For this being my third and final photoshoot I wanted to make sure I captured more than enough images. I took around 100 – 150 images at these locations to ensure I wouldn’t need to go back. This photoshoot was carried out on the same day as my Waterfront photoshoot because of how clear the sky was. I tried experimenting with different angles of where I was taking the photos to try and involve the blue sky in most of my photos. The structures at these locations are much less complex when compared to the Waterfront which is good for my simple side of the project. I carried on with the attempted theme of Matthieu Venot but I wasn’t trying to replicate his images. Also, these buildings only contain a small amount of colours which is what I was aiming to photograph before going on the photoshoot.

Editing Process

To begin this process I started with the basic P and X flag method to identify which images I was going to edit. Also, when rating my previous images I rated the rest of my photoshoots so the images below have also been rated from a scale of 1-5 (1 being worst and 5 being my favourite). Shown below are the images I want to further develop:

Best Unedited Images:

Black and White

Next I wanted to see how effective my images would be in black and white. I did this to try and experiment the style of Helene Binet as all her images are displayed in black and white, however I much prefer my images with colour and I like how the blueness of the sky contrast with the dull coloured buildings.

Favourite Edited Images

For my final prints I wanted to include some images that are displayed in black and white because I didn’t want to only follow one artists style. Also, the more simple, close up images look a lot better in black and white due to the sky not giving a great contrast to the close up features of the buildings.

Evaluation

Overall, I am very happy with the quality and amount of photos I produced, however there are some images which didn’t turn out the best with bright skies and out of focus images. For my edited images that aren’t in black and white I wanted to attempt to follow Matthieu Venots style again but then differ over to Helene Binets style of monochrome, close up images. In this set of images I seem to prefer the black and white range because the shadows create a really good contrast to the light grey sky. Also, I believe I gained enough images to not have to go back to these locations and focus more on another Waterfront shoot due to a lack of images. I could of improved by taking more close ups of corners of buildings to create more monochrome style images but overall I am very happy with this photoshoot.

Contact Sheets

Plan for Photoshoot: For this photoshoot, I was planning on walking from my mums house in St Saviour, to my dads house in St Clement, near green island. This is because I would like to attempt to connect two sets of memories and lifestyles using landscapes images and places of significance to my childhood. I would like to do this in the last afternoon as it will provide me with bright lighting and good weather.

Overview of Photoshoot: I think that this photoshoot is more successful than my portraits photoshoot (Photoshoot 1) just based off looking at them in Lightroom. This is because I find landscapes more enjoyable and since I have done them more I find them easier. The lighting of these photographs is a lot better, and overall I found that throughout this photoshoot it was easier to create more successful images.

Image Selection

Below I have showed evidence of me rating my photographs, this is to help me decide which are going to be a big part of my project, I like to rate my images because it gives me a sense of which are slightly better than others, especially in terms of lighting and composition, as many of my images are similar to each other, but some are a lot stronger than others.

• Purple- Images with the most relevance and potential throughout my project
• Blue- Images that can still be used but are not of the same quality

In addition to rating my images, in Lightroom I like to colour code my photographs, the purpose of this is to double check that my image selections are correct, also when scrolling through my selections, I like being quickly able to see which are useable images, and which are the best out of my whole photoshoot.

Best Images Before Editing

Below I have included some images that are from my selection process, but before they have been edited, this is showcase the original composition and settings of the images and make sure they will be suitable for future editing.

I really liked this photoshoot as the lighting made taking images easier then usual, the bright and clear sky allowed me to take more successful photographs, as I think this is apparent in this gallery above, the lighting throughout the first and third image show that these images will not require a lot of editing, in the sense that the saturation and clarity of these images is already of good quality.

Editing

Below I have included some examples of editing throughout this photoshoot, some of these are monochromatic and some photographs I thought would be better off keeping in colour. I think that only some of this editing was successful as this photoshoot did not provide a lot of opportunities for drastic editing.

I really like this image above as the waves are layering perfect onto of each other and creating the perfect opportunity for me to take a photograph. I tried to edit this image so that the beach would appear more shiny and the exposure has been decreased, as in Lightroom, the image appears too light, I have also enhanced the texture within the waves as the foaming parts throughout the water are more clear now. Alternatively, I think the first image looks better unedited, this is because it looks better with the naturally high saturation appearing, as the colour combination of pink, blue and white go well together to create a successful image.

My intentions with the photograph above of the tree was to try to make it look older and more rustic, however, I don’t think this affect was achieved as the tree just looks older and more blurry in comparison to before editing, I think leaving in it colour emphasises the life within our island and the importance of this photoshoot.

