Central London Tower Hill and St. Paul's: Shoot 10 Work Diary

Central London Tower Hill and St. Paul's: Shoot 10 Work Diary

Shoot Ideas
I wasn't originally going to produce a shoot 10 but after looking through my work I realised that I needed to add more images to refine and develop my work. I have decided to go back into London and take more images around the Tower Bridge as my images in the Tower Hill shoot are not all of a good exposure. Within this shoot I want to capture the Bridge from different angles and I also want to travel to St. Paul's Cathedral and get closer than I did in my previous shoot. By documenting these two places I think it will develop my work because it will explore British identity and culture further. My camera skills have developed well and I understand that I need to experiment with different settings which I am planning on doing in this shoot.

Research
The research that I have carried out for this shoot is the same as many of my shoots before. All of my shoots have been inspired by Simon Roberts.

This image shows how buildings have taken over the countryside which is the main development I am making within my work as I have shown comparisons between Central London and small towns like Waltham Abbey. The main focus of this image is the tall tower blocks because they look intimidating when compared with the location they are in and the people that are in the centre of the image. Throughout Roberts' shoots he has included people within his shoots to show how the people act as a feature to the image rather than trying to cut them out. The people act as a feature within this image because it shows how a normal walk out in the countryside with her/his children has been ruined by the views. I think that this image links in with the shoot I am going to do because in London there are many big buildings that intimidate and surround the people like the Tower Bridge and St. Paul's.

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

Contact Sheet

The above images are the contact sheets from my shoot around Central London. From briefly looking at the images you can see how I have experimented with the camera settings because the same image has been taken more than once and appears darker and lighter. 

Best Images

I think this image can be considered as one of my best images because it has been taken from a different angle compared to the images I took in the previous Tower Hill shoot. Also, the settings within the image have worked perfectly because the sky and the building are all of a good exposure, in the previous shoot I stubbled to capture the correct exposure for the building and the sky but I believe that I have succeeded here. The image includes the Tower Bridge, this is the main aspect of the image but the buildings in the background also serve importance because they also add to the British Identity as the Gherkin is also a famous building. The building work within the image also link to British culture and identity because it shows how there is always constantly things changing and progressing in London which is one idea I have developed within my shoots. This is a successful image and after taking it into Photoshop I believe that it will work well in my portfolio.

I took a similar image within my previous Tower Hill shoot but I think this one works just as well as the others. I chose to take this image from a distance but still capture the same effect. By documenting the side of the Thames it shows the work ethic within London which is also another idea I have already expressed within my work. This image shows the new from the old because we can spot the new modern buildings but also ones that have been there for a long time, they are just as significant as the new buildings. The steps in the foreground of the image act as a good effect because they separate the foreground, middle ground and background out well. This image also links in well with Simon Roberts work because I have documented people within the landscape as it shows the types of people that visit this area and how the landmarks bring people together. 

This is the second time I have visited St Paul's and I strongly believe that the images I have captured here work better than previous images I have taken. I got up close to the landmark and took several different images at different angles. I think this one works the best because it shows great detail of the landmark and how intimidating it is, it makes the car in the left corner look so small. Although this isn't a landscape image I still think it works well within my project because I am expressing British culture and identity and this famous landmark links in with it well. Previously I didn't take a great image of St Paul's but I think I have succeeded here, it is in focus and the exposure of the sky and building have been documented well.

Images That Require Improvement

To an extent this image does work because it shows a famous landmark with features in the image that belong there. However, the exposure of the sky doesn't work well because it is too bright, also I don't believe that I have focussed well enough on the landmark as it does look a tiny bit out of focus. To improve this image I could've changed the settings around and merged two images together, one with a good exposure for the sky and one with a good exposure for everything else. Also, when I am shooting I need to make sure that I focus on what I am taking a photo rather than just hoping for auto-focus to do it for me. 

This image is a good image but like the image of St Paul's previously I haven't focussed on the landmark correctly and it just looks slightly out of focus. I could develop this image by taking it into Photoshop and sharpening it but I have taken other images that can replace this one. I have chose to include it in images that require improvement so I can look back and make sure that I properly focus on the main aspect of the image.

