Discovering Photography Task 7 (LO4)

Patrick Gouldsbrough

Visual Language

The colours of the photograph originally were restrained and toned down. However, I wanted to create an image that would be striking, interesting and easily identifiable. For this reason, I added the post-production colour through a photo filter of ‘sunset’, while also making the windows darker, which would make the overall image have more impact, therefore fulfilling its purpose.

The vantage point used for this photograph is from a low one. This enabled me to capture the photograph of the tower I wanted. However, this vantage point was the only one I could have taken to easily capture this particular part.

This photograph is unlike the others in terms of texture. Where as the others are from long or mid range, this image is captured in a way that you can actually see the texture of the object. That, along with the black darkened background, adds to the impact of the image. This is due to the consumer thinking ‘what would the texture feel like?’

This image uses symbolic codes of darkness in the background to create a connotation of mystery. The light colour of the wood further adds to that because it contrasts to add even more mystery then if the whole image was dark.

Visual Language

Most of the images that I have captured are unique and contain a feature that another doesn’t. This image has prominent geometric shapes used within. You can see this from the metal grids of the staircase making up a complete shapes with lots of little geometric shapes. Where as other photographs have these shapes, they are not as evident as this particular piece.

A monochrome colouring has also been used for this photograph. Added in post-production, this, one of my two monochrome images, is effective because of the contrast of light and dark, which the monochrome brings out more than the original colours.

The low vantage point and high camera angle make this image more effective than if the shot was captured at a level ground vantage point and a straight on angle. This is due to the elevated balcony, as the central focus of the photograph, been elevated and not straight, which I set out to do. I wanted to capture my architectural photography from quirky and unique angles, which I tried to emulate from later mentioned Julius Shulman.

In terms of construction of the image, the colours used make some features more prominent, while making others less so. With the gradient level applied, I managed to create this image so the balcony rails were darkened and the backing wall and stonework to be lighter. This is to give the photograph a repetition in pattern with the brickwork, while giving a contrast through light and dark after the post-production technique was applied.

Visual Language The contour of the window outline sets the image up to be effective, while also adding elements of the pillar photograph, a connotation of mystery. This is done in a similar way as the pillar, by contrasting the dark of the background, with the light of the main focus, which on this particular photograph is the window.

Surprisingly, for the contrast and the effectiveness of light and dark, I didn’t need to add any post-production techniques. The blurred out background, the window, or the main focus of the image is done effectively using a very low aperture, which produced his photograph. However, given the lowest aperture was used for this picture, it’s surprising more of the image wasn't blurred out, which would have left the photograph as useless and unusable. On the other hand, if that was the case, I would have added post-production techniques to alter it.

While the image has no visible or actual line to direct the viewer to the main focus, the window. The banister of the staircase acts to direct the viewers eye down the photograph and to the central focus of the window. Lines are normally used in images to direct a viewer to an object or show how far something goes back in terms of space, however, they are usually more evident than they are in this particular image.

My second monochrome image from the final collection has similar characteristics of the first monochrome coloured image. Contrast is a main feature of the image, while a feature that isn’t evident in the other is used. Dynamic range is included in this photograph of the staircase. This photographic technique states that images that stem from dark to light are considered to have a dynamic range included. This dynamic range is present in the image because the light through the window produces the lighter colouring, whereas s the dark room behind the camera is producing the dark light on the forefront of the image.

Visual Language

The colouring of the image was done by using a photo filter, altering brightness, while altering the saturation also. I used this technique for a few of my other images, due to me wanting a run of similar pictures that are part of a ‘mini-collection’. Like most of my images, this one includes a contrast from light and dark, with shape been used effectively also. The shapes that go into making the whole architectural feature itself. To the human eye, it looks like a whole window piece, but this image shows that it’s lots of little similar shapes that make up this window instead. As well as this, the shapes are repetitive to create a pattern technique for this particular photograph.

The vantage point plays a big part in this image. It’s taken from a low vantage point, with a craned camera angle. The effectiveness of the image has increased because I’ve taken it at this vantage pint, due to a level ground vantage point shot not including the sky above the window, which gives the photograph extra contrast

The angle of the image is key to the effectiveness of the photograph. If the image was taken from a straight on angle, the Minster would look flat. Where as, the angle in which it’s taken allows the viewer to see a range of features. Another reason why it’s more effective is that the image enables the look of space at the back of the image, instead of looking like it stops at the forefront of the image.

