It is the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect, for example, new and old, or dark and light.
The first photo I got from Societe Jersiaise, it was taken in 1870 – 1887, by Ernest Baudoux. The website features many photos and information about the history of Jersey.
The second photo I took at Plemont on the 24 February 2021, 10:51:08, as part of my Rural Landscape Project.
Photoshop Display
To create juxtaposition between the images I used Photoshop and overlay them, then align them so that you can see that they are the same image.
I darkened the edges of the image, by using a black brush at 75% opacity.
Overall, I think it shows that the images juxtapose each other, due to the black and white colours of the older image, and the vibrant colours of my image. This is due to the evolution and development of technology. Also the quality of the image in better and more clear.
Firstly, Godwin uses the path as a leading line to drag our eye to the natural mountain scenery. The horizon rests on the top horizontal line, demostrated by the rule of thirds.
The monochrome black and white filter exaggerates the intense clash in the harsh shadows cast by the mountains, that contrasts with the bright highlights of wild grass in the foreground,
The whites in the sky don’t blend with landscape which creates a border between the two elements. This adds an atmospheric and energised mood, due to the steep changes of tonal values, overall it helps contribute towards the dramatic overcast look Godwin was going for.
The mountains on the left gradually get lighter as they disappear into the distance. This gives the image more depth, as the structure of the mountains has less form, which makes you focus on the larger mountains as that is where all the crisp details are.
The Sun acts a the main natural light, which gives off genuine and complex shadows. The reflections in the reservoir also display that it is a bright day, the haze in the distance created due to clarity in the sky gives off a more detailed atmosphere.
Rural landscape is photos of an area that is not densely populated or intensively developed that isn’t protected land.
Influential Landscapes – (Mood Board/Examples)
I found these images of landscapes off Google, and found their respected photographers. I want to try and do a long exposure of the water, and include the details of the rocks.
Mitch Green
Derek Kind
Den Belitsky
Ansel Adams – (Case Study)
Ansel Easton Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West.
At age 12, he was given his first camera during his first visit to Yosemite National Park. He developed his photography skills, and later he was contracted with the United States Department of the Interior to make photographs of national parks.
He is mainly recognised talent was that he showed a deep technical understanding of how tonal range is recorded and developed in exposure, negative development, and printing.
His Famous Photos :
Ansel Adams Tonal Values
As you can see, Adams uses the excellent tonal values. For example, he used the darkest black, in the shadows of the mountains, on the other hand he has used the brightest white, in the highlights of snow resting in the mountain.
He uses filters to create and tone down the highlights in the sky. He mainly used a red filter and exposed it for 5 seconds, which created a darker sky, which is what Ansel Adams imagined. The top of the sky is normally grey the fades into a white.
Texture and Surface
The rocks always include high detail and lots of shadows. I can achieve this by increasing the clarity and texture in Photoshop. Black and white makes the detail stand out more as there are no colours that are distracting. There is normally a more dominant black and white colour, grey is used to display highlights and depth.
Composition
Adams uses leading lines to draw attention towards the main focal point, for example the river (2nd photo) progresses towards, and makes a path to the mountain in the background. This makes the image more powerful as there is more integrity and thought which has gone into it , creating this scenic view.
Adams sometimes uses rule of thirds; a composition guideline, to place more emphasis on a particular point, such as in the first photo.
Although, Adams also uses the foreground to his advantage. By including it into his image it adds depth and fills up blank/wasted space in the image.
What is Romanticism?
Romanticism was specified by its emphasis on emotion and character as well as emphasising nature. It also promoted the individual imagination of freedom from classical notions of form in art, since photography wasn’t popular as it had just stared in 1826, and romanticism was mostly reverent in the 1800 – 1850 era.
Romanticism examples in landscape
This photo was taken by Keith Arnatt, in 1982-1984. in an “area of outstanding natural beauty” it was following a long-established scenic route, the C
Arnatt represents a landscape that cannot fail but to live up to expectation, full of interrupting buildings and sharp corners.
