Photography and photographic practice

Visual Language This photograph is of Nunnington Hall from a low angle pointing upwards towards the building. Other photographs from previous architectural photographers have inspired me to produce photographs like this, because I have learnt that architectural photographs are taken from extreme angles. I have used dodging and burning throughout this photograph, to brighten the highlights and darken the shadows. I also created a cloudy affect in the sky to make the photograph have a dark edge. The lighting in this photograph is quite high because it is outside using natural lighting, and it was a bright day. The focus on this photograph is the building and all the different range of tones running through it -from white to black. The tones of the building are all different, which makes it hard to pinpoint the lightest and darkest parts. This effect has created a dark mood throughout the photograph, because of the dark colours in it which connote uninviting and scary, as if it is haunted. I wanted to create this mood within the photograph because I think it makes it more interesting and unusual, it also fits with the theme discovery because of the edgy look to it. The texture of the building looks very rough because of the bricks and harsh colours running through them. The photograph is monochrome and high in contrast due to the level tool on Photoshop. There isnt any space in the photograph as it is fairly close up to the building. The vantage point of this photograph is low and pointed high up. This photograph is of the roof tiles of a little building within Nunnington hall grounds. I used a long lens for this photograph and zoomed as far as I could into the tiles, this created a really good effect and I also altered the focus so it was as sharp as it could be. I used dodging and burning throughout this photograph also so accentuate the shadows and highlights. I also altered the levels to make the photograph more in contrast. The photograph has high key lighting and is all in focus, I used a high aperture so that the whole photograph would be sharp. There is repetition throughout this photograph

because the tiles are repeated to create a pattern. The lines are also curvy and are going from left to right, creating a direction. This photograph is monochrome but not the auto black and white, I added a little bit of red tone in the photograph to make it look different from previous textured photographs I have seen. The surface of the photograph looks like it would feel quite rough because you can see the textures dont look smooth. The darkest value in the photograph is at the bottom where the tiles stop. There is a lot to look at in this photograph which makes it busy. There is symmetrical balance in this middle of this photograph as you can see the pattern is distributed evenly. This photograph is taken of the gate entrance to the front of Nunnington Hall. I used the long lens for this photograph to ensure that the whole photograph was deep in focus and well sharped. I also used a high aperture to create this photograph.

I used levels to create a bit more contrast in this photograph, I also but the saturation up a little to create more colour in this sky and grass. The darkest part of this photograph is probably the markings on the wall and the trees in the background. Then photograph has high key lighting which is natural light from the sunlight. The straight lines from the path are creating a sense of direction for your eyes leading you up to the next gate. There is quite a bit of space in the photograph as there is some depth of field because of the high aperture. I took this photograph to create a frame within a frame type of image. Because the first gate is framing the inside of that and the gate afterwards is framing whats behind that. The 2 gates are both places behind each other which makes the photograph look symmetrical. This photograph is taken of the bridge we crossed over to get to Nunnington Hall. I used a tripod low down to capture through the bridge. I used a high aperture to ensure the whole photograph was sharp because I wanted the building to be sharp as well as the bridge.

I changed the photograph into monochrome because I thought it looked more effective with a high contrast, which I created through levels. I also used dodging and

burning to make it in even more contrast. The juxtaposition of this image and the Image I had before Is completely different. The most highlighted parts of the photograph is the middle of the bridge which you walk upon and also the sky. The darkest parts are the sides of the bridge and the roof of Nunnington Hall. The light is natural because it was taken outside so the light I used was sunlight. The lines over the bridge create a sense of direction leading you towards Nunnington Hall, they are thin straight lines. The railings create repetition because it is a repeated pattern over the bridge. There is a bit of space in the photograph because there is space on the bridge and on the other side. But because there is a hedge on the other side- anyone who hasnt been to this place might think it is crowded. There is a range of tones throughout this photograph from white to black. The darkest tones are on the bridge and the lightest tones in the sky. The vantage point from which this photograph was taken was low pointing through the bridge. Audience The application I chose was architectural so the audience for my Images will most like be middle aged people. I believe the last person that lived in Nunnington hall was Richard Graham, so in conclusion the people that will be interested in my photographs will be people who like historical buildings and are interested in history rather than more modern architectural work, this is why I chose the audience to be middle aged people because they will be more interested in historical buildings then younger people. There social group will most likely be middle class because the building was owned by a wealthy man in that day. The context that the photography will be shown in will be on the website, books and brochures. People who are interested in visiting the place will also be likely to be interested in this photography.

