over it. I like both before it was edited and after but I thought it would probably look tidier this way. I then selected Jacques and Aaron separately to try and make them more visible. But because the picture was quite dark in the first place because I had used my flash it went quite grainy. So I had to find the best settings to have it on. By adjusting the curves, colour balance and exposure I got there. And similar to image 1 and 2 there was a lot of marks in the background due to the camera picking up slight bits of colour. I then went over them as best as I could.

Image 6. With this image I struggled deciding how to edit it. I eventually started by selecting the background and I made it black and white. Similar to how I’ve done it on previous images and for similar reasons, I didn’t want there being too much attention drawn to it and not that much on Aaron and Jacques. I then selected Aaron singly to adjust him; I wanted him to stand out quite a lot as he is holding the really strong LED light. But because it is quite a dark image it started going grainy. I didn’t want this happening so I adjusted it as well as I could. I then selected Jacques.

As he isn’t the main focus of the image he does grad your attention mostly because he is so close to the camera and got the bright red light directly hitting him. I also got rid of Aarons dangly ear phones hanging from the neck of his t-shirt.

Image 7. This image is my favourite from the whole shoot. I love the lighting on it. This wasn’t edited into the image. I had 2 lights and I had someone hold them up on either side of Aaron. It looked so effective, I love it. Unlike in the majority of my other images I actually kept the colouring in this background. I thought it just generally looked better with that colour and focus. I enhanced it a little so it didn’t just look normal. I also slightly adjusted the brightness of Aaron’s face which made it draw slight more attention to it which is what I wanted. The rest of the background for this image was already pretty much all already black. So I thought this looked effective because you can only really see Aaron and a little section of the wall behind him.

Image 8. Not an awful lot was changed In this picture. I selected the background on the right hand side of him and slightly enhanced it because you couldn’t see the graffiti if I didn’t. And because I thought it really added to the images I thought I would do it. I also just slightly touched up the colour balance. But I kind of liked it how it was.

Image 9. Again I didn’t change an awful lot in this image. I just manually selected Aaron and Jacques to individually enhance the colouring so it wasn’t so dark. But if I’d of done it too much it would’ve gone grainy. I also used the Rule of thirds grid to get the image right. I think I trimmed the image a little also.

Image 10. And the last one again doesn’t look like a lot was edited on it because I used the red light. I did however manually select Jacques face and edited the balances on it so it looked right then inverted the selection and did the same with the background. I made the background a little darker as it looks more effective. As this picture was taken at a slightly different location the background was different but still had graffiti so I still wanted there to be a main focal point on the background as well as on Jacques. Also as this image is quite clear and close up I edited out his face. Got rid of spots and his facial hair. It looks so much cleaner and smoother this was.

Capture LogSetting Shutter Speed ISO ApertureImage 1. Manual

Image 2. Manual

Image 3. Manual

Image 4. Manual

Image 5. Manual

Image 6. Manual

Image 7. Manual

Image 1. 1/25

Image 2. 1/25

Image 3. 1/20

Image 4. 1/20

Image 5. 1/2

Image 6. 1/4

Image 7. 1/6

Image 1. 400

Image 2. 400

Image 3. 400

Image 4. 400

Image 5. 3200

Image 6. 3200

Image 7. 3200

Image 1. F/3.5

Image 2. F/5.6

Image 3. F/3.5

Image 4. F/3.5

Image 5. F/3.5

Image 6. F/3.5

Image 7. F/3.5

Image 8. Manual

Image 9. Manual

Image 10. Manual

Image 8. 1/100

Image 9. 1/100

Image 10. 1/4

Image 8. 100

Image 9. 100

Image 10. 400

Image 8. F/3.5

Image 9. F/3.5

Image 10. F/3.5