Field

f/4.5  1/60  ISO 100

This photograph was not actually taken in Bath, but on the outskirts of the city. I think it represents what some people may categorise as 'the country' because it shows a typical farmhouse and the land around it. The telephone poles that are on the left side of the photograph force the eye to follow the lines which lead to the farmhouse in the distance. To edit this photo, I changed the tint to +18, took the exposure down by -0.55, took the recovery to 30, changed the contrast to +38 and put the brightness up to +20. I did this because in the original photo the sky was quite overexposed and washed out, and the photograph itself looked like it had a slight white wash to it. By bringing down the exposure and putting the recovery up whilst bringing the contrast up too, the white wash was taken down and the image looks more 'realistic'. I changed some of the Hue colours as well, bringing the green up to +9 to make the grass stand out, the yellows were increased by +24 so the trees and some of the farmland seem to contrast against the green and the oranges were increased by a minor +1, but I thought this was necessary to merge the oranges in the trees and farmland into the yellows of the same subjects. I edited the reds down by -8 as well so the berries at the left third of the photograph stood out to gain the attention of the spectator's eye. All of this altered the white balance of the image, and instead of using the white balance as shot, I used a custom white balance that also emphasised the merge of oranges, yellows and reds.

City of Bath

f/7.1  1/200  ISO 400

This photograph is focused mainly on the housing estates and roads that surround Bath. The image shows how densely populated a small amount of the area is with the tightly packed in terraced houses. The church in the background of the image is slightly out of focus, but, because it is central to the shot and sticks out amongst the trees to the left and right of it, the spectator's eye is drawn to it. This is emphasised by the leaves that frame the image (top left and bottom right), focusing the spectator's eye in on the centre of the photograph. I took the exposure down by -1.00, heightened the brightness to +68 and put up the contrast by +45. This part of editing made the terraced houses stand out against the backdrop of the trees and church and also defined some of the colours of the houses a lot more. I also took the recovery up by 90, which sharpened and defined the trees in the background, but also decreased the yellow Hue by -55, which took away the focus of the trees in the background and leaves at the top of the image so the eye is directed toward the focal point. However, I did not want the leaves to fade into the background so decreased the orange Hue by -56, which made the orange in the leaves bolder, which defines the 'frame' they give.

Industrial Bath

f/7.1  1/80  ISO 100

Along with the two previous photographs (Field and City of Bath), I have also focused here on the landscape of Bath and the juxtaposition between the sky and the buildings below it. This photograph particularly shows the industrial side of Bath that I wanted to convey, especially with the factory chimney to the left. I have also centred the church in the middle of the photograph which draws the attention into the image. The buildings below the church are synchronised; they all look similar and because there is no start or end point to them it seems they could go on infinitely. In the original photograph, the colours stood out and were all quite bold, but because I wanted to represent the industrial side of Bath I decided to try and make the image rather industrial, boring and the colours to merge together in quite a grey, brown, dark red over tone. I did this by decreasing the exposure by -1.00, put the brightness up by +15 which lightened the sky to a grey colour, took the saturation down by -15 which took away some of the boldness of the colours, took the vibrance down by -30 which changed the vibrancy of the colours throughout the image and added in a graduated filter at the bottom of the image so the colours and tones of the image merged together. With the colour Hues, I changed the blue to +26, took the yellows down by -60 and increased the reds by +35, which all in all gave a slight darker, grey tone to the finished product.

Clouds

f/14  1/100  ISO 100

I wanted to juxtapose my previous photograph (the industrial side of Bath) with this image by using hyper-colours and bolder block colours. The photograph is mainly focused on the branches of the trees but because the aperture is set to focus further away than the previous image, the clouds are also in focus, which gives focus to the sky as well as the branches. Because the shutter speed is higher, the birds in the photograph look quite blurred which gives the connotation of movement and action, opposed with the slow movement of the clouds. With this image, I edited the clarity by +8, took the vibrance up by a rather large +78, took the saturation up by +56 and took the tint down by -10. This heightened the colours of the sky and green of the branches to an almost hyper-sensitive state. I also hyper-sharpened the image, adjusting the amount to 85, detail to 25 and colour detail to 45. I think the only think I decreased, apart from the tint, was a blue Hue, which I only decreased by -8. However, this gave the blues in the image (specifically just the sky) a bolder blue colour.

