Available Light
I have decided to go with the Available Light project because I think it has a lot of potential. Light can be used in many ways in photography. It can be either natural sunlight or artificial light. During the time of the project I will try and find places to photograph, i will be looking for places where the use of light affects the way the picture looks. That means I will be aiming at places with visible shadows, I will take night photographs where there is artificial light available.
My research and work of other photographers.
BrassaiBrassai was a Hungarian- French photographer, sculptor, writer and filmmaker. Born in Gyula Halasz on the 9th of September 1899, he died at the age of 84. He rose to fame in France in the 20th century. As a young man he studied painting and sculpture at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. Brassai's main style of Photography was night time. Below I present to you a gallery of some of his great images
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He also took pictures during day time.
Brassai had to operate with what is to me old technology. Now everything is digital but the photographs he has taken are great quality even today. His photography is full of mood due to the limitation of just black and white photography. I particularly enjoyed looking at his night time work. I think it was great, you can see the originality and uniqueness in his photographs. The great contrast between light and shadows creates a meaning within the pictures. His Photographs are full of emotion.
I really liked the pictures involving people. People on those images don't seem to be posing, they are mid action. That's a great skill to have, to be able to capture a natural picture rather than a set up pose. On all those pictures, people seem to be enjoying their time, just like the photographer they are all together in this, they are doing what makes them happy.
I really liked the pictures involving people. People on those images don't seem to be posing, they are mid action. That's a great skill to have, to be able to capture a natural picture rather than a set up pose. On all those pictures, people seem to be enjoying their time, just like the photographer they are all together in this, they are doing what makes them happy.
The next set of images is based on my aspiration as a photographer. I will show Pictures that I can relate to and photos that inspired me.
Those photos in particular have inspired me, purely because they cover every aspect of photography that interests me the most. The first picture involves a busy road. I like to take pictures of some sort of action and I can relate to that picture. Sometimes a simple click on the camera at a right moment can create a meaningful, artistic photograph. Landscape is another aspect I push myself towards in my photography. The picture of the Eiffel Tower in particular inspired me to take night time shots of Landscapes and Sculptures in general.
The picture in which you can see the cobble floor, it inspired me to take pictures of unusual things and find unusual angles. For some reason something as simple as light reflecting of wet floor can work so well in a photograph.
The picture in which you can see the cobble floor, it inspired me to take pictures of unusual things and find unusual angles. For some reason something as simple as light reflecting of wet floor can work so well in a photograph.
The pictures below show landscape photography. The camera is exposed to natural light only. This is one of the types of photography I will be focusing on during this exam , but it won't be dominant. I will look for landscape locations in order to try and create a simmilar styled picture. Some of the pictures belong to Charlie Waite and Joe Cornish. They have inspired me to shoot pictures using only natural light.
The next set presents photographs of a different variety. They all use artificial lights. They inspire me to look for new angles when I am taking my photographs. Those pictures inspired me in terms of where I'm going to take my photography. I really like the way artificial light has such a strong and toning impact on the pictures. The shadows and the contrast is clearly highlighted, and the primary subjects in the picture are clearly separated from any other subjects.
Vieth's photography is absolutely astonishing. In terms of research I focused on his night time shots rather than anything else. The photograph's are full of inspiration and have gave me an idea of the kind of pictures I'll be taking.
My Photography
The next set of photographs will show my first attempt at the exam question Available Light. These images are straight from my camera, I did not photoshop them.
I decided to do night photography in order to get photographs which make the artificial light visible. I also took some day time pictures in order to present how natural light can be used creatively and how it can have an affect on the way the picture looks.
I decided to do night photography in order to get photographs which make the artificial light visible. I also took some day time pictures in order to present how natural light can be used creatively and how it can have an affect on the way the picture looks.
