Unit 57: Photography and Photographic Practice

Selection of final images & review (P4, M4, D4)

Image No:Image One

Image Two

Image Three

Image Four

Image Five

Image Six

Image Seven

Image Eight

Image Nine

Image Ten

Theme or focus of image & reasons for choiceMy main intentions when capturing my images was to produce images which portray Salford Quays as a busy place, full of life emphasized through the use of vibrant colours, capturing both images in the day and at night therefore promoting not only Salford Quays during the day but also the nightlife. With one of my main focuses being taking inspiration Alex Filatov, with the aim of producing images using the water reflection technique therefore capturing a number of images featuring vibrant colours being reflected into the water surrounding Salford Quays.

Image One and Two

Both of these images were taken during the sunset, with the intentions of capturing and emphasizing the sun hitting the water as it set. Therefore in terms of composition I chose specifically to stand at an angle in order to capture not only the buildings but a large proportion of the water surrounding the buildings. By choosing to emphasize the sunset it meant that both these images consist of a lot of yellow/orange colours, and with both these colours having positive happy/sunny connotations I feel that it therefore portrays Salford Quays as a happy, positive place to visit whilst also creating a warm feeling for the person viewing the images. In Image one I feel that in contrast to the dark colours within the image,

the large quantity of lights and vibrant colours within the buildings and the fact that this has been doubled through the use of a water reflection technique, it really achieves what I was trying to achieve by portraying Salford Quays as a positive, lively, vibrant place to visit therefore promoting Salford Quays night life in a positive light. Whereas in image two I decided to focus on the Pink/purple tones of the sunset by enhancing these colours therefore again promoting Salford Quays as a warm/ exciting place to visit.

Image Three

In contrast to the two previous images, the main focus of this particular image is the buildings rather than the water, with the intentions of promoting the BBC which is based at Salford Quays. Again the sunset played a big part in determining to capture this particular image due to the fact that i chose to capture these particular buildings because I liked the way that the sun was hitting the right hand side of the buildings as it set.

Image Four and Five

I chose specifically to shoot these two images at night, with the main focus being the artificial lighting hitting the water surrounding Salford Quays, accompanied by the large quantity of vibrant lighting within a small proportion of the buildings facing the water, therefore again in terms of composition I had to stand at an angle so that I could capture both the buildings and the water. I chose specifically to capture these images at night due to the fact that I felt that the large quantity of artificial lighting at Salford Quays during night therefore meaning that my images would consist of a range of vibrant colours in contrast to the dark night sky and as a result promote Salford Quays night life as fast paced, busy and lively. Also I was curious to see how well artificial lighting could be captured.

Image Six and Seven

Like most of my images, one of the reasons for capturing these images was due to the way the sun was setting behind the lake within the image, another reason I captured these two images was because I like the way in which the buildings ran parallel with the lake in the middle, therefore in terms of composition I took one image straight on at each end of the lake.

Image Eight

Like image four and five, this image was taken at night with the main focus being capturing the artificial lighting. I chose specifically to capture a close up of one of the BBC's buildings not only to promote Media City located at Salford Quays but due to the fact that I feel the large amount of yellow artificial lighting within the building in contrast to the dark buildings and night sky almost creates a sense of movement therefore anchoring the fast paced, busy environment that is Media City.

Image Nine and Ten

Both of these images were taken at sunset and I decided to capture both a long shot of the BBC buildings along with the surrounding water as the sun was hitting the water and a close up of the buildings, both of which were taken with the intentions of promoting the BBC based at Salford Quays.

Techniques used

In terms of techniques used I shot these images in manual mode therefore I had to ensure that the shutter speed, ISO and aperture was correct in order to capture a good quality image

Strengths & suggested improvementsAlthough when constructing audience feedback I found that 20% of people felt that Image one was their least favourite image, I personally feel that out of the 10 images I captured this was my strongest due to the fact that it portrays Salford Quays exactly how I was aiming to portray it. I feel that in a number of images, specifically image one and two I successfully achieved what I wanted to in terms of capturing a water reflection within the water which surrounded Salford and portraying Salford Quays as a vibrant, positive place to visit. However I do feel that the images captured during the night shoot at Salford Quays could have been better in terms of image clarity, therefore in order to improve this I would have to conduct research and gain more knowledge in regards to shooting in manual mode when shooting at night and capturing artificial lighting. I feel that image Ten was my weakest image in terms of composition due to the fact that the top of one of the buildings is missing the fact that it doesn't really portray Salford Quays in any of the ways I intended.

Editing details

In terms of editing, in all the images I adjusted the vibrancy and saturation in order to enhance the colours within the images due to the fact that vibrant colours was one of my main focuses when capturing these images. I cropped each images in order to remove any negative space. I also used the clone tool in a number of images, particularly image One in order to remove the rubbish within the water surrounding Salford Quays.

Capture LogSetting Shutter Speed ISO ApertureImage Five: Manual

Image Six: Manual

Image Seven: Manual

Image Eight: Manual

Image Nine: Manual

1/160 sec

1/160 sec

1/160 sec

1/160

1/125

3200

220

450

3200

2200

f/3.5

f/22

f/22

f/3.5

f/22

Image Ten: Manual 1/125 1600

f/22