The foreground is dominated by a bald curve of tarmac and a café. This might appear to be a misrepresentation of romantic landscape, but early tourists were just as struck by pointed, sharp contrasts of greatness.
Where can I photograph in Jersey?
Contact Sheet(Simplified)
Since I took over 600+ images I only put 1 screenshot of a small section of images as my contact sheet.
HDR exposure bracketing technique. What is it?
Exposure bracketing is when you create pictures with different exposure settings. (Overexposed, Balanced, Underexposed.) The purpose of this is to cover more of the dynamic range. Bracketed photos are used later to create an HDR (high dynamic range) photo. For example, in a normal photo the sky might be overexposed, therefore, the dark image produced by the bracket settings will keep all the detail in the sky, so when you put it into Photoshop or Lightroom to make the HDR image it will merge all the images together and keep all the best parts for each image. Overall it will created a high detailed image that is perfectly exposed in all areas.
To learn how to setup this technique I used a Youtube tutorial, that uses a Canon camera, this is the link :
All images below were taken with a tripod and a Canon DSLR 1300D, then edited in Adobe Photoshop.
Part Of The Process (HDR/Exposure Bracketing)
This is one of the screenshots from the first image I edited, it shows the Camera Raw Filter being added to HDR image. Photoshop merges the 3 images for you so I wasn’t able to screenshot it doing that.
My HDR Images
As you can see there are four photos above. The larger one is the final edit, which I made from the three images I took using bracketing technique, which I will show in every image.
This is my favourite one alongside the castle image. The image has high details in the highlights and shadows which creates a nice depth in the mud and rows of flowers. The tractor marks creates leading lines that focus on the tree that is centred in the image, as well the rule of thirds composition is used as the horizon rests on the bottom 3rd of the image. The colours are vibrant and isn’t over saturated, which is what I was worried about creating the HDR image.
This image I wanted to create a moody atmosphere, as it was cloudy, so I added a gradual filter to the sky using a camera raw filter in Photoshop, and added a high dehaze, clarity and darkened the shadows to bring out the detail in the sky. After I added a more detailed texture to the ground to match the scene I created with he sky. By using the rule of thirds it makes it so that the yellow flowers aren’t all visible making it not destroy the grumpy atmosphere with contrast of happy flowers.
I wanted to show the scale of the coast in this image, by including the small pier as the comparison. There isn’t much detail in the clouds which makes you focus on the actual terrain, which is the effect is wanted to created. I love the different shades of blue coincide with each other, and how the water is a nice turquoise colour, where as the sky is a deeper blue.
This image is a normal landscape image that looks like it would be a screensaver on a computer. I feel that there is a motion in the clouds which move horizontally, this also exaggerates the integrity in detail in the clouds, which could suggest a more complex understanding to just a picture with pretty flowers and cool clouds as the have this “heavenly” look to them.
This is one of my favourite images. I was going for the abandoned look, so I made the camera tilt to the side so it looked like the castle was left and abandoned quickly, the visual aesthetic of overgrown ivy and vegetation adds a strong characteristic to the effect I was going for. The detail that the HDR image provided really helped show how the walls were washed out and how dense and compact the forest was. Overall, I’m really happy hoe this tuned out as I want planning to photograph this until suggested by family. The colours aren’t super saturated as it would have ruined the worn down look.
The sunlight was disappearing, therefore it was breaking through he clouds in the formation of rays, I thought this would be a good experiment of exposure bracketing as the were a steep difference between lights and darks, eg the sunlight and the forest line. I went for the moody evening vibes, when editing this photo. So I added a gradual filter to decrease the dehaze in the sky and underexpose it, then a radial filter to increase the temputerure of the rays of light to add more emphasis to it. The foreground is a bit blurry as the flowers were sawing in the wind. This is due to the 3 images being combined into one with a o.5 second time interval between each shot. Even with photoshop auto-align software is was not able to fix this, as the sky as-well as most the image was aligned, due to the tripod I used. I am pleasantly pleased how this turned out and like the aesthetic it gives off.
