Foreword By Dimitri Baltzopoulos
Welcome one and all to my portfolio. I am a photographer from a very small town called Winterley consisting of about 100 people, it features on the BBC weather broadcast every Christmas due to the fame in the name. My love for being involved in the creative arts started in the first year of A-level where I started at Sir John Deane’s college in Northwich. I was doing A-levels in Maths, Physics, Product Design and Photography. By far my favourite subject was photography which is why a bought myself a Canon 500D, I was none the wiser that this DSLR also did video so I was also started making edits of my friends bmxing. I did all my editing on Mac which is why I was also very interested in Graphic deign to do with logos, branding, the image of companies and how I could expand upon them to use in my work and certain techniques like minimalism to best express my work. I hope that this portfolio will be visually very successful, it was designed using InDesign. The aim of this book is to present my work in to way that most illustrates what I have done for this unit and will demonstrate this in the best way. Throughout this unit I have been doing the brief of weather however a have organised and tailored my work to fit into that categories of the seasons; spring, summer, autumn and winter. There will be some shoot that aren’t directly related to weather however they will relate to the season like fireworks aren’t particularly weather related however they are typically associated with autumn and wrapping up warm. Most of my shoots have taken place in and around my town because for weather and macro photography you don’t really need to stray far to find a dramatic scene. Sating this however there are a number of my shoots that have come from France and America so there will be a mixture of cultures to find lurking in these shots.
Autumn Fireworks
Inspiration Richard Kempton This photo conveys a sense of the autumn feel because we associate fireworks and bonfire night with the cold and wrapping up warm. There is no rule of thirds or any other compositional techniques incorporated in this photo. The firework takes up most of the frame in this shot. It is probably 2 or 3 fireworks that are actually in this shot but the will have exploded in the same spot so that Richard would be able to put them all in the same final image which would give the impression or illusion that it was one very large firework. I think that he used a long exposure time of a round 20-30 seconds and an ISO of about 3200 so that the entire motion of the fireworks would be captured and they would be well lit with the sky being pith black instead of stitching together 3 different photos in Photoshop. In my opinion this was a very successful shot because of its raw simplicity and the very rich colour contrasting with the deep blacks of the sky.
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Outcome
Self Review Subject matter: I feel that I achieved very well the feeling of autumn in this final shot because I decided to use a wide-angle lens so that I could capture the people in the foreground watching the fireworks with hats and scarves on which conveys a sense of cold to the shot. It also shows the amount of people that are watching the fireworks display. Formal elements: In this shot I tried to use the compositional technique of the rule of thirds even though the photographer in my inspiration section didn’t, I just felt that it made the shot more appealing because it shows that I have thought about how the composition will work with the final edited image. I think that my compositional efforts paid off. There is a slight orange tone in the corner of the image, which was from the bonfire that was happening at the same time as the fireworks. Admittedly it does look a bit out of place and does contrast with the cold feeling that was intended for the image. If I where to go out and do this shot again I would definitely not make this mistake again and I would do this by using a slightly narrower lens to just get the fireworks in or just go somewhere that wasn’t having a bonfire. The colours in this image came out very well even before editing which I was very pleased about because I was expecting to have to have the sky slightly lit in order to get the full colour of the fireworks. The sparkles where another surprise, I didn’t think that they would show up at all which they didn’t very much before editing but they came out well after editing, I was a bout cautious not to over do it on the editing to make the sparkles show but I think it was very subtle. Process: In the end I didn’t stitch any photos together in Photoshop, the fireworks where perfectly the light intensity so that I could have an exposure time of 30 seconds but still be able to keep an ISO of 3200 so that the fireworks came out very well. there is no depth of field in this shot because I was shooting at F/11 just to balance the exposure and ISO but unfortunately his meant that I wasn’t able to achieve any depth of field. I didn’t find this to be a big problem because at an exposure of 30 seconds the people in the foreground where always moving so you wouldn’t notice any depth of field.
