Lectures

Marine and Coastal Photography

Jonathan Chritchley

Within this lecture we were taught about how to make the most of marine and coastal photography, as well as being told about a few influential photographers in this field. 

When doing a marine and coastal shoot, the best times of day are early morning and late evening, due to the colours created within the sky when the sun appears above and disappears behind the horizon. Even when the sun has gone down below the horizon there is still an opportunity to capture some exquisite images as some of the best colours come out at this time. To make the most of these colours and to create an extremely dramatic water scene, it is best to use some neutral density filters to reduce the amount of light getting through to the camera and ultimately creating stronger colours. By using the bulb shutter speed setting you will be able to take pictures with longer exposures, some lasting for minutes; not only will you get some dramatic sky and water effects, you will have a very colourful and powerful image. Also, do not give up when it is overcast, you can still get some very dramatic scenery. It is also important to look out for reflections in the water, as they can really enhance your picture and add to the beauty of the scenery.

Chris Burkard

When framing a marine and coastal shot it is best to add something to the second ⅓ from the bottom of the frame, so that there is something to capture the attention of the viewer and then draw that attention into the rest of the landscape. It is also vital that the horizon is straight within your photographs, so to make sure of this you can use a spirit level that you can attach to the top of your camera. A tripod is another essential piece of kit when photographing any landscape, as you are reducing the likelihood of camera shake, thus allowing for more detail to be within your photograph. It can be useful to use the aperture priority setting on your camera so that you can change from a small aperture to a wide aperture without having to worry about the shutter speed as the camera will automatically change that.  Circular polarisers are useful for marine and coastal photography, as they help to accentuate the saturation of the colours within the photograph. 

There are a lot of very influential photographers around this field, from environmental to extreme sport photographers. Within this lecture we looked at artists like: Tim McKenna who is an extreme sport photographer that is recognised as one of the best outdoor photographers in the world. Chris Burkard who is an up and coming landscape and extreme sport photographer, created a video on his work which I found truly inspiring, as what he was doing is exactly what I hope to do within my life, namely to travel around the world photographing amazing spectacles and highlighting the dark parts of the world.

There were other photographers that were covered within the lecture, such as: Jonathan Chritchley, Mickey Smith (who created a film called "Dark Side of the Lens"), Andy Hughes, Trevor Ashby, Chris Jordan and Stuart Franklin, all of which are wonderful marine and coastal photographers. 

 Chris Jordan

Finally, within the lecture a couple of points to do with shooting in film for marine and coastal photography were made. Firstly, in order to boost contrast you can use a film filter called an 81B warm up filter that boosts the contrast within the photograph. For colour film you must use a red filter and for black and white film an orange filter is required. The other point was that of a special type of film made by Fuji, called Fuji Velvia 50-150 ISO positive transparency film that really brings out the colour within the landscape and truly creates a thing of beauty if properly exposed.

High Dynamic Range (HDR)

During this project we were introduced to a new way to edit your photographs in order to create either a hyper real shot or a very sharp more natural looking landscape. The basis of HDR is to be able to give an image a greater range of tone. In order to create a High Dynamic Range photograph, you will need to take a variety of photos of the same scene, so a tripod is essential. From combining under and over exposed images you are able to get a lot more detail in both the shadows (from the over exposed images) and the highlights (from the under exposed images). When you bracket your image it is best to shoot as many shots as you can, with each being one stop higher or lower than the last. You can also do this in Camera Raw as it allows you to over or under expose your image to four stops either way. When bracketing your image, make sure you only change the shutter speed to make sure that you don't lose any detail. Once you have done this you can add your bracketed photographs into whatever software you decide to use. There are quite a few different types of software for creating a HDR image - Photoshop for one has a HDR setting within it. However, for this project we were taught how to process an image into HDR on a programme called Photomatix.

HDR is not all based around digital photography, as it was used in film photography as well. Even though it would not have been done using software, but by working out how to expose each part of a photograph for a set amount of a time to create a greater tonal range within the image. 

This editing technique was not initially used by photographers, in fact it was created for film and television shows as a replacement for tungsten lighting. Yet now a days in the photographic community it is considered an art form. 

Personally, I quite like using HDR for my photographs as the effects you can get on a photograph can be quite spectacular. For instance, the photographs I have chosen as examples I shot on a very foggy day and the originals were very bleak and uninteresting. However, once I had put them through Photomatix and tweaked them to my liking they came out looking aesthetically pleasing, due to the range of colours and the detail within the picture. Nevertheless, what I do not like about HDR is the effect it can give on the sky as it looks overly surreal and strange. This is because it is trying to make something soft, sharp and personally I do not think it works.