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

My ideas for carrying out this shoot was to refine and develop the work I have already produced. It wasn't compulsory that I carry out another shoot because I had already created a portfolio and produced images that I was proud of but I needed to refine and develop certain parts. Going into London was the best way to progress my work because I needed to work on the images I had already taken here but experimenting and changing the camera settings. In most of my shoots I have focused on Simon Roberts as a photographer as he documents landscape photography with features of people within them. I have used elements of this idea within my shoot because there are people in most of the locations that I visited so I used them within my images. I think this is one of my best shoots as there is visibility of experimentation of camera settings within my shoot and I have established British culture and identity well.

With regards to my best images...

I think these are the best images that I produced within my shoot, there were several successful images of the landmarks but instead of including them all I have just used one from each landmark. Within this shoot I have documented the famous landmarks mainly which can be seen in that section of my work diary as the best images are only of famous London landmarks. All of my images work well together because they all express different aspects of British culture and identity. 

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

To capture these images I used a Nikon D3300, I also worked with a tripod. The settings that I used for these images were roughly f.18, 1/80 and ISO 200. In some of the images I took the settings varied because I changed the camera settings throughout the shoot to correspond with the exposure within the scenery. The main setting I changed was the f stop as I shot in aperture priority mode mainly. The ISO I took these images worked well within my shoot because it reduced the noise within the images, if I had increased the ISO at any point the image quality would've changed. 

Next I took some of the images into Photoshop...

To edit this image I increased the brightness of the image using the curve filter. Then using the black paintbrush tools in the curves filter I burned the sky to make it bolder and give the clouds a texture. I also slightly burned the bridge because it was too bright, this made it stand out more. I think this is a clear development from my previous shoots at Tower Hill because all of the picture is in focus and I didn't have to make drastic changes to the images.

 

I edited this image in a similar way to the one before but I used the curve filter to darken the image. By darkening the image it made the sky appear darker and bolder. Then using the white paintbrush tool I lightened the foreground areas excluding the sky to make them lighter which made the sky stand out more. Finally, I also increased the saturation of the image to make it brighter, the main colour is blue and this stands out more by increasing the saturation.

I edited this image in the same way as the previous image, using the curves filter I made the image darker to make the sky stand out. This made the building darker and less visible so within the curves layer I used the white paintbrush tool to make the building brighter. Finally, I also increased the saturation within the image. 

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

Here I have included my best images within the shoot that I believe show the best response to my project proposal. I went to two different locations and i have chosen the three images from these locations that work the best. There were various images i could've chosen but I have only included the best images from this shoot. I believe that I have created a refined and developed response to my project proposal here as it shows British culture and identity. These famous landmarks all represent British identity as it's what we associate with Britain and London. I had already gone out to Tower Hill but I chose to visit there again to develop my work and I am glad I did that for my final shoot as I have produced better images that can be picked for my portfolio. I believe that these images I have taken also relate to Simon Roberts because they include elements of people and objects that some photographers would cut out but the people within these landscapes show how the landmarks bring people together which links to British identity. 

Computer Experiments

Computer Experiments

To experiment with the images that I have taken I want to develop my work by using photoshop to refine my work. When I realised I wanted to use landscape photography within my work I have been experimenting with documenting landscapes in a panoramic way. I have researched a photographer called Mark Gray who documents his landscape images in a panoramic way. 

Although his landscape images are very different to mine I still want to explore this idea of creating a panoramic image. His images go along with the fine art idea of photography because of the colours and composition of his work. His work doesn't document buildings and people within them whereas mine do because I have linked my work very closely to Simon Roberts. I experimented with panoramic shots within my shoots at Tower Hill because I wanted to show a wider view of the location.

These panoramic shots worked well because the images all fit in together well, each image has the right settings so they are all of a good exposure time and the main elements are in focus. The only bad thing with the second panorama is the people are moving so they are blurred but it still works. My images relate closely to Simon Roberts because they both contain people within the images, he uses people as features rather than trying to remove them from the image. 