Autumn Red Leaves
Inspiration Edward Mayers in this shot i like how there is a large contrast between how it makes us feel, we can interpret it as being a cold shot because it reminds us of the cool chill of autumn with winter soon to be setting in, the other way we could interpret it is being warm because of the warm orange and greens in the shot. the photographer is probably trying to achieve the same thing as what im trying to do with the autumn theme. the shot has a very well structured composition with our eye being led all around the image following the line of the fence then up into the branches stuffed with golden orange leaves and then back down to the stump of the tree to complete the loop. i think that the only place to conduct this shoot would be in a forest so i think the most suitable place for the to do this would be in the peak district. i would also have to get the timing right because the unique selling point of this shot and why i chose it over others was because the colors are very soft in it so i would have to got evening time. a reasonable shutter speed would have been used on this of about 1/50 but the aperture must have been very wide, the photographer probably used a 50mm f/1.4 lens
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Self Review I feel that this shoot turned out very well for me. I had the right location and the right time on my first attempt. I am aware that compositionally my shot doesn’t have much in common with the inspiration I took, this is because this shot was very spur of the moment. I saw the bushes perfectly lit up by a low sun so I dashed to the location and was very surprised how well they turned out. My favorite part of the image is the six-point star that the sun has made. Other than that element the color of the leaves it is very different. I am proud to say that no editing what so ever went into this shot, when I was going to edit it anything I did just made it look fake and false so I came to the conclusion that it would look much better without undergoing any editing. In most of my images there is always one main subject or shape but here your eye is torn between the sun and the orange leaves. They are scattered everywhere so the are no lines in this image that lead our eye around the photo, everything is very chaotic and all hits you at once. For this shoot I didn’t take a tripod with me so for the final images when I was facing the sun it wasn’t a problem because there was plenty of light coming into the frame but when I wasn’t facing the sun and I was in the forest for the first set of images I had to have an ISO of 3200 which I always try to avoid at all costs because it makes the image very grainy but every with the widest aperture possible a was still using an exposure time of 1/50 so a couldn’t use anything but ISO 3200 because then there would be too much camera shake. My interpretation of this photo is that it portrays the feeling of winter thought the composition, main objects and colors.
Autumn Sparklers
Inspiration Jo Neville There is a particular part of this photo that interests me; the actual sparks coming off the sparkler. I think that these look very interesting and can show up very well in photos. This photo from Jo Eviller is very well exposed and very well focused which is probably going to be the hardest part of getting an appealing image out of the end of this shoot. I will use an ISO of 100 because sparklers are very bright and have the shortest possible exposure time so because the sparks from a sparkler are gone in a tiny fraction of a second.
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Self Review I am very pleased with the way that this final image turned out. I agree that sparklers aren’t typically associated with autumn but I thought that we mostly use them on bonfire night so that was a loose enough connection for me to try an experimental shoot on fats photography. I did to styles of shot in this shoot, the first one was with a standard lens so I only got the light from the sparkler in the frame, but the second style was with a wide angle lens so I got some of the foreground lit up and this caused a sort of natural vignette on the photo which a was very pleased about. Compositionally there isn’t much structure to the image; the main object is dead centre, which you could argue. To get this shot how I did used a low as possible ISO that my camera went to which was 100, I used an aperture of 3.5 which was also the lowest that my camera went to, the shutter speed didn’t bother me because it wasn’t a deciding factor of how the final image would turn out
Spring Raindrops
Inspiration Cuba Gallery The part of this photo that makes it very appealing I feel it the texture. There are beautiful textures in these images from the very soft feel of the centre of the water droplets to the very sharp and harsh edges of them. This photo will have been taken during the day and so will have had a low as possible ISO (about 100-200) and a moderate shutter speed, the background is very blurred so this means it must have been a very wide aperture (probably f/1.4 – f/1.8). There is an obvious centre point to this image, there is something green in the very blurred background which draws your eye to the centre of the image.
