Evaluation

For this unit I have photographed Birmingham city at night and in the early morning to create night photographs. I have experimented with various colours and extremes of tonal contrast. this was all for the Emerging Talent award for the Melbourne festival.

My idea hasn't changed at all throughout this unit. I specifically stated to the judges of the Melbourne festival what I was going to photograph. This is because I was improving my own skills at night photography that I wanted to stick with this theme.

For this unit I have used my Nikon D610 with a 50mm f/1.4 and 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 lens'. Since as I was working in low lighting in some cases I had to use long shutter speeds causing me to use a tripod. In some cases I also used a shutter release cable to make sure the camera is as still as possible. I barely used any editing techniques; the only thing I did to the images may have been levels.

The main problem I encountered was the time I went out to shoot. Due to the time of year, sunrise was getting earlier and earlier so I found it difficult to get out the house and into Birmingham early enough so that the sky was completely black excluding any light pollution. To try and overcome this I used energy drinks and I went slept a lot more to put my body clock out of normal times.

Rut Blees Luxemburg is one of the artist researches I have done because she uses lots of light and includes light sources in some of her images which defines some of them and makes it the focus of the image. I have also looked at work from Mara Tyskens for her uses of different colours and use of light to make the colours more distinguishable. She also uses her light sources in her images to make aspects of it stand out.

I am pleased with my final piece however I wish that I had been able to go out and photograph more to give me more to work with. I could also have done rural photo shoots which might have acted differently than that of the light in a city.

Final image

I have chosen this image to be my final because it uses several different colours; both warm and cold. I have also used light sources that emphasize specific parts of the image and they are also in the image creating an alternative subject within the image. There is clear and precise detail in the image which shows the detail of the bricks, windows, lights and floor. The contrast from the light to the shadow is very intense creating a very eery and creepy feel to the image. I feel that this image is the best because it combines all the features that I have primarily researched.

Photoshoot 3

This time I set out earlier so that it wouldn't get light whilst I was there. I found this much more productive; I was able to take more photos and not have to rush around the city.

I feel that this image is quite strong because all the lines are leading towards the floor in front of the walkway. There are three distinctive colours that separate the image into three. The orange on the left, yellow on the right and the green that shines down the middle. Areas of this image are very well lit and create very contrasting shadows behind corners and underneath the rails. I feel that some people might not see this image as night time photography because of this. It is so well lit that some people might think that it is just a photograph with no one in the frame.

The only good point about this image is the the contrast and diversity of the tones. Long, deep shadows cast across the supporting beams and stairs which separates them within the image. However the yellow hue throughout this image is really overpowering and distracts the viewer. In my attempt to try and fix it I think I made it worse so I stopped and went back to the original.

When I took this image I thought it looked like it would be strong. This is because the density of the lights switch from side to side up the building. The light coming from the rooms is completely random and created a strange zigzag pattern down the building.

This image is very interesting because it uses two very different strong influences of colour. It looks like the colours of the buildings are facing each other off. Fighting for the dominance of the image. The darkness of the black areas making the light of the walls and the lamp post stand out however because of the distance it has from the foreground it looks very secluded and out of sight.

This image has lots of light sources ranging from the foreground, middle and the background. Creating lots of dynamic contrasts in the tones and lots of variating warm and cold colours in the background. The greys, silvers and whites in the foreground look very strict, clean and organised which is the opposite of the colours in the background.

Overall I dont think that this images are as strong as the images taken in the first photo shoot. I found that my techniques were more fluent and simply which made my images look more natural. Therefore I will stay with images from that one.