Brief 1 - Exterior Location

 

I went for a long walk today after the rain had stopped, about an hour before sunset. I'm not complaining about the copious amounts of rain we've had recently because I've been thinking of photographing shadows and reflections of nature for my 'Exterior Location' project, and obviously when there is lots of rain, there are lots of puddles with reflections on them!

 

The sun was shining after the rain cleared so this created some really lovely reflections in puddles and shadows on the ground (and everywhere else).

 

 I've never really stared for a long time at one before, but when you really look at a reflection in a puddle, it's crazy!! it's like there's a slightly distorted photograph of the sky and clouds or a tree on the ground in a pebbly, leafy frame. At one particular part of my path, there were 3 puddles in a row with a tree reflecting into them and it was like a triptic you'd see up on the wall in a house or gallery but all natural! A picture of a tree split up into 3 frames. I tried to capture it but i couldn't quite get it as clear and as in focus as i would have liked from the distance i was stood at and by the time i'd walked close enough to it, the reflection of the tree had gone and the puddles were then just reflecting the sky! Reflections always change according to where you are positioned. Even a fraction of a movement will change the reflection. Anyway... I got the shot but it would have worked better if i had a better lense for it!   

 

The sun started to set and this is when all those gorgeous, warm, autumn colours come out to play! I love it when the sunlight shines through the leaves and you get those lovely yellows and greens and they cast shadows on each other.

 

 I was also taking shots of a big pile of logs i found and the light hit them perfectly at that time. It brought out the lovely warm tones in the wood. They were mostly pointing in the same direction and it looked like a family of logs were watching the sunset and i found it really cute!

I also like silhouettes of trees and buildings against the sunset sky so i took a few snaps of that aswell.

Here are some of my shots....

 

I have cropped and rotated this image so that the fence in the reflection in the puddle is the right way up. I think it looks really interesting. I would have preferred to zoom in closer so that there was just a tiny bit of grass at the bottom, the reflection in the puddle and a little bit less of the tarmac at the top in the frame. If i had done it like that, it would be harder to see exactly what i've done and cause abit of confusion.

 

 

 

 

The reflections of the sky and the clouds in the puddles reminded me of a painting. They look like tiny brush strokes of all different tones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one is another rotated image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to capture a little bit of the tree that was casting that huge shadow over the entire field! I love the colours at this time of year.

 

 

 

Got my shadow in this one aswell......Lee Friedlander style!

 

 

Shadows on the leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These guys looked like they're watching the sunset.

 

 

 

 

I saw this little guy poking out of the ground in the middle of my path randomly. It caught my attention so I got down low and took a snap. Used a wide aperture to get that shallow depth of field. (don't quite know what this has to do with reflections or shadows)

 

 

 

 

Rotated so that the reflection of the tree is the right way round. 

 

 

The family of logs i told you about earlier......I'm not too happy with this shot......

 

 

 

Watching the sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This took me a few attempts to get the shot I wanted. I needed to get the shutter speed slow enough to let enough light in as it was getting dark and i needed to select a small aperture in order for everything to be sharp and in focus, but not so slow that i'd loose the sharpness and start to get camera shake. This is where a tripod would have been handy! Anyway, I bumped the ISO up quite high to compensate.

 

 

That was one huge puddle in the field!!

 

 

 

 

 

Silhouettes.

 

 

Aperture - Shallow DOF - 7 final images

f/6.3

 

I took this on one of my walks. As you can see, the berries on the right are clear and in focus and everything else is blurred background making them stand out and making them the main focal point of the image.

 

 

f/5.6

 

Again, I took this image on a walk I took. The blur of colours of the landscape behind really accentuates the detail and shape of the piece of grass.

 

 

 

f/5

 

I took this image when we were doing work on topography and I did a typology of different types of leaves, but i took a quick snap from a different angle with a wide aperture. You can see how it has produced a depth of field because only part of the Holly leaf is in focus and everything around is blurred. You can notice on the wood underneath aswell how muh of the image is in focus. 

f/5.6

 

My Dad is also interested in photography so I took this when i was out shooting with him. Again, really shallow depth of field with him in focus and the background blurred and un-distracting.

f/5.6

 

Straight away with this one, you can see (i hope) what I was intending for you to look at first. The green fern is clear and then as things get further away, they are less in focus. I think this works because of the lighter green in the leaf. If it looked the same tone of green as the ones in the background, the depth of field wouldn't be shallow enough for it to stand out. 

f/2.2

 

I took this soon after getting my new 50mm f/1.8 lens. Obviously with this lens, I was able to get a much shallower depth of field because it can be set to a much wider aperture than what my other lenses can. Only a very small portion of the image is in focus and everything else blurred which gives a creative effect.

f/3.2

 

I used my 50mm lens for this image aswell. It's not just the object at the front that has to be in focus when experimenting with depth of field. I tried others where i isolated one of the tea lights in the middle instead and the front and back ones would be blurred.

Different Camera Types

Some people claim that there are just two kinds of camera ~ old fashioned film cameras and modern digital ones. However, there are a few different types (film or digital).

Pinhole Camera (Camera Obscura)

A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens and with a single small aperture – effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through this single point and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box. The human eye in bright light acts similarly, as do cameras using small apertures. You can make your own pinhole camera at home out of a box or a tin!

