LO3 Sorted Files

It's important to have the folders sorted out so it is easier to navigate and know where things are.

LO3 Planning the Edits

10 Selected unedited photographs:

Selected Photo 1:

Selected Photo 2:

Selected Photo 3:

Selected Photo 4:

Selected Photo 5:

Selected Photo 6:

Selected Photo 7:

Selected Photo 8:

Selected Photo 9:

Selected Photo 10:

LO2 Camera Settings and Lighting

Macro mode:

Macro is a setting that allows you to take photos of things close to the lens in focus, this can be very handy when taking photos of flowers and insects up close and in great detail. I will most likely be using this setting a lot more than others because most of the ideas I have of my photos are close ups of things natural to the forest, mainly flowers. I also will use it go give a depth of field to my photo, as the focus point is in focus whilst the background tends to go out of focus and I can use this to create a depth of field.

Action/Sports mode:

The Action/Sport mode is used for photos of movement and can be very useful for things like Sports, running water, someone running etc. and keeping a focus on the target. This makes the camera use a higher shutter speed, like 1/500, and this is so the shutter captures the photo as fast as it can and this means it can get the photo at the very second you take the picture, it also makes the aperture wider to let more light in. Another useful feature is to use burst mode with the sports setting as this means that it continuously takes photos when you hold down the shutter release and this can be handy as I can check the photos later to see if any are good, and because theirs more, I'm more likely to find a successful photo. The reason I will use this setting is because I have planned to get a shot of one of the streams little water falls, and I don't want the water to show up blurred and so I will use this setting to have a crystal clear image of the water running.

Landscape mode:
The landscape mode on a camera is for taking photos of a landscape, unlike portrait mode which is for single objects, this is for a wide setting, such as a field. I will use this mode for when I am  taking photos of a row or bunch of trees, particular when the sun is setting so I can get a kind of silhouette of the trees with the sun behind it.

Exposure:

Exposure is the amount of light let into a camera's lens or an 'electronic image sensor' and this can be determined by the light sensitivity of the ISO (Image Sensor), the aperture of the lens and the shutter's speed. There are two types of exposure;

Overexposure: This is when too much light reaches the light sensor, causing any details to get bleached. (An example of where this could be a studio with bright lights).

Underexposure: When little light reaches the light sensor, this can make the image too dark, thus you can not see the details. (An example of where this could be a night shot).

Shutter Speed:
This is how fast the shutter closes and opens, this can determine how much light around you is let in the lens.

A fast shutter speed is used for moving objects which you want to get a focus on, if the speed is fast then it lets in a small amount of light because the shutter closes so fast, meaning the camera can get a fast moving object easily in focus.

A slow shutter speed means the shutter closes slower and so a larger amount of light is let in, this can be used if you want your photo to have a blur effect, this is because the camera is taking the picture with light continuously reflecting off an object, or from an object (As shown below).

Depth of Field:
Depth of field is the distance between the farthest and nearest objects in the photo. Their are two types;

Deep Depth of Field:This is when the background is in focus and this can be useful for landscape images as it can make the setting stand out.

Shallow Depth of Field:This is when the foreground is in focus and this can be useful for when you want an object to be the focus point in the photo as the booty background is blurred out so you can barely see any details that may distract the viewer from the point you want them to focus on.

Aperture:
Aperture is an opening to let light in the camera lens, it factors into depth of field as it can let certain amounts of light in depending on the width of the opening is which is determined by the environments lighting. Aperture is measured in F-Stop, the bigger the F-stop (like f/16) the more closed the opening is, and the lower the F-stop (Like f/1.4) the wider the opening will be, A low F-stop lets in more light, whilst a higher f-stop lets in less.

For a shallow depth of field the camera's aperture will need to be something like f/22, this let in less light, this causes the background to lose focus whilst an object closer to the lens is more in focus as the camera can easily receive the light from something closer to it than something further.

