photography competition:

part one

research about APOY website-amateur photography over £10,000 of prizes to be won in the year of 2019 (this year).

its the 28th year of this competition and it is the first competition of its kind.

the overall categories of choice are:

mad about mono: black and white photos

setting the scene: scenery photos

animal magic: wildlife/animal photos

perfect portrait: portrait photo of someone

small worlds: macro photos

street life: documentary /candid

whatever the weather: weather photos

after dark: night photos

you can choose which ever category suites your personal skills. SIGMA’s mission is to provide exceptional products at an affordable price -they are the ones giving prizes out to the winners of the competition. photo crowd will again be hosting the competition.

the overall winner has £2000 to spend on the products of their choice. each categories vote winner wins a one year digital subscription to amateur photographer.

There are usually around 5 main judges however the crowd is also able to vote for their favourite photographers.

winners of the competition:

in 2016 the main winners were Power of Photography – Eric Lafforgue, Exceptional achievement in photography – John Bulmer, Accessory of the Year – Phottix Indra TTL Studio Light. there were these three main winners all for different types of photography who were skilled enough to earn a winning spot in 2016’s amateur photography competition.

in 2017 the main winners were Henrik Spranz who came 1st place, Elena Paraskeva who came 2nd place and Marco Tagliarino who came 3rd place. there were these three main winners for the year of 2017 again their work is very different to each others some of them choose to focus more on nature and animals whereas others chose to focus on natural landscapes or buildings.

in 2018 the main winners were Neil Burnell who came 1st place, Marco Tagliarino who came 2nd place and Simon Hadleigh-Sparks who came 3rd place. there were these three and the main winners for the year of 2018 and again all for their different styles and choices in their photography some choosing to focus on night time images and nature images others fine art photography and patterns.

genres of photography:

part two:

A type of kind-usually associated with film and television; genre can also be linked to photography photo journalism/documentary.

Documentory: photography generally relates to a longer term project with a more complex storyline.

Photo journalism– Photography generally relates to breaking and sudden news.

photojournalists document what is happening at that exact moment in time in the places often war zones and other major dangerous events.

images should tell a story whether it is through the setting or though the emotion of the emotion of the person featured in the image.

they should be unbiased and be easily understood culturally it shouldn’t need words in a caption or any explanation.

Tom Stoddart:

tom stoddart is a photojournalist who in his diverse career has covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, the AIDS pandemic in Africa and the Iraq war.

His work is usually black and white and always of people as his focus is on the emotion in the faces of the featured people or person it tells a story.

Documentary photography:

usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle significant and historical events (truthful and objective photography.) people covey emotion and can tell a story through a photograph.

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange’s photographs influenced the development of documentary photography and humanized the consequences of the Great Depression.

much like the last photographer she used black and white filters on her photographs and focus on the emotion of the peoples faces that tells a story.

fashion photography:

Used to show a display of clothing and other fashion items more often used for advertisement. overtime fashion photography has developed.

Helmut Newton

He was a “prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications.

a lot of his work is very provocative and shows a sexual side to fashion as well as elegance and interesting visual patterns and colors or textures.

fine art photography:

fine art photography is created in accordance with the vision of the artist as a photographer.

Ansel Adams:

Ansel Easton Adams was a landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West.

the depth of his images shows different layers of the places his vision is 3D and always consists of nature and shocking amazing sites.

Robert Mappelthorpe:

His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-portraits and still-life images of flowers.

all of his work is very provocative and many people don’t agree with his perception and the way he presents his art however he is expressing how he sees natural beauty if the human body in a more harsh and direct way.

portraiture photography:

photographs of people mostly focusing at the top part of the body from shoulders or chest upwards usually. main focus should be the person and not the background. the background should add to the photo helping enfesise the main features of the face.

Steve McCurry

Steve McCurry is an American photographer, freelancer and photojournalist. His most famous photo is of the “Afghan Girl”, the girl with the piercing green eyes that periodically appears on the cover of National Geographic.

advertising photography:

the art of taking photos that are used to create awareness of a particular product or service to the public.

Christoph Huet:

he was known for creating strange but interesting works of art for advertising purposes.

they were supposed to be memorable and eye catching to cause the audience of the feature to remember exactly what its advertising.

architectural photography:

photos of buildings and similar structures for example bridges.shapes and colors are used to make an image pop out and out 3d.

medical photography:

documents of clinical presentation of patients, medical procedures and surgeries.

Lennart Nilsson:

Lennart Nilsson was a Swedish photographer and scientist. He was noted for his photographs of human embryos and other medical subjects once considered unphotographable, and more generally for his extreme macro photography.

photography skills:

exposure:

most cameras have a lens, a flash, a zoom, storage, shutter control, an aperture to control amount of light let in.