My Images
These were the good images from my combined photoshoots.
Best Images
These were the final best images for the 4 Photoshoots that I did. They were all edited in Photoshop and occasionally Lightroom.
This set of images are the HDR images that I have previously explained what I like about them. Although these are my favourite 3, due to high detail and preservation of the colour almost an exact replica to real life.
This image shows the linear pattern in the daffodil field, which contrasts between the irregular patterns in the clouds. The highlight on the clouds make it seem like this is an old pattern in the style of Picasso. The colours are nice and vibrant, which gives off a positive atmosphere.
This image has that vintage feel to it, as the clarity is high, which brings out all the discoloured vegetation on the hill. The small cottage is marked using the rule of thirds composition terchnique. Similarly, this image also include detailed clouds, which was achieved by using a gradual filter in Photoshop.
I wanted to focus on the highlights in this image, so I gave the tip of the rock a halo effect, as that was where the most light was. The increased clarity makes this image in the style of Ansel Adams, as he uses highly detail images mostly including rocks in all of his photos. The light was coming from the top right which makes for some unique shadows which I brought out by decreasing the darks and increasing the contrast. I like how it turned out as it feels mysterious and magical, probably due to the irregular shape.
This image clearly shows the jagged cliffs catching the shadows of the cloudy afternoon. The foreground is dark, but as the cliff gets further away it gets lighter. This helps add more depth to the image. The tower is visible as it doesn’t fit into the landscape, which helps identify it as the main focal point. The clouds are slightly overexposed, although you can still see the texture in them. Overall I really love as the composition is good as it focuses on something in the distance and also include the natural part of Jersey.
The 3 levels of dark tonal values, is what makes this image stand out. It consists of the blacks in the foreground, with the grey behind it, then finally to the light-grey figures in the background which the lighthouse is apart of. Overall the harsh contrast between the sky and the rocks juxtapose each other against light and dark. I achieved the star effect caused by the sun, by using a high f-stop value, eg. f-32.
Ansel Adams Comparison With My Own Image
Ansel Adams Image
My Image
Ansel Adams
Mine
Similarly, both mine and Adams images are of a natural landscape, which display rock formations. Both include a dark portion of the foreground on the side of the image. Although, Ansel Adams image uses scale to exaggerate how large the mountain is, by including the moon, which is a huge natural satellite.
A black and white filter is used on both of the images. Ansel Adams has covered the whole of tonal zone system, going from 0, being black through to 10 being white, displaying different shades. This really puts emphasis on the highlights as it creates a high harmonious contrast, which also brings out the structure int the image.
Likewise, both images use natural light produced by the sun, as the images were taken in daylight. Adams image has a gentle feel to it as the light has a gradual fade from white to black, which gives off a calm but expressive atmosphere. Compared to mine which has a more abrupt, intense change in tone and light, which produces a more energised atmosphere. However, mine could signify hope, as most of the image is in the negative colour; black, that expresses a more sad, depressing mood. Except for the “halo” at the top of the rock, which is like the light at the end of the tunnel, and-that means that there is a delicate, alive essence to this photo.
Archive images are images that are stored and kept away images for people to be able to see them in the future, for the purposes of learning about the history of an image or to see the difference of an image through out the years to analyse it.
This is an archive image of St.Brelade’s that was taken with the view of the bay facing towards Ouaisne, in between the years 1850- 1920 as an assumption due to there being no information on when the image was taken.
Juxtaposed Image
Here is the image that I ended up editing by the use of two images of St.brelade’s bay from years ago and St.brelade’s bay today. The process i went through in creating this image was by getting up both of the images on photoshop, then cutting out certain parts of the old St.Brelade’s bay, then copying and pasting it onto the new one and adjusting the cut outs to fit in the image.
I used cutting tools in photoshop to separate various elements in the compositions to re-layer and reposition them.
