Kristen (Photography)

Final Photographs (General Urban 1)

I was tasked to inspire my photographs off 'Urban' Photography, I did this by going to the construction site of the campus to get some shots of working people, as "Urban' is usually describe as a characteristic of town or city. I wanted to tell a story as well as taking 'Urban' photographs. I wanted to convey the downside to 'man-made' products and how it clutters the city of Preston, distracting working people with advertisements/taking away natures beauty. I did this by (first photograph) by framing the photograph to show the trees in the background/greenery. I used 'rule of thirds' by placing the 'man-made' signs to the right of the frame. This would show the signs blocking the trees, which suggests 'man-made' products are an eye-sore. I also used repetition of the signs, I wanted this to act as an panic attack of the signs being overwhelming. I then wanted one sign to be in the left of the frame (central) to balance the photograph, s the left sign is red, which is a bold colour, which would naturally draw the viewers eye-line to it, without over powering the rest of the photograph. I edited this by increasing the blue tint to create the negative impact of the message I want to send ross to the viewers. I also decreased the shadows and increased the noise in the photograph to add to the overpowering aspect, I wanted to achieve. I followed these principles, throughout the rest of my photographs, focusing on the ugliness side of 'man-made' products by increasing the contrast and lowering the shadows/whites to continue the theme of a 'panic attack'.

Final Photographs (Editing/Contact Sheet)

Lighting ON Location

Main Light Source

• Daylight (Natural Light) - Direct sunlight can make the lighting in the photograph look harsh and contrasty, (highlights and shadows will be sacrificed). A foggy day/hazy can create an ideal scenario for photographers, as it would make everything in frame softer and less contrast, which would make the shadows and highlights weaker. Rain/clouds can miss detail/give a flat outcome in the photograph. 

• Flash - This type of lighting, is very portable and can be indoors and outdoors. This also works well as you don't need a tripod, as the flash freeze's the light in frame/stabilise the camera. However, flash can cause 'Red Eyes' in portraits.

• Artificial (Varies) - Tungsten, Halogen, Fluorescent and LED, are different types artificial light sources. This means this type of lighting is mainly found indoors. This lighting source can create an unattractive colour cast, this can be fixed by adjusting the 'White Balance'.

All Lighting is Directional

Side - This can highlight form and texture, which can create a more 3D look/long shadows.

Above - Mid-day/noon. This can create harsher lighting with short dark shadows.

Front - This could create a flat look with not much form or texture, but can show shape.

Back - This type of lighting can highlight shape  and create a silhouette, but could also appear flat.

Below - Below can appear very dramatic and unusual/not natural (mainly used in horror films).

Quality of Light

Hard light can appear bright, saturated colours and sharp lines with defined edges and strong shadows/highlights (lots of contrast). Whereas, soft lighting can show more muted colours and softer edges/lines with weaker shadows and highlights (less contrast). Stereotypically, hard lighting would be used to exaggerate males features, especially in faces, where soft lighting would be used on women.

How the Time of Year Affects Light?

Winter (Dec - Feb)

During Winter, the sun is low in the sky and would stay low, during Winter. The days are shorter, because of this change the 'Golden Hour' is quicker. (Golden hour is 1 hour after sunrise and 1 hour before sunset). During Winter, we often get a 'Blue Hour', which is often longer, then the golden hour, where it can last 2 hours. The 'Blue Hour' is often 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset for cool light. This time/lighting is often good for moody photography and atmospheric shots, as it gives off a bluish tone. 

Summer (Jun - Aug)

During Summer, the sun is often high and strong, producing a harsh light, which creates short shadows, throughout midday. In Summer, we would get longer daylight hours, which creates a long time to get the golden hour lighting for photographs, which is typically 1 hour. But in the evening the golden hour is shorter and later in the evening. The golden hour suits the summer, more then the blue hour. This is due to the longer daylight we get in summer, where the sun produces warm light. 

Final Photographs (General Urban)

Final Photographs (Editing/Contact Sheet)

Type of Lenses:

Curating Photography

Curating photography is a select photographs together to create a clear narrative to create an engaging story to the audience. This can also be used to display on a portfolio of your best work for an exhibition. When creating a effective curation, will increase professionalism and value of your work. 