Historical and Cultural Content Nunnington Hall is a Manor house situated in the English county of North Yorkshire. Because it was a historical building I tried to capture things that made it obvious it was an old building whilst still trying to create more modern architectural photography, which is why I took photographs of the bridge. Simon Kennedy has been my biggest influence throughout this whole project, when I first saw his work I instantly thought that It was really good and would like to have a go at doing architectural work, his work is more modern based which was different

from me taking photographs of an old building, but I tried to interpret some of his skills in my work. I thought the way he used lines to create direction within his work was a really good skill to make an audience see the whole photograph, so I used this in some of my photographs that I took that day. (See the 2 above photographs) He also used quite a lot of contrast to enhance his highlights and shadows, which I also did with my work. From my peer evaluation I had been told that the bridge is a very good photograph showing lines of movement going over it, I also got told it was very sharp and of good quality and colour. Roger Fentons 1819-69 work also influenced me; his architectural photographs are all of old buildings, so this helped me a lot when it came to taking photographs of Nunnington Hall. His work is all monochrome, which influenced me to make a lot of my work like this. His shadows are very dark and highlights are very light, which I also interpreted into my work. I also like the way he takes photographs quite close to the wall so you can see the texture of the wall in detail so you could guess how it would feel, which I tried to achieve in my photographs. My work would be shown in brochures promoting Nunnington hall and would be seen by people who are interested in looking at looking at the place and history of the place. It would also be seen in books maybe of architectural work and on websites such as Nunnington Hall. Intentions and fitness for purpose What I originally wanted to do at the start of the project was do landscape/ nature photography, because this is something I am really interested in. But when I was doing the applications task and researching into different application photographers I came across Simon Kennedy who I mentioned earlier, who really inspired me to do architectural photography because his work I thought was amazing and really inspirational. I now think architectural photography is really interesting and also fun, because it covers a wide range of shots such as texture, angels, colour and shapes. Whilst been able to capture interiors and exteriors. I havent achieved what I originally wanted to do but think I have achieved better, I like architectural work. To make improvements to my work I think I would make sure they were really in focus before taking the photographs, because I realised when looking at all my photographs after I already took them that when I was going to take the photograph I pressed the button and created camera shake on quite a lot of them, even whilst using the tripod. So next time I would maybe put it on a 2 second timer so I would not be touching the camera when I took the photograph. From my peer evaluation I

have been told to try and hide aspects of the image that are not important, and to add more post production to some Photographs, which I agree with because I think the photograph of the bridge which I monochrome should be more contrasted. The purpose of my Images would not work for fashion photography because they only include buildings and bridges, and not people who are posed. Fine art photography isnt narrowed down to one thing and architecture is really popular within fine art photography. A lot of post-production is usually used a lot with fine art photography, so some of my work could fit in with fine art photography. I

believe that fine art photography is of much better quality then my own, and my work could not be shown in a gallery because of this. As you can see within fine art photography the Photographs are very high in contrast and of brilliant quality, whereas mine is high in contrast but has more greys then just simple black and white. Final Images I think this image is very sharp and good quality. I used the long lens to capture this Photograph. Which is really handy because you can zoom right in to the bridge and bricks and make the focus correct and zoom back out again. I have learnt through this project that although when you look at something it looks like it will be in focus; sometimes this is not the case as you learn when you zoom into the object. On Photoshop I used the selection tool and selected everything above the bridge and used a Gaussian blur over it, this makes the bridge more prominent and more in focus then the rest of the photograph. The exposure of the image is exactly what I wanted it to be like, not too bright and not to dark. I think this image is interesting and chose it because I like how the bridge and water are in focus when everything else is not. From my peer evaluation I have found that the improvements for this image are that the trees and vines at the sides ruin the image because they are covering the bridge, which is the most important bit of the photograph.