I also added archival imagery and repositioned them in a way where they would look surreal but still play to the form and structure of the original image. I used this vintage imagery on my recently taken street culture images to create an element of postmodernism.
This images was taken by Mrs Dorothy E A Evans in an attempt to capture a beautiful, sunny day. It is a view of Queen’s Valley before flooding to make a reservoir there are trees in the middle distance and fern in the foreground. Evidently, the field is flooded but there are some parts that remain such as the trees and a few plants / fern.
I decided to make my image black and white to add to the theme of Juxtaposition; light vs darkness, past vs present and ancient vs modern.
There is evidence of leading lines in the photograph as the audience will look at the fields and trees and follow the lines to find the horizon. Also, the image is rich in colour which just adds to the idea that the artists wanted to resemble Queen’s valley beauty and majesty.
The lighting appears to be natural as it was a photo taken outside in nature. There are bright colours and harsh dark tones by the trees adding to the theme of juxtaposition and considering that eventually that exact field was flooded to be turned into a reservoir, the dark tones could suggest a “dark” will happen in that place in the future but will not ruin the valley’s natural beauty. In comparison to my photograph revealing the same place taken in 2021, we can see the use of the dark tones to display what was explained above.
In my opinion, this juxtaposition is successful as it powerfully shows the difference between an old image of Queen’s valley and my own image of that same place showing the difference and how places have changed through time.
Contact sheets
Editing
I have edited this juxtapositions in the following manner:
I have imported both images into Photoshop, then aligned the photo taken by Dorothy to the centre of mine and created a white border around it to act as a frame. I have also blurred the white border several times so that it looks like it is within the image. I did the same with Dorothy’s image so that it looks of a higher quality as it was a bit pixelated.
Candid portraiture is a fun, anonymous topic as it gets the photographer to shoot various shots without the model being aware that they have been photographed. This may have ethical issues like consent but this issue can be overcome by asking the models if it’s alright to take a photograph. This may cause photographer bias as subjects may start acting out of their normal behaviour.
On the other hand, taking photographs without the subjects awareness can be called secret photography which is one of the main themes of candid photography.
Others may argue that “a great candid portrait is often made with the subject aware they’re being photographed.”
In conclusion, candid photography appears to be a type of art that allows the photographer to capture real-time events and turn that photograph into a sort of memory because in the due course the artist will look back and remember where and when that shot was taken, and for the subjects, if they ever get to see the photograph, it will open an unaware memory of what they were doing, with who and help them look back and reflect in life.
The fact candid photography might open up a memory that the subject might not even realise they had is very ironic since the theme around candid portraiture centres around the idea that people aren’t aware that they are being photographed.
Richard Billingham
Richard Billingham is an English photographer, film maker and art teacher born on the 25th September 1970 (50).
According to The Guardian, “The photographer made his name with a series showing his dysfunctional parents, Ray and Liz, in their squalid Black Country flat. Now he’s turned their story into an award-winning film.” This clearly shows that his worked has centered mostly on his family, but he’s also focused on other aspects of photography like landscapes and candid. For example:
Series: Ray’s A Laugh (1996)
This image is part of his project where he turns something that has affected him into art and gets noticed for it. This project, Ray’s A Laugh (1996) documents his life with an alcoholic father, Ray, and overweight, tattooed, Liz who’s his mum.
He won the 1997 Citibank non-public Bank Photography Prize presently known as the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize and was shortlisted for the 2001 Turner Prize. His work is control inside the perpetual assortments of Allen Tate, the Victoria and Albert gallery, and Government Art Collection in London.
Noticeably, we can see that Richard was a very famous photographer from the 20th century.
Image analysis
Substance:
This image was taken while Billingham was still working on his Ray’s A Laugh during the 1996.
Obviously it was taken to document his life and environment around his parents . Knowing this, some appreciators may argue that this project may bring comfort to some people who identify with this project.