Another image in the ‘minster mini collection’, which features the same photo filter for 3 of my images. While it’s not as effective on this image compared to the one on the left, it still has qualities of contrast, while ensuring features such as the windows and doors to be highlighted, therefore enabling them to be more prominent.

Visual Language

While some of my images of Nunnington Hall have been represented as mysterious and dark, this image represents it in a very different way. The image is dark and does have elements of mystery, but a peaceful representation of Nunnington Hall is portrayed, due to the calm and restrained colours giving it a feel of a dusk time of day.

While a monochrome colouring has been added to the photograph, I also added some colour to the grass and sky. This was due to me wanting a contrast in colours, without having the contrast between light and dark on a monochrome coloured photograph. The monochrome filter would have been enough to make this photo effective, but I wanted the green colour also, which added to the effectiveness, while the sky, which I mentioned earlier, adds to the peaceful representation of Nunnington Hall on this particular image.

Audience

All the images, due to them been architectural photography, do not directly link to a particular social, age or gender group. However, my collection of photographs may draw a more male dominated audience in, due to the dull, restrained colours ion the photographs I have produced. As for the age group, an older audience would be more appealed to in terms of colour. On the other hand, an older audience may not see the shots of windows, stairs and pillars as architectural photography, due to it not been a whole building. For that reason, I believe the way my pictures are captured, not coloured, would swing towards a mid to young audience. If I had to narrow it down to a particular age demographic I think I would select a 20-35 category.

Social groups is a hard demographic to categorise. However, I would say my photographs are aimed more at an ABC1 demographic because of the locations these images are captured in. This is due to this particular group having a disposable income to spend on trips to places, where as the C2DE group only have money for necessities. This is relevant because the group that goes to these places can relate more to them, therefore an ABC1 demographic would link more to the images.

Context Julius Schulman

Shulman uses the monochrome look of a photograph to add effectiveness and make contrast more evident. Despite not having the option of coloured images, due to technological constraints, I still tried to emulate this style of work, most notably, on my two staircase pictures. This highlights that my photographic influences are not modern photographers, but past photographers.

The architectural photographer also has an everyday style to his photographs. This means he has the ability to take pictures of everyday, normal looking buildings and make them look almost artistic. Shulman does this by either taking the images at quirky angles and vantage points, or makes the overall picture look busy, while having a passive foreground and busy background like the image of the petrol station to the right. I emulated this style on my modern staircase photograph, which people consider a staircase, not an architectural feature, which I’ve portrayed it as.

The last thing Shulman does with his photographs, which I tried to emulate in this project, was the objects in which he captured in his images. Pre Shulman architectural photography was a lot about the buildings as a whole, rather than the individual architectural features, which Shulman captured for his photography. This technique was key to the success of this project and was carried out many times in my final collection. From the Minster window, to the Nunnington Pillar, I photographed architectural features, not just the buildings themselves.

Some examples of Shulman’s work

Context Karl Schmolz

Karl Shmolz, an architectural photographer at a similar time to Shulman. Due to the same technological constraints keeping Shulman from taking coloured photos, Shmolz also used monochrome colouring on his photographs. As you can see from the images to the right (especially the far right image) a lot of contrast can be seen on the image, that wouldn’t be seen if the photograph was coloured and not monochrome. As I said on the last slide, this technique was emulated and used to get a successful and effective image, especially on my modern stairs image.

An effect that Shmolz uses and Shulman doesn’t, is the close up angle. While Shulman sometimes gets close to the object and gets the full architectural feature, Shmolz captures an even smaller part of that architectural feature, sometimes so close that you can see the texture of the object. Like the photograph on the far right for instance, this image is of a bannister rail. While other architectural photographers may capture the full thing, Shmolz captures a tiny part of the image, due to the function he’ll use it for. The German doesn’t want to show you the feature, just make the viewer question the texture of the actual object and the shapes (geometric or otherwise) that go into it.

