Week 7: Light and Scale
Image 1 of 5
City of Light
Technique:
DSLR Photography
Process:
Camera: Canon 6D
Lens: Canon EF 50mm 1:1.4
ISO 160
Aperture 2.5
Shutter Speed 2"
The camera was set up to a long shutter speed, with a small ISO in order to capture a high quality, low lit image. The camera was hand held and moved around during the shot and patterns were created by the light it captured. Post processing in Photoshop included adjustments to the curves (to bring out the blacks), hue, saturation, brightness and contrast.
Reasoning:
As per the brief, I decided to take a few images of the city and lights and attempt 'painting with light' by using a long shutter speed. In Photoshop, the image was darkened and lightly over saturated so that the lights were the focal point of the shot.
Reflection:
Long exposures at night is something I've always wanted to try out over a city. What was stopping me, was that I thought I didn’t have the right lens for taking that kind of image. However, when I experimented with changes in the ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed, I found that I could indeed achieve a high quality image using a fixed lens. This was also one of my favourite weeks in terms of image making, as I love working with colour and light and seeing how far these elements can be manipulated to create an image.
#oneperday2017
Week 7: Light and Scale
Image 2 of 5
Electric Shock
Technique:
DSLR Photography
Process:
Camera: Canon 6D
Lens: Canon EF 50mm 1:1.4
ISO 160
Aperture 2.5
Shutter Speed 3"
The camera was set up to a long shutter speed, with a small ISO in order to capture a high quality, low lit image. The camera was hand held and moved around during the shot and patterns were created by the light it captured. Post processing in Photoshop included adjustments to the curves, hue, saturation, brightness and contrast. I the colouring was altered to bring out more cool toned hue's. the image was cropped and duplicated multiple times to create the collage in Photoshop.
Reasoning:
This was another light painting with long exposure photography. The lights seen are actually strips of LED lights on top of a building. I decided to do something a little different, and in lieu of next weeks theme, and create a patterned collage of the same image in various sizes and shapes.
Reflection:
I liked the composition of the collage, however my technical ability in Photoshop was not to a standard where I could pull off the image well. For example, you can see the lines from where different sections meet - clearly showing that it is another image. I would have liked to blend those lines further to create a more seamless composition.
#oneperday2017
Week 7: Light and Scale
Image 3 of 5
Micro-Pool
Technique:
DSLR Photography + Illustration
Process:
Camera: Canon 6D
Lens: Canon EF 50mm 1:1.4
ISO 125
Aperture 2.8
Shutter Speed 1/30
I first drew out the illustration on paper, using a 0.2mm black fine liner. The illustration was then converted to a digital image onto Photoshop, from there the levels were adjusted to give a clean black outline of the illustration. A second layer was created in order to paint in the image in Photoshop. Once completed, the illustration was saved as a Jpeg and re-oped as a new layer with the background image (plants). A mask was created around the blue water of the illustration, in order to make it transparent to the background. The edges of the water were softened to create a more seamless join. The background was altered to be slightly darker and more vibrant, and finally a slight vignette was painted around the edges to draw the eye to the focal point.
Reasoning:
During out tutorial this week, we used little figures and toys to create micro-scapes, however, I wanted to try and combine illustration and photography to do this instead. I thought I could learn a lot more about post processing by experimenting with combining these two mediums.
Reflection:
I really enjoyed the process of creating this image because it pushed me to learn new skills - such as using a masking layer and combining images. As well as this, this image required several different elements to complete it, and although it looks very simple, it did take me a while to complete.
#oneperday2017
Week 7: Light and Scale
Image 4 of 5
Micro-farm
Technique:
DSLR Photography + Illustration
Process:
Camera: Canon 6D
Lens: Canon EF 50mm 1:1.4
ISO 125
Aperture 2.8
Shutter Speed 1/30
The process for this image was exactly the same as "Micro-pond" aside from creating a mask on the illustration layer. This is because I did not need to make parts of my illustration transparent to the background. I also drew in shadows around the farmer, in an attempt to make it seem as if it were part of the scene.
Reasoning:
A second attempt at a micro-scape with the combination of photography and illustration.
Reflection:
I like how this image turned out, composition wise. However, I feel as thought the illustration didn’t seamlessly fit into the background as well as "micro-pond". In order to improve this, I think that more attention to detail in cutting the illustration away from its previous background was needed. As well as this, I had trouble creating realistic shadows of the farmer on the ground, as I couldn’t quite make out a proper shadow on the plants to copy, due to the position of the sun that day.
#oneperday2017
Week 7: Light and Scale
Image 5 of 5
The Adventure of a Smurf
Technique:
IPhone 6s Photography
Process:
I arranged the toy smurf in a "landscape" scene and took the photo using an IPhone 6s. Post processing in Photoshop included minor adjustments to the hue, saturation, brightness and contrast.
Reasoning:
As per our tutorial, I tried to find little toys to put into a mini land scape and create a micro-scape. I thought the smurf would do perfectly around the micro-scape I chose, as there were little blue stones that appeared as if they were a river. It set up an "adventure" type scene for the shot.
Reflection:
The image turned out fairly well and an iPhone was the perfect camera to use, as I was able to get in really close to the scene without bokeh around the edges. It was also interesting to try and find little micro-scenes that seemed fitting for my smurf to be in, without looking out of place.
#oneperday2017