On the other hand, a deep depth of field will need the camera's aperture to be something like f/2.8 to let in more light, this leads to the background and foreground of the photo to still be in great detail and in focus. This is because the ISO can receive all the light reflecting of those objects even farther away.

Different lighting:

Diffused:

Diffused lighting is light that is emitted from many places, such as the sky, or even artificial light like ceiling lights.

LO2: Risk Assessment

Potential Risk 1: Water damage to the camera.
Danger to: N/A
Level of Danger: 2
Prevention: Make sure the strap on the camera is securely around my neck, handle with extreme care when near a river.

Potential Risk 2: General damage done to the camera (e.g. drop the camera and it smashes)
Danger to: N/A
Level of Danger: 2
Prevention: Make sure the strap on the camera is securely around my neck.

Potential Risk 3: Steep hills may cause tripping, or falling down one.
Danger to: Me
Level of Danger: 4
Prevention: Either take an alternate route to get down the hill, be observant of the ground for trip hazards.

Potential Risk 4: Camera gets stolen.
Danger to: N/A
Level of Danger: 2
Prevention: If camera left somewhere be observant or keep secured somewhere you know no-one can take it.

Potential Risk 5: Trip Hazards (Tree roots, logs, rocks etc.) on pathways or hidden in the greens.
Danger to: Me
Level of Danger: 3
Prevention: Be observant of the ground whilst walking.

LO2: Permissions

I did not need permissions for both models nor location as the location I was shooting is a public space whilst I would of need a location consent release form for permission to use privately owned land. I also did not need a model consent release form as I did not use any models as all my photos were took in the public woods of trees, plants and river streams, not people.

LO2: Treatment

The Brief:
Produce photos based around the identity of Sheffield's Forests, which will be presented in the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield.

My Target Audience:
My target audience are the people who enjoy nature and are very economical and want to see the beauties and sights of Sheffield's forest. It could also open up peoples minds who are otherwise not very economical and change there thought on nature.

Key Dates and Milestones:
Planning the photo-shoot: 26th February - 8th April
Photo-shoot 1: 8th April
Final Photo-shoot: 21st April
Planning the Editing: 21st April - 29th April
Editing: 29th April
Presenting and Deadline: 20th May

Equipment:
The only equipment I will need is a Cannon DSLR 650D to take the photos as I will not need a tripod.

Props and Models:
I will not need any props or models as the photos will only have natural things from the forest.

Health and Safety considerations:
 There are only 2 risks that could be a danger to me; the first one being steep hills, as I could easily fall down going up or down the slopes and the worst could be that I either strain or even break my ankle. the second is very minor as it is just a tripping hazard when walking in the forests and the worst that could happen is that I get a scratch.

Legal and Ethical Considerations:
Firstly, I do not need a location release and consent form to give permission to use this location as the land is public and isn't privately owned, I won't need a model release and consent form as there are no models involved. I will not show anything obscene and I will not misrepresent a group of people or cause defamatory. Finally, there is the consideration of copyright, this being two things, if I was to use my image for profit reasons and I sell my work, but there's a companies logo or anything that is under copyright I will have to seek consent to use it from the owner and the other being that I have to be wary about my photos being taken by someone, without my consent they would be breaking the law as long as they are using it for profit reasons, on the other hand, if it's not then they are not.

LO2 Sketches

LO3 Unedited Photo Contact Sheets and Evaluation of Unedited Photos

First Shoot:

Second Shoot:

Evaluation:

My photos are of shirtcliff wood's and its nature, they range from photos of flowers, trees, plants and small streams that go through these woods, I think most of these that I took worked really well, especially the ones that I focused a certain photographic element on. I also think the colour and brightness levels in the photographs are quite decent too even though I did not have to change the ISO, shutter speed or aperture much for most of the photos.
On the other hand though I do have improvements for my photos, one being the focus, although quite a few were using focus for depth of field, a few of them I was not doing this with, were out of focus for example, a whole group of the photos that I had took continuously were all out of focus but would of have generally been a good photo if it was in focus. I would also improve for next time, my knowledge on the controls of the camera, as I would of liked to have changed the ISO, apertures and shutter speeds manually, but instead I basically used the automatic features most of the time, with some having a manual input like zoom and focusing. I would finally also like to improve the way the photos were composed as some of them I did from the wrong angle or just not the way I imagined it would of looked like, this is why I should have checked the photos on the camera straight after taking them.
The meanings I was going for in my photos were nature and tranquility, I feel that I obtained this meaning in most of my images, an example that I thought went well with the meaning of 'nature' was one which was a couple of trees with a setting sun shining between two trees, I think this shows the beauty of what someone could see and that if this was taken away, such as the trees been cut down, this would not be seen by anyone ever again, so I'm basically trying to show that people should be environmentally friendly and try to look after our planet. An example of a photograph showing the meaning of 'tranquility' is a photograph of a little water fall on the route of a small stream in the forest, I think this shows tranquility as the audience might imagine the setting as very quite and calm, as streams in the middle of the woods are quite secluded and so there wouldn't be much noise.
As I said, I could of improved the composition in the photographs but most I am actually quite happy with, one of which was a photo of a flower (I did quite a few of these) where it was centered in the middle, this is using the point of interest technique and I did this as it was a bright colour (Yellow) contrasting against a darker colour (Forest Green), which was also helped with the fact that it has a depth of field with the background being the darker colour and being out of focus, this made the flower stand out as a point of interest, I feel that this is an ideal way to compose an image. In my photo shoot I always used ambient light, this is because, like I said in my planning, I am only using this because I want my photos to be natural and raw and so the best way to do this was to not have any synthetic lighting, an example of me using the ambient lighting well was on the photo I took of a leaf on the ground that had rain drops on it, the ambient lighting created by the Sun was lighting up the rain drops so that they were more visible, I also incidentally had taken it at an angle where the rain drops refracted the light so I could see objects not underneath the droplet but next to it magnified, unfortunately the photo was out of focus. Unfortunately, one thing I did not do was change or modify the factors that go into exposure when doing the photo shoot, that is one thing I would definitely improve upon doing if I ever did this again, but there was a variety of exposure settings used in the photos which were all automatically controlled by the camera, here are a few examples;

First of all, the aperture is measured in f-stop (The size of the opening made by the aperture) and the examples above range from the low of 4.0 up to 11 f-stop. The one that has an f-stop of 4 has a wide opening, this is because there isn't much light in the photograph (due to the clouds) so it has to open wide to let in as much light as possible into the camera so it can show the details. The photo with a 5 f-stop is a bit more brighter and so has a higher f-stop, it also has a depth of field, to do this it would need to lower its f-stop for it to create this effect as it is trying to let in less light to be out of focus. The photo with a 5.6 f-stop is even more brighter than the previous due to the reflections of light in the stream and so has more of a closed opening to let in less light so the details are less bleached out. Finally, the highest f-stop out of the examples is 11, this is because the Sun light is literally going into the lens, and so to make so the details aren't bleached out fully the opening is as closed as possible as it can be. Next, is the shutter speed and the slower shutter speed in the examples is 1/40, this is also the least brightest example, this is because the camera had to have more time to let in the light so it could capture the detail in the photo.The example with a shutter speed of 1/250 was accidentally took on the sports mode, which is another reason to why I need to improve my knowledge of working the camera settings. The second quickest shutter speed is the example with 1/400 which is also the one with a depth of field, the reason it's quicker is because all it had to do was capture the light coming of the object in the foreground, whilst the background does not need this as it needs to be out of focus to create the effect of depth of field. Finally, the quickest shutter speed is from the example with 1/500, the reason this one is the fastest is because I used the sports mode, I used this because the stream was moving and because I wanted a clear photo without the stream coming out blurred I used it, and the sports mode is specifically coded for the shutter speed to be that fast for that specific reason, to capture something instantly. Finally, the ISO is the sensitivity of the lens to the light, the lower the ISO the lower the sensitivity to the light, this is usually when the image comes out more clearer, especially with close ups. The lowest ISO out of the examples were 100 and this was a close up of a twig, with a blurred background (depth of field) and because there wasn't much light the lens wasn't as sensitive.

