URBAN AND INDUSTRIAL
WHERE?
WHEN?
For carparks, office buildings and I want to aim to photograph them at dusk/ night to emphasise the lighting to give a more industrial look. In the evening I will aim to photograph harbours; building sites and specifically La Collette in the day for the best detail and lighting.
For this photoshoot I went along the cliff paths at Bouley Bay. I have edited each image, which is shown on the right next to the original image I took (on the left).
FIRST IMAGE:
ANAYLSIS OF IMAGE:
I prefer this image in black and white as it highlights the whites on the rocks, I also like how the water contrasts with the skyline in the image on the right.
SECOND IMAGE:
THIRD IMAGE:
My first photoshoot for landscapes was at Plemont, the original pictures are on the right and then the edited black and white are on the left:
FIRST IMAGE
ANALYSIS ON IMAGE:
This is one of my favourites I took as it shows a clear view of the cliff, the rocks, sea and some plants. I also like the angle it’s taken at and how the light shines down onto the ocean which you can clearly see the in the black and white edit.
SECOND IMAGE:
ANALYSIS ON IMAGE:
This shows more detail and texture in the rocks and the sea, I like the texture it presents, showing depth. Although, I do prefer the image coloured to show more detail and it makes the picture more interesting.
THIRD IMAGE:
ANALYSIS ON IMAGE:
Shows a better view of the waves and looks more interesting in black and white as I adjusted exposure and highlighted the whites:
FOURTH IMAGE:
ANALYSIS ON IMAGE:
When editing this image in black and white i also liked how this edit looked:
My reasoning being that I darkened the shadows, so they are almost black, I like this as its more similar to Ansel’s pictures. The other black and white image being:
There are more details in the shadows compared to other image.
EVAULATION
Overall, I enjoyed doing this photoshoot as I could focus and explore on different areas of the cliff paths. In my plan I wasn’t aiming to go to Plemont originally but found it suited the ‘rural landscapes’ topic. Each image shows a different perspective and allows me to practice editing different aspects of each image whether it being the shadows, highlights, exposure or tone. My favourite image is the fourth as I like the angle and how much I could experiment with editing it, I’d say it’s the most similar to Ansel’s pictures as it shows depth, and the cliffs resemble as mountains to create different levels and height in my image; the shadows are sharp and effective with black and white.
New Topographics is photographing a man-altered landscape that contrasts modern development with natural landscapes. This development can be seen in many places in Jersey, especially La Collet.
La Collette in the 1900s
The evolution of modern development has taken over this area of Jersey over time, which is shown in my photoshoot that I did there. This growth is what photographers such as Robert Adams and Stephen Shore tried to raise awareness about through their photography. This is what I attempted to recreate in my photoshoot to show how the nature and landscape has dramatically changed over a short amount of time due to modern development.
Robert Adams is an American photographer who has focused on the changing landscape of the American West. His work first came to prominence in the mid-1970s through his book The New West and his participation in the exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape in 1975. He was born on the 8th of May, 1937 in New Jersey, USA and is currently aged 85 years.
Robert Adams is a photographer who has documented the extent and the limits of our damage to the American West, recording there, in over fifty books of pictures, both reasons to despair and to hope. He uses his photographical skills to capture the impact humans have made on the nature around us.
Adams criticised the idea of romanticism in photography since he believed the impact of human architecture on nature should be presented to the world, instead of being hidden and ignored- in the way romantics do when creating their photographs.
“At our best and most fortunate we make pictures because of what stands in front of the camera, to honor what is greater and more interesting than we are”
– Robert Adams
This photograph is a very popular image in the urban landscape photography community to this day. The photo shows a landscape taken from a high face on angle, including an estate of temporary homes at the base of an mountain towering over them. Adams took this photo to show the negative influence humans and their habit of spreading out across natural landscapes has on our world- converting the once beautiful rural landscape into a banal and conventional area. The background consists of the wide, dark toned mountain, which contrasts with the boxy and derivative appearance of the mobile homes in the foreground. This adds a sense of depth to the image, as not only there being a distinct fore and background present in the photo, the heavy contrast between the two distinct factors in the landscapes causes the image to appear more extensive and realistically detailed. The blocky appearances of the houses acts as a dominant feature in the photo, taking our attention away from the nature in the background. Moreover, the divergence between the shapes present in the photo, creates another perception of contrast, the smooth, featureless edge of the mountain contrasting with the harshly shaped structure of the mobile homes below. I think that this photo has quite an isolated mood since their are no visible people in it and the identically boxy mobile homes add to the desolate theme of the photo. The uniform texture of the buildings contrasts with the smooth appearance of the mountain- causing the lined pattern to stand out in the image.
What is exposure bracketing?
Exposure bracketing is when a photographer creates pictures with different exposure settings. 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.
Why do photographers use bracketing?
Bracketing is a technique where a photographer takes shots of the same image using different camera settings. This gives the photographer multiple variations of the same image to choose from or combine to ensure that they get the perfect shot.
Getting exposure right can be a complex subject. There are lots of things you have to balance: how your camera is metering the scene, your camera’s dynamic range, and of course, what settings you’re using. You might also be trying to deliberately overexpose your photos a little to get more data in the RAW file without going too far and blowing your highlights.
Exposure bracketing only works well in certain situations. It’s really a landscape or architecture photography technique. If you’re photographing people, pets, or anything else that moves a lot, you won’t be able to shoot bracketed exposures; instead, you’ll just be taking different photographs with different exposure values.
As a class we went and took photographs of Havre De Pas through to La Colette, our photographs were based off of rural landscapes and New Topography; inspired by photographers such as, John Constable and Robert Adams.
contact sheet
I flagged the images i want to work with, this isn’t many as the lighting when doing the shoot was very flat.
This image is inspired by new topography, this is shown through the banal aesthetic it gives off. This image is formal and I’ve put it in black and white to make it more sinister.
In this image, i increased the hue and saturation of the primary colour, green to add depth to my image.. Similarly, adding color is a way to bring your photo closer into reality. However, when color is too adjusted and edited you can begin to alter the feeling of reality either enhancing, narrowing, or even into surrealism.
This image is a split image. The plain wall with the seahorse in contrasts the geometrical detail of the houses on the left of the image therefore creating the illusion that it is two separate images.
This image is inspired by Lewis Baltz as his work is often of places that humans have taken over such as industrial sites.
In this image i increased the clarity and texture to make the rusting stand out more.
These are all my chosen edited images:
