Project:Special Processing

This final part before I do the assignment is all about selective processing and prominence.

I need to use on of my earlier photographs and make the main subject stand out in one then recede in another one.  This is all done post production.
The photograph I have chosen to use is of a young girl sitting on the decking in her back garden.

On the first one I chose to have the back ground slightly more prominent. I used the quick selection tool to go round the girl. I then  took the saturation down of her jumper so she was not quite so noticeable.

For the second photograph I wanted the girl to really stand out so again I used the quick selection took to go round her, I then inverted the layer and took the saturation right down to make it black and white.  Finally I adjusted the vibrancy sightly to make her stand out even more.

My favourite of the two is the second one where the post processing is much more noticeable. This was an interesting exercise where I had the opportunity to see what I preferred to high light and my answer certainly in portrait work is definitely the subject.
Well that is the end of the final exercise so its on now to the fourth assignment which I have chosen to do about Faversham.

Exercise: balancing figure and Space

The aim of this exercise is to show the balance between a space and a figure and how it change the viewers attention.

I have chosen some football photographs to illustrate this point. The first photograph is of the goal keeper just standing in the goal, which is the dominate part of the photograph.

In the second photograph there is some action happening and the eye goes to the events in the goal mouth.

This has the viewer asking questions again especially sports fans who would try to guess where the ball is and whether a goal was scored from this.

A short exercise this one but a useful one.

Exercise: Making figures Anonymous

This exercise is all about making the surroundings the most important part of the photograph.  sometimes it is necessary to show a person or persons in a photograph but not as the main subject, they are useful for instance to show a sense of scale in a landscape picture.


The three photographs I have chosen to use are all very different, the first one a row of beach huts shows a person on the right hand side walking along and out of the photograph.  Having them in the photograph gives some idea of the size of the huts, but also shows that the area is used.

The second photograph was taken of HMS Dragon on her homecoming,  Although the decks are lined with sailors they fail to take away the image of the ship as she slowly makes her way along side and the crew disembark to greet their loved ones after nearly eight months away. Having the sailors in the photograph add the human touch to the picture.

The final photograph was taken of a fairground ride, It shows a girl on the chair as the ride goes round, although you can't see her face, the photograph needs some one in it to make it live.

So what have I learnt from this exercise?

I have learnt that sometimes it is neccesary to add at least one person to a picture, however you don't always need to make them either a prominate part or show theri face to make an impact.  Would the photographs I have used work without the people in them? the beach huts becomes just a set of beach huts, I would have loved to have had someone sitting outside their hut but alas that wans't to be.  The ship would work in its on right, but by having the sailors you start to ask questions, like I wonder where they have been and how long they were away from.  This photograph is important to me on a personal level as my son was on that ship. The final photograph would not work at all with out a person  in it.

The course progresses

I am two assignments away now from finishing this course, which I must admit hasn't been at all easy.

I enjoy photographing people and I really thought I would have long finished this by now. It is not to be I have had a change in circumstances meaning that I don't get as much time to devote  to this as I would like but mainly I have found it has taken me right out of any form of comfort zone.

I am happy to try different ideas with my photography and enjoy the opportunity to photograph different things, however street photography I find challenging to say the least.

I think a lot of this could stem from feeling venerable in a crowded place on my own with my camera and half expecting to be challenged about my intentions. I appreciate that not everyone wants to be photographed therefore I take care not to be intrusive and try not to point the camera at one individual for too long, I also avoid getting children in photographs unless they are part of a large group of people and can't be avoided. I know this is  a whole subject matter in its own right about photographers and the way they are treated at times by the public and also the police. The thing that amazes and at the same time frustrates me is that it is normally people with decent equipment ie dslr cameras that are questioned and yet in this day and age of the camera phone a lot of these are more than capable of taking a close up photograph without anyone being aware. The majority of photographers who carry plenty of equipment with them are only after achieving one thing, the perfect photograph. I guess the average person doesn't appreciate the amount of time a photographer will devote to getting that one photograph and will stand and make adjustment to his settings and position until he is completely happy. The casual snapper or even someone who is trying to hid what they are doing will stand for thirty seconds or even less and take the photo. Maybe that is food for thought to the public in general.

I may well revisit this page at another stage of this course.

Exercise: busy Traffic

The object of this exercise is to show the 'busyness' of a place.  I have chosen Faversham a town I know well, and the one I shall use as my fourth assignment.


This is the Saturday market, which is held in the town square or Market place to be exact, it is always busy with a variety of various stalls, selling everything from biscuits to antiques.


I was unable to put a tripod any where without running the risk of either someone falling over it or just being in the way generally.


I watched the traffic flow and then had to 'grab' my photographs as I could find a gap in the crowd. For this reason I used aperture priority to save me time.

You can see just how busy this area is.  I took these about 9.30 in the morning and by the time I left about two hours later the volume of traffic was just the same.

I wanted to show one in black and white as I feel this lends itself to this kind of work.  It allows the viewer to concentrate on the action rather than a mixture od colours.  This would have been different if I had been photographing a food market where the colours are all important.

I found this exercise very interesting as it forces you to look at people and how they flow through an area.  One thing I did notice was how little notice people took of my camera which surprised me.  I find any form of street photography difficult always expecting to be challenged about my photography, but here a couple of times people were so busy chatting and walking along they almost walked into me.

I feel as if I have learnt something about people from this exercise even if its that not everyone treats you like a criminal just because you are photographing in a busy place.  I am almost looking forward to the next set of street photography now.

Exercise: A single small figure

This will be an interesting and very specific exercise. I need to photograph a figure as a small part of a scene.  Ideas I have at the moment include a subway or the stairwell in a multistory car park.  I will probably take someone with me to do this as its easier than waiting for someone to appear.  The main focus of this exercise is the position of the figure within the photograph, they need to be visible but not the main focus, the viewers eye needs to be drawn to them. It will be all about getting the balance right, so that the view doesn't miss them either.

I have recently been reading the kindle book 'On being a Photographer' and one thing that I have been  interested in is the mention of contact sheet. Although these hold their roots in dark rooms I did use a version of these when i started my first photography course. My way of using them at that point was as a record to refer to, I would print a contact sheet with the photographs on also the data relating to the photographs was also printed giving me something to look back at to see how I took a particular photograph.   I know it can be argued that this can be done by looking at the computer screen, but I think it could be useful in this exercise.


Well time is ticking on  I have not had chance to pick my camera up much recently, rather than get further and further behind on my dates I have been looking back through some of the work I have done since I started this course to see if I could make use of anything in this exercise.


I found this photograph of someone just walking into the picture which I took in Whitstable, although in some ways the figure is larger than I would have liked, I understand the principle which I think is the main idea.

I like the position of the person is this one as there is still room for them to move into.

Project: Space and Light.

Light something I have become really fascinated with since I started really being interested in photography. In particular I like the soft light of early mornings and the other extreme where its a dark day and either just about to rain or it has been raining and the sun comes out creating a dramatic view especially over the countryside or through trees.




Exercise: Space and Light
To see how light changes the look and maybe the feel of a space I have chosen to use two rooms in Leeds Castle. One was a bathroom used by royalty the other the Library. I was interested to see how light would filter through the windows which are fairly small and also the walls are very thick and made of stone, so I was also interested to see if that gave any interesting shadows. I have an annual ticket for Leeds Castle which is only about 10 miles from where I live and I knew this way I make sure I used it again.

As you can see there is hardly any light coming through into the bathroom, it was a very overcast day, therefore the whole room was quite dark with only a couple of very small shadows around the leg of the stool and the small table.  I didn't use flash but used a higher iso 400 and f7.1 aperture.  The shutter speed was 1/10's all hand held.