Composition:
This image’s focal point appears to be the parents / models. This could indicate that the author wants the audience to focus their attention to the parents before anything else.
The rule of thirds has been powerfully use to arrange the models to the center and the props like masks to the left hand side of the image. It may be argued the Golden Rule was also used seeing as the audience focus their attention firstly on the subjects then the props around them.
The subjects appear to be Liz and Ray themselves. The artist has purposely used them for Ray’s A Laugh project since it is about them.
The artist has used dark colours to compose this image. For example, he has used the green wall in this image which is a sign for life, greed and jealousy. The wall is obviously behind Liz which could indicate that she gets jealous of Ray or suspects he could be cheating on her with other women.
Mise En Scène:
Liz is holding bread sticks on her right hand and a plate with an egg with her other hand. This may show to the reader how fragile and emotional Liz (Richard’s mum) can get at times. The fact she’s holding food in her hand enforces the idea that she’s overweight as Richard stated in The Guardian.
Ray on the other hand has a red face strengthening the idea of an alcoholic father. Ray is sitting on a dark, brown sofa signifying his dark past and his unwillingness to do anything as Ray has his hands towards the food Liz seems to have made for him.
There are also mini masks across the green wall signifying the various facades Liz and Richard may use for the public.
There’s a plant in the background growing from a mistreated environment suggesting that Richard blossomed in an environment like this; giving hope for the audience.
Techniques and editing:
It appears that a fast shutter speed of 100/120 was used as details are fixed and sharp in detail.
The depth of field for this picture has all the earmarks of being very huge as a large portion of the picture is fixed. This was utilized to catch as much of the setting as could be expected while holding a fresh detail to the picture. This being said, we can also guess that a tripod was used to keep the camera used.
The shot appears to be in digital format as it’s a recent photograph. Also there are no debris which could suggest that it’s not a Lomography.
Atmosphere:
This image makes me feel somewhat calm and relaxed as it’s a semi-familiar environment; it gives me nostalgia to my grandparents and great-nan’s houses as they looked similar to this. The use of models and props also influence this effect.
Lighting:
The light in this shot appears to be coming from the back to the front successfully illuminating the subjects and props.
It appears a flash may have been used as there are bits of reflection around the image.
There are bright and dark tones throughout this photograph, specifically Liz’s dress suggesting that she could be going through a hard time in her life.
Response:
For this project I will attempt to create a sense of nostalgia to the viewer and create something the viewer may relate to.
Since the theme is candid I will have to plan out how to take secretive photographs without the participants being aware of it.
Richard attempted to story-tell a bit about his life through this photograph so I will see how I can achieve a similar outcome.
In my opinion, the photograph is very interesting due to its naturalistic, candid approach leaving the audience wondering what is happening and why was this image taken in the first place.
Planning
Location: Seeing as this a candid project I will shoot in various location such as home, work place (school) and public. I will do this to get a wide variety of images showing different types of people.
Content: I will capture images of my subjects in their natural environment capturing whatever it is they will be doing in real time, making sure they have no time to change their behaviour as this
Lighting:
I will be mostly using ambient lighting in order to make my photos as natural as possible.
My photos may include natural lighting since some of my photographs will be taken outside. Some may have artificial light due to them being taken inside.
Camera / settings:
I will be using 2 different cameras for this project:
Polaroid Camera
This increase creativity for this project and to have a physical image to keep as a memory.
So that the camera automatically adjusts the ISO, aperture and shutter speed.
DSLR
This camera is best to get much better quality shots.
It’s also less costly compared to the polaroid camera as I won’t have to buy any film.
The settings will be shutter speed at 120/150 in order to capture subjects in case they move and allow enough light to get in to the sensor.
Contact sheets
Outcome 1
These series of images were intentionally grainy to relate to film photography and the context Ralph was in; film was mainly used.
This image contain an individual with a mask on (due to Covid-19 pandemic). It is in black and white to relate to the 70s and also it makes it easier to edit. Also, due to my experimentation with ISO most images contain grain hence the inspiration to give a Lomography feeling.
