As my magazine that I was taking pictures for was Essex Life . It was essential to make sure that the photo’s were taken in Essex, and even more important that I knew my audience and knew my pictures would appeal to the the customers. My most obvious target audience for the magazine is older people, generally ranging from 30-60+, as when I researched the demographic for Essex Life this proved to be the highest segment of people who read Essex Life. I don’t feel like either sex will like my photo’s more or less than the other as my pictures are rather universal and appeal to everyone. It’s very obvious that the younger generation wouldn’t find my photos captivating or enjoyable where as my target audience will.. I think the younger audience would find the magazine tedious, however I purposely tried to make my photo’s appeal to the widest range of people as possible. The magazines main focus is the life of Essex, so I feel my pictures of Epping Forest, a huge focal point in Essex is both suited and deserving to be there. Personally I feel that that people will like these photos regardless of their culturual backgrounds, religions and political viewpoints, I just think that anyone and everyone can get something from these pictures.

I think that although my technical and creative abilities are not the best and they’re not area’s that I thrive in I did well. I took the pictures exactly how I wanted to take them and I wasn’t hindered by my lack of photography skills, Technical ability isn’t all that important as we were given demonstrations on how to use camera’s and I retained this information and used it when I needed it. I didn’t go very deep in technicality, I did adjust shutter speeds, lighting or use any other professional techniques throughout my work, I would of liked to perhaps do some bokeh or mosaic photographs but I couldn’t. My time management was far from perfect, my original idea was to take the pictures at either sunrise or sunset but I was unable to get a camera I could use at these times and it would of taken a lot more planning to make it work and I don’t feel personally that I am good enough to execute a task like this with great precision.

I personally feel that I worked to the best of my ability in each task I have carried out.  I also feel although I did not have the best time management my work did not suffer because of this. When producing every photo I did, I made sure I considered outside aspects such as the lighting in which I was taking the photograph, as well as the setting in which I used, and whether or not I was able to apply the rule of thirds correctly. I remembered to think of this as I knew by doing it, it would have a positive effect on my final image. Although I don’t particularly enjoy photography I remained optimistic about each task I did had, and tried to approach them all head on. I brainstormed and planned ahead so that I didn’t get confused or waste time and this make things run a lot smoother and faster in the long run. I do feel that my ideas were well thought out, although I was unable to follow through with my first idea of paying homage to Jonathan Knowles I feel my latter ideas worked equally as well and overall it was a success.  I thought long and hard about making my pictures stand out from everybody else’s. I know some people perceive wildlife, forests and nature as boring but I knew my readership would be able to appreciate it.When taking the photo’s I always tried to imagine I was a professional  photographer and I was getting paid and these images were going to published, so they had to be the best that they could be.In retrospect I probably could of worked harder on using better angles and changing the settings on my camera to get better images. When uploading each photo i had taken I always played around with photo shop. I am by no means the best as using photo shop however everything I planned on doing with the application I was able to do with some considerable ease which made the whole manipulation process much easier.

Task 3

At the beginning of this task I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to photograph as I enjoy photography thoroughly and it is hard to single out what genre of it as I like so many, I previously had looked at Advertising by Jonathan Knowles who I had thought about creating a homage for him, more specifically his Guinness advertising as I thought they were amazing, but I decided against it as time was an issue and it would of been extremely hard to pull it off, I also considered Architectural photography as I had seen some great pictures from that genre and I really enjoyed them but I finally concluded that I had always taken a liking to landscape photography as my family had a huge wall-hanging of the below image in our house.

With that in mind I decided to do landscape photography and I immediately started off by doing a brainstorm of what I could do, I did some secondary research and quickly found that there are three types of Landscape Photography: representational, impressionistic and abstract. the representational style is also known as the straight descriptive style. Landscape photography is all about showing scenery in the way it was intended to be seen in  so that the audience get a feel for the image. I then broke down the three kinds of locations I could photograph at which were:

• Forest Area’s , Focus on trees, plants wildlife
• Water Area’s I.E Lakes, ponds rivers, streams and so on.
• Buildings I.E City outlines, a good collection of building

One Photographer who has always inspired me and who’s style I was keen to imitate was Ian Badley, I like his style and he has done lots of work taking photographs within forest’s environments which is where I am choosing to do my photographs as I live about 30 seconds away from Epping Forrest and I’m sure I can get some great photo’s there. Below is some of Badley’s work which I hope I can imitate:

I have been hired by the magazine ’Essex Life’ and I have been instructed to take 3 photos for them in a landscape style . I have decided to take photographs of

Epping forest as there is a lot of variety there and all kinds of different shots will be available as well as a wide variety in wildlife. I think the pictures will be perfect for Essex life as Epping forest is a very well known place in Essex and a landmark that everyone can relate too.  my purpose of taking these photos is for me to then show the magazines audience how amazing the scenery in Essex and Epping Forest is. Essex Life is generally aimed at older people, ranging from anywhere from 30 onwards which is good because I think this is the perfect age group to appreciate my images.