Single Use Cameras (Disposable Cameras)

These are the simplest type of camera. They contain a roll of colour film, a single shutter speed and a fixed-focus lense. The whole camera has to be taken into a printing shop to process the film and develop the prints. The camera then can't be used again. Single use cameras are really cheap and are useful for taking on holiday or to buy last minute.

 Compact Lens-Shutter Cameras

Compact Lens-Shutter Cameras come in three varieties: single focal length, dual focal length, and zoom. Some have fixed focus, meaning that the focus is fixed at a point that produces sharp images starting from about 5 ft. away and continuing to infinity. Other cameras offer infrared auto focusing. Some models offer features like red-eye reduction flash and several automatic shooting modes. More serious photographers usually prefer to

have more control over the pictures they take.

Bridge Cameras

Bridge cameras are intermediate cameras. They bridge the gap between "point and shoot" cameras and the more serious or complicated models. They have different lenses and many offer a red-eye reducing flash. There is only a limited range of lens focal length that can be used with these cameras.

Rangefinders

Rangefinders are compact, lightweight cameras that are often used for serious photography. They offer interchangeable lenses and allow photographers to control shutter speed, lens aperture, focusing, and exposure. Some disadvantages are that it is limited in focal length (ranging from 21mm-135mm) and they tend to be expensive.

Twin Lens Reflex (TLR)

The twin lens reflex is a medium-format camera (one that uses film larger that 35mm). It is fitted with two lenses which both have the same focal length, one mounted atop the other. The lower (taking) lens focuses its image directly on the film, while the image produced by the upper viewing lens is reflected through 90 degrees by a mirror, and brought to focus on a horizontal ground-glass focusing screen. The light paths to the focusing screen and the film plane are equal, so that if the photographer brings the scene on the focusing screen to sharp focus, the image on the film plane will be equally sharp.

Single Lens Reflex (SLR)

The SLR requires one lens for both viewing and creating the photo. A sophisticated camera that offers full manual control of exposure an focus. SLR cameras will accept interchangeable lenses, add on flashes, motor drives, and other accessories. There are also AF (auto focus) SLR's. These can be set in a number of different modes to ease picture taking. These cameras are typically used by professional photographers.
 

Task 1 - Define Location Photography

Task 1 - Define Location Photography

Location Photography is basically anything that is shot outside of a studio set up. Examples include public space, private space, working environments, social environments, events, landscapes, cityscapes and many many more (All using the available light). It is a vast subject and the list could go on forever with different genres and sub genres. One image can tie in with many of these different genres, so really....the world is our oyster! 

Aperture - Depth of Field

 

 

The sun was out for about 10 minutes yesterday afternoon so I went outside with my camera and took some snaps to demonstrate how aperture effects depth of field.

 

 I like photographing nature and you often see shallow depths of field in shots of flowers, trees, etc.

 

These were my favourite of the bunch...

 

 

                                                    
                                                                      f/8.0  
              I was stood quite far away from this which also gave that really shallow depth of field. 
                                                

 

f/6.3 

I like the composition of this image but i definately could have achieved a shallower depth of field! The background is distracting and taking the focus away from the subject. I'd like the rope to stand out more than this.

 

 

 

f/5.0

I'm happy with this one as the orange of the flower really does stand out and is a contrast against the blur of green behind it.

 

 

 

f/8.0

 

 

 

f/6.3

 

 

 

f/6.3

I like this image but i definatelty should have tried it with a wider aperture to get a shallower depth of field. I would have liked the logs towards the back to be a lot more out of focus than this!

 

 

f/5.6

 

 

f/6.3

I'm not too happy with this one as the background is VERY distracting and the subject kind of blends in to it.

 

                                                                       f/5.0

                                                                       f/6.3

                                                                        f/5.6

I have re-visited this post to add some more images that I have taken more recently to demonstrate shallow depth of field, using wide apertures.

 

 

 

 

You can be really creative with shallow depth of field, as it creates images that aren't true to life and aren't how we see them. It is also used by photographers to indicate where and what in the image they want to viewer to be looking at.

 

Aperture - Rinko Kawauchi

Rinko Kawauchi is a Japanese photographer who began working in advertising and then embarked on a career in fine art photography. Her work is recognised as being serene and poetic and she captures ordinary moments in her life.

These are some of my favourite pieces of her work...

I love Kawauchi's work. The images are really peaceful and show life and death in the most natural way. The pastel tones make them look like a dream or memory. It really is like visual poetry.

 

Her work is a good example of using shallow depth of field. She often creates a shallow depth of field so that our eye is drawn to the subject that she wants us to be looking at while the blur of pale background sets the mood she intends to provoke.

Aperture - David Loftus



I came across David Loftus when looking through the '100 most influential photographers of all time' and he came 65th on the list. Loftus specialises in food photography but is also well known in the worlds of fashion, interiors, garden and travel.
He has worked with people such as Heston Blumental, Martha Stewart, Lord Snowdon, Boy George and mainly with Jamie Oliver who said;

'he always shoots with natural light, and the energy and spirit of each dish is always really honest and genuine. His pictures are simply outstanding, sweet and enchanting. Without question, he’s one of the most prolific food photographers of the century'.

  

I absolutely love the colour in his work and i love how he uses a shallow depth of field to make the images even more interesting.