My inspiration to do this type of photographs was the research, but also I was inspired because of the props and facilities available for me. I created some of these photographs using long expousure, they turned out to be very striking, and small details are visible in those images. I think night time is the best time to take pictures in terms of available light, the dark sky sets a dramatic mood and all the artificial lights become crucial in terms of visibility. Of course available light isn't just about using artificial lights, you can also use natural lighting of the sun to your advantage. Sunlight can affect how certain objects or things look like, for instance: While I took the pictures with the visible sun in them, the sun was behind the building's, meaning that the side of the building I was exposed to was very moody, dark and shadowy. If the sun was behing me, I woul have gotten a completley different image, the building would look a lot brighter and a lot more exposed.
Artificial light can also have a affect on how the picture looks. For high quality pictures during night time, long expousure is the number one option if you own a tripod. Long expousure pictures need time and stability, the picture catches movement, that's why on some of my pictures it seems as if the cars left a light trail behind them. Other types of artificial light such as a torch or studio lights can have a dramatic impact on the picture. The portraits in my gallery show expousure to studio lighting, studio lighting created a very moody and almost emotional effect.
Artificial light can also have a affect on how the picture looks. For high quality pictures during night time, long expousure is the number one option if you own a tripod. Long expousure pictures need time and stability, the picture catches movement, that's why on some of my pictures it seems as if the cars left a light trail behind them. Other types of artificial light such as a torch or studio lights can have a dramatic impact on the picture. The portraits in my gallery show expousure to studio lighting, studio lighting created a very moody and almost emotional effect.
Photoshop Experiments
Since I have some pictures in my gallery, my next step is to experiment with what I got. I decided to use one image and use photoshop to edit it in a number of ways. The outcome was very surprising because I didn't realise the potential of the image by first looking at it. It was after a few hours of playing about on photoshop, that I managed to create some fantastic visuals.
I decided to use this picture because I really like the visible shadow and the barrier between the light and the shadow.
I started of simple. The first image shows a picture adjusted by techniques such as Levels, Curves, Colour adjustments, Hue/Sturation, Vibrance and I added some clarity to the image. I also tilted the picture slightly to get the shadow line right in the middle, by doing that I added symmetry and compousure to the picture. The next image is the same as first but I used image rotation in order to horizontally flip the image. I saved both of those pictures to my folder, and I noticed that when the icons were next to each other, they looked like a panoramic picture with a split in the middle so it inspired me to create the third image. The picture looks very abstract but natural ath the same time. It looks like a panoramic. I created it by simply putting the first two images together.
The experimentation didn't end there, I decided to use another simple technique, I cropped the original picture, duplicated it and put the two together, and I ended up getting another interesting and symmetrical mirror effect.
The experimentation didn't end there, I decided to use another simple technique, I cropped the original picture, duplicated it and put the two together, and I ended up getting another interesting and symmetrical mirror effect.
The next few images are taking it a step further. I decided to use the polar coordinates technique in order to create very abstract images. I used both, rectangular to polar and polar to rectangular techniques. In order to create those pictures I used two pictures that are directly above this text (Panoramic Mirror effect, and the other mirror effect photograph.
The next three polar coordinates will show blending techniques such as difference and multiply, and also black and white conversion with a tint over it.
Polaroids
Polaroids is the next photoshop experimentation I decided to do. It allows me to present a couple of images at once in a gallery style, but it gives the gallery a interesting and unusual look.
The two images above, are both very different from eachother. I took the one on the left during day time. The other picture was taken later on that day, I waited a while for it to go dark.
The pictures above, were all taken on the same night. The first picture in the gallery was taken near Liverpool One, it is a night time shot. The main subject of that picture is the street light. The reason for this picture being so dark is that it has been taken in a alley-way, the only available light in there is the light visible in the picture and the streetlight behind me. To take this shot I used the following manual techniques: iso 100, aperture 4.0, shutter speed 1/10. To present the picture on the website I turned it black and white and tinted it with a blue/green colour.
The second picture was taken outside of West Derby School in Liverpool, it is a picture of a bus shelter. In order to take this shot I waited untill night time. For this shot I needed a tripod. I set my DSLR camera to manual, I then used the following to take the shot: Iso 100, aperture 4, shutter speed 8 seconds. In order to make this shot effective I had to consider things such as traffic, I had to wait for the right moment in order to capture the light trails. The light available in this shot is the bus shelter lights, street lights and the car lights. This shot is very effective because it clearly separates the light from other subjects. The light creates contrast between the bright and the dark in the picture. Before I uploaded the picture to the website , I photoshopped it using the black and white technique, I tinted it in the same way I did in the previous photograph.