My first Image

My first image was taken just outside of epping forest and is a picture of Staples Road School, it’s a historic and important building so I thought it was a good idea to include it in one of my pictures, it also shows a nice balance between an urban environment and rural forest areas, I plan on manipulating the picture slightly and generally improving the ambiance of the picture.

Final Version of my first image

I felt that by changing the colour of the sky it would make the picture feel like a warm summers day, which I think I did successfully. I didn’t want the image to look over the top and blatant that it wasn’t the original image, I think the juxtaposition between the school and forest works well and is very suited to my publication, Essex life. I changed the Hue/Saturation of the sky so that it turned to a warm blue. I feel this image would work best as a landscape picture in Essex life taking up an entire page, it will bring back good memories for the thousands who attended the school and others who recognise it.

My Second Image

This image is a true landscape picture, it is probably the best photograph that I took, Although I like the bright and vibrant colours emitted from the fallen leaves I am going to turn this image black and white as I feel that it will really empower this image and give it meaning, the image is good but with a good touch up on photoshop it could make the image great.

Below is an image of me in the process of editing my image, at this point I was turning the image black and white and giving the colours more boldness, I manipulated the amount of colour in the colour to the point that I felt it perfect.

Final Image of my second Photo
The picture almost looks like a cover of a horror book, It’s quite different and varies greatly from my first picture which was kind of my point, the beaten path meanders in to the trees in the distance, this one is obviously edited but not over-exaggerated and in your face, although this isn’t the stereotypical picture you would think you would find in Essex Life I think people will be able to appreciate and like the image.

Third Image

My last image, similar in style to my second but will not be edited in the same style, I like this image as it reaches off quite far in to the distance and has real depth to it, with this image I think I am going to make drastic changes to it whilst still keeping the feel to it, I want to show variety I can show in my images

Final Image

I selected the majority of the green and yellow leaves in my image and changed their hue in order to turn them red, to give them a more Autumn feel, I like that it’s simple to change the seasons in a picture via a few clicks of a mouse, I think this picture will do well in Essex Life as people know Autumn is fast approaching and this image can excite them for it, I don’t think the majority of people would know this image was so heavily edited which I like, however most professionals would probably easily tell, I left a small green plant in the bottom of the screen to remind people of the once lush green trees.

Task Two

Aperture – The aperture of a photographic lens is combined with different variations of the shutter speed to adjust and control the films exposure to light. The part of the camera named the diaphragm, it functions much in the same was as the eyes iris does, the smaller the aperture the greater the distance beyond the focus point can be while still being in focus. Aperture is generally measured in F-number; the ratio of focal length to effective aperture diameter. Below is a picture of a very low aperture, F1.4.

The picture below is clearly a picture taken with a high aperture, the exact aperture is  F8.

Shutter speed – Shutter speed has a huge impact on the appearance of moving objects shutter speeds can vary all the way from 1/4000 of a second which would make the picture have literally no blur or different light affects but with a much slower shutter speed such as 30 seconds and with a low aperture you would get a picture like the one below with large amounts of light streaks. For pictures that use slow shutter speeds you need to use a tripod to keep the camera steady so that the photograph is not ruined.

Focus point – As you can see in the picture below the emphasis is on the words ‘Depth of Field’, these words are the focus point of the picture, using a shallow depth of field so that the focus is sharp and the rest of the image gets gradually less sharp the further away from the focal point and a wide aperture the photographer is able show the viewer exactly what the focus point is.

The picture to the left is a perfect example of how focal length can impact on a photograph. The focal length is the distance from the camera lens to the focus. As you can see in the top photograph the distance is 18mm this gives the illusion that objects closer to the camera are larger than they actually are and that objects at a further distance appear to be a lot smaller. You can tell from the bottom picture that a greater distance, 55mm, objects further from the camera appear larger than those pictures of a smaller focal length.

ISO- An ISO Image is an archive file (also known as a disc image) of an optical disc in a format defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This format is supported by many software vendors. ISO image files typically have a file extension of .iso. The name ISO is taken from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media, but an ISO image can also contain a UDF file system since UDF is backward-compatible with ISO 9660.