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The last function that I emulated from Karl Shmolz was his ability to define architectural photography as architectural features, not just capturing a whole building. Along with Shulman, these two were a few of the first to try this technique and change this particular photographic application forever. Even though Shmolz sometimes takes pictures of whole buildings (Cathedral, bottom left), he mainly focuses on the architectural features (the bannister and the staircase) instead. You an see I emulated this feature from my final collection, I only captured a few pictures of a whole building, the rest were features or small parts of the building.

Context

I wanted the monochrome colouring on my photograph, like Shulman has on his. Even though the Architectural photographer didn’t have a choice due to the technological restraints of those times, I still wanted to emulate the monochrome effect of Shulman’s photographs.

As you can see from Shulman’s image on the right, a low vantage point is taken, while a craned angle is also taken. While I didn’t use a low vantage point, I still wanted to take some of my photographs at various angles and vantage point, instead of been straight on, level ground shots. The image on the right clearly shows the high vantage point I’ve used in some of my photographs, while an almost birds-eye view angle is taken also.

Another of Shulman’s techniques I wanted to try and emulate was one of the features which made him famous in the architectural photography world. Before the time of Shulman, architectural photography was considered the building as a whole, but Shulman instead photographed architectural features, such as brides, pillars and staircases, therefore setting a trend in the architectural photography movement.

Julius Schulman/Patrick Gouldsbrough comparison

Realisation of intentions

An image that I used, without post-production techniques. It needed cropping and a bit of burning adding to it, to lighten it up.

Post production techniques are good and are used to make the image look more appealing and more effective. However, too much post-production can ruin an image, like this one.

At the start of the project, I aimed to try and produce a set of high quality photographs that are a standard similar to that of industry, while emulating styles from my influences, Julius Shulman and Karl Shmolz. For the most part of the project I carried out this function, however, some of the images I captured turned out more like documentary photography than architectural photography. On the other hand, I captured photographs in their masses , therefore didn’t use those particular images, instead using more architectural appropriate photographs.

Both Shulman and Shmolz, my two influences, used a black and white effect on their pictures, which I emulated on two of my final pieces, so therefore achieved what I set out to do. Another issue I had in my project was that the high quality images that I set out to make was compromised in the original image. This was due to the edges of the images not been squared off properly and the proportions were occasionally out (like the one on the right). However, I got round this issue with the post-production technique of cropping, which I used for a number of my photographs.

The final problem I had on this project was the scale to which I should add post-production techniques. When I first started to edit my photographs, I didn’t add enough to it, therefore it didn’t have the effectiveness I intended. I then decide to try it over post-produced, which turned out even worse than the original image. I however found the perfect post-production technique to use, which, most of the time, included a gradient level or a photo filter.

Fitness for purposeI stuck to my proposal in terms of the application I was going to carry out. This was due to, as stated in the proposal, it was more convenient for the locations I was planning to use. No photograph that I took was a cross-genre, but instead, pure architectural photography.

As you saw from the ‘context’ section of the evaluation, Julius Shulman was one of my final influences for the project and I did emulate his style on a few photographs. However, I decided Edwin Smith and Adrian Dennis were not appropriate to be influences. This was due to Edwin Smith’s photography tending to be of overall buildings, not Shulmans architectural features, while Dennis was a Documentary photographer and he used lots of that applications techniques, not architectural techniques, that’s why I decided to pick Shmolz.

I photographed architectural features alone, with no nature involved in any of the shots. This was due to me not wanting a cross-genre picture, but a pure architectural shot, like I explained previously.

I haven’t completely stuck to my proposal in terms of technique. This is because of the lens that I’ve used to captured these shots. I stated in my proposal that I would use both a wide and telephoto lens for my photography, however, a telephoto lens was not used, due to the availability of the lens. The ambient light element light was not stuck to either, because I used some artificial light on my Nunnington Hall staircases. However, I didn't use these shots in my final collection and instead decided to disregard them when I was cutting it down to my final eight. On the other hand, I have carried out all the post-production techniques that I stated on my proposal.

Technical qualities

One image with a problem with exposure that I didn’t delete.

Another of my photographs that I believed was over post-produced.