The man is at the centre of the image therefore making him the focal point of this image. The individual appears to be looking to the side as if he’s thinking or looking for the next shop to go to as he’s holding a plastic bag suggesting the idea he went shopping.
The rule of thirds and centered composition have been used in this image to powerfully place the model to help make them the main focal point.
In relation to Richard, I took the inspiration of his birth year (1970) and made my photograph black and white as coloured film was expensive to produce. It is also a photograph taken without the model knowing making it candid.
Outcome 2
In this outcome, an adult lady is talking to what appears her friend. The lighting for this image is natural as it was taken outside with a harsh use of ISO.
The image is in black and white to relate to Richard and some of his black and white work.
I have used photoshop to reduce the colour noise and grain from this image but it has decreased the quality of the image along with it. However, the grain kind of works well with the idea of lomography.
There is a constant use of the rule of thirds in this photograph as the face of the model is centered close to the middle making her the main focus of the image and having the background behind her.
This photo and candid photography just come to show how un-attentive we humans can be not noticing someone is taking a photo of us.
Outcome 3
In this outcome the lighting is natural and quite dim due to the wheather (cloudy) and the low ISO used to try and freeze individuals in a way on a frame without them noticing and/or have the image with blurry movement.
The rule of space has been used to compose this image showing that the model has enough space to move to but is more entrigued by his phone.
This image can show how content we are with simple, minimalistic entertainment than what’s actually around us. For example, behind the man there is a show sale happening with a sign saying “20% off” but the model is too busy on his phone to appreciate the environment around him.
Outcome 4
In this outcome we can clearly see another example of an individual talking to their friend.
I have purposely used the centered composition to compose this image as the man is clearly centered.
It’s in black and white to relate to the other black and white images with naturalistic edited lighting.
In my opinion I have successfully achieved the purpose of this project which was to take portraits of people anywhere without their realisation so that we can capture their naturalistic form without photographer bias intervening.
This is powerfully shown by my 4 final outcomes where I have captured models talking to their friends, busy on their phones and not acknowledging a sale on a shop and much more. This energetically demonstrates and is an example of candid / covert photography.
I love how the images turned out as it gives this vintage look which was very common in 1970s (Richard’s birth year). On the other hand however, the photographs had noise grain and colour which was due to the low ISO being used along with a fast shutter speed. It may be argued that it adds to the vintage theme but with the amount of editing used to restore the images, the shots lost their sparkle by a lot.
Therefore, I will learn to use ISO and Shutter speed on manual mode in an efficient and clear way in order for the photographs to be as high quality as possible.
Rural landscape is photography that’s taken in the countryside in order of capturing the life of the countryside for people to look at the image and really realise that the we have beautiful places around us possibly all the time. For me I find that rural landscape photography is used in order for people to really analyse the images of rural landscapes, so that they can really see the beauty in some places because usually people go to amazing places and ignore the whole situation however, these landscape images are almost a reminder for people to look at. Moreover, when these types of images are looked at, people might even see things that they wouldn’t have even noticed whilst being at these places in person. Rural landscapes can also come with an emotional value behind them because the image could be so appealing to people that they have a reaction to the image possibly imagining that they are at the place in which the photo was taken of, imaging how it would feel like being there in that picture.
Springtime landscape along the road from Morfasso to Passo del Pelizzone, Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Landscape photography is capturing images outdoors either nature or urban places that have an emotional connection with them or even a wow factor to them. For example, if someone was to go to some cliff sides on a windy day, they would be amazed by the scenery thats happening with waves crashing on cliff sides and you could take a picture of it because of how intriguing that scenery was. Landscape pictures are taken because the people who where amazed by the scenery want other people to see the scenery and want them to imagine what it would be like to see that picture for themselves in real life and see the reaction that a person could have to the picture giving it emotional value.
Moreover, there are different types of landscape pictures that could be taken, which are rural, costal, urban, industrial and altered landscapes.