It is relatively simple to create an HDR image. The software Photomatix makes it a lot easier than it looks. Firstly, you will need to have your bracketed images, these can either be done when shooting or in Camera Raw which can allow you to over and under expose by 4 stops each way. For this image I bracketed using Camera Raw. Once you have done all you want to the image in Camera Raw you will need to save it multiple times. First as the original expose, secondly, with an exposure 1 stop higher and finally 1 stop lower. I myself do far more than this and use Camera Raw to its full potential by saving nine images, four stops over exposed and four stops under and obviously the perfectly exposed picture.

After doing this you are ready to place the images into Photomatix by clicking on the 'Load Bracketed Photos' button. Then select the images, make sure that the 'E.V. Spacing' (found at the top of this box to the left) is set to whatever the stop spacing is between each image. For example, as mine were each had a one stop difference I set it to one.
When you have clicked this another box will appear. This box allows you to make a few minor changes to how your image will come out once it has been merged. It also allows you to remove the ghosts created by bracketing the images during the shoot. However, this is not completely effective so I tend to stick to using Camera Raw for bracketing.

Photomatix may take a while in processing your image, but when it is done you will have one of two options, either tweak each setting to create your desired effect, or choose from a list of presets as to what you think works best. Personally, I prefer to tweak the settings as you can doctor each element to fit it around what you want. Whereas, with the presets there is always something that does not really fit, not to mention the strong halos created by a large majority of them that truly make your image look terrible. How you can counteract getting halos in your image is by making sure the lighting adjustments dial is set to 0.0. 

There are two different processes of creating a HDR image in Photomatix. One being 'Tone Mapping' and the other 'Exposure Fusion'. What 'Tone Mapping' does it enhance the local contrast of the image, whereas 'Exposure Fusion' enhances the global contrast. The effect you get from 'Tone Mapping' is more focused on sharp, realistic images and 'Exposure Fusion' is heavily surreal and painting like. 

I like and use both depending on what effect and outcome I want my image to have. For this picture I used 'Tone Mapping' as it provided the greater effect. 

Before

After

Digital Black and White

Black and white photography is heavily used in documentary and photojournalism, as black and white portrays the harsh, gritty reality, because colour is associated with life and happiness but when that vibrance is taken away you are left with a contrast of emotions. When creating a black and white image it is key to be aware of how colours translate to shades of grey and you will need a really good tonal range in order to create a strong photograph. It is important to look for scenes with lots of detail and a good tonal range, like; buildings, people, clouds, woodland etc. With digital technology creating a black and white image is easy and fun, as you can create an image with a fine-art aesthetic. 

The key factors to remember when taking the images are, making sure you are working from a RAW. file, not to shoot in greyscale on the camera as the quality will be limited. You should always process the colour image first to its fullest potential and then convert it to black and white, making sure that it is slightly over saturated. 

To create a digital black and white image in Photoshop is very easy. Firstly, you begin with opening your photograph into Camera Raw, unless you are creating a HDR image to convert to black and white.

Once you have done all you can to the picture in Camera Raw, you then must open it in Photoshop. It is important that you do every little bit of editing to the photograph before converting it to black and white.

When you open it Photoshop you have to create a new layer and label it 'Black and White'.

The next step is to fill this layer with a grey colour. You do this by going to 'Edit' and then 'Fill'. Upon doing this a small square box will appear and under contents you need to select '50% grey'. When this is done a layer of grey will cover over your image, so to blend them in you need to select the 'Colour' blending option. 

From simply doing this you will most likely not create a stunning black and white image. However, with a couple more tweaks you can really add that little extra something to your picture. Saturating colours of the original image works really well, so by using the 'Selective Colour' tool you can alter each colour to make it stand out within your photograph. 

Another thing that you can do to increase the impact of your photograph is by adding a vignette. To do this you need to create a new layer and label it 'Vignette', then using the 'Elliptical Marquee Tool' create a oval shape covering the photograph yet leaving small gaps at each corner. Once you have done this you will need to invert it so that it is selecting the outskirts of the picture. 

After doing this you have to feather the selection in order for when you fill it with colour is will give a soft effect. You can find this tool by going to, 'Select', 'Modify' and then 'Feather'. In the box that will pop up after clicking this you will need to set it to 250 pixels (the highest setting). Then fill the selected area using the 'Paint Bucket Tool'. You may find that the vignette is too much so you can change this by either changing the opacity and fill or the blending modes. 

Another effect you can use to give your images a more authentic and vintage feel is film grain. In order to do this is by creating a new layer and, like how you made the black and white layer, fill it with '50% grey', then use the 'Overlay' blending option. To create the grain you will need to use a 'Filter' the filter you will use is under 'Noise' and is called 'Add Noise'. Once you have selected this it will come up with a box to which you decide how much grain you would like, you must make sure that you tick both the 'Gaussian' and 'Monochromatic' boxes. 