Exposure in this project didn’t become an issue and didn’t prevent me from taking and producing the set of photographs I set out to achieve. On some of the shots that I took where I drastically altered the ISO, shutter speed or aperture, the exposure did make some of the images unusable. However, as stated in the realisation section, I took plenty of photographs to make sure this project wasn’t a failure. In addition ,the equipment that we used on this project, allowed me to view the images after capturing them, therefore I just deleted the affected picture, alter the setting and re take the photograph.

As for the post-production techniques, they added to the effectiveness of the photographs after applying them. However, as previously said, the perfect post-production was difficult to find. On the other hand, images can still be effective without filters or colour alteration techniques, like the Nunnington contrast window successfully shows, therefore post-production was good to add, but sometimes raw photography is the best, instead of ruining it on over producing it.

An overexposed photograph, compared to an image with the right exposure of light.

*I did try some depth of field shots, but it didn’t look as effective as I would have hoped. The first attempt at the Nunnington pillar shot was an aperture shot, but I deleted it, due to the exposure not been correct. Due to this, I decided to get a shot where the background was blacked out completely, to represent Nunnington hall as mysterious.

cropped Filtered

Technical qualities A few techniques I used in the post-production process:

Levels Hue/saturation

Brightness/Contrast

Colour lookup Colour overlayOriginal

Aesthetic qualities

The monochrome colouring on this image enables it to look more professional, artistic and potentially gallery worthy. While the original is effective and high quality, the monochrome gives it contrast that it didn’t have before. The gallery worthy part of the photograph also links in with my proposal, which states I want to create images that could be used in gallery contexts and situations.

The overlay and filter added during post-production of this image, enabled it to be more striking and noticeable than the original. This is for a similar reason than the image opposite (modern staircase), the contrast of the light of the image, goes well with the darkness of the image, almost in a way which dynamic range is involved. However, this photograph is a little different. Only the windows and doors are dark and the building is light, which makes the contrast more evident and obvious, compared with the staircase shot.

Geometric shapes are used in such a way in this image, that they are almost in a repetitive pattern style of architectural features.

Skills and knowledge gained

The production process

I think overall, my technical competency has improved over the course of the project. This is due to my images at the start of the project been over exposed, due to the wrong settings been on. However, as the unit progressed, so too has my competency, and the images I images I produced were of a high standard.

As I stated in the last section, before I started the project, my photos were over exposed, due to my limited prior photographic knowledge. At the conclusion of the course, however, I can say I can take better images and now understand functions and settings of a DSLR camera.

Now I have completed the ‘discovering photography’ project, I can now take more creative images, compared to before. This is because of the knowledge I have gained from this unit. For example, I learnt about the monochrome effect and the effectiveness of it, as well as discovering the effectiveness of quirky angles and vantage points, compared to the straight on angles that I took photographs at, at the start of this project.

In this particular project, I think I managed my time well and made the most of the time I had available. My shooting schedules were mainly the reason for my good time management, as well as the contingency time I added in. Even though I didn’t need that period of time, a lot could have gone wrong in a project like this, so the addition of contingency time was key. I took my photos early in the project, so I had time to add post-production techniques, which I eventually felt was too much time. While I wanted a lot of time to experiment and edit these images, I didn’t want to over produce and constantly alter the construction of the image, which I don’t think I did, due to me being cautious of such things happening.

The over exposure of the window section, along with the tilted angle, make this shot an unusable one. (taken at the start of the photography trip to Nunnington Hall)

This image has no over exposure and the tilt is only slightly, but I wanted to keep a bit because of the quirkiness of the angle in which it was taken. (Taken at the end of the Nunnington Hall trip)

Skills and knowledge gained

Feedback responseThese examples were taken from a combination of all three peer feedback sheets:

I agree with the statement because I think this is the strongest photograph also. With the monochrome colour creating contrast, I believe this is the image nearest to been gallery worthy out of my collection, something which I wanted out of the project, which is also stated in my proposal.

I agree with the decision to pick this image as the weakest, but not for the reason given. I don’t believe the post-production is very evident in the image and the angle and tilt on the image was meant to be interpreted as quirky.

As I said in the second peer feedback piece, I don’t think post-production is evident on my pillar piece, however, on the balcony image it is, but it’s justified and looks effective. The framing on a couple, I admit, could have been better, a couple of the Minster shots in particular would be changed if the process was repeated.

Skills and knowledge gained