Ben Williamson Unit 9: Photographic techniques

Urban Spaces

Definition of Urban

• Characteristic of the city or city life.

Urban Mind Map

City’s Urban sports: • Parkour • BMX • Street Dancing

Graffiti

Rough areas Buildings

Project aim

• In this project entitled “Urban Spaces”, I would like to successfully take and analyse photographs of the places, structures or objects which I believe to be “Urban”.

• As listed in my mind map, my definition of Urban would be buildings, run down areas, graffiti, or even sports which tend to be carried out on the street (Parkour, BMX’ing or Street Dancing).

• In addition to this, Roberts Birze has inspired to produce a joiner photograph made up of several images but containing the same subject, which creates the illusion of different shapes in the image.

Evaluation of East/Central London Trip

• I believe the trip to East/ Central London went well and although we left slightly later than planned due to the weather. The majority of the group still managed to take the right amount of photo’s, conveying their definition of “urban”.

• We began by visiting Brick Lane, located in East London. It is a run down area which contains a large amount of worn out structures and buildings, covered in Graffiti. Furthermore, when taking the joiner Photographs in pairs, it proved quite difficult because we had to select various angles and points of the subject, to see what works best. After we were finished in brick Lane, we headed towards Liverpool Street station (Central London), still continuing to take some joiner photographs, and some photo’s containing reflections. More specifically, we were required to take photo’s of buildings and structures which had reflections of other buildings in the windows/glass.

• Although the trip went well, I believe I could have taken fewer images and tried to decide the images that were necessary, this would show that I am able to pick and select the images that convey a sense of “Urban Space”.

Roberts Birze

Untitled Photograph The subject of the photograph is a city landscape which was presumably taken on a bright summers day. I think city’s and surroundings have inspired Roberts to take this photograph and I believe he is fascinated with urbanization. I think the photographer is trying to convey a calm and tranquil mood and ones that creates a peaceful image. I think this photograph is quite good and I like the ways in which the photographer uses square shapes to build up the image and make it stand out from other images. In addition to this, I believe that I could link it to my own work from taking pictures of landscapes, city’s and buildings and possibly using shapes to create a similar image.

Artist Research: David Hockney

Place Furstenberg, Paris 1985 David Hockney

This photograph captures the landscape in an outside location, which is more specifically in Paris. The various buildings, cars and scenery can be seen. Similar to my own, he has used the joiner technique in such a way that it gives the illusion of different shapes within the picture, predominantly squares and rectangles. I believe the artist has been influenced by the vintage/ retro look as it appears as a sepia effect. Whereas I did not alter my colours when it came to editing and instead, just cropped, moved, added and removed bits of the photo. Additionally, I think the artist is trying to communicate a fairly happy image as the colours are quite light and convey a peaceful image. This is evident through the use of the colours blue and white as they tend to be associated with these emotions. Similar, my joiner photograph contains bright and vibrant colours and therefore shares the same mood and emotions. In conclusion, I like this photograph and more particularly like the vintage/ retro effect and although I haven’t included it in my joiner photograph, I have used it in my past work.

Joiner Photograph

Joiner photograph:

This joiner photograph shows the outside of a building, or more specifically, it shows the outside of the media block in this college. I began to produce this by taking around 30 photo’s, panning from left to right and using different angles (slanted) and viewpoints (high, low). When it came to editing the photograph, I divided it into 3 sections which was of course the left, middle and right hand side. I then went onto crop, move, add and remove parts of each photo, changing parts of the sky, buildings and scenery. This gave the illusion of different shapes within the photograph , and although I eventually completed this image, it proved slightly difficult when I put all three photographs together. All the while, making sure they looked right together and they were placed correctly

Strongest Photograph

Evaluation • When taking this photograph, I intended to capture the weather and the mood which it conveys

amongst the people in the background. The composition of this photograph is horizontal and is taken from a low viewpoint, which allows you to see the buildings and the weather in the frame as the camera is pointing upwards.

• Although it is taken from a low viewpoint, it is still in line with the ground and is a close-up of the pattern in the pavement. This image doesn't really contain a large amount of negative space, because the background is made up of buildings and individuals. In addition to this, I believe my photograph is fairly balanced and the subjects in the background is made up of what’s in the background. Furthermore, this photograph also contains an element of symmetry in both the left and right side.

• If I were to reshoot my photograph, I don’t think I’d change anything as I’m pleased with how it originally came out. Also, my photograph is taken intentionally to show the foreground in focus and the background out of focus, I have done this to create a depth of field effect.

• My original photograph seemed slightly over exposed as it contained a large amount of light from the weather, however I then used Photoshop to digitally enhance my image and add a monochrome effect. In addition to this, I also created a soft border edge using a mask and a brush. I believe the border makes it appear more dramatic and also draws the viewers attention to the subject matters which is of course the pattern in the pavement and the rain in-between this pattern which only adds to the detail.

• Therefore in conclusion, I obtained the visual results I hope for because I successfully created the depth of field effect, and the elements of this photograph all aid towards creating a dull and depressing mood: The rain and dark colours which are both often associated with sad emotions.

Edited Photographs

Evaluation • In this photograph, I have captured four bars in the foreground, with a run down area in the background.

• More specifically, it is quite clear that each bar is rusted and the metal is flaking which conveys signs of both decay and wear. In addition to this, two of the bars are placed center of the frame with the other two on the outside, these give off an almost symmetrical image. However, if I got the choice to retake my photograph, I believe that I would have got more of the bars in the frame as it contains some negative space.

• Furthermore, the image is taken from an eye-level viewpoint and is a close-up of the bars, which are in focus, whereas the background is out of focus, creating a depth of field effect. Although my photograph contains very little light, the subject is still visible, and the dark colours convey the dull and mysterious mood which I was hoping for.

• I believe this gives off a mysterious mood because individuals might not know and might be curious about what’s past the bars and what’s further ahead in the alleyway. As said earlier, my image contains a symmetrical pattern however, it also contains four rectangle shapes which are shown in the bars, some might say that these shapes do not appear pleasing and consider them an eye-sore as they are worn down and rusted.

• Moreover, I have edited this photo in colour, decreasing the brightness and increasing the contrast, in order to make the photo appear more eye-catching and the details on the bars more noticeable and rich. Therefore in conclusion, I have achieved the results I was looking for because I successfully conveyed a dull and mysterious mood using dark colours and a depth of field effect. And these are both elements which help in creating these two moods.

• Maybe, write about appearing eye catching or something else: look at checklist

Edited Photographs

Edited Photographs

Edited Photographs

Edited Photographs

Edited Photographs

Edited Photographs

Kaleidoscope

• I produced this kaleidoscope image by duplicating the original image four times, placing them together in a square shape. Following this, I then went onto flattening the image, in order to turn it into a JPEG File.

• After, I saved the image and placed it onto a new canvas, duplicating it several times. I also used the “free transform” option and improved the scale of the image.

• In order to achieve the kaleidoscope effect, I repeated the same step and frequently used the “arrange option” to “send it to back”.

Justin Maller Examples

• In the following slides, I have included examples of Justin Maller’s Photography, this is because I like images that are digitally based and produced. Originally some of these were just regular photographs (see slide 21 and 23). And then they have been changed completely by editing them digitally using a various range of colours and digitally drawn shapes.

• Additionally, in some sense, I could also link it in with my own photography as both joiner photographs I produced, have been digitally edited and altered significantly since the original photo. As I have cropped, moved, removed and added parts of the photo.

Urban Spaces Project

•Thanks for viewing my presentation

• Ben Williamson 12031