Angel

f/4  1/40  ISO 200

This image has some obvious religious undertones, which also corresponds to some of my other images, including 'Sun-God', 'Cathedral 1' and 'Cathedral 2'. With this image, I wanted to focus on the angel more than the background, so changed the aperture to the lowest point it could go to. The angel is in full focus, which pulls the attention of the spectator to it immediately. I also edited the photograph so the angel would be in almost full attention by increasing the Blacks to 24, took the exposure down to -0.55 and took the recovery up by 36. With the colours, I took the greens, reds, aquas, blues and purple hues down and increased the orange hue (which in fact decreased the colour). I also took the saturation colours down, decreasing the reds, oranges, yellows and greens but increasing the aquas, which is a major colour in the angel. With the luminance, I increased the aquas by +65 and decreased the greens by -75, which all in all made the angel stand out and made the grass and surrounding area fade into each other, which was emphasised by the way the background is intentionally out of focus and the angel is intentionally in focus. The connotation of this photograph, I think, would be that the angel is looking over the grounds of which it stands, and I wanted to show how such a peaceful image could come from a busy and bustling city like Bath.

Bridge & Boat

f/5.6  1/30  ISO 200

Because the shutter speed for this photograph was quite low, the movement of the water has seemed to stop in motion. This is one of the photograph's that didn't quite come out as expected, though. I saw the boat come towards the bridge and was hoping it would go through the bridges' arch through the centre, but as it veered off to the left (or my right), the photograph did not go to plan! However, I am still happy with this image, and I decided to heighten some of the primary colours in the edit. I increased the green hues which made the trees and some of the moss on the bridge stand out from the background, but I also decreased the red and orange hues, which actually made the reds and oranges stand out more. I changed the luminance of the reds (-45) and yellows (-19), which led to the door of the boat, the mans red jacket and the life preserver/ring on the boat and the lights in the reflection in the water stand out. This image also corresponds with the 'above the line' perspective, which shows how the photographer can look down on an image, which connotates how the subject of the photograph can look smaller than in reality.

Stairway

f/14  1/50  ISO 800

With this photograph, I wanted to make the illusion of the 'stairway leading to light'. This photograph breaks the edge of the desired visual because it does not show the needed end to the stairs, the desired destination that the spectator's eye craves. However, the spectator is drawn to the stairs because of the way light enters the image from a point that would not necessarily be used often. In the edit of this photograph, I took away many of the colours that were included in the bricks to focus in on the destination of the stairs. I increased the blacks by 30 and decreased the exposure by -0.30, which blackened the image slightly.

Hue:

• Oranges -11
• Yellows +47
• Blues +15
• Purples +16

Saturation:

• Oranges +65
• Yellows +64
• Blues -75
• Purples +16

Luminance:

• Oranges +32
• Yellows +63 
• Blues -64
• Purples -48

Bench

f/5.6  1/6  ISO 200

This original photograph, before the edit, was quite dull; the leaves of the trees and on the floor were faded, and the shadows of the tree and the blacks in the photograph were quite faded too. So, in the edit, I decided to increase the colours of the leaves in the trees and on the ground and decrease the blacks so the tree became more of a focus than the girl in the picture. I increased the blacks by 23, increased the recovery by 61 and set the contrast to +48. I also changed the luminance and hue colours, decreasing the reds, greens and blues in both, but changed the yellow luminance to +18 but decreased the yellow hue to -11. All in all, this made the orange leaves in the lower third of the photograph stand out but also made the green and yellow leaves in the upper third of the image stand out. This way, the tree looms over the girl on the bench, making her seem almost insignificant. I think this photograph is rather observational because it shows the way society could see this girl, sat on a bench on her own. 

