My Images and Analysis

Analysing my photos.

Pre production had a lot to do with the process of taking photos. In the photographs I noticed that because the colour was removed the artist relied on leading lines to make the composition interesting. By using leading lines you are also able to create shapes within the images, triangles, circles and symmetry all were common in the images that I looked at for my research, therefore this was something I tried to create in my images.

Image number one

In this image I thought about the shapes I was creating within the composition while I was taking the photo. I tried to create triangular shapes, notice how the image takes up 2/3 of the composition as a whole. There are leading lines that drag your eyes in a zig-zag motion starting from bottom right, along the metal barrier, the right again up to the point of the building. When the image has no field of depth and the colour is taken away it is very difficult to figure out a sense of scale so the framing of the image using the barrier really helps the viewer to understand the image. In the post production stage,  I adjusted the levels of red green and blue within the image to make certain elements stand out much better, I wanted the light within the glass to stand out much better, but I also wanted the texture of the black wall to stand out too. I think I have managed to create an interesting composition that uses the techniques I have learnt in my photography research.

Image Number 2

This was an interesting image to take, I framed the deep with this bridge to give it a sense of size with the field of depth. I think the lighting of the image works really well as the focus point is the the point in which the two lines of the edge of the building meet. The position of the deep within the image is really good too because it is almost centred horizontally, but then takes up 2/3s of the image vertically. Using the levels adjustment I made the glass edge the focus of the image by making it stand out from the rest of the image more.

Image number 3

In this image the rule of thirds again is take into account, the main focus of the image again taking up 2/3 of the image, the spike creating a central focus point. The staircase on the right hand side in a sense creates a leading line that (like in the photos from my research) leads to somewhere that isbn’t visible to the viewer, this creates intrigue in whats the top and makes the composition as whole more interesting.

Image number 4

This images uses the reflection in the water to draw your eyes to the focus point in the image which is rectangular shape in the centre, taking up 1/3 of the composition. The other two thirds are made up above and below the focus point. The line from the left interestingly leads the viewer to the centre of the composition. Adjusting the layers allowed me to create a contrast between the broth and the actual reflection,

Image number 5

Leading lines are a major part of this image as it leads the viewer across the bridge, I made sure when taking the photo again that the windows would be the centre of focus within the image. There are a lot of triangular shapes within the image which creates in an interesting composition for the viewer.

Image number 6
This is one of favourite images from the set I took. The main focus of the image is the clock face in the upper right corner. There are a lot of lines within the image but this helps add a sense of scale to the image. The colours also help to frame the image as the dark colours of the church wall surround the lightness of the clock area, they also draw the viewers attention to the clock.  The lines are leading upward from the wall right up to the clock face.

Image number 7

In this image I have used leading lines really well to give the image a sense of scale with depth of field. It shows the interesting cobbled streets of Old town around Hull. Like in the research of the other artists, I have tried to create this intrigue by not actually showing the user what round the corner, so that the leading lines lead to something that is not entirely visible. This image also used the rule of thirds to give priority and importance to the cobbled road rather than the buildings. This image is also made up of three triangles, the road, buildings on the right and the buildings on theft mixed with sky.

Image number 8

This is one of my most visually interesting images as there is the leading lines making the viewer peer round the corner, then there is the rule of thirds giving importance to the cobbled road. There is the person within the image which I have to chosen because it then shows the shadow of  the sun and gives the image a sense of direction, making the viewer ‘look down the road’. Another interesting element of this image is the shapes within it, there are three triangles on the left, the road, the buildings, and the sky.

Image number 9

The focus of this image is the archway in the background, therefore when I took the image I made sure there were leading lines in that direction, and you will notice there are four different leading lines  that lead the viewer to the archway. The chairs on both sides of the room, then there are the tops of the walls on the sides leading you down as well.

Image number 10

This image was an abstract piece based on one of the images that I found in my research. The leading lines allow the viewer to be shown across the image with ease. An important element of this image is the shapes within it, while the building is made up of lots go squares, the composition as a whole is made up of two triangles. The building and the sky.

Image number 11

Leading lines was the most important element of this photo as it leads the viewer across the bridge to the other side to the south bank, this immediately makes the bridge the centre of attention within the composition. This image also uses the rule of thirds as the bridge is the most dominant part of the image.

Image number 12

This image was to show off the fountain near Princess Quay, the building and the flare of the sun add interest to the the image. The image also used rule of thirds with the buildings in the background and the fountain in the foreground. This perspective add interest as well as showing the building almost in silhouette as the sun sets behind.

Image number 13

This image is of Princess Quay is a shopping centre in Hull town centre and it is built mainly of glass, and the reflection of the sun demonstrates this. There are some interesting shapes in the image as again this image can also be split into triangles. The importance of this image is to show of the general architecture of the build hence the reason the image is mainly made up of leading lines and has no general focus point.