When I reached the library there was a little more light available and this time my shutter speed was 1/60 second.  I loved the feel of this room it was very tranquil and I am looking forward to re visiting it hopefully on a better day.

Disaster Strikes!

On my second visit to Leeds Castle disaster struck, there was a notice saying some of the rooms were being renovated, unfortunately one of the rooms they had chosen to do was the bathroom which was just an empty room on this visit.  Although I could have just photographed it I didn't think it would make for a very interesting photograph so I chose instead to photograph the dining room as I knew I already had some photographs from my first visit.

This is the dining room photograph from the first visit, as I said previously the weather was overcast, but I opted not to use flash and keeping to F8 and a shutter speed of 1/60second and an iso of 200 i was happy with the result, partly the large window helped with the lighting. The only adjustments I have made are I took the clarity up slightly then I moved the exposure and vibrancy to the right by a very small amount.

For this second photograph I was at a slightly different angle from before, this was not of my choosing but rather the way the room was roped off. The reflections are noticeable particularly the glasses on the polished table, all I did to this photograph was to darken the highlights to the glass and adjust the clarity to +12 and the saturation to +18.  I used a slightly higher iso of 400 this time .

The second photograph of the library I managed to stand in more or less the same place as before, having waited while a large group of people went past, I was able to take my photograph. The iso was 400 again this was because I wanted to avoid using flash as I hadn't used it the first time round.   There was very few shadows these were round the green chair.  Once again I adjusted the highlights to improve the window. I adjusted the clarity and then the saturation.

One of the first things I noticed is how different the rooms look in the different lights, the library in the first photograph looks tranquil but formal whereas with the sun coming through the windows the colours are richer making the whole area look more welcoming, it made me want to pick a book and curl up in the chair to read it.

The dining room also looks very different in the two different lights, again there is a richness to the room this is evident not only in the wall colour but also the wood of the table this might not be quite as evident in the photograph but could be seen more clearly looking at the table, where it had space on it.

A very interesting if at times frustrating exercise, but I find myself studying light and how it falls even more now.

Well that's the end of the exercises and now finally time for me to tackle the assignment.  This I hope will be interesting I have started to look at various buildings and how they work, now I need to explore more about this.

Exercise: the Users Viewpoint.

This is all about buildings and space and how they work or maybe don't for the particular activity they have been designed for.


I wanted to think slightly outside of the box for my photographs and choose two views involving a reception area in an office and then Leeds Castle.  leeds-castle.com

The first photograph is taken from the viewpoint of the receptionist, in fact its my own desk and where I do my full time job.

I sat in my chair slightly back from where I would normally sit and had a look to see if it worked as it should do.  I used a focal length of 18mm and made minimal adjustments in photoshop just slight vibrancy and saturation levels adjusted then the unsharp mask.  I took this from sitting down as I was interested to see if the area really did work as it had been designed to do.

The second view I wanted to take was the view from the angle of guests entering the office, I am visible to them,.

I used the same settings and adjustments as described above.

Having entered the office as a 'guest' I thought in general the space worked well, however it was very easy to enter through the double doors and turn right into the main office area without really seeing the receptionist, something which has happened on several occasions and I have actually been told 'sorry I didn't see you there'.

Leaving that comment aside if guests do enter and turn left towards the desk I am clearly visible to them as my head and shoulders are easy to see above the desk. I can also see guests arriving and can be ready to greet them and direct them where they need to go.

The third photograph is taken at Leeds Castle crossing across the moat and entering the castle walls.  Leeds Castle is often described as the 'loveliest castle in the world' which maybe true but I wanted to take the view point of people entering the castle in bygone days.

I stood and looked at the imposing sight in front of me and tried to picture the sort of people who would have entered the castle, some would no doubt have been on horseback but as I was unable to take that view I had to take it at standing height.  As I said the entrance to the castle is imposing and as you cross over into the main area you can see the heavy wooden doors that would have been closed to help protect the occupants from the outside either from natural elements or most likely from attack. I took this at 18mm focal length as I wanted to get the whole of the area in and not just the 'door way'.