Sun-God

f/14  1/50  ISO 400

The aperture of this image is focused mainly on the left third of the image, but I also focused the AF Point to the left of the image here, so the right third of the image is out of focus compared to the left. This image also has a religious overtone because the central text focuses in on the word 'sun-god'. In the original image, the plaque was a faded blue, and the leaf was a faded orange. In the edit, I obviously increased the blue and orange, opposing them quite dramatically. I also decreased the stone's green, grey, black tone so the focus is mainly on the plaque and the leaf. I did this by increasing the blacks, brightness, contrast and vibrance but taking the saturation down by -2. I also used the Highlight Hue by 165, which gave the image over-heightend colours. This image also corresponds to the use of above the line perspective, because it looks down on the plaque and text, rather than straight on. 

Flags

f/5.6  1/25  ISO 400

The flags in the street reminded me of the exaggerated hype that surrounded the Royal Wedding earlier on in 2011, and also reminds me of the typical way England goes around supporting themselves - using red, white and blue flags to represent their home. I wanted to use this image as a throw back to some of the images seen that surrounded the Royal Wedding but also give a slight industrial, 'used' look to it. In a way, this image is very representational and inspired by Martin Parr, who also used the flags (or red, white and blue colours) in most of his images to represent the wedding. In the original image, the flags stood out against the out of focus background, and I wanted to maintain the way the flags were the central point of the image, but also merge the colours together to give it that industrial feel. I decreased the saturation of the overall image by -11 and increased grain to 75, which gives the image an almost cracked and old-style photograph effect.

Overview 1 & Overview 2

f/4.0  1/25  ISO 100

These two photographs have exactly the same aperture, shutter speed and ISO but the focus changes from the front of the image to the mid-part of the image. In Overview 1, the focus is on the front of the image, and in Overview 2, the women are more in focus and are where the spectator's eyes are drawn to. This photograph, like 'Bench', is observational, and I don't think the women in this photograph knew they were being photographed, which added to the way they are represented - the photograph shows 'natural' observational photography but also focuses on the way the women acted together (ontological look on society). In the edit, I used exactly the same effects and processes in both photographs, changing the contrast to +55, took the clarity down by -8 which made the focus more on the central subject, took the blacks to 18, increased the yellow hue by +18 (gave the board in Overview 1 and the leaves in Overview 2 a bolder look), decreased the red hue to -40 (the woman's hair on the left stands out) and increased the green hue to +45, which made the trees in the background stand out more than what they would have done.

Cathedral 1                         Cathedral 2

f/7.1  1/40  ISO 100               f/4.0  1/500  ISO 100 

These two photographs were edited the same, like Overview 1 & 2, and I only used very subtle editing in these photographs - I changed the exposure to -0.65 and increased the recovery to 11. The film speeds and aperture in each photograph are different, however, which is why they came out so differently. In Cathedral 2, the cathedral looks like more of a silhouette compared to Cathedral 1, where the details of the cathedral are clearly seen. In between taking these two shots, however, the sun was setting behind the cathedral, and in Cathedral 2 the clouds seem more looming than in Cathedral 1. Both images are below the line, looking up towards the cathedral, which connotates the power of the cathedral. 

For more information on this event, go to my blog.

I have decided to add in some images Rosie and I caught at the CoppaFeel! event that we attended earlier on in November. I think they capture some of the situations that happened during the event, and give a good overall feel to how the event took place.

Image 3: The 'do not disturb' sign was the image I wanted to concentrate on in this photo, but it was just a coincidence that the people around the sign were laughing. I was mainly using the observational mode when taking these images, and like Image 1, this image also captures the event as it happened. The laughter and smiles are all genuine, which makes for a great photograph because nothing is staged, yet the main subjects of the photo are in focus and the general feel of the event is captured in this one image.

Image 4 & 5: At the event there was a small stall that contained temporary tattoos, stickers, flyers, sweets and other promotional material. I wanted to capture images of this to show how much effort the charity had gone to to promote themselves and the event.