As I said in my plan, I was going to use the macro setting, I used this mostly for getting a depth of field on an object, mostly being flowers or twigs, I may have also used this when taking photos that I wanted to present the technique of leading lines, I did this on a few branches that were reachable and placed the camera going so that it was showing the branch going outward, thus creating the leading line, I then used the macro with this so that the front of the branch was in detail, but as the branch goes more outwards there became less focus.
The brief asked for something to do with identity, and I chose to represent the identity of Sheffield's woods and nature. My photo fits this brief because they were taken in Shirtcliff woods, one of Sheffield's many woods and then my photos also feature things to do with nature within the forest, this being the flowers, river streams and the sun setting, these are a few examples;

 This is an example of flowers being apart of nature, this represents the nature of the woods during the Spring.

 This is an example of the sun setting, this can create shadows and also a range of hues based around orange and yellow, it also refracted the light seen in the water droplets making them more visible.This shows you how the sun effects the look of nature in the woods

Then finally there is the stream, this shows the nature through reflections of the light on the stream.

Unfortunately, I did not take any inspiration from any photographers that we had researched i.e. Martin Parr, Duncan Philpott etc. and I think I would if I was to do this photo shoot again as it would help me come up with different ways to do my photos.

Finally, I used many photographic elements in my photos, the main few being; 

Composition:

 

This is an example of composition because I have arranged the point of interest which is the yellow flower, contrasting against the darker green leafs, in the centre, this is commonly used in composition and I have done this as it's the first thing I want the viewer to se eand focus on.

Formatting (landscape and portrait):

This is an example of formatting as I have done this photo in landscape, unfortunately I did not take any photos in portrait, which I could have admittedly done with a tree for example. This photo links to another photographic element known as leading lines, this is shown by the dirt trial, although it isn't straight it or leads to a point of interest, it still resembles something you would see in leading lines.

Centre of interest:

This is an example of a photo showing a centre of interest. The feather is the centre of interest as the feather contrasts against the background of the floor, which is a lot darker and so the feather can be seen more clearer. It is also another example of the previously mentioned composition.

Viewpoints:

 

I used both viewpoint; Eye level view (Left) and Birds Eye view (Right). This was manly used just to get different perspectives, I took the eye level photo because the flower faced forward and so I wanted to get its 'face'. The birds eye view photo was took because I wanted to get a picture of something on the floor and trying to take that at eye level wouldn't have come out as good as it has in birds eye view.

  

Rule of thirds:

This is an example of the rule of thirds as there is at least one point of interest crossing one of the lines in the rule of thirds, this being any one of the flowers from the flowers in the photo.

Lighting:

This is an example of lighting, I'll admit I could have used the EV settings to adjust the lighting when taking a photo. On the other hand, I used lighting in this photo by letting the sun shine through the trees, the tree's trunks came out almost silhouette like. It also created a few shadows on the ground, that you can hardly see.

Close-up:

 

I did this a lot in my photo shoot as I used the macro setting, I did this because I wanted to get detail on the objects I was taking photos of in the forest. This being an example of such, it also used created the effect of a depth of field as the bud was in detail and in focus whilst the background was not.

Leading lines

Unfortunately, when taking the photos with leading lines in thought I did not think about having a point of interest at the end of them, this could have been useful to lead the viewers eyes to this point of interest. Above is a photo I thought had the element of leading lines within it.

Texture:

This is an example of the photographic element texture in my photo, because this is the woods there was many opportunities for different textures, I chose to contrast the smooth water against the rough rocks within a stream. The water made the rocks stand out as the water was also very reflective whilst the stone did not reflect much light. and so you could tell the more dull objects apart from the less dull object.