Final Images and Analysis/ Critique

I have placed these two images as final outcomes as I believe that they complement each other well, the first image is very subtle as there is not many tree branches present, whilst the second juxtaposes this and is a very full on image, this is because it has a lot of detail and texture throughout the main tree. I decided to edit these photographs into black and white as it emphasises the details on the tree, such as the vines and bark, making them more apparent and more clear for the eye to see. Overall, I think these images are among my most successful and they do challenge the concept of ‘Simple or Complex’ as nature is mostly seen as simple, but in reality is very complex. Additionally, the trees being monochromatic and the flower being in colour represents the juxtaposition being my parents, as I would say the tree represents my dad and the flowers represent my mum. The only criticism I have for these images is some would think they aren’t clear enough to be edited monochromatically.

I have selected this as one of my final image as the simpleness of this photograph can link to me and my brother’s current relationship, this is because we are the closest we have been in years and the sea in the image represents how calm our relationship is the majority of the time. I like how this image is filled with a variety of textures, for example, the rocks, smooth wet sand, and then the white foaming water. This combination makes for a very aesthetically pleasing image, as the subtleness may catch people’s eye and make them wonder what the intention behind this photoshoot was. Additionally, this photograph demonstrates that simple compositions can create some of the most successful imagery, the waves taking up the majority of the image means that more attention is drawn to the lack of sand, however, the shine on the sand and the rocks may highlight the importance of land, as it provides stability for all family relations, linking to my project.

Finally, I have chosen these images as some of my most successful, they will not be displayed together but I have placed them into this galley so that I can juxtapose them against each other. Firstly, the nature part of the first image would represent where my mum lives as this image was taken where I used to go to feed horses, and the second image represents construction next to the sea and being surrounded by the beach growing up, as this is where my dad has always lived. These two photographs represent two different kinds of memories being placed together in my mind, creating a vast combination in my memories. One not so positive aspect of these image would be that visually they do not match together, and its more about the representation of the image more than what the physically look like.

Lightroom Edits

My first photoshoot provided me with 12 final images to edit and use within my final pieces. Below is a before and after of the editing made to these images to improve on them and make them stand out, the before picture is on the left, while the after picture is on the right. I experimented with both coloured and black and white images, as some of these final images looked much more effective as black and white.

This image looked much more effective in black and white, and the editing really brought out the shadows within the image to create a cool effect.

This image too looked better in black and white, and once again the editing really brought out the shadows making it look much more effective.

Using editing brought out the colours in the sky and made it look much more unique and really added to the image, as well as this the sky now contrasts much better with the building.

Once again the colours of the sky have been brought out much more, making the image stand out a lot better than it did before.

The sky has been brought out a lot more after editing making the image look much grander, as well as this the editing has brought out much more detail in the image making it look more effective.

Final Edits:

Further/Advanced Edits

For further editing, I wanted to create a photomontage of my various images all in one to create a unique looking final piece, I created this using Adobe Photoshop.

Images used:

To start off I used an A3 landscape print within photoshop and started by removing the sky from each of the images:

I then arranged the buildings in the A3 document in a position which I liked.

After much experimentation I decided to go with this layout of the buildings in the document.

I then decided to add a stroke to each of the layers within the image, I think this really adds to the image and makes it look much more like a photomontage.

Final Piece:

Evaluation:

Overall, the editing of shoot 1 really brought out the effectiveness of the photographs taken, and I believe that some of these photographs have come out really well. To improve I would have experimented with more ideas other than just photo montaging to create different and unique results.

For my second photoshoot I will go to Rue de Pres trading estate:

I will be taking photos of the industrial buildings in this estate by walking around and seeing which buildings would look good in my project.

Here are some examples of how my work might look like:

VINCA PETERSEN

Vinca Petersen is a British photographer and artist, living on the Isle of Skye. Her work consists of documentary-style photography captured with a diaristic narrative as she travels across the world photographing different cultures – in particular the rave / party culture around Europe in the 90s, which was the product and main focus for her photobook ‘No System’ A ten year long documentation of her journey around Europe in 1990s, putting on illegal free raves and festivals with other Techno Travellers. This photobook became amongst her most known works due to its unique outlook on rave culture and shows an insider perspective through the eyes of Petersen and her friends who travelled around solely to experience raves and festivals in different areas. ‘No System’ Includes some of my favourite images taken by Petersen that inspired me to use her as an artist reference or my own project – She takes photos of ravegoers in their element with photos full of colour and vibrancy, and documents the journey of going to a festival – from the massive crowds to the riots and fires that occur, capturing photos of subjects dancing amongst raging flames which a slightly blurry lens to paint a chaos-filled landscape. However along with capturing the madness and danger of raves, Petersen also captures the quieter moments of travelling – some photos depict her friends in peaceful, relaxed states – whether swimming in a lake, lying on a beach or simply lounging around as they prepare to travel to their next destination. Along with creating photobooks and documenting her love for travelling and raves, Petersen has worked with many different youth groups and charities across the world, most of which she has discovered whilst travelling.