Digital manipulation- The picture to the left is an example of a photo being digitally manipulated with the help of photoshop. This is my own picture, I used the crop tool to make the image of the woman fit smoothly into the moon, I lowered the opacity of the woman so that it looked smoother and integrated with the moon rather than just sitting on top of the moon and looking out of place. this is just one of example of digital manipulation, digital manipulation, also known as photo manipulation can do a wide variety of things to photographs, from removing a celebrity’s acne to changing the colour of a flower. Photoshop is widely considered the most valuable and useful tool for digital manipulation. With a click of a button you can change the colour of someones eyes or make the image more smooth. Photo manipulation is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception through digital means.

Tripod- A tripod is a piece of equipment used by photographers to keep camera’s steady and in place. Below is a picture of tripod without a camera attached, the camera would sit on top of the tripod,

Photoshop.

Task one – Part one

Jonathan Knowles, an advertising genius, designed and photographed this picture. The attention to detail and the amount of thought put into this photograph is astounding. The background of the picture is a cloudy sky with intense colouring which I would assume was taken around dusk, the positioning of the glass of Guinness is in the exact center of the image, and the sun directly positioned behind that giving the feel of a supposed natural backlight with a slightly sunset red tint, although I would presume that there is some form or artificial light involved too as there is evidence of at least four lights used as backlights to give emphasis to the picture. The actual glass is a freshly poured pint of Guinness with the froth of the ale still resurfacing, the bubbles are swirling around and creating a cloud affect within the head, the bubbles merge seamlessly  into the backdrop. It is seemingly obvious that Knowles required the use photoshop to produce this image, I would hazard a guess and say he took a separate photograph comprised of the city skyline and the clouded sunset sky and then used a photo editing program such as photoshop to merge the photo with the photograph of the pints of Guinness. The photographs point that its trying to convey is that at 18:00 when the sun is setting its time for drinks with friends, the caption below makes that point but also within the composition of the picture you can see not one but three pints  of Guinness eluding to the point that its time for drinking with friends

Another creation from Jonathan Knowles, from the same advertising campaign and once again masterfully done. Knowles captures the sky in a formidable state, with grey storm clouds dominating the background of the picture, then he has the bottle and glass of Guinness in the midst of the field. A spotlight is shining down onto the objects to give them extra emphasis, the photographers point in this photo was to highlight the greatness of the product, which he attempts to do, and does successfully in my opinion with great lighting and composition, in all of the photos I have talked about I have came to realise that in advertising and architectural photography, the backdrop is key, all of the photos I have evaluated and criticised  have had their backgrounds manipulated to make the composition feel complete, none of these pictures would work as well without them and that photography is not just about the object, person or place you photographing but also the placement, lighting and composition.

Task one – Part Two

The photographer David Churchill is an artist whos work I thoroughly enjoy , he is mainly an architectural photographer,I enjoy his work because of the way he manipulates light to make the structures he photographs seem even more astounding and amazing than they already are. This modern yet simplistic building is one of many architectural wonders that Churchill photographs, He uses buildings  like this one paired with amazing backgrounds to get his point across, that architecture is an art. On the opposite of the road is a small and lonely sign saying ‘Farmers Market’  which is in complete contrast to the amazing piece of architecture which is borderline intimidating, the juxtaposition between these two items gives the photograph a comical value as well of a sense of irony. Its not by accident that the background is beyond perfect, Churchill waits till there are no clouds adrift till he takes his pictures, the sky in this picture is so naturally blue that it in fact seems unnatural. The road is completely vacant of cars and people, its as if Churchill wanted the building to stand alone and wanted nobody to be in the way of the piece of art. I would assume that Churchill would use a neutral-graduated filter on his camera, this allowed him to get the background sky from blank and white to a deep rich blue.

This is another breathtaking picture from David Churchill, once again the backlighting really gives the photo emphasis, the focus is on the room but your eyes can’t help but travel to the surreal background. Churchill’s focus is always on the architecture but his style generally creates an amazing composition where the light really compliments and aids the pictures and makes it what it is. There is an obvious theme theme in Churchill’s work, he waits for his background to be perfect, no clouds or planes or anything that will obstruct the view of the perfect sky, to do this he could wait for the opportune moment or use a program such as photoshop to manipulate and edit the picture to make it perfect or he might just have the patience to wait for it to be naturally unblemished. The intense and enchanting background makes the room look more warm and comforting and the two types of light really are quite a contrast. The lighting in the structure is conscientiously and precisely placed, the shadows in the picture are faded and barely visible due to the placement of the lighting. Although it would appear there is only one light in use; the one behind the fireplace which lights the entire room, there are  a lot of other lights at work used together in harmony to make the room look perfectly lit, there could be as many as twenty or more different lights working together to make this photo, there is evidence of the lights; the reflection of the light on the black framework at the top of the picture is one example.

Hello world!