Snow Day - 10-12-17 (Shoot 8)

Snow Day 10-12-17 

Photographer Research - James Ravilious 

      For this shoot I decided to take on the style of James Ravilious, shooting rural landscape incorporating the people within the scene. This is an aspect I haven't explored yet in my other shoots however from Ravilious' work it really enhances the landscape work. James tends to shoot people who are just going about their everyday life or engaging in activities, this is what I a looking to do in my next shoot. 

Contact Sheet 

Best Images (Edited) 

Images that require improvement 

      My intention for this image was to have Jordan naturally looking at the camera, catching his expression during a snowball fight. I think this image would have been good if it wasn't underexposed. It seems that as I changed direction and tried to take this photograph quickly, the lighting changed causing the photograph to look dark. If I was to take the image again I would ensure that my shutter speed was longer to make sure that the exposure was right. 

       This image here was one i tried to take of the snowball fight however it came out very overexposed. I believe the issue with this was that due to it being in action I couldn't set the right settings up in time so shot the image hoping it would be ok. If I had more time to do this I would have made sure my shutter speed was short at around 1/125secs to eliminate blur and have a lower ISO to counteract the light sensitivity that is being shown here. 

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

       For this shoot I researched the work of James Ravillious. His work mainly revolves around photographing country landscape however he includes people within the landscapes. I thought that his work was very interesting, including people within the image, no matter what they were doing, added definition and a story. It made his work tell a narrative of country life, the jobs, leisure and daily life of people was shown perfectly within the landscape work. 

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

        The images above were taken without a tripod due to the fact that I wanted to capture people within the landscape, therefore found it easier to be more mobile with my work to capture the decisive moment. I set my camera setting to 'shutter speed priority' therefore when having ISO100 and F22, I ensured that the right shutter speed was calculated. Although this might not always work I was lucky due to the fact that the images were of snow, therefore they appeared bright requiring a much lower shutter speed that wouldn't produce blur without a tripod.

Editing Process -

Below I have showed how I edited one of my images.

      The first step when opening an NEF file in photoshop is the one shown above, this is one of the advantages of shooting raw. This panel allows me to edit my picture more precisely than in the next part of Photoshop. As you can see I mainly decided the increase my shadows and highlights in this photo, giving more of a natural contrast and allowing me more tonal range to work with in Photoshop. 

      When the image was opened, this was the next step. I decided only to edit the photograph using curves as there wasn't much else I wanted to change about it. I slightly moved the lower half of the line below therefore darkening some of the already shadowed areas. This gave the bleak look that the picture holds, adding to the dark appearance of a cold, dreary day contrasting with the brightness of the snow. 

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

      As mentioned before this shoot was inspired by the work of James Ravillious. His style was taking pictures of the countryside including the daily life of the people that lived there. When looking at his work it inspired me to do the same, therefore on the day it snowed I decided to take pictures of people who were out and about in it. I successfully done this as my work shows people enjoying the snow and common sights you would see on a snow day. I tried to adopt the natural feeling of James' work whereby none of the images looked staged. To do this I made sure not to interfere with the people I was taking the images of so to get a natural reaction from them. 

AO4 - Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements. 

      I feel that the shoot I have produced here does reflect the research I have done. My work is similar in concept of James Ravillious'. I feel that my pictures are interesting and fun, showing typical sights you would see on a snow day. I feel that including people within my landscape has made an interesting change to my work whilst still following the same theme. I feel that I would like to include people within my work more often in the future.