Exposure is the amount of light or darkness in a photo. the size of the exposure hole is called the aperture.

on manual settings you control these factors based on the information provided by your cameras light meter. shutter speed is how long the shutter is open for you can alter the length of time making the shutter stay open for longer will give the image more light and closing it quicker will make it darker this can also alter the image you are aiming to produce.

the light meter shows the exposure and whether or not it is correct. in the center is the correct exposure, in the minus means it is over exposed and in the plus means it is under exposed.

aperture is the size of the hole that allows light in or prevents it from coming into the image.

value indicates how much light can pass through large aperture allows more light and a small aperture allows less light through.

the smaller the f stop the larger the aperture the larger the f stop the smaller the aperture.

shutter speed controls how long the mirror is lifted to allow light to hit the film or image sensor. this is measured in seconds or fractions of seconds. the longer the shutter speed lets in more light the shorted the shutter speed the less light there will be let in.

fast shutter speed freezes motion slower shutter speed shows movement.

to freeze motion you need a fast aperture and a high iso.

iso is the light sensitivity the higher the number means the more light sensitive your image will be. low light=ios-800+ high light=ios 100-200.

deep depth of field means small aperture is needed and shallow depth of field means large aperture is needed.

each small direction of the camera can really effect the final image or film so you have to be direct with the instructions and make sure each setting is at the perfect positioning otherwise the image will be altered and may not look as good or even the right image you want it to be.

Composition in photography can be defined as positioning the objects in the frame in such a way that the viewer’s eye is automatically drawn to the most interesting or significant area of the capture.

in a portrait photograph the main feature will be the persons face and what emotion is expressed in their face and the color and positioning of what is in the background or surrounding the main feature of the image should enhance the person and not outshine or take away the main focus.

in a setting photo the placing of the structure in the image and where the lines or patterns or shapes are will alter the whole look and feel of the image this is the same with fine art photographs as the structure is effected by the things in the image and how the image will come across to people.

the editing is also effected by the composition of the photograph and so it is also important in this instance.

plan:

part 3:

I am planning to do mad about mono as my first category so I am using Ansel Adams work as my inspiration because his work is very layered and makes you look further into the image as it has more then just the flat image layer.

my second category will be city and landscape photos and my inspiration for this will be ted gore as his work is very beautiful he uses colour in his images and gets the perfect natural lighting to make a beautiful landscape photo he often uses sunsets or sunrises as the colours are the most vibrant and diverse.

my third category is whatever the weather and my inspiration for this choice is Jim Reed because he has some amazing shots of different extreme weather events such as lightening bolts, tornadoes, and storms obviously I most likely will be unable to get such extreme images however u think he is a great inspiration for the timing of his captured images and how perfectly he captures an image such as a lightning bolt at the exact moment it occurs.

my final category that I have chosen is after dark and my inspiration for this choice is Michael Kenna because his work is beautifully captured at the perfect angles and is interesting and enjoyable to look at however I would want to place colour into my images and not just make them black and white like he does.

I am planning to start my first shoot on Tuesday 12th November and then try and shoot my second one on the same day because of the lack of equipment I may not be able to get a hold of a camera for each day I need to do a shoot.

I will aim to get my weather photography done on this day however I am planning ion having different types of weather and this is unlikely to happen on the same day. so for this I might have to do it at different hours of completely different days.

I will try to do most of the shoots on the same week however i’m not sure that will work due to other bookings weather and timing.

color in an image can make it look more shocking and intriguing however sometimes a black and white or mono photo can be just as striking and memorable due to different shadows and highlighted areas the contrast can sometimes be more shocking and striking then color as it brings out more depth to an image.

composition

symmetry- an image that looks as if it is mirrored not always exactly but somewhat similar.

lines- an image containing lines that pull focus of the image over other things in the image.

curves- natural curves in an image that pulls focus much like lines but instead curves.

viewpoint- usually a landscape that has a main focus towards the back of the image and often blurs out the other image features.

framing- an image surrounded by something that acts like a frame to concentrate on the main image feature.

cropping- taking a section out of a larger image and cutting it out to present it as the main focus.

depth of field- an image that looks 3D and does not appear flat.

rules of thirds- a grid used to focus in on the main image feature.

these are my examples of different compositions.

this is my plan for filming the different photo shoots when where and what different things i want to take.

mad about mono:

these photos were taken at the cathedral in Exeter and around this area.

i had already edited this image but only by increasing the saturation and shaddows

black and white photo of cathedral at an angle

I chose to take this image at an angle to get a more 3D and less flat image using the shadows to bring it out. I edited it on photoshop by turning it black and white and increasing the definition of the shadows.

the rain drops in the image distract the main focus so to improve it I would ensure the camera is dry and maybe darken certain areas more.

black and white buildings framing the sky

this image was taken using a low shot at create the illusion of the buildings being taller and more prominent In the image they are also there to frame the sky.

black and white cathedral at another angle

this image is a lot lighter then the others and at an awkward angle I would improve it by taking it at an angle where the 3 main pillars were more central so creating a lines focus and I would ensure the camera didn’t have any rain drops on it I would also darken the image. however I do like the angle of the camera I would just adjust it a bit.

black and white image of cathedral leaves and sky

whatever the weather:

these photos were taken around Exeter high street.