The final photograph is really just to show how the area inside the gateway has been used today, Stables are now coffee shops and gift areas.

Part Three Buildings and Spaces

The third part of this course is all about buildings and how the space within them is used. This section is not about photographing a building just because it maybe beautiful piece of architecture but rather how the space is used.


A example of this would be a museum, its not about the outside but rather the inside and how the space is used to allow people to get the most of their experience.


The first exercise is called exploring Function.


I need to photograph a space either domestic or public, but before I do that I need to consider what I think the building should be doing.  I then need to consider if it works and all this before I start photographing.


The room I have chosen is a conservatory, This room is often used as an extension of the garden as well as a room for relaxing and entertaining family and friends.  This particular conservatory needs to be all the above and also a play where children can use their games console or watch DVD's without either being in their own bedrooms or in the main living space where people may want to talk or just read a book.


I think this room works well it is comfortable without being too formal allowing users to feel comfortable about sitting in it after being in the garden, the layout also allows floor space where not only can the family dog lay but also their is room for children to play with toys if they so wish. It is possible to make this a room for relaxing with friends just by a couple of very small changes to soft furnishing if you wanted it a bit smarter.

I have added two photographs as I wanted to make sure all areas of the room were covered. As you can tell the room is very casual but comfortable it would be perfectly ok to curl up in the corner with a book if you wished or to use it as an extra space if a barbeque was being held and people wanted to sit indoors and eat.

The settings used were F16 1/30 second shutter speed with an iso of 400 and daylight white balance.

The post production work was clarity, vibrance and saturation in camera raw, then levels and unsharp in elements 11.

Exercise: A public space

This second exercise I took the photographs for on a previous visit to Whitstable, I try to have a look at what photographs I will need to take for a few exercises at a time. I do this as I have found sometimes the ones you want for a particular exercise don't work but that you can get some to e used on other exercises.

I wanted to show not only the beach but also the harbour as this is still a public space, where people gather to look at the beach hut shops, drink coffee and eat seafood as well as watch the boats in and out of the harbour. There is a beautiful sailing barge called Greta that operates from the harbour but unfortunately it wasn't in on this particular occasion.

Chatting with a local trader,

As you will be able to see from the top photographs even on a very cold day, the harbour area is a hive of activity. I go here on many occasions I find the whole place restful but at the same time inspiring.

Photograph four is an area that has been built in recent years and is used as a stage area, the pebbles in the wire wall also have clay pebbles made by local school children added, a fact I found out whilst talking to the couple who where sheltering from the wind and eating their fish and chips!.

I have tried to capture a public space albeit a slightly diverse area however all parts are interlinked. I was very conscious of peoples feeling and would take a couple of pictures then move on, as I didn't want anyone to feel they had been singled out.

Project Public events, public spaces

There are two exercises to this section the first one is an organised event:


As I have previously said I am really not comfortable doing street photography, unfortunately in this day and age if you have a camera in your hand you seemed to be viewed with suspicion with is a real shame. 


I work in a smallish market down called Faversham and this year they decided to hold a hat parade on Easter Saturday, this was open to everyone including dogs.  I decided on this as I was pretty sure there would be a lot of people there with cameras and therefore I would be easy for me to take the photographs I wanted. 


To a degree this is what happened, however where I was hoping the event would be well organised and would set off in an orderly fashion after the wandering minstrels, it didn't really work out that way. Lots of people were milling around  managed to get a couple of photographs at the beginning to show everyone assembling but I had to push my way through.

The wandering minstrel ended up being one man playing the squeeze box which was fine but not quite the image I had in my mind when I decided to photograph this event.

I was lucky in that the town crier saw I was trying to photograph him and he quickly turned towards me almost poking his tongue out in a fun way!

I was suddenly aware that everyone was looking towards the gap between two shops, and when I managed to get there and look there was this amazing character called Fanny by gaslight, slowly making her way to the beginning of the parade.

