Planning

Task – Take 150-200 photos exploring the theme of exploration under the key word ‘secrets’

Props – I will be using the city of New York and its subway’s in my photographs

Camera Settings – I will be using completely different camera settings throughout the shoot as I will be exploring different areas.

Lighting – I will be using daylight and artificial light

Location – New York

Context – I am looking at the theme of exploration for my AS level externally set assignment.

Concept – I hope to take photographs of the secrets that are within New York City whilst taking inspiration from Gregory Berg and Robbie Shone.

My Edits

Favourite Photograph

In this photograph I used the harsh lights of the subway to illuminate the photograph. These harsh lights created contrast with the rest of the dimly lit subway.  This photograph is slightly underexposed on purpose as it creates a mysterious feeling within it. I used a deep depth of field to capture this photograph in order to capture the depth and length that the subway travels. I used a shutter speed of 1/40 with an ISO of 200 in order to capture the photograph in the dimly lit environment whilst keeping the quality of the photograph as high as possible.

The colours within the photograph are quite faded and dim – this is to reflect how the subway is tucked away underground and is quite dark and can be quite intimidating with some of the characters that can be found within it.  There is quite a dark tonal range within this photograph other than the harsh lighting which adds to the mysterious vibe in the photograph. There is a 3D effect within this photograph due to the depth of the subway and the pathways within it. I placed the pillar central with the lights coming off to the side almost symmetrically in order to create a more appealing photograph. The pathways in the photograph help to lead the eye from the foreground to the background.

When composing this photograph I had the work of Gregory Berg  in my mind – I used the setting of the New York underground and captured it as if it was deserted. This showed the exploration within the underground and how it can vary from being packed with people to having no people around, whilst this is going on there is a whole other world walking around above this. This tucking away of the underground introduces lots of interesting characters in the subways which people native to large cities would not normally see, and this exploration shows secrets of the city and the underground.