Work Record 2

Plan:

In this shoot my focus was to attempt to photograph the moon and develop my night photography, with the intent to create an ambiguous image as we don't know much about things beyond the sky and objects like the moon are misunderstood due to very few people having information about one of the key components of our natural world.

Research: 

Many photographer have literally photographed the moon however I wanted to incorporate the idea of anonymity ambiguity behind the subject.  For this shoot i wanted to focus on the scientific element of Astro photography as well as the aspect of connotations behind images. This approach was taken after conducting research into " Nasa's Scientific Visualization Studio/science".   The images depicted an anatomically correct of he moon. This inspired me to conduct my shoot to base it on science and hopefully as a result of variation i will achieve some individually unique images.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

  
Camera Settings:

I was shooting the images in the raw format so I could obtain as much detail as possible, as I knew night photography is difficult i would need the detail so that i can further manipulate the images heavily in Photoshop. 
The images where on a slightly longer exposure so i could capture the full detail of the moon, however as a result of this the images in some cases became overexposed therefore I reduced it so that the images wouldn't blow out.
I tired to frame the moon in a way that would imply some connotations. This is why in some of the images where the moon wasn't central I positioned it in the corner that implies longing gaze. This is due to the large empty space acting like a direction of line of sight. This could give the image purpose instead of just being a scientific image. Additionally by changing the position on the moon I wanted to use that as a way to explore its ambiguity. 
This related to my plan and research that suggest that although it is such a familiar object it appears every day and travels trough the sky, but many people still have very little knowledge about the moon and its purpose in the world.

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

I decided that as it was just a single object it lacked creativity and the artistic feel I was going for.   Therefore this could be improved by performing a complex edit in order to bring life to the composition and the overall image. 
 I put the on the of the images into photo-shop and begun by creating 2 layers of curves to burn and dodge detail into. as well as this i created a separate layer identical to he background, lowered the opacity and use a colour filter to change the hue of the image. this allowed a deep blue to glow from the back giving the emptiness of the of the monotone bnw composition some colour.  
After this i decided to manipulate various brushes in the photo-shop program and use them to create a surreal galaxy style scene with the moon central in the composition. 
The finally image gave a surreal yet realistic juxtaposition to the piece with the both real images of galaxies and the moon but the artistic more abstract idea of them existing together in a single image.

AO4

These are my best edited images from this shoot.

Work Record 1

Plan:
 For my first shoot i wanted to develop my skill of long exposure photography when shooting images of the sky.  my plan was to use a tree as a focus point with flash, then to exposure the scene long enough so that the dark night sky begins to achieve an eerie tone of colour.  This would help me to set a mood for the series and ultimately help in progressing my skill of longer exposure photography.

I would set up my tripod with my camera mounted with a flash on my garden ;awn pointing up at the large overhanging trees, additionally I will attempt to photograph on such a day where the sky is slightly unusual and unique in terms of artefacts like clouds.

My setup would be a tripod, with my canon 5d mk1 with 24-77 mm lens for a slightly wider angle with a remote trigger release on bulb setting.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

After following up research on night photographers, I found the work of Bill Schwab. He takes black and white night-scapes and his images have an eerie almost ghostly feel as a result of the conditions they where taken in.  The images have a large amount of tonal range, as well as a strong element of sky which is the link to my exam brief.   After looking into his work i have been heavily influenced to co-operate his style for experimentation in this shoot. In addition to the exposure, there is a strong emphasis on composition. Mostly with a 2/3 ratio on scape to sky i will attempt to use the same technique in my shoot.





Contact sheet:

Best images before editing:

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

Camera settings:

ISO 1600
Shutter-speed: 3.2 seconds
F/:10

The shoot was quiet short as it was done at 12:00 am, and i carried out the shoot as intended. I found it difficult to set my camera to achieve the correct exposure when relating it to the shutter speed.  The images didn't turn out how I wanted them to as they where lacking the smoothness or tone of night-scape photography especially the sky aspect.  I felt with more practise my skills in long exposure photography will develop greatly how ever the images did have some likeable qualities as they produced quite unusual and interesting scenes.

Images like the one below could've been improved by maxing out the ISO and lengthening the shutter speed so that the smooth texture of cloud movement can be achieve as well as the increase of grain size producing an organic looking photograph.

Additionally the extra purchase of neutral density filters would allow to have greater exposure times to the images as they limit light absorption of the sensor so that a more motion focused image is produced. 

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

I put a few of the images into Photoshop, and by using levels to alter tone and exposure levels. this allows my to obtain a greater tonal range.  Along with this I used the curves feature to burn and dodge the image to achieve more definition out of the image.

The increase of tonal range in this images changes the feel and mood of the scene.

A04 best edited images 

below 

                     

Image Bank

Definitions

Definitions of My Brief.

The Sky:

 Observation of the clouds and skylines have proved inspirational for many photographers and filmmakers. Stephen Shore and Edward Steichen photographed clouds at various times of the day.  In the film Mistaken Memories of Medieval Manhattan, Brian Eno produced a time lapse of the New York skyline filmed in a vertical format, with buildings silhouetted against a drifting atmospheric sky.  In the photo book,  Solitudes of Ravens, Masahisa Fukase produced evocative images of birds in flight against dramatic skies.   Produce your own response making reference to appropriate work by others.

Time lapse is a technique used but photographers  whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured is much more spread out than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing.
A silhouette is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the hole is typically presented on a light background, usually white, or none at all.
This description of the exam paper tells me that the using of tone and the way of dramatising the sky to create emotions and connotations to convey a certain message. Atmosphere is also a key factor in the feel of the images as highlighted above, this will set the overall mood for the pieces and bring a surreal sense to the composition if used correctly.

By using this interpretation of the exam brief I will attempt to collate a set of 30 images for my final portfolio that investigate and explore the theme and theory of sky photography combining many elements such as time lapse long exposure flashes and silhouette

Mood Board

Annotations:

Stephen Shore

Fukase

Andrew Stawarz:

Paul Reiffer