raindrops on leaves closeup

I found this image very difficult to take as the plants kept on moving around and so it was difficult for the camera to focus on the leaves and rain drops I would have liked for it to be more focused and the colours to be more prominent.

raindrops on rose closeup

for this image the camera needed to focus on the raindrops and individual petals as these are the main focus in the image.

wet road with lines and a leaf

for this image I tried to get low to the ground and include the lines of the road in the corner to give it depth and use the rule of lines.

the line on this image is off center because i cropped this image to give it more of an in depth look and focus more on the rule of lines in the image giving it more depth.

the road is wet due to the rain and the puddles there was also a good placing of the leaf making it look more autumnal and therefore bringing into the idea of the bad weather.

to improve this image I would try to get closer to the ground and get more of a closer image.

wet sign and road close up

I like the lines in this image and the reflection of the background in the puddle and the fact that the image focuses on the lines and blurs out the background and the individual things in the background.

again the lines on the road and the straight lines on the sign lead the eye into the background and create more depth to the image even though it blurs out towards the end of the image or the back of the image.

wet road with lines and pavement

again much like the other low image it is of a wet road focusing on the lines painted on it creating the rule of lines this image however instead of using leaves it also includes the pavement and a little section of the background.

towards the back of the image you see the lines on the road start to move upwards up the hill causing the depth of the image to further increase and move more.

Setting the scene:

these photos were taken around Exeter and also some around axminster to get the images of wildlife and empty train tracks.

after dark image with river meander

I love the fact that I managed to capture the small crescent moon in this after dark image I also like the lines effect of the river creating depth to the image and causing the eye to look further back in the image and observe more of the image.

the meander of the river also makes the image look more 3d and less flat you can see around the edge of it.

sunset after dark image tree shaddow

i love the fact that this image had the sunset in the background causing the images in the foreground for example the palm trees to become only dark shadows creating contrast between that and the sunset and the strung lights. however this image may be too dark and could have had a larger aperture to increase light in the image.

train tracks after dark with tree framing

In this image I like the way the railway lines create a depth much like the river I also love the lighting in this image as it creates a dim overview on the railway line.

after dark image with sunset and city lights

I chose this image as my final main image for after dark because I like the simplicity of it. It has a slight sunset however it is mostly just dark sky and the contrast of the city lights against the dark sky with the rolling hills in the background cause it to have a bit more depth. to improve this image i would probably increase the amount of light and also have a bit more of an exact focal point .

setting the scene shoot:

close up of flowers from low angle

in this image I chose to get low to the ground so it looks as if I am looking up at the flowers and it gives them a powerful effect in the image.

close up image of grass and flowers

 This image was also taken from a lower angle however not from directly underneath as I wanted a slightly different look to the first image I also wanted the main feature to be in the front and to be the grass and flowers at the front.

low angle of rocky landscape

this image is again from a lower angle and therefore causes the rocks in the foreground to look almost like mountains and the background in the  part in focus and the foreground is out of focus this brings the main part of the image the trees in the background.

image of woods with the sun shining through

in this final image the main focus is the sun in the background that is perfectly shining through the tees that are in the foreground it gives the image more depth and causes the eye to be drawn to the lightest area of the overall image.

Throughout these shoots I experienced a lot of different issues with different weather and lighting which for some shoots was helpful for example the black and white or mono shoot needed different lighting and the whatever the weather had to have interesting lighting also however for some I needed good lighting and no rain like for setting the scene and it was difficult.

i also didn’t take that many photos in each individual shoot so some have less photos in the contact sheets and so they are different sizes also some photos were more heavily edited then others.

i only edited the first shoot because i wanted to turn the photos black and white for mad about mono however for the rest of the shoots i didn’t think i needed to edit them because i liked them more natural the lighting in most of the shoots was also good enough that it didn’t really need any further editing.

i edited the mad about mono shoot all on Photoshop and some of the images on the contact sheets were also edited on Photoshop however i didn’t use any of the edited images as my last four choices for the different categories and so i haven’t included how i Photoshoped those images.

overall good and bad points on each shoot:

GP: In the mono shoot the photos were edited to become black and white.

BP: There were rain drops on the lens in some photos which ruined the overall image.

GP: The angles in the images bought more depth and feel to the images.

BP: They probably could have been edited further to make them stand out more and create more definition.

GP: In the whatever the weather shoot the photos were taken often with close ups like the leaves and the rose giving them more detail and focus.

BP: the images could have been taken at a closer or lower angle.

GP: the difference in lighting really helps the images and the weather becomes more prominant.

BP: Some of the images are blurry and not very clear.

GP: In the after dark shoot some of the photo lighting is good and allows you to focus on one main part of the image.

BP: other images did not have good lighting and ended up not looking good and not focusing well on the main part of the image.

GP: The colors looked good in most of the images and made them look better.

BP: Most of my images were taken at sunset and not really after dark so they are not technically after dark.

GP: In the setting the scene shoot the angles are all interesting and detailed images.

BP: The lighting in these images is a bit weird and fluctuates a lot.

GP: all the images are clear and have main points of focus in them.

BP: they could have been edited more.