Along with ‘No System’, Petersen released a second photobook about travelling to illegal raves / festivals, titled ‘Raves and Riots 1999-2004’ Displayed as a solo exhibition after the success of ‘No System’ this photobook isn’t based on one particular journey and is a collection of random images taken at different locations around Europe, such as England, Czech Republic, Italy, etc. ‘Raves & Riots’ is simply a showcase of Petersen and her friends having fun, capturing moments of freedom in travelling and the adrenaline of dangerous situations such as riots, protests and run-ins with the police. Not only do the photographs form a vital record of a unique moment in recent history – on the cusp of a digital era, when there was arguably more freedom to stage gatherings in such a way – but, as Petersen says, they are just as relevant today. “As we were putting the show together we realised it’s completely reflective of right now – so many of the images could be from today,” she said in an interview to anothermag.com. Through this project, Petersen shares the freedom and the continued importance of raving and rioting.

Petersen is also friends with famous photographer Corinne Day, who is known for her raw and gritty documentary photography style or herself and her friends. In 1999, Day was paid to do a road trip in Texas and invited Petersen along with her – there she captured around 200 images of the four of them on their roadtrip and created a photobook titled Deuce and a Quarter. Petersen states her book is about women together, having an adventure. She says ‘We had no phones with us, we just felt very free, and untraceable. No one knew where we were. It’s about four women, on a road trip, doing fairly dangerous things at times, but mainly just mucking about. No one fell out, no one got hurt, there was no disaster, and they don’t die at the end like Thelma and Louise. They just have a really great time!’ The final product of the book is composed of images depicting Petersen and her friends doing everyday activities – the majority of images are taken in the car, but although these photos may be simple and not particularly eye-catching they still carry the atmosphere of freedom and fun that Petersen aimed to convey in her work, upholding her typical documentary-style narrative that runs through her projects. Although this project does not inspire me as much as No System does, i still like it as it is a unique depiction of an everyday activity such as driving and showcases the feeling of freedom through soft lighting featuring colours like pastel blues, purple and yellows to convey the relaxed atmosphere of the journey.

IMAGE ANALYSIS

This image taken from Raves & Riots is amongst my favourites by Petersen and is also the photo i feel is closest to the images i have produced due to its bold, vibrant colours and shaky slightly blurred camera. This photo taken during what appears to be a riot depicts a figure surrounded by flames and debris. The subject is running in the middle of the photo, the flames behind her display a bold orange lighting that illuminates the background of the photo and leaves darker red and brown tones to seep into the foreground of the image – this contrasts the figure from the flames and creates a primary viewpoint. Colour theory plays a major role in this image – the red colours symbolize anger, chaos, destruction. Paired with the raging flames and blurry figure this creates a hectic atmosphere which helps create a story behind the image.

Lewis Baltz

Lewis Baltz was an American photographer who focused some of his work on industrial buildings, car parks and apartment blocks.

His images “describe the architecture of the human landscape”

His work also aims to show destruction to nature and how humans can change landscapes.

One of Lewis’ contemporaries is Bernd and Hilla Becher, another 2 artists I am also focusing my artist case studies on. This link can help me in my own project, as I can use both of their work as inspiration for a modern attempt at the project.

Photoshoot locations

For my first photoshoot I took photographs around areas of St. Helier, From high areas of elevation such as multi-story carparks as well as some apartment complexes. The weather during this photoshoot was cloudy and went from around sunset into early night time with a bit of darkness. I believe the time of day and the weather made these photos come out very effective, and contrasted well with the subjects I was photographing.

Contact Sheets

From photoshoot 1 I captured 298 photographs, I used the pick, reject flagging system on Adobe Lightroom to select my favourite images. From using this system I came up with 66 images which were my favourite from this photoshoot.

After this I then once again narrowed down the images even more using the star rating system on Lightroom, the best images I rated 5 starts, which I would use in my final pieces.