The third picture shows my mate walking down a street. In the picture we can also see a bus shelter, a few street lights, visible shadows, a fence and a building. In order to take this picture I focused my camera on the fence on the left side of the picture, I made my mate Luke be the centre of the image. Due to the focus being on the fence, it creates a blur effect to the rest of the picture. The artificial light in this picture creates a dimmed effect. The light also creates a great contrast between the right side of the image and the left. The left side seems to be very dark while the right side contrasts the picture with the brightness of the lights. This picture was taken by hand on the following camera settings: iso 200, aperture 3.5, shutter speed 1/5.
The second picture was taken outside of West Derby School in Liverpool, it is a picture of a bus shelter. In order to take this shot I waited untill night time. For this shot I needed a tripod. I set my DSLR camera to manual, I then used the following to take the shot: Iso 100, aperture 4, shutter speed 8 seconds. In order to make this shot effective I had to consider things such as traffic, I had to wait for the right moment in order to capture the light trails. The light available in this shot is the bus shelter lights, street lights and the car lights. This shot is very effective because it clearly separates the light from other subjects. The light creates contrast between the bright and the dark in the picture. Before I uploaded the picture to the website , I photoshopped it using the black and white technique, I tinted it in the same way I did in the previous photograph.
The third picture shows my mate walking down a street. In the picture we can also see a bus shelter, a few street lights, visible shadows, a fence and a building. In order to take this picture I focused my camera on the fence on the left side of the picture, I made my mate Luke be the centre of the image. Due to the focus being on the fence, it creates a blur effect to the rest of the picture. The artificial light in this picture creates a dimmed effect. The light also creates a great contrast between the right side of the image and the left. The left side seems to be very dark while the right side contrasts the picture with the brightness of the lights. This picture was taken by hand on the following camera settings: iso 200, aperture 3.5, shutter speed 1/5.
Theses two pictures are portraits of my friends . I took those pictures using the studio light , a facility available in our school. The pictures seem moody and dark, there is a high contrast between the source of light and the human subjects. In order to create the effect presented, I used levels to adjust the shadows and highlights of the picture. I then turned the pictures black and white and I used the tint and tinted the picture with a slightly blueish/ green colour. The colour added serious and a sad emotion in a way, into the pictures.
The Sun and it's visual effect on nature
The gallery presented below is a quick showcase of my weekend journey to the local park. The park I decided to visit was 'Croxteth Park'. It is located in the area of Liverpool and is one of three of the most iconic parks in the city. The other two parks are Newsham and Sefton. The pictures mainly show trees. Area filled with trees can be particularly good for great photographs , especially when the sun is shining right through those branches. It was a very sunny day and I had to take advantage of that. My inspiration to go out and take pictures in the park came from the landscape photography idea of Joe Cornish and Charlie Waite. Their galleries consist of mostly nature photographs. I analysed their pictures and I really wanted to take some pictures that involved the use of natural light. So here is a gallery of some of the best images from that day. They were all uploaded straight from my camera and there was no adjustments made to them .
I particularly enjoyed taking those pictures because it was a great adventure for me. I was having fun while trying to find some great angles that would work well. It was a good feeling when I managed to take pictures such as the one above. It has a very artistic feeling to it, the composition between the sun and the trees is really striking. The shining sun really seems to brighten up the green colours of leaves and the grass . I feel like this gives the photographs a happy and a positive feel to them, they are pleasant and deep to look at. Some people may say there is nothing artistic or spectacular about pictures of trees, but I think otherwise. Those pictures are amazing and have a very deep meaning to them all. Each one of the trees represents a life journey, it might have took me about 2 seconds to snap a shot , but for the shot to be possible, it took years and years before I could come along and take a picture. Nature is a beautiful subject of photography and that's where I feel the most amazed when taking pictures... within nature .
