Shoot 3

Shoot 3

Plans for Shoot

Artist Influence - Ben Boswell

I have chosen Ben Boswell as my artist influence. He has a series of London images and within this series lies photos from London Underground. The two images above focus on images that have been taken on a platform. I have specifically chosen these two images as photos that have influenced me because I wanted to focus on photos on a train platform rather than in the main part of a station. I like the composition of these two photos because I feel as though the way he has taken the photos makes the viewer feel as if they are standing and looking at this platform themselves. I think this gives the photos a sense of familiarity which I like. I also like Ben Boswell's images because he is based in London. This means that I can take direct inspiration from his images as well as using other inspirations for my editing. I think that Ben Boswell has slightly enhanced the colours within his photos in order to make them slightly brighter. I would like to incorporate the idea of enhancing the image in photo shop but relating it to black and white. I would like to do this by enhancing the contrast within the images. Overall the main features that I would like to take from Ben Boswell's images is his use of composition.

Contact Sheet

This shoot was a small shoot however I feel a though I had many successful elements to it. I like the composition of some of the photos within this shoot. I also feel as though some of my photos closely reflect Ben Boswell's photos due to the compositional elements. An unsuccessful elements of the shoot is the camera settings within some of the final photos in the contact sheet. This is because I struggled to get the sky to be evenly exposed.

My Best Images

 F6.3    1/100    ISO 400
I have chosen this as one of my best image because I like the way in which this photo reflects the composition of Ben Boswell's images. This is like his image where he is looking down the train platform. I also like the way in which the yellow line on the platform creates a leading line within the photo leading your eyes towards the end of the platform.

F/5.6    1/100   ISO 400

I have chosen this as one of my best images because I like the composition. I like the way this photo incorporates the rule of thirds composition rule as I feel this makes the photo very aesthetically pleasing.

F/10     1/200     ISO 400

I have chosen this as one of my best images because I like the way in which the people on the other platform have been framed within the windows of the train. I think that this is very effective in selectively showing certain people that are using trains.

F/6.3   1/100     ISO 400

I have chosen this as one of my best images because I like the way in which the photo captures the wall of the train station that is slightly breaking. I think that this reflects the aesthetic of this station because Barbican is quite an old station. I like the way this image has connotations of the stations history and background.

 Images that require improvement

 F/5.6    1/100    ISO 400 - FLASH USED

 F/7    1/200    ISO 400 - FLASH USED
Both of the images above require improvement due to my use of flash. When photographing certain areas I wanted to image to be brighter so I decided to use flash however in these specific photo the light reflected onto the objects that I was photographing. This also made that small area of the photo too bright and I feel this ruined both of these images. If I were to capture these two photos again then I would alter the camera settings rather than using a flash to brighten the photo. This could have been done by lowering the aperture and slightly increasing the shutter speed to let more light into the camera lens.

Camera Settings and Equipment

To complete this shoot I used a canon eos 400d. I used an aperture range of f/5.3 to f/10. I used this range because when I was shooting the weather conditions slightly changed. This meant that when it was slightly more cloudy I lowered the aperture to allow more light into the camera lens and when the weather was slightly brighter I increased it slightly. If I had not have increased the aperture then the images would have been slightly over exposed. I used ISO 400 throughout this shoot. I could have probably used ISO 200 however I tried this ISO when beginning the shoot and I felt as though I would have had to alter this in photo shop and slightly brighten the photos. I then decided to use ISO 400 in order to get the desired exposure that I wanted without having to massively alter it. The shutter speed used in this shoot was between 1/100 and 1/200. I used this shutter speed because I did not want to capture motion within this shoot I wanted to freeze the motion within the photos. By using this shutter speed range this allowed me to do that successfully.

A03

My main inspiration for this shoot came from Ben Boswell's photography and the compositional elements of his photos. I feel as though a number of my images relate to his photos. Below are two examples of my photos on the right and his photos on the left.  I feel as though Ben has focused more on capturing movement however many of the compositional elements are the same between our work. For example I have taken inspiration from capturing photos looking down the platform and also directly looking at the train. The last two images below are particularly similar because they both use the rule of thirds composition rule and also both have elements of older architecture in the background. I decided to go to this station after doing some research into London Underground stations and when looking at photos of different stations Barbican looked as though it resembled a lot of features of the images by Ben Boswell. With regards to the editing of the photos I took inspiration from different collages that I had seen on pinterest. I liked the idea of using parts of multiple photos to create one image but I wanted it to be using lines rather than random parts of a photo. This is because I feel as though this fits with my project as images I have previously taken involve leading lines and are quite modern which I feel my edits are.

 

Edits

Experimental Edit 1

Firstly I selected 'layer' then 'new'. Once the control panel came up I renamed the layer 'grain' so that I could clearly identify it. I then ensured that the colour was grey and the mode was overlay. I also lowered the opacity of 50%. I then ticked the box that says 'Fill with Overlay-neutral colour'.

Once the layer was created I selected 'filter', 'noise' then 'add noise'. I then experimented with different amounts of noise and decided to use the full amount of 400%. I then clicked 'ok'.

Once the grain was put on the photo I wanted to enhance it so I altered the mode to 'dissolve' This made the photo very grainy and enhanced what I had already done.

I then lowered the opacity as this was quite intense.

Finally I altered the photo to black and white and made sure to use the control panel to alter the contrast of individual colours within the photo.

Experimental Edit 2

In order to edit these photos I used the previous edits that I had created and then opened another image in photoshop that I wanted to use. I then used the crop tool to crop the image into different sections.

As I cropped the image I copied and pasted each strip into the other image that had previously edited. I then ensured that the layer that I copied and pasted was selected on the control panel and I used the move tool to place it in the desired place.  

I repeated this until I had the desired result.

My Final Images

 

Progression

To progress onto my next shoot I would like to visit St Johns Wood station because I like the way the station is laid out and the different elements of the station. I would also like to look at a different station to add some more elements to the shoot. I think that I would mainly like to focus on the features of the station as well as capturing some people within some of the images.