To create the first panorama I took these three images:

The I used the photo merge filter found in File within Photoshop and used the perspective filter to merge all these images, this was the final result:

I also performed the same action with the second panorama, I took these three images:

I used the same filter and settings, this was the final outcome:

Overall, I believe that I have progressed within this area and created a final outcome using a computer experiment that works well for my project. These images both present a refined and developed outcome for British Culture, they also link in with the work produced by Simon Roberts as I already mentioned I have included people within my landscapes similar to how he produces his work. 

As well as creating panoramas for my physical experiments I have also experimented with different effects on the images. I have created images using sepia tones and other colour tones...

This shows signs of reining and developing within my work because I have taken my images which were taken in the modern time and presented them as if they were taken prior to colour photography. The atmosphere that is created within these images is a olden time theme because of the sepia effect. I also tried to experiment with different colours to present a modern theme too, I used colours like blue, violet and orange and worked them into the image which also had a good effect. I prefer the images with just the sepia effect because they seem more normal and show how I can develop my work. I wanted to present how time has changed and how the scenery is modernised but using this effect shows how previous photography can have a positive effect on modern day photography. 

Physical Experiments

Physical Experiments

To refine and develop my work I want to work with physical experiments because this will progress my work thoroughly. An idea that I have to begin with is cutting strips of my images and sticking them back together similar to a collage of the image. When researching this idea I came across Arian Behzadi who cuts out images and sticks them back together but not always in the same order. 

This is an example of his work, it looks like a painting of a man playing a trumpet with a horse beside him. I think this idea will work well with my work and will start to give my work a reason and a final outcome. I am planning on making a physical experiment for an image from each of my shoots as this will establish which type of landscape works best under these experiments. As well as cutting my images into strips I could also experiment with different shapes such as squares or diagonal lines.

I have created two physical experiments in similar ways but with different images, using a craft knife I cut up parts of the images and placed stuck them onto a piece of A3 paper then scanned it into the computer.

I wasn't able to access an A3 scanner so they had to be scanned in halves but the idea still works. By producing these images I believe that I have refined and developed my work because I have presented a meaningful response to my project proposal by creating two images that show British identity and culture with a fine art effect.  This response shows how my work has developed as I have created something further than just a photoshopped image I have used physical experiments. The images appear abstract which is what I wanted because it can be linked back with the artist Arian Behzadi as his work is presented in an abstract form. 

     

This development can be considered as a physical and computer experiment because I used both aspects to achieve this image. I used water colour pain to create a wash which is visible above I then scanned this into the computer and put it into Photoshop as a layer. I then merged these two images together using the soft light filter and adjusted the settings to bring parts of the image back, the way I did this is visible in the screenshot image above. This image incorporates photography and painting as one. 

  

This can also be considered as a physical and computer experiment because I created a watercolour wash on some watercolour paper which I then scanned into the computer. I used the black and white image of the tower bridge and layered the watercolour wash on top of the image to create this effect . I used the overlay filter which can be seen above in the Photoshop screenshot and addicted the settings to bring the darker effects into the image. 

Slide Share Portfolio

Portfolio from hannahvallance27

Final Evaluation

Final Evaluation

In the beginning of the project I wanted to document British culture and British identity by focusing on people and objects as I thought that this would be the best way to present this idea. As my personal project developed I began taking images that were landscape photography so my original idea changed. In the images I have created I have shown a clear comparison with the City of London and smaller towns such as Lea Valley and Waltham Abbey, I chose to compare these two places because they show how British culture and identity differ in both places. In London I have shown British culture and identity as the landscapes show how there is a big work ethic and London, my images also show how we have had to develop out lives and increase security because of the recent terror attacks in the country. In Waltham Abbey I have shown British culture and identity because I have shown what it is like to live in these smaller towns and although they are considered as a smaller town they still show signs of being similar to London. The photographer I based my work on was Simon Roberts as he expressed British culture and identity through landscape photography. His work visually relates to my work because he uses images of landscapes that includes people within the image to show how these landscapes bring different people together. As I have mentioned throughout my work I liked his idea of including people within the landscapes to tell a story so within my work I attempted to use people within the landscapes that showed a meaning to the landscapes, for example within my shoots in London I included tourists within the images that showed how the famous landmarks that I documented draw attention from tourists. 

