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Personal study: Madeiran landscapes

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Plan:

In order to add more context to my personal study I wanted to make sure to capture landscapes on the island my parents are originally from. While on holiday, I will be taking images in both villages that my parents are from as I think my photobook would benefit from having a few landscapes, to separate the portraiture, and archival images. I want to take images at different points of the day, and the weather will most likely vary slightly meaning I will be using different camera settings depending on what the scene is like.

Lightroom selection:

Here I have colour coded the selection of my best images, with green representing my best ones, and red showing my least favourites.

Editing my best images:

As you’ll see below, my original image is already quite bright and colourful. My aim was to further accentuate this, to make the picture look very aesthetically pleasing. I increased the contrast so that each individual house, and colour stood out. I increased the vibrancy so that the colours would become more vivid.
  • Before
  • After

This image was taken just as I was driving out of the airport into the main city, and has no particular symbolic role. I chose this image as one of my best, because I like how to looks messy, yet very aesthetically pleasing at the same time. On one hand, there is nothing particular organised about the photo, however I think that all the bright colours help the image look quite appealing, and helps draw in attention.

These next few images were taken while I was visiting my dad’s hometown, Porto da Cruz. It is a fairly small municipality with a population of around 2,000 people located at the north-eastern part of the island.

I thought that my initial image had all the right aspects I the frame, but I wanted it to look less dull and slightly more colourful so I increased the contrast and slightly decreased the exposure, and increased the vibrancy. I like how the blueness of the sky and green from the mountainous regions complement each other in the images.
  • Before
  • After
I like the framing of this image because on the first third, we see a glimpse of the mountainous regions, to the right we see the sea which acts as a sleek backdrop for the street scene seen in the foreground. With the changes made above, I was able to bring out the colour of the sea further, which helps bring out the beauty of the landscape. I think the electricity cables in the image are quite distracting, however I think it depicts a truthful portrayal of the village.
  • Before
  • After
The image below shows the coast of the village. An area which holds many memories of my father’s younger years. Initially, I thought that the different mountain ranges struggled to stand out against each other, and my increasing the contrast I think they are more easily distinguishable as they stand out more, especially as ore colour was brought out by increasing the vibrancy.
  • Before
  • After

These last images show Curral Das Freiras, where my mother and her family is from. This is a little secluded village in the heart of the island with a population of around 2,000 people. named Valley of the nuns as it was a refuge to 16th century nuns during times where pirates frequently attacked the island. As you’ll be able to see from the images below, the village is surrounded by cliffs and peaks making it quite secluded from other areas of the island. These images were all taken from a particular viewpoint, Eira Do Serrado, which stands at an elevation of 1.096m allowing the entire village to be seen.


This image is perhaps my favourite from my outcomes as were able to see the skyline, mountains and village all in one making a successful landscape. Due to the fog at the top of the mountains, My image was slightly overexposed leading my image to have a whiteish tint to it. After adapting the contrast and exposure, I believe I found the right balance and by changing the vibrancy I was able to restore some colour to the scene making it appear more inviting, and less dull.
  • Before
  • After
The image below is a slight close up of the image above, showing the village with some aspects of the mountains still being visible. Similar to the other pictures, I made sure the exposure was appropriate and added some extra colour by adjusting the vibrancy.
  • Before
  • After
The image below shows a close up of the many houses. I think that by itself, the image is not as successful compared to the previous ones, however I included it as it could be useful in a series along with some of the other images. The original image appeared too exposed, leading me to decrease the exposure.
  • Before
  • After

Evaluation:

I think overall I was able to capture a few successful images depicting both important parts of the island. However, I think I should have experimented more by photographing a few more different areas as most of my images are taken from the same places.

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