Image number 14

This image is very well composed as it mixes the old with modern and newer architectures, there is one main leading line that draws you from left to right, starting with princess quay to the old municipal buildings, then to the most modern BBC building. You could almost imagine being a seaman on board a boat returning to port and being greeted with this view apart from the modern buildings. The prominent building in the centre has an interesting feature of the clock face which becomes almost a feature within the image itself.

Image number 15

This view shows the Humber bridge and both banks of the river Humber in all it’s majesty. The photograph was taken in the late afternoon as the sun was setting in the west and nicely shows the bridge and the river banks in silhouette. The image shows the most important part of the bridge, the two towers, these are so important because they play a prominent part in the design of the bridge structure and is even shown in the bridge’s logo. The rule of thirds is again shown in the image and makes the water  more prominent to give the viewer a sense of depth of field.

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Synopsis – Christmas Video

When I was given my brief which stated In had to make a short 2 minute video about anything we wanted provided it used the techniques we had learned in class and it followed a general theme, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. A feel good video to get people in the spirit for Christmas, my first step was to do some research into the sort of thing I wanted to create, I looking into what people related to Christmas and then created this collage;

There were a few things I immediately knew I had to do in this video, Firstly I needed to work out how to achieve the bokeh light effect, I needed to have a Christmas dinner, and show the manic Christmas shopping. Based on this collage, I loosely created a storyboard based on a few ideas I had.

– Christmas Dinner
– Romantic Dance
– Reindeer
– Santa
– Speeded up shoppers
– Switch on of the lights.

Christmas dinner was reasonably easy to film, I cooked the food, arranged the table and put a tree up in the corner. I used a canon 60D on a tripod to film a lot of the shots. I created moving shots in a makeshift way where I carefully held the camera on the tripod balanced on my skateboard and this allowed me get stable moving focus shots. You can see the setup here:

The romantic dance was the most challenging of all the scenes, firstly I needed actors so I pitched my idea to a class of drama students, I narrowed them down to 10 willing actors. I decided to use the green screen room and set up black curtains in the background so the actors didn’t have green silhouettes around them, below you can see the set with black curtains, Christmas tree and mistletoe dangling from the ceiling. The picture below it is when the actors were dancing romantically, I turned out the studio lights and switched on 3 individual lights so that i had the perfect lighting on the camera.

The post production of this was equally as difficult as I had to use Adobe After effects to learn new skills to correct the lighting of the shot and also key out the green in the background of some of the shots.

The next key shot to get was the Christmas grotto, luckily I was able to get special permission to access the pen where the reindeer were kept, I stood inside with the owner and got some vital shots of the reindeer. One shot I was keen to get was of the reindeer coming to the camera and being inquisitive about thew lens, I knew this would be a very difficult shot to get, we tried to tempt them with food but it didn’t work so well, but luckily just as I was ready to leave one of them came up and sniffed the lens. I believe this is the strongest shot in the video.

The speeded up shoppers was a really easy and simple shot to get as basically all I did was set the camera up on the street and setting it to record for 10 minutes. Then in the post-production I set the footage to 1000% the original speed.

Another shot I really wanted to get was the Christmas lights being switched on by the mayor of hull. I made a call to the council and was given permission to the balcony provided I had public liability insurance, this is something that I didn’t have so unfortunately wasn’t able to get the shot I wanted but after a bit of research, I realised it might have been easier if I was a member of the nation union of journalists, this is something I am considering becoming a member of should this sort of situation arise in the future, I will have some form of pass.

With all of my footage filmed, only thing left to do was to edit the video together. I realised that my previous choice of song (The Shins – Wonderful Christmastime) wasn’t going to work for the footage I had collected. The reason being is the feel I wanted from my video was something that was upbeat and fast cut, yet still reasonably slow for the slow romantic dance and kissing scene. After hours of searching for the right song I had decided all the traditional Christmas songs wouldn’t work, I started looking into classical music, something I would be able to manipulate if need be. I found the “Dance of the sugar plum fairy” so I looked for a Christmas version, one did exist but it had sound effects over the top, I continued to look at other versions of the song and I found the version by Pentatonix which starts very well, has a section in the middle which I deemed appropriate for the reindeer, and then goes slow towards the end.

My Christmas Video

A created a video to celebrate Christmas and show off my editing skills within premiere show examples of the knowledge of the editing techniques I have learnt in class. Here it is;

The moods of music

I learnt that music has a massive effect on the overall feel of a video. I realised that upbeat, quickly cut video leaves the viewer feeling happy, whereas the a slow cut video, feels much sadder. The best example of this was to use some oxfam footage of the rice farms, edit it with two different versions. Happy and sad, you can see the results below:

Happy:

Sad: