Central London Tower Hill; Shoot 5 Work Diary

Central London Tower Hill; Shoot 5 Work Diary

Shoot Ideas 

My ideas for documenting this shoot expresses my want to investigate British Culture, I believe going into Central London is important when documenting British life because Central London is associated with Britain. I have already photographed around Westminster as part of my Central London shoots which proved successful but the feedback I have received from that shoot has impacted the way I will take photos on this shoot e.g. taking a tripod and composing my images better. I want to shoot around Tower Bridge to capture British Culture in this shoot.

Research

Similar to my last shoot in Waltham Abbey rather than relating this shoot to a particular photographer I have decided to research images on Google of the Tower Bridge to help me decide what angles to photograph and how to compose my images. 

I chose to use this image from Google because it documents the Tower Bridge in the way that I want to. It doesn't strongly document British Culture but it shows British life and the main famous landmarks we associate with London/Britain. I think this shoot will relate to Simon Roberts because he uses landscape photography. I may be able to use elements of Martin Parr's work as his use of symbolism can work within this shoot. Henri Cartier-Bresson's decisive moment may help when photographing in this area because if I want to include boats in the image I will have to time it right to include it in the composition.

AO1: You must ensure that several of the visual ideas/inspirations within the image bank are pursued.

Contact Sheet

There are the images that I have taken within this shoot, the images highlighted in red are images that I need to improve.

Best Images

I think this is one of my best images because it shows the Tower Bridge perfectly as it is positioned well so that all of the bridge is present in the image. I also think the way the clouds are positioned either side of the bridge make the picture look like there is a pathway between the bridge. This is ironic considering the bridge is a pathway across the river. This image will be improved when editing in Photoshop because I can increase the detail within the clouds and bring the brightness of the tower out more. I think this represents British Culture well because it shows the famous landmarks in London which people associate with Britain.

I think this is also one of my best images because it shows the skyline along the river which is visible in most parts of London. The buildings and cranes in the background show the stereotypical London life as it is surrounded by new buildings being made and skyscrapers, the buildings show the offices which is associated with the work life within London. This image is based on a Simon Roberts image because it embraces the people within the landscape and treats them as assets to the image, they belong in London so they belong in the image. This image can also improved within Photoshop because I will try to bring out more details within the clouds and bring more brightness to the image.

I also like this image, although it is again of Tower Bridge it is taken from a different angle and gives a different atmosphere than the image above. I like this image because it shows the people below the bridge taking pictures of it showing the lives of the tourists. The comparison between the people and the bridge is obvious in this image which I liked, the people look so small compared to the bridge. This image is also similar to a Simon Roberts image because the people are treated like an asset to the image, the tourist are the main part of London they are always present at the main attractions with their cameras. These people could also just be people walking to their jobs which also spread the work ethic within London as it is associated with office buildings.

Images That Require Improvement

This image requires improvement because it doesn't express what I wanted it to. I wanted to capture the lamp post alongside the bridge because it would express symbols of Britain. I didn't take this image on a tripod which becomes evident because it isn't straight like my other images. If I had captured this image in the way that I entitled to it would've turned out better than what I did produce. Next time I would take the image with a tripod and would've got slightly close to crop out the pavement and just focus on the bridge and lamp post. 

This image needs improvement because there is a lot of unnecessary space within the image i.e. there is a lot of sky space where this could be reduced. I wanted to take an image of the Tower of London to express the main attractions in London. There was building work going on within the landmark which I was trying to avoid but it proved difficult. Next time I would take images from a different angle because I would then be able to capture more details of the landmark unlike this image.

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

Within this shoot I wanted to express British Culture which I believe I have succeeded in this because I have used the symbols within this area to express the British Culture. By documenting this area of London we can see the admiration by tourists from the existence of them within the my images. I think Simon Roberts has influenced the way I took images within this shoot because I have added images with people in the landscape but embraced them as a feature rather than taking the image out. The feedback I have received from the first Central London shoot has also influenced the images I have taken, my composition has improved and I have related it to British Culture. The elements I need to improve on within this shoot is the fact that I have taken many images of the Tower Bridge whereas I could've taken more images of other parts of the area to express British Culture even more.

In my next shoot I am going to explore another part of Central London because I believe that exploring different landscapes around London will impact my project as it shows so many different symbols of Britain. I used a tripod for this shoot and have realised how much it has positively impacted my shoot so I will continue to use one throughout my shoots. 

With regards to my best images...

I believe that I have created a set of images that relate to British Culture in Tower Hill, I have documented the famous landmarks that are present in this area which symbolises Britain well. To improve these images further I need to document different areas of the places that I visit because I have concentrated on only certain landmarks.

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

I used a Nikon D3300 to document these images. To capture these settings I used a low aperture setting which was not the best setting to use for a landscape picture but it has worked well when capturing the image, I kept the ISO of the camera low to reduce the noise within the images and I used a 1/80 sec shutter speed to capture a quick shot. Next time I will use a f stop of 22 to capture better landscape images. However, I still have captured British Culture well. One critical analysis that can be made about my images is the over exposed clouds which are present in lots of my images, to improve on this I could shoot in raw because this will enable me to bring the clouds back in photoshop. Also, I could've allowed less light within the image so used a quicker shutter speed to capture the clouds better. 

Next I took some of my images into Photoshop and edited them in this way...

 

From the images that I have taken I put some of them into Photoshop and was able to create a few panorama's with them. I believe that these images have turned out well because all the images merged well to create this panorama's. The feedback I was given enabled me to think about creating panorama's, from these images it shows how much my work has progressed as in the beginning of my project I didn't experiment with photoshop and equipment as I have within my further shoots. 

     

To edit this image I used the levels and curves settings to reduce the lightness of the bridge as it was quite light because of the sun in the background. I also increased the saturation of the image to bring out the blue of the bridge to make it stand out more and become bolder. To make the bridge stand out more I have used the mask layer of one of the layers to burn the outside of the image making it seems darker than the middle, it isn't extremely obvious but it has made the bridge stand out slightly more.

  

Similar to the last image I edited, I took this image into Photoshop and used the levels and curves settings to bring out the details of the image. By changing the levels and curves it has made the image brighter rather than looking dull and dark like it does in the unedited image. I also used the hue and saturation setting to brighten the colours within the image, this also makes the image stand out more as it has brightened the colours of the peoples clothes and has brightened the nature. 

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

The feedback I have received from my past shoots has influenced the images I took within this shoot. I have adapted more techniques within this shoot, I have created a panorama and used a tripod. Using a tripod has worked well because it has ensured that all my images have turned out well. I think my images have improved extremely within these images because I have chosen to take images that actually relate to my proposal. This shoot relates to British Culture because it is an area which people think of when they think of London and England. When planning this shoot I explored images of this area in Google images because it helped me understand the composition of the images and made it easier for me to plan the images I was going to take. The elements that I need to improve on are exploring more of the area and not just taking images of the most famous landmark in the area. In this shoot it seems as though I have just captured the bridge and not much else so next time I need to explore more elements in the area.

I believe the my shoots relate more to Simon Roberts because it shows people in their natural habitat, I have included people within my landscape shots because they are assets to the image in the same way they are assets to London, without the tourists and the people London wouldn't be the same.

This image relates to my work because it shows people within a landscape picture but they become assets to the image as they present a meaning, although they are surrounded by an ugly landscape, power station, they are still able to have fun. He uses people within his image as an asset which I believe I have done as my pictures embrace the fact that there are people within the image but they show how many tourists surround these areas. 

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

I have chose these images as my final images because they are my best images and represent what I wanted to capture before I went out. I have chosen the panorama to be included in my best images because it represents a bigger view of the area making it easier to capture all the main elements. I have also chosen to include a close-up  image of the Tower Bridge because it shows the bridge in more detail than in the panorama image. Also, I have chosen to include an image of the skyline from the side of the Thames because ti portrays the work life within London as we can see office tower blocks, there are also cranes which shows the building work that goes on around London. The last image also shows a similar style to Simon Roberts as it includes people within the landscape image, including the people show the tourists within London and shows the people on their way to work.