The small gallery of 8 is showing the road leading out of the park. I decided take picture there because I thought the road sign added to the mood of the pictures. It is difficult to explain but the pictures seem to be inspiring and live. It feels as if the picture has motion to it and that's what made it effective.
The Sun and it's visual effect on artificial creations.
This gallery of pictures presents images taken during lesson time at my school. The sun is a primary factor to the mood of those images. The are all mainly bright an the shadows are clearly visible. I was inspired to take pictures of architecture by a photographer named Marius Vieth.
The images worked very well in terms of light. The roof of the building separated the shadows from direct sunlight. The sun was very sharp in some of the pictures. I managed to capture a few lens flares. Also I captured a lot of pictures in which you can see the sun peaking through.
Timed Exam Section
Everywhere we are, whatever the place is, in order to see and experience that place, our eyes need light. Light is available to us in most places whether it is artificial or natural. During daytime, on a sunny day we are exposed to the sunlight. At night however, if the sky is clear, in depopulated areas, we are exposed to a clear moonlight and the shine of stars. During the day we could also be surprised by a cloudy weather, which would add a mood to the day. The artificial lighting during the day is being out shined by the natural, however the tables turn when it comes to night time . Night time photography is mostly about the use of artificial light in the photos, well in urban areas anyway.
For this exam, I decided to take a 4 section approach where I will be analysing both aspects of light in different sectors. The 4 sectors I went with are: Artificial/Natural Light Indoors, Artificial Light Outdoors, Natural Light Outdoors during day time and Natural/Artificial Light Outdoors during night time.
For this exam, I decided to take a 4 section approach where I will be analysing both aspects of light in different sectors. The 4 sectors I went with are: Artificial/Natural Light Indoors, Artificial Light Outdoors, Natural Light Outdoors during day time and Natural/Artificial Light Outdoors during night time.
Artificial/ Natural Light Indoors
This sector focuses particularly on the effect of Artificial and Natural Light Indoors. The location I used to take those photos, was the living room in my house. I stayed up until around 2 o’clock in the morning so that there was no natural source of light coming from the outside and affection the way the picture looks. The source of light for those particular images was a lightbulb from a lamp and also candles. I decided to take pictures of my mum’s porcelain figures, my own wrestling action figures, a small stone, a toy rocket ship. They were the main subjects in the picture. The exact location was a shelf in the corner of my living room.
Straight from the camera
The Lamp behind the figures really sets a mood to the picture. It creates a spiritual and a shadowy feeling. The back of the figures is exposed to the light while the front is contrasting.
The four pictures above have a completley different mood to them, that is because the only source of light is the candle. It gives a very warm and moody style. The candle is the brightest subject in the picture and everything around it seems to be fading away into the dark. I really enjoyed taking those photos because I took them using my favourite technique, which is long expousure.
Another picture involving a candle, this time I used two candles as a source of light. I used long exposure and I focused the picture on the shadowed out figure of John Cena. I really like the third picture as it involves depth of field , the focus is clearly separated from other subjects in the picture.
Artificial Lamp Light is the source of light for those two pictures.
I like the last picture in particular. I feel and think like it's an olden style image. The picture is full of random objects but it doesn't lack composition.
Photoshopped Work
I didn't mess about too much in photoshop. I decided to keep the images as close as possible to the original because I feel like they are fantastic images that don't require much photoshop work. I focused on changing things such as Brightness, Contrast , Levels , The colours and the light.
The gallery of eight above shows pictures edited using the selective colour tool in photoshop. It allowed me to change the tone of one colour in the image and turn it into another colour. I also used techniques such as curves and levels.
The three pictures above were edited using levels in order to create a shadow effect.
Some of the images involve blending techniques such as Luminosity. They created this effect of haze in some pictures. I also used selective colour adjustments and hue/saturation.
In order to create the effect above I used gradient map and I used one of the preset styles. I then blended it in with the image using overlay option.
