Ways Of Seeing
Our first task for our Street Photography topic was to go out around the school with a camera between two people and take pictures of things from and downwards angle. We were asked to take ten but me and my partner took a lot more. When we first went out I knew that I wanted to get photos of people rather than just objects like we normal do. Luckily the time we went out was near the lesson change so it gave us the perfect opportunity to photograph people on the move. Something that I really liked was I was able to get close up detailed shots of people without getting so close that they would get embarrassed. The first place me and my partner went was to the top floor of the 1st block. I knew there was a paper sculpture hanging down and I wanted to take a photo of it from above. Whilst up there I also managed to take a few pictures of some students looking at artwork. We went outside and started to take photos of other people in our class doing the same task as us. Out on the school fields there are some lampposts going up the path towards the gate and I took what I think was the best photo out of all the ones I took :
In this image you can see several lampposts in a line. The photo was taken at an angle so you can see each of the posts. I really like the composition of this image. It is calm and still with nothing moving. The way the lamps move upwards in a line is oddly satisfying. The image was taken from very very far away and I had to zoom in all the way to get the image. This gives a sense of scale and distance from each of the posts. One thing I don't particularly like about this photo is the lack of contrast. Im not sure what caused this; wether it was the zoom or the camera itself or lighting but it would look a lot better with more colours especially since there is grass and a blossom tree in it.
I think the photo looks a bit better like this but I'm too sure, since it looks slightly plasticky and un-natural. I enhanced the colours in the image just slightly.
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We moved to the other side of the school and I noticed there were two other girls about 100 metres away, on the external stairs. I zoomed in all the way and was able to get a very close up to them. I leant the camera on the metal fence so the camera was stable.
Shadows & Reflections
This time we were given the task to take photos using reflections and shadows. We had about 40 mins to go around the school and take some. I really enjoyed this task because theres a lot of reflective surfaces such as windows and mirrors in and out of the school. I really like the way most of the photos came out. One thing I found challenging about the task was the focus. The auto focus didn't really work when looking at reflective surfaces because it kept thinking I wanted focus on the actual surface, rather than the subject it was reflecting. This meant that I had to use manual focus and it became a little harder to get the image how I wanted it. The photo displayed above was taken of a 6th former walking through block 1 to Art. I took it as we were walking back to class so we were meant to be finished but I thought I'd just take the picture. I am extremely happy with the way the photo came out. I edited the contrast to give the girl more of a silhouette look. This makes the girl look like a shadow. In contrast to this the walls of the block are very shiny and reflective, and the green grass from outside is shone across the walls which looks really nice. If I was to do this task again, I'd like to try and take more pictures of shadows rather than reflections because I didn't take that many and it'd be good to work on that.
Over The Shoulder
I really liked doing this task. It gave me great opportunity to take photos of people and since it was of their back, I wouldn't have to get close to them or make them uncomfortable. I like the last photo I took a lot because again, the girl almost has a silhouette look about her and the editing gives it more of a sad tone. I un-saturated the image and put the contrast up to emphasise the darker colours of her clothes. The girl was sitting cross legged and it looked different to how people normally sit. I decided to keep the girl in the centre of the frame so I could get her whole figure in and see the way she was sitting.
Cropping
I found this task hardest out of all of them. I didn't understand the concept of cropping that well so it made it quite hard for me to look for photo opportunities. I feel like I might have drifted from the task on some pictures. However I still tried to take some good photos and I went to the back fields to take most of them. Since we did this when everyone was in lesson, I found it hard to find subjects that were interesting to take cropped photos of. If I was to do this task again I would like to learn more of what it actually is before taking the photos.
Walk On By
Surfaces
In this task, we were asked to take photos of Surfaces. I found this task quite easy because the school had lots of different textures and some of the architecture is quite interesting. When outside, I started off by looking at the floor for rubbish and patterns, but then I began looking at walls and upward angles. When taking photos of things close up it put the subject in very good focus and the background vey blurred. I really like the way all of the photos came out because of this. I chose the photo of James leaning on the fence. The camera focused on the surface of the fence and keeps James blurred out. However you can still see his facial expression and roughly where he's looking, meaning the photo isn't completely meaningless. I really enjoyed doing this task.
Evaluation of a chosen photo
This photo was taken on a train whilst on a photography trip with the class. From what I remember, this was taken using to a wide angle lens borrowed from a friend. The focus in this picture is very sharp and clear. It is obviously focused on the hands, in the centre of the image, whilst the background is out of focus. However, it is not so out of focus that you can't see different shapes and details in the background. The viewer is not just left with colors and tones. Another thing also very clear in this photo is the lighting. It is sharp, hard and fairly bright which provides detail and different tones throughout the photo. I would say that the hands in the centre of the photo could act as lines because of the fingers crossing over each other and the lines on the hands themselves. There are quite a lot of parallel lines in amongst the trains interior which also act as lines. Apart from these lines, I don't think theres any repetition within the photo. Something I quite like about the photo is that there's lots of different shapes. For example, there are many geometric shapes in the background, which contrast with the organic shapes in the centre (the hands). Probably the most interesting and engaging thing in this photo is the use of depth and space. Since the hands are so close up to the camera, yet still in focus, they make it seem like theres a massive distance between the foreground and the background. The image seems to sort of stretch out and expand the further you look back and I really like this. I think this might be because of the lens used when the photo was taken. The tones vary within the photo, with the lights being a bright white and the seats a dark black. The whole photo is in black and white and I think this contributes to the texture of the photo because it makes the hands seem harder and as if they have a solid quality to them.