Best Images from the shoot

Using this rating system on Lightroom left me with 12 final images to edit and use within my final pieces. The images below are the unedited versions of my favourite/best images from this photoshoot.

Evaluation

Overall, I believe that this photoshoot went well, some images came out too dark or slightly blurry but apart from that there were no problems with the photographs. To improve I would have brought a second camera lens with me to capture various different shots of the same subjects to improve the amount of photographs I could have used for my final pieces.

I started by flagging all the images I believed were successful green, this turned out being only 10 images as the rest of my images from this photoshoot were blurry and dark.

For some images I wanted to crop them into a main focal point so they have less negative space- for cinematic style images there would rarely be space where something is not happening, this is due to the nature of cinema and films where cameras are often concentrated on the action.

When editing these images I wanted to stay committed to the green/yellow tinge that the floodlights produced on the images- I am going to do minimal editing however my main concentration will be bringing out colour and making the images more vibrant. All the images will be edited similarly- adjudgments will mainly be made for the exposure of each image as this is quite inconsistent.

As seen for the image above, editing is minimal and primarily concentrated on colour- bringing out greens and yellows in the image. I was going to turn up the grain in the images however due to underexposure the images themselves are already quite grainy.

Though editing my images I was able to cut down to some final images as changing the exposure and contrast I could see blur and images which were more unsuccessful, I changed these images to yellow in my coding system so I can still access them.

I find many of these images more unsuccessful as they portray too much of an outsider point of view, with no focal point they make the subjects look isolated with a lack of interaction towards the camera (many subjects have their back to the camera which is uncommon in film photography). In the bottom image although almost every subject is presented towards the camera there is an amateur feeling towards the perspective, a lack of focal point as the subjects are spread out which I do not feel is very appealing in the type of effect I am trying to accomplish.

I think these images are more successful as they have clear focal points with a clear aesthetic theme running through them: the one outlier is the image at the bottom of the montage above which is darker and more underexposed, making it less clear and out of focus due to grain- there is also a lot of negative space in the image so I am unsure if I will consider this image a final image however the other two images are in focus and carry the same idea of cinematic images; in focus, clear, an idea of narrative as the subjects are concentrated on what is out of frame and definition in the subject with not too much grain.

I decided to print out an array of my images from this project in a range of sizes, in order to display them in an interesting way. I started by resizing my best images onto A3, A4, and A5 canvases to be sent off to be printed.

I then decided to use photoshop to experiment with the order in which I would display this images, based on their new sizes.

For example I had selected these three images to be printed A3 so I thought it would make the most sense to have them displayed together, likely on foamboard. I decided to group these images together because they are all rather detailed and have a variety of shades of green within them. I placed them equally far apart in Photoshop and used a drop shadow layer to make them look a little bit more 3D.

I decided to make a second layout idea with six images placed inside of a window mount. Each image is printed in A5 so I thought placing a collection of smaller images together would make an interesting composition. I placed the images in this order due to their colouring, shapes, and subject matter, like placing the images of birds in the two centre spaces. If I did assemble this in real life, I would use black foam board, allowing the white on the other side to contrast that and the image. I replicated this effect in Photoshop to see how effective this would be.

Another layout idea using some of my A4 images in a window mount. I picked these images because of the blur caused by their slow shutter speed.

Since I was also making a photobook, I thought it best that I have a reduced number of prints compared to how many I would normally make, so I would have enough time to assemble them to a quality I was happy with.

This photoshoot wasn’t planned because i wasn’t expecting it however i was presented with the opportunity to go for a ride in this vehicle and i asked the owner if i could take some pictures.

I uploaded my photos into adobe light room classic and began to pick out my best images using the p for pick and x for don’t pick feature.

These 19 images were the ones i thought were best from my photoshoot

I experimented by creating virtual copies of my best images and making them black and white. This makes the images look much more authentic as the car was built in the 1920s.

Developing the images

In addition to using the contrast, highlights, exposure and shadows features to slightly improve the look of the image i also used the levelling features available in light room. This is because i took the photographs at Sorel racetrack which is on the north coast of the island and it has a slight decline.

After I had developed all of the images including the black and white copies I used the rating system in Lightroom. I rated each image 3, 4 or 5 stars depending on their quality.

My Final Images

These were the 5 best images from my final photoshoot.

Experimentation

I lowered the contrast of the images in lightroom. This made a significant difference and made them look like they were taken in the 1920s when the car was made. This is because the camera technology wasnt very advanced then they could not pick up a large amount of contrast.