Here I have presented one of my images and one of Simon Roberts, they work closely together because they both represent London, the people within the images show how London brings people together. These images both represent British culture and identity because they show famous landmarks that we associate with Britain and London.

For example, in my Tower Hill shoot I recorded this image which showed how the famous landmarks attracted different types of people. All these people tell a story, there are people taking selfies with the famous landmarks who are considered as tourists but there are also people just walking along not even admiring the view they are considered as people just commuting around London either for work or for fun. As well as documenting London I also documented landscapes in countryside areas with more nature to express British culture and identity in these places. By documenting both city landscapes and countryside landscapes it enables us to compare what each area brings to the British culture and identity topic. I documented countryside landscapes in Waltham Abbey and Lea Valley, these areas are close to my house which made the shooting process a lot easier. I wanted to document the nature within these areas because I believe that it shows how British people take pride in the nature within the country. 

For example, this image was taken in Waltham Abbey and I chose to take this image to express the British culture with the nature aspect of the area. The main focus of the image is the river running along the middle as it is a big part of Waltham Abbey so I wanted to signify it. Many of my images taken in Waltham Abbey and Lea Valley are similar to this image because I expressed the nature values in these areas to link to British culture and identity. In the beginning of my topic I didn't expect to be going down this route of landscape photography, I wanted to use symbolism to express British Culture but I haven't used single objects to present this symbolism I have just used symbols within the landscapes. Within some of my shoots I did focus on one specific object but rarely and this is why my idea changed and I decided to focus more on landscapes rather than singular objects. 

For example I chose to focus on the seagull in this specific image because I thought it would capture British identity well as we associate a lot of Britain with having seagulls. This image relates closely to Martin Parr as he takes images up close and personal with the object which is what I have achieved here. I did originally saturate the image to relate to Martin Parr but to work it into my body of work I decided to desaturate the image. By focussing in on this one objects I created a direct address of British culture rather having deeper meanings of British culture expressed through my landscape photography. I chose not to focus on certain objects throughout the whole of my project because I wanted to link my work wholly to Simon Roberts who works with landscape photography regarding British culture. I believe it is significant that my idea changed because I have achieved a strong body of work and a good series of images that relate to my beginning project proposal. 

My initial project proposal was to look at British culture regarding the different objects that are found in the places around Britain, I wanted to take images of red phone boxes which would link to Martin Parr's symbolism which I would also use alongside his ideas of saturation. In my first shoot I didn't use some of Parr's saturation techniques but I didn't carry this on because it gave a comedic effect to the images which is not what I wanted within my images. In the beginning of my shoots I wanted to just focus on Martin Parr as a photographer but as I developed my images I realised that Martin Parr and Simon Roberts together would allow me to be influenced by the best photographers who work closely to my ideas. There were various approaches I could've taken to portray British culture but I chose landscape photography, the reason I chose this was because I wanted to express the differences within the areas around Britain and by using landscape images it is clearer which areas I am photographing in. I chose to compare the areas by documenting their landscapes as this shows how different each area is and show the sights we see around Britain. For example, my first shoot was at Clacton beach and my other shoots have consisted of London shoots, these locations are very different so my comparisons between the shoots are easier. I wanted to compare these locations because the landscape images show the different people found and the different wildlife/nature found in each area. The comparisons between these areas all express British Culture as it shows how different each part of Britain is.

Overall, I believe that I have achieved in expressing British culture through landscape photography because I have shown the different views around Britain and London. Although I didn't use symbolism within my project which I was originally going to use I believe that the way I changed my idea and my constant use of landscape photography has made my project succeed and helped me produce a constant body of work. The images I took within my shoots were easy to distinguish between ones that worked within my project and ones that didn't, because my locations were so different some images taken in each location were so different that they wouldn't have worked when putting them into my portfolio. My final images all show how different London and Britain are, the smaller villages are much quieter and peaceful whereas when documenting images in London it is clear to see how many people are active. My work shows how some parts of the countryside have been neglected because there is no people active within the areas. The images taken in London also show how we as modern day people have to prepare for tragic events such as terrorist attacks, barriers have been put up around London to try and protect our people by documenting these landscapes with the changes it shows how the city has decreased in beauty because of these events. I think I have succeeded within this project and produced a successful body of work.