She really was a character on her stilts laughing with everyone but also throwing a look of almost disdain around. I would say this was a decisive moment as talked about by Henri Cartier Bresson on many occasions.

She moved to the front of the parade with the town crier and as the press photographers had arrived by this time I managed to stand next to them with out getting in their way and take some photographs as they got Fanny and the town crier to pose for them.

I would have liked to have got a bit more of the town crier in but unfortunately i had no where to go I didn't want to get in the photographers way and there was too many people behind them and around them to be able to get anywhere else.

The parade heads off but as you can see it was a bit muddled, I did manage to get a couple more photographs of people as they passed.

This man gave me a smile as he went past and in general I found people would stop for you if you could attract their attention.

I would really have liked the lady above to have looked towards me but unfortunately I couldn't attract her attention in all the noise, but it was the colours in her hat and how she had matched her hat to her jacket and beads.

The final photograph is of a beautiful retired grey hound who had got a bit bored waiting and decided to break his hat and then not look at the camera, but they do say never work with children or animals!

The camera setting used for all these was F10 1/125second shutter speed with a cloudy white balance setting and an iso of 200 focal length varied between 18mm and 92mm. 

Post production was done mainly in camera raw with minor adjustments to clarity, exposure and vibrance sliders.  In elements I cropped a couple to remove un interesting sky and I also cloned the bottom corner of the first photograph as there was part of a child's toy in the way which was distracting.

Overall I was reasonably happy with the way it went as I have previously stated I was hoping it would be more organised as the parade went off instead of which they just seemed to go and then had to work through the crowds that were standing around, it would have been nice if the town crier had rung his bell as they set off and then a few times as they made their way to the venue at the end of the parade.  For me I found it frustrating at times trying  to get the photographs I wanted but I guess it gave me a small insight into a press   photographers work as even they seem to have difficulties getting where they wanted to be.

Standard Focal Length

The object of this exercise is to use a standard vocal length equivalent to a full frame length of 50mm.  My standard length is 32mm.  I needed to take a photograph showing basically what my eye would see at this range. I had a look around and spotted a group of tourists complete with guide who I thought might be interesting to photograph. My idea being that I would be able to see if the guide was able to hold his audience or if their attention would be captured by anything else.
Below are my photographs: I used the same settings for each one, F9 1/125s shutter speed iso 200 a cloudy white balance and as I have just stated a focal length of 32mm.

Post production I have kept to a mimimum just small adjustments to clarity and contrast then the usual sharpening.  I also cropped the first two photographs very slightly as there was a small amount of stonework showing to the left hand side that caused a distraction.

As you can tell from the way the audience are looking at the guide he has their attention, no one is looking around, also the two young girls who are in the front of the photograph are not bothered by my presence at all and are quite happy playing with their phones and chatting away.

For the third photograph I moved round a bit really hoping that someone would turn around rather than at the guide, but he must have been very interesting because no one did.
The final photograph is taken as they are moving off towards the Cathedral  and he still has their full attention.

I found I had no real problems photographing around this area, not only is Canterbury a tourist attraction but it boasts a large student population so using a camera is not too much of an issue. i also found that people would stand and wait for you to take your photograph before walking in front.

Exercise: wide Angle Close and Involved

This time I need to take a photograph 'up close and involved', the thought of this terrifies me, I don't mind taking photographs up close of people I know or who have asked me to photograph them but a stranger is totally different.  Luckily I found a willing volunteer (well actually I knew her) and having told her to ignore me and just look into the shop window I was able to get a photograph or two. I wanted her to just look into the window as if she was looking for something to buy as a gift, I think this worked well.

 Photograph one was taken at F9 1/125s with a focal length of 32mm I used a cloudy white balance.
My post production consists of clarity adjusted in raw before making further adjustments to the mid tones in levels and taking the brightness up slightly.  I also cropped the top of the photograph, finally using the unsharp tool and that was it done.