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Self Review I feel that this has been one of my most successful shoots; I like how the original idea for this shoot came from just seeing a Strongbow advert on the TV with interested me very much so I looked into this idea of water droplets and found that there is a lot of people that have done this and had very good outcomes. In my mind that is what photography is all about, the development of an idea from almost nothing and then taking inspiration from what others have been able to do with the subject. What I was trying to achieve n this photo was to be able for it to have in impact on someone about being just water drops, so that they don’t get confused and think its something else. He composition of this shot is very unstructured, the only thing I have to it is add a vignette which will attract your eye to the middle because without that our eye is lead allover the image due to the lines that the falling water drops make which would convey a sense of the image being even more unstructured than it actually is. For this shoot I used a 75-300mm lens so that I could get almost a macro effect, my 8mm or 18-55mm lenses where just too wide so the droplets of water where appearing way too small
Season Tite
Inspiration Cuba Gallery i very much like the soft and subtle tones in this photo so when i come to conduct this shoot i will use either a 75-300mm or a 50mm f/1.8 lens so that i can get the very shallow depth of field which i think is the main attraction point of the photo. i also like the colors in this photo with the green and purple nicely contrasting, but even though they seem to contrast the colors themselves are very soft which is a very nice feture that shows through very well in this shot.
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Self Review I like very much the overall way that this final image turned out. the idea a flowers in my mind means that we are exiting winter and the flowers are starting to bloom in the spring sunlight. when i conducted this shoot i used the 75-300mm lens that i was planning on using which did give this very soft feel to the colors and focus in the image that i thought was the main attraction point in the shot i used for inspiration. Compositionally there isn’t much structure to the image; the main flowers are arranged around the centre, however there is the branch that the flowrrs are on which leads the eye down and through the photo. To get this shot how I did used a low as possible ISO that my camera went to which was 100, I used an aperture of 3.5 which was also the lowest that my camera went to, the shutter speed didn’t bother me because it wasn’t a deciding factor of how the final image would turn out
Summer riding
Inspiration Matty Lambert what i like about this photo is the the main focus is on the rider, there is very little else to distract us from him. he is on a plain background with only the tops of some trees peeking through the frame and into the image. This photo will have been taken during the day and so will have had a low as possible ISO (about 100-200) and a reasonably high shutter speed to capture the motion in crystal clear definition, the background is very sharp so this means it must have been quiet a narrow aperture (probably f/5 – f/10).
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Self Review I feel that this shoot turned out very well for me. I had the right location and the right time on my first attempt, it was probably luck of the draw that i ended up shooting on a perfect sunny day. I can see that compositionally my shot i not identical with the inspiration photo that i used, this is because this shot was very spur of the moment (point and shoot).. i like how even in the photos you can feel the heat of a hot summers day through the medium of blue skies and high contrasting shadows. there was very little or no editing went into this shot, when I was going to edit it anything I did just made it look fake and false so I came to the conclusion that it would look much better without undergoing any editing. In most of my images there is always one a rider in every shot because without hat figure the shoot would have tended towards landscape which i didn’t want to do. there are no lines in this image that lead our eye around the photo, everything is very chaotic and and it is clear that everything is happening very fast. For this shoot I didn’t take a tripod with me so all of the shots where hand held because there really was no need for a tripod, it would have just made it harder to maneuver. i never used an ISO of 3200, I always try to avoid at all costs because it makes the image very grainy but every with the widest aperture possible a was still using an exposure time of 1/50 so a couldn’t use anything but ISO 3200 because then there would be too much camera shake. My interpretation of this photo is that it portrays the feeling of summer thought the composition, main objects and colors.
winter night
Inspiration
My interpretation of John’s attitude towards the subject that he photographs is that he is very passionate about one subject, and that is night photography. He is a very inspirational night photographer and is by far the best photographer in this field in my opinion. In all of his photos it shows through that this is clearly the only subject that he photographs because he is very specialist. He seems to enjoy very much different patterns and shapes that he can create using wire wool and other forms of lighting, these shots are very successful in my eyes. His photos are taken in all kinds of different locations; the one that I have displayed is on a beach but not specified where. The technique that he uses which most amazes me is how he can come up with different inventions or contraptions to make different lighting styles or shapes. The lens used in this photo is a wide angle lens but with no bowing (fisheye).