• Defining and preserving a central theme is important for a clear theme, as it can guides the photography narrative. 

• Photographs must align to create a central theme to avoid narrative interpretations from your target audience. 

• Framing, captions, and lighting should complement the theme of the photographs, creating a clear narrative, without the audience interpreting themselves. 

Target Audience: This is who the photographer is aiming the photographs at to be viewed by. This is important as your work might not be successful, as it would of not found the right demographic. Considering characteristics like age, gender, ethnicity, location, socioeconomic class, occupation, religious beliefs, political viewpoint. 

Flows and Visual Rhythm for Effective Sequencing: When creating a visual rhythm, you want to engage the audience, where you use compositions like leading lines to draw the target audience naturally into the photograph. Another is balancing the tones and colours to create the visual rhythm, where you use opposite colours to get the audience to look at a particular part of the photograph first, which creates an order.

Urban (Documentary) Photography (Client's Brief)

"In this project, you will apply and extend your foundational skills to explore storytelling through urban environments. The focus is on capturing real-life narratives, spaces, and atmospheres within the city using film and photography. Learning intentions include developing location-based shooting techniques, working with ambient and natural lighting, capturing candid or posed portraits in context, and using editing to enhance mood and narrative. You will also explore digital curation and audience engagement, considering how content is shaped for online platforms. The final outcome will be a curated social media collective—a collaborative digital portfolio (e.g. Instagram grid, shared blog, or online gallery) featuring short films, photo essays, and edited visuals that reflect diverse urban perspectives. This introduces you to visual cohesion, digital storytelling, and presenting work to a public audience, while continuing to build your technical and reflective skills".

"Same place, different perspectives." - Curtis Longmire

In these photographs, I wanted to show case ordinary, working people going on with their lives, commuting to work. I wanted to use a slow shutter speed to leave a trial of the cars to show the time it takes for someone to think of a perspective of why they might be commuting. I used leading lines with the headlights and rear lights to create a balance in the photographs, as my focus was to have a clean and non-distracting photograph. I also framed the photographs in 2 ways to show that there's always 2 sides to a story, which works for my array of photographs, as I want to showcase the meaning of everyone has different lives and sees everything differently. I also used rule of thirds and central compositions to switch up the layout to work with the overall theme of the photographs. The way I edited the photographs, I used the tones panel in Lightroom to create a my own version of the blue hour and then I created a red version to show opposites, which shows everyone is different in the way they think. Throughout all the photographs, I increased the contrast and deepens the blacks, while exaggerating the whites to enhance the white lights coming off the cars. I added a Vignette to all the photographs, as I wanted the focus to be the cars lights and not the background, This worked well with the deepened contrast, as it made the photographs look circle, which circles has connotations of of being continuous, just like everyone going to work, going home and just continuing with their lives. 

FINAL EVALUATION (Urban, Documentary Photography/Overall Photography)

During this project, I worked alone for majority of photography, as my tutor wanted us to create our own versions of the theme of the photographs. I feel that I worked well at creating a story and an issue of attack/reasoning for my photographs. However, I found that I worked well in group, when we had to generate ideas together, as initially, I was going to join my project with another person on my course, as we had a similar idea. I found that generating ideas is easier with another person, as you can bounce ideas back and forth on each other, which led to us to have different ideas and outcomes. I feel I could have improved my camera knowledge further, by using different lenses types to take my final task of the project further with different perspectives through different lenses. In a group, I feel I have gained more confidence in myself to share my ideas further, where last project, I would listen and use their ideas. On this project I have gained more camera knowledge. This is due to messing around with the lower shutter speed for the "Same place, different perspectives." photographs, as I found you can create your own shutter speed length by using 'BULB' in the shutter speed settings. This challenged me to try different settings for f-stop and ISO to create visual appealing photographs. Research has helped me to analyse different photographs from a wide array of photographs, which allowed to learn and try different compositions, instead of sticking with 'Rule of Thirds'. Research has also helped me to grow my confidence in taking more photographs 'in the spur of the moment', as I photographers like Martin Parr took some dodgy looking photographs, but edited them to contrast the colours with black and white and tell the story of Brits on vacation, during the half term.