Contact Sheets

Sorting and Selection

Editing in Photoshop

I wanted my images to resemble my artist references as much as possible, none of which used monochrome photos. It was because of this that I chose not to use any of the filters or layers that Lightroom has to offer. Instead I imported my photos into Photoshop and edited them to extreme detail one-by-one. Here are some of the changes that I made to test my skills:

Between these two, the differences are moderate. I wanted all of my images to look smoother and feel tidy. To achieve this I removed the fence on the right and the car on the slipway. Other minimal changes were just removing the sun glare and patching up spots where necessary.

The same goes here. Changes were subtle and kept to a minimum. I only removed a bale trailer from one of the fields and patched up the shadows. Other minimal changes included touching up patches in the fields and very small objects in the background (e.g. spire on the tower and people on the beach).

Some of my images required a bit more thinking. I find it hard to believe that these are the same image, just three hours apart from one-another. I was initially was put off by the glare from the light as it was going to be very tricky to remove, but I stuck with it and was given this result. I removed all lights reflecting off of the car’s paintwork to give it a matte finish, as well as re-coloured the number plate to make it stand out. I am very happy with this final result, as it is exactly what I was aiming to produce. This was not only due to what my artist references had produced, but personal interest too. I believe that this is my single favourite image from the project

Virtual Gallery

This was my first time using the Artsteps online software. It allows you to create your own Art/Photo Gallery for completely free. I didn’t spend ages perfecting each image on the wall, just exported 14 of my best images from Lightroom into the software, made them the same size and placed them on the walls around my gallery. This was the result:

Printing and Mounting

As previously stated, I wanted to place my images in window mounts for display. From previous experience, I have found the 3×3 A5 window mount display to look great and intend to make one with these images. I used an A1 size piece of black mount board, a pencil, a metal rule and a bevel cutter to produce my windows. This board is very nice to use as the bevels leave a small white border which makes the images stand out more. For my other display prints, I chose two of my favourite images to print out in A3 and mount individually using the same technique. I also printed out these same two images again on glossy paper which I intend to get framed and give to a friend as a thanks for letting me use his car for this project. Overall, all prints and mounts were successful and I am very pleased. Please ignore odd light patterns in these images, the prints look perfect in person.

Critique, Evaluation and Link to Topic

What Went Well

After completing my project, I feel I am able to write about how I feel it has gone. I only had 250 images to work with, which may not seem like much. This was more than enough however, as I was very careful with the composure of each angle and image, as I had used a tripod for every photo. My editing process was the main course of my exam, being the most time-consuming part. I was eager, but also cautious to try some new techniques with the tool selection available in Photoshop and feel that the results prove this. The prints were exactly as I wanted them and look great in the mounts I have placed them in. From the start of this ‘Simple and Complex’ project, I have felt that the subjects of car and landscape photography fall into both aspects well. Cars are such complex machines, yet allow a person to complete a simple task, whereas a landscape can seem simple, but is the result of millions of years of change and erosion.

Where Could I Improve

Personally, I feel that one of my artist references was left out slightly; Kyler Zeleny. I feel this is because of how his style of photography isn’t specifically revolving around cars, his images just feature them as an object. I could have benefited differently by either considering his style more when conducting my shoots, or chosen somebody different entirely. Looking back, I would have just been more considerate when taking my photos.