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Self Review subject matter: . It also shows the amount of people that are watching the fireworks display. Formal elements: In this shot I tried to use the compositional technique of the rule of thirds even though the photographer in my inspiration section didn’t, I just felt that it made the shot more appealing because it shows that I have thought about how the composition will work with the final edited image. I think that my compositional efforts paid off. There is a slight orange tone in the corner of the image, which was from the bonfire that was happening at the same time as the fireworks. Admittedly it does look a bit out of place and does contrast with the cold feeling that was intended for the image. If I where to go out and do this shot again I would definitely not make this mistake again and I would do this by using a slightly narrower lens to just get the fireworks in or just go somewhere that wasn’t having a bonfire. The colors in this image came out very well even before editing which I was very pleased about because I was expecting to have to have the sky slightly lit in order to get the full color of the fireworks. The sparkles where another surprise, I didn’t think that they would show up at all which they didn’t very much before editing but they came out well after editing, I was a bout cautious not to over do it on the editing to make the sparkles show but I think it was very subtle. Process: In the end I didn’t stitch any photos together in Photoshop, the fireworks where perfectly the light intensity so that I could have an exposure time of 30 seconds but still be able to keep an ISO of 3200 so that the fireworks came out very well. there is no depth of field in this shot because I was shooting at F/11 just to balance the exposure and ISO but unfortunately his meant that I wasn’t able to achieve any depth of field. I didn’t find this to be a big problem because at an exposure of 30 seconds the people in the foreground where always moving so you wouldn’t notice any depth of field.
Summer Beach
Inspiration Cuba Gallery The part of this photo that makes it very appealing I feel it the texture. There are beautiful textures in these images from the very soft feel of the centre of the water droplets to the very sharp and harsh edges of them. This photo will have been taken during the day and so will have had a low as possible ISO (about 100200) and a moderate shutter speed, the background is very blurred so this means it must have been a very wide aperture (probably f/1.4 – f/1.8). There is an obvious centre point to this image, there is something green in the very blurred background which draws your eye to the centre of the image.
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Self Review I am very pleased with the way that this final image turned out. i think that this shoot in general and the final image more so convey a very good feel of summer because the subject seems very happy and is jumping in the shot and it is also very nice weather. I did two styles of shot in this shoot, the first one was with my brother in the shot so these set had a figure in them which was the main focal point of the image and the others had no figure in it but still had i amin focal point like a rock or some other object. Compositionally there isn’t much structure to the image; the main object is dead centre, which you could argue. To get this shot how I did used a low as possible ISO that my camera went to which was 100, I used an aperture of 3.5 which was also the lowest that my camera went to, the shutter speed didn’t bother me because it wasn’t a deciding factor of how the final image would turn out.
Summer clothing
Cuba Gallery
Inspiration
In my opinion i very much like the the feel the that Andrew from the cuba gallery manages to create in all of his shoots. It clearly shows through that he enjoys photographing on beaches and around the coasts of new zealand, it is clear he is very passionate about one the style and finish he wants form each of his photographs. He has inspired me very much though out the course of conducting my shoots on the beach and he is in my opinion by far the best photographer in this field but this also shows because he is very popular on photographing sites like flickr. In all of his photos it is very clear what he likes photographing. He seems to enjoy making photos look close to perfection, it seems that he has conducted the shoot on a perfect day with perfect lighting however i know that this was a chieved by very skilled use of adobe lightroom 3. His photos are taken in all kinds of different locations; the one that I have displayed is on a beach but not specified where other than just in New Zealand. assumed settings: 1/250, F/2.8, ISO 100
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Self Review Subject matter: In my opinion this shoot went very well because i chose the right lens to allow me to get the effect i wanted. I wanted to ensure that the tree(s) that i would be photographing looked much smaller in comparison to its shadow, the 8mm fisheye lens let me do that very well because the distortion also made the shadow look even bigger. Formal elements: In the final shot the compositional techniques i used was to try and centre the tree in the middle of the frame, for some of the shot i put the tree in the upper or lower corners but i don't think these images where as striking as the ones with the tree in the middle of the frame. If I where to go out and do this shot again I would change the location that i went to, i would try to make my final image look more like the image i used in my inspiration and the only reason i think my final isn't as good as the inspiration photo is because the frame looks slightly empty with only one tree. Process: Only some light photoshoping went into these images but it wasn't a shoot where i knew a lot of. In these shots there is no depth of field because I was shooting at F/11 just to balance the exposure and ISO, the reason i had to use such a high aperture is because the 8mm lens that i have only has manual focus so the high aperture makes this less noticeable. I didn’t find this to be a big problem because at an exposure of 10 seconds the people in the foreground where always moving so you wouldn’t notice any depth of field.