Final Image of Choice

"On the Endless Coast of Worthing"

Aperture: f/8

Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec

ISO: 200

Task 3 Image of Choice

For the third task, we were allowed to take a photograph of our choice within any type of genre. I have always enjoyed taking photographs of landscapes and interesting buildings, which was only heightened by my recent trips to Yorkshire and Devon. As I had taken many photos within the cities of London and York, as well as the countryside in Devon, I decided to try a new location with a whole different atmosphere to it, which is why I decided to take advantage of the bright and sunny weather and head off to Worthing Beach! Below are some photographs that I personally really like. I feel that they make the coast look extremely peaceful, especially the first two images. I have increased the contrast within most of the photos so that the colours really stand out well. I feel it works particularly well for the fifth image as the green of the seaweed works really nicely with the blues of the sea and sky.

(Aperture: f/9, Shutter speed: 1/320sec, ISO: 200)

(Aperture: f/13, Shutter speed: 1/320sec, ISO: 200)

(Aperture: f/13, Shutter speed: 1/200sec, ISO: 200)

(Aperture: f/11, Shutter speed: 1/250sec, ISO: 200)

(Aperture: f/7.1, Shutter speed: 1/640sec, ISO: 200)

(Aperture: f/9, Shutter speed: 1/1250sec, ISO: 200)

I was quite fascinated by these wooden planks that ran all the way along Worthing Beach. I'm not quite sure as to why they are there but I really found it quite interesting how the run from the top of the beach and end up disappearing into the water.

(Aperture: f/8, Shutter speed: 1/1000sec, ISO: 200)

Final Surreal Image 3

"Tall Over Paul"

Surreal Image Number 3

Deciding to stay with the London theme, I travelled back to the city and walked along the River. This is something that I haven't done for a while, which is normally what happens when you have lived in the same place for such a long time; you realise you've seen more outside the city compared to where you actually live. I took quite a few interesting photographs yet I feel the most interesting where of some ducks I found not far from the River.

(Aperture: f/5.4, Shutter Speed: 1/200sec, ISO: 64)

(Aperture: f/5.6, Shutter Speed: 1/250sec, ISO: 500)

(Aperture: f/5, Shutter Speed: 1/250sec, ISO: 1000)

(Aperture: f/5.6, Shutter Speed: 1/125sec, ISO: 500)

I didn't particularly think I would be able to combine two completely different images together yet I feel that for this 'surreal' task anything can become possible, and that was also the point of it; to push your creativity and skills using Photoshop. I then started to experiment with the pictures I had taken of London, specifically St Paul's Cathedral. I began creating more depth within my photos, adding different London Landmarks into the background that were not necessarily visible from this point of view in real life.

This was when I began experimenting the most, by inserting the image of a duck from one of my photos. I tried many different sizes and positions, for example having the duck flee from the top of St Paul's Cathedral. I thought this looked interesting yet it didn't really contribute much to the image as a whole. If I wanted to combine two extremely different images together in one photo, it would have to be something much more bolder and eye catching. The duck would have to be bigger and perhaps the centre of the picture, competing with the grand building that is St Paul's. I also felt that the sky needed to be a lot deeper in sense of colouring, which is why I also experimented with this. I enjoyed using Photoshop to really just let loose and try as many different things as possible. This I feel is how I came up with an interesting final surreal image.

This is a printscreen from when I had inserted the image of the main duck, yet I wanted to cast a shadow to make it look much more realistic. I decided to do this by duplicating the original image of the duck and rotating it 180 degrees. I then selected the shape of the duck and selected the layer that was the image of St Paul's Cathedral. I then decreased the brightness before finally hiding the layer of the duplicated duck so that a realistic shadow in the same shape as the animal above was cast across the building.

Final Surreal Image 2

"Lit Up London"

Surreal Image Number 2

I thought this task was slightly more harder than the rest of the other tasks. It requires a huge amount of creativity and imagination, which is infuriating if you are lacking it when trying to think of ideas. However, I feel that the idea for this image below simply came by playing around and experimenting, putting images that I had taken specifically for this project with ones that I had taken before from a completely different location, time or event. Below I wanted to see how I drastically I could change the scene from my previous image, yet keeping the main framework of Big Ben and the bridge. I looked through previous photographs I had taken and found some from when it was New Year's Day and I went to Embankment to watch the firework display.

(Aperture: f/4.8, Shutter Speed: 1/40sec, ISO: 400)

(Aperture: f/4.8, Shutter Speed: 1/25sec, ISO: 400)

I really like the second photo and feel the purples will really work well with the yellows of Big Ben, and purple is a complementary colour of yellow/orange. I began playing around on Photoshop, deleting the previous background and replacing it with the fireworks. This worked better than I thought and created a completely different scene to the image taken before. It was so much more alive and colourful, an atmosphere I'm much used to London having.

I then also saw that the time 20:25 wasn't very appropriate for this sort of scene. I obviously imagined it to be 12am which I why I also changed the time of the digital screen to 00.00. After looking at my new scene, I tried to think of even more ways to make it realistic. I thought that if the sky was this illuminated with the pinks and purples, the water below would also be tinted, as well as the buildings as well. I then selected the layer of Big Ben and adjusted the colour variations, increasing the blues and purples to produce I final image I felt was quite successful.

Trip to Devon

As the weather recently has been particularly bright and sunny, I took it upon myself to book a trip to Devon for a couple of days as one of my flatmates at Brunel happens to live there and said I could come down. She lives in a small village called Combeinteignhead which is in a remote part of Devon, approximately a 45 minute drive from the city centre. The area was even more remote than Yorkshire, and the views from the hilltop where she lives were beautiful. I was shocked as to how quiet it was compared to London city, and we must have only passed one person in the whole two hours we were out in the fields. This is something that really struck me, even though my flatmate was used to it and didn't quite understand what I meant. Living my entire life in London, you become used to the hustle and bustle. Even at night, it felt strange without the sound of traffic being heard from outside the window. It became clear how isolated she was here and so I tried to capture this with my camera. Below are some photos I took when walking across the fields, trying to show how remote and desolate it is.

(Aperture: f/6.3, Shutter Speed: 1/125sec, ISO: 200)

(Aperture: f/4.5, Shutter Speed: 1/60sec, ISO: 200)

(Aperture: f/11, Shutter Speed: 1/60sec, ISO: 200)

This photo just above was taken on the south bank of the Teign esturary, with the Coombe Cellars restaurant on the right. It was strange that such a place could even afford to run here as literally noone lived within a 15 minute radius from this spot. It shows that this is probably just one of many hidden gems within Combeinteignhead and that the people who do live in this village have probably done so for a very long time and become very familiar with small places like this.

As we were walking away from the Coombe cellars, I noticed a sign not too far from it. It looked as if it had been there for many years and probably not many people took notice of it (my flatmate certainly walked past it!). It was clearly hand carved, nothing like the signs you get in central London, which is probably what I liked more about it. It was personal to this particular village and there was probably not another sign nearby like it. 

(Aperture: f/8, Shutter Speed: 1/320sec, ISO: 200)