I think the left hand side of this image is of good quality because I used a low aperture to make only the foreground in focus so the depth of field is shallow. This created a good effect with the fencing been of high focus and bright. I learned that the aperture setting works well when you are close up to an object that has a large depth of field behind it, like in this photograph for example, because I set the aperture at a low f number it captured the fence in focus and the building not so much. The exposure is quite high in this photograph and seems very light, it would have been better if I changed it so it was darker. I liked this image though, even though its not perfect I liked the way I used the aperture setting. From my peer evaluation I have been told that I have used aperture correctly and well in this photograph and also that it is very sharp and of good quality, which I agree with. Technical competence I have learned a lot of new skills within this project that I had no idea of before I started learning them. Aperture is probably my favourite setting. I had seen this setting being used on a lot of photographs and always wondered how to do it. I learned that a small f number such as 2.8 creates a very shallow depth of field and makes the foreground much more in focus then the background and a high f number such as 32 creates a large depth of field and makes everything in focus. I got to practise these skills a lot at Nunnington hall which really helped me to understand what f numbers will do what. I really enjoy using aperture and when using it correctly the results can be good. The photographs I took for practice before I went to Nunnington hall I think helped me the most with the settings; it gave me a great understanding of what they all do. Which then meant when I did go to Nunnington hall I would know how to use all the settings properly.

I also got taught about shutter speed which is very important when capturing movement, it didnt concern me a lot when it came to capturing exterior architecture, but when I was photographing inside Nunnington hall some of the rooms were very dark, and I learnt that if you left the shutter speed on a slow speed on a tripod it has a lot of time to get a lot of light for the exposure to be correct, this helped me a lot, the aperture being low also helped me because it made the hole larger, but when wanting to capture something far away the aperture doesnt really help.

White balance has really helped when white hasnt been shown correctly, I didnt really use it a lot when I went to Nunnington hall, but when I did I used it to create a mood rather than using it to correct white. I now know what white balance is used for now, whilst I used to think it was used to change the colour of a photograph for a mood/effect. The ISO setting was very useful when the shutter speed and aperture was not handy for the photograph I wanted to take and the room was dark. ISO is the exposure setting to change how high you want the exposure. I have learnt that the ISO is the last thing you resolve to after aperture and shutter speed are not right. Which has helped me get the right exposure. The rule of thirds really helped me because it is very important in architectural photography that you use the grid to make sure your photograph is straight and the important elements are on the lines. When I was doing post production after taking the photographs I also went on crop and brought up the grid lines to see if the photograph was correct and sometimes I had to do a bit of straightening and cropping to make sure it was correct. This is something new I had learned within this project because I didnt think it was that important for a photograph to be straight and the grid lines were so useful after I got shown how to bring them up on the camera. I used the grid lines to make this bridge symmetrical and it looked so much better than before when I didnt crop it. I also made sure it was really straight. I took this photograph quite low down so it was hard to make sure it was straight but when it came down to editing I didnt have to change the angle of the photograph which was surprising.

Creative ability I think that I have become more creative in this project because of the skills I have learnt throughout it, before when I used to take photographs I never used to use all the camera settings that I now know about. This is because I never used to know what they meant and I didnt

know how to use them correctly, by knowing how to now I have become much more creative and experimental when taking photographs. This photograph indicates that I have become more creative, because before if I got assigned to do architectural photographs I would have never thought of zooming in on roof tiles and adjusting the focus to create a really nice photograph. But I now know that this creates a really nice texture effect and in post-production I made it much sharper and contrasted. The photographers I have been looking at have also helped my creative ability, because looking at how good their work was made me want my work to be that good, which influenced me to really try hard. The photographers I looked at were Simon Kennedy and also Ian Bramhams. Ians work was mainly in monochrome and had high contrast, this is the work that influenced me to contrast and monochrome a lot of my photographs, his work was fine art photography, which consisted of many different applications.

Now that I have learnt how to properly deconstruct a photograph it has had a big impact on my work. Knowing what the good qualities are that are found in photographs has helped me apply them to my work. For example I found when I was learning how to read photographs that some can be framed, so when I went to Nunnington hall I found that to gates were framing each other, of which I then photographed because I thought it was a good idea. I also learned about quality, monochrome, colour, sharpen, saturation, lighting, texture, lines and vantage points etc. I applied all of these skills and aspects into my own photography to experiment and create an overall good photograph. Time Management I think I managed my time well when it came to production in this project because I had plenty of time at Nunnington Hall to take photographs, half of the time I spent outside and the other half I spent inside. This left me with lots of photographs to edit and choose from when it came to the final 8. When I was doing post production I left myself with plenty of time to edit all my favourite photographs and when I had completed this I was left with sometime to adjust a few and choose my final 8, so I believe I completed everything I desired to. This has made me reach all my deadlines. To help me reach my deadlines I would edit 2 photographs every hour and then looking for the photographs I was going to edit the next hour by thinking what I would like to do to them. After I edited all the photographs I liked I was left with 14 of which I had to choose the best 8 from.