The two pictures below show a panoramic I created. In order to create this effect I duplicated the picture, I then horizontally flipped it and stuck the two layers next to each other in order to create this wide picture effect.
I took those pictures mainly because every night before going to bed, I always placed my phone on the shelf. On that shelf were also the action figures and one night I thought it would be a great Idea to use those figures in my photography. That was the initial plan, use my figures, but as I went downstairs I also discovered a shelf with some of my mom’s glass figures on it , and they just became a part of my project. In order to execute the pictures the way I did, I looked online for action figure’s photography. I particularly liked the work of a Japanese Photographer Hot.Kenobi. He gave me the idea of how to execute the pictures of the figures.
Natural/Artificial Light During Night time
It’s nothing new that once again I’m up and running during night time. This time the reason being was to capture objects and how they are affected by natural/artificial light. I decided to visit the Metropolitian Cathedral in Liverpool when the moon was clearly visible.
Straight from the camera
I took those pictures because I was inspired by the day time work of Paul Adams. He photographed the Metropolitan Cathedra. I decided to go there during night time. The effort was worth it because due to my knowledge of long exposure , I managed to create some very sharp and good quality images. I used manual camera settings in order to create a long expousure image. The light and detail is clearly visible because I gave the camera time to take the image.
Artificial Light Outdoors
For this sector my main focus was the artificial light outdoors. Best time to do it was during the night time, once again I decide to sacrifice my cycle of sleep for photography. I waited until around 3 o’clock in the morning before heading out, the forecast predicted no clouds at that time. At first I only decided to go local, Deysbrook, I spent around an hour in my area before heading further out (Deysbrook =My area, West Derby= Further out). I decided to take pictures of the local shopping centre, Tesco Store, road signs , car lights, street lights and the road. The pictures all worked very well, the streets were near enough empty and every time I spotted a car I got my camera ready to capture those trails of light. For this photography I used a tripod to capture the high quality images.
The pictures above were all taken in my local shopping area. Deysbrook is surprisingly a great place to take pictures.
Photographs of the Tesco seem very lit up. This is because the street lights go in composition with the light coming in from inside of the tesco. The building itself seems over exposed, this is due to a huge amount of light inside the Tesco.
The street signs turned out to be a great focus point in the pictures. I really enjoyed taking those pictures as they seem very clean and sharp. Although it is night time the pictures are very clear. On the full frame picture above I seem to have captured a lens flare due to street light exposure. The flare is visible on the right side of the picture, it is the small green sparkle.
The light in the picture above seems to be orange, but when I was taking the picture, my bare eye could see a white light. This is because when i was setting the camera , I took the picture using low aperture.
The picture above is particularly striking. It shows the shadow of a street sign laying onto the wall. This effect is shown because the light on the left is shining right onto the sign.
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The picture on the left is one of my best examples in terms of long exposure . I took the picture with the idea that I am going to capture all three colours on the road light and I did. I captured this picture because I set my camera shutter speed to 10 seconds, that was enough for my camera to capture the light switch.
In order to create all the images above I used Long exposure. The next pictures will show a different location. The were taken in the area of west derby.
The picture below is my first glance out of the tunnel. It's a strking picture of a lamp surrounded by trees. The isolation of the street light creates mood and emotion.
The two pictures above show the exact same location but were taken using different camera settings. The first one was taken using 3 seconds shutter speed and for the second one I used 6 second shutter speed. This difference is clearly visible because the second picture seems a lot more exposed. This is because the camera had 3 more seconds to take in the light.
Once again I am trying to show how great street signs are for pictures. They are a fantastic focus point in the picture and they are well lit. The street lights are right above them, making it easy for photographers like me to take pictures.
While taking those pictures I was inspired by the night time work of Brassai and Marius Vieth
To me, capturing the light trails is the most fun thing in terms of night time photography, it just goes to show that if you wait for the right moment, you can capture something very spectacular. The picture above shows an ambulance passing by. The picture was 3 seconds long and I pressed the shutter speed just in time to capture the light trail the ambulance leftt behind.
