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.