For this second photograph I used the same settings but changed my angle very slightly to get a bit more of the shop in as I think it tells the story in more detail. I also like the fact she is staring into the window as if she has spotted something that interests her.

This time I did all my post production in camera raw,I adjusted the clarity, vibrancy and the sharpness.

I can see the advantages of being this close with the camera, from the photographers point of view but I can also understand how someone could find it quite invasive, personally I wouldn't like someone I didn't know this close to me.  Going back to the photographers view I can see how it puts not only the subject but also the viewer and of course the photographer right in the scene. 

Exercise: Standing Back

This time I need to use my lens at its longest length, I have a 18 to 200 lens which stays on my camera for 95% of the time and I decided this occasion would be no different, particularly as I was hoping to complete the photographs for at least two of the exercises today.

I decided to process two variations of this photograph, it was taken at F9 1/125's iso 200 with a focal length of 200mm. I saw this busker just outside of Canterbury Cathedral and I liked the fact that he was just looking down playing the guitar and seemingly unaware of his surroundings.

I like the black and white conversion as I think its more reportage work I could imagine it being used in an article on buskers in and around the city centre, to me its more 'gritty' this way.

So far as post production is concerned I didn't do a lot, I took the clarity up slightly in camera raw,  I also adjusted the white balance as I had taken it with a daylight setting but I thought it needed warming slightly so I changed it to cloudy.I then opened it in elements 11 and adjusted the levels, I dodged the shadows around his face using a soft brush at 3% and a very small saturation adjustment followed by flattening the layers and finally the unsharp tool was all it took.

The black and white conversion the only change I made to the above was I used the contrast tool rather than the saturation after I had done the conversion.

I was quite lucky and didn't have too many problems with people walking in front of the lens, Canterbury attracts a lot of tourists many of them having cameras similar to mine and you tend to find that people will wait for you to take your photograph before they walk in front.

Since looking at the photograph I have asked myself if I would have done anything differently, I think the answer is maybe, I have posted the colour photograph to a group I am part of and it was admired by a professional photographer, who asked me if I would like some advice as he does a lot of this kind of work. Having said yes please after all having looked at some of his work and his comments I decided I would be mad to turn the offer down. The advice he offered was to use a smaller depth of field, maybe I will try my next ones at say F5.6 instead of F9 to blur the background slightly. I can see what he means as the posts to the back could be a bit distracting.

Exercise: capturing the moment.

The object of this exercise as the title suggests is 'to capture the moment'. This could be interpreted in a few ways, it could be a special moment say at a wedding when the bride and groom look at each other as they are pronounced husband and wife, through to someone scoring a goal and it being caught on camera, to an ordinary event where you happen to capture the best shoot.

I headed to Whitstable on a very cold day, knowing that it is normally busy there and I should be able to get something of interest.  I was luckily that the tide was in as was the fishing fleet, however I was not so lucky in that there was no one around. 

After a brisk walk along the beach where there wasn't much happening I had taken a few photographs which may be of some use, but coffee and cake were calling.  After a much needed warm up I headed out again, by now the sun was starting to appear which meant more people around.  I noticed that a couple were preparing to take a catamaran out, so I hung around taking photographs  of their preparation before taking more photos as they headed out.

This photograph shows them getting ready to sail, I picked this one as it shows them checking everything is ready to go.  I used F9 with a shutter speed of 1/1600's second and an iso of 400, the focal length was 70 mm.


The next two photographs are of the final preparation and then sailing away.

 The one above was taken at F9 shutter speed 1/1000's iso 400 with a focal length of 230 mm.
I liked this one as it shows the lady concentrating on what she is doing getting the catarman   ready for the off.

this final photo was taken with the same settings as above with the exception of the focal length which was 300mm in this case.  I finished with this one as it shows them sailing away.

This was an interesting exercise and i enjoyed looking and waiting to see what would unfold as I took the photographs.