I particularly like the image above. It looks cinematic. The colour red is dominant. The picture portrays seperation of street signs and street lights from the actual road.
I was particularly inspired by the work of Marius Vieth while taking the pictures of the light trails. The way he escalated them was great and I wanted to do the same. I really do like them,the light is so visible and shows a passage of time captured on a camera. While taking pictures I had in mind the work of Brassai his photography shows and impeccable contrast between the shadows and light and that is what I was aiming for during the project. The street signs idea kind of came along when I saw them everywhere I looked while I was out and exploring. I decided to photograph them and present them as what effect artificial light has on them.
Natural Light During Day Time
In this section I will be presenting pictures of mostly nature. I decided to take a trip to the local Park named Croxteth. It’s a beautiful park full of amazing colours. For those pictures my only source of light was the sun. I was stunned by how great the images turned out to be. I decided that the gallery I am about to present is going to contain mainly raw images straight from the camera. I believe that way I can truly express the uniqueness of my work. Apart from nature I will also present pictures of The beautiful city Liverpool. I will present pictures which were taken at the peak hours for the sun. I will annotate what they mean to me as I go along.
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The photographic journey began as soon as soon as I stepped off from the bus. I started at Dale Street in the Town of Liverpool.
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The weather has been great, I couldn't complain. I was very inspired to take a lot of pictures of all kinds. I didn't plan where to walk, I just went where my feet took me.
Some things were just too good to only do one shot. I had to have at least two of my new friend on the left. On the other hand , I realised that I can control how much sunlight I'm allowing into my camera .The building pictures above show that if I angle myself directly behind the building , I can create a shadowy picture with sun peaking through. Of course in order to do that there needs to be direct and clear sunlight coming from behind the building, and I was fortunate enough to experience that.
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Day time pictures, especially when the sun is out, can be very appealing. The sun makes the whole photograph bright, I was also lucky enough to capture clear sky pictures on that day. The pictures above, starting with the picture of a mule, were all taken in the Albert dock. The dock is in Liverpool, on The Colonnades. It is one of the most visited places in Liverpool in terms of tourism. Multiple cafeterias, many places to stay over night, these are just a small fraction what attracts the tourists. People come here to look at the beautiful architecture, the old fashioned dock which hasn't been renovated since it's existence, the ferris wheel which allows you to view the whole of Liverpool. There is also of course the Liver Building, the symbol of Liverpool, but we can't forget about the culture and The Beatles.
After being at the Albert dock I decided to visit another iconic place in Liverpool. I went near the Echo Arena and I've got to admit the pictures turned out to be very good. Especially that the sun was behind the building in the place I went to first. This produced a visible shadow and the windows seemed to be blue.
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I left the echo arena and decided to take a trip to the Princess Dock, to get there I walked through the Albert Dock.
The picture below shows the princess dock, but I didn't stay there for too long, I decided to head back home after taking that picture.
I headed home
The day ended, but the next day was also bright, so I decided to visit the Local Park, Croxteth.
This chap is just enjoying his day. I kind of feel bad for taking a picture. The sun's in his eye so he won't even look at me.
Few attempts but he looked in the end.
I have to admit, I don't particularly like when people get in the way of my picture, but I have to say a massive thank you to the bloke on the bike. He added movement to my landscape photograph without me asking for it. The two pictures above have one different factor, the man on the bike , but he made a huge impact on the way the pictures are looking , have a look yourself and compare it.
The thhing about the sun in the pictures is that it can be unpredictable, sometimes it might turn out over exposed, sometimes its's dominating the picture totally . But if you know what you're doing, you can capture something like the one above. Perfect composition between trees, grass, the sky and the sun , to add a bit of a spiritual feeling to it, there is a father and his daughter playing together. what could be more perfect?
During day time , I just love to capture the sun peaking through random things. The trees seem to be working perfectly for this type of photography, and if you can find the right place and be there at the right time , you can always capture something beautiful ,all it take is a little bit of an imagination.
This photograph, alongside my ambulance light trail capture is my favourite . Once again I had to be in the right place at the right time in order to capture something spectacular like this.