Landscape Photography Lecture

For this project we had a lecture on landscape photography that covered, the history, techniques and influential artists. I found this lecture very thought provoking towards my project, as it opened up my mind to other possibilities of how to capture, edit and present my photographs. The main thing from this lecture that caught my attention was the part about deadpan aesthetic. Deadpan is an important technique used by photojournalists in an attempt to retain credibility as witnesses to events. A picture with a deadpan aesthetic is a picture that has not been manipulated or staged and in as many words, is what it is, leaving the viewer to make their own assumptions and read into it how they please. 

I quite like this methodology and may use it for my work, as this project is based around photojournalism and telling a story with your images. After this lecture I decided to look further into work of photojournalists and landscape photographers. 

Two that grabbed my attention were Michael Kamber (a photojournalist) and Christopher O'Donnell (a landscape and coastal photographer).

Michael Kamber

Michael Kamber is a photojournalist who has covered conflicts in: Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, the Sudan, C'ote d'Ivoire and other countries. He has also worked for The New York Times and currently is attatched to the Baghdad Bureau of The New York Times. 

What inspired me about his work is how it is very hard hitting and almost pushing the barrier of too harrowing. Like most, if not all, photojournalists he adopts the deadpan aesthetic, yet the way in which he frames some of his images, like the one I have chosen as an example above, is quite spectacular. The image to the right emphasises how he pushes the barrier between acceptable and macabre. This sort of documentation of events is not regularly use and it is that which inspired me, because I wish to make my images as hard hitting and gruesome as possible without sugar coating it, as I feel the best way to gain someones attention is to present them with something new and shocking. 

Christopher O'Donnell 

Christopher O'Donnell is a landscape and coastal photographer who creates images of absolutely stunning natural beauty. He caught my attention, as he has his own specific style which he has created and adds to every picture. This inspired me to design my own style in my images to create, not only a strong consistency within my work, but beginning to improve myself as an artist.

Personally, I love Christopher O'Donnell's work as it captures this strong sense of beauty within it, as well as with giving it a vintage vibrant texture. Another trait of his work that I admired was his use of a central point of focus, like in this picture to the right where the wooden footpath draws your attention along the center of the photo into the middle and up to the top. He also uses this for the other photograph I used as an example by capturing the reflection of both cliffs he has created a central point of focus using the bright blue reflection given from the sky that, like the other photograph, leads your eye from the bottom of the photograph all the way to the middle where it disappears in the distance. 

I have grown rather fond of this technique and plan on using it in my photographs, even though his are of beauty and mine intend on lacking beauty, I still feel that the use of this will enhance my photographs impact. How I plan on using this in my own work is by, unlike O'Donnell's where the point of focus lightly leads you into the rest of the photograph, I plan on using it to force the viewers attention onto the part of the image I want the focus to be on. 

The Big Landscape Debate

Near the beginning of this project we were set a task of, in a groups, debating as to which image, out of two we were presented with, was the best to our own opinion. In this debate we looked at two contrasting images. One, a black and white picture of a peaceful untouched lake surrounded by woodland and a vibrant plant life and the other of what appears to be a baron, derelict hotel void of any life. The majority of the my group preferred the photograph of the hotel, as they believed it was more aesthetically pleasing and captured a greater range of emotions. Personally, I was torn between the two as I believed both had their own artistic traits that made them stand out. 

Firstly, this photograph in my eyes shows a wonderful hidden landscape that is stuck in the past untouched by mankind, where life has been able to flourish without any hindrance. I believe it creates a sense of peace and tranquility, as well as a surreal, unknown presence that makes you wonder what else surrounds this place.  However, I feel that the composition of this photograph is poor as there is no main point of focus and instead it looks rushed and not well thought out. Had there been a greater part of the image to really capture my attention and draw me further into the picture it, in my opinion, would have been a much greater photograph.

This image by Mathias Haker is very strong, punchy and artistic. It incorporates good composition, with a strong point of focus and the element of HDR to enhance the artistic nature of the photograph. What I like most about this picture is how, by using the rule of thirds, he has managed to draw the point of focus from the bottom of the image all the way to the top by using the pillars to dissect the photograph into the three. The emotions conveyed in this image are very solemn, with the decay and ruin that this once popular establishment has succumb to in its years of neglect and abandonment.

Nevertheless, this picture is not all doom and gloom, as at  both  the top and the bottom there is a glimmer of light, symbolising hope, especially so at the bottom of the image, as through the doors it looks almost like there is another functioning building there. In my opinion this implies that perhaps this once derelict building may see life once again.

All this a side I do feel that the picture is slightly over edited in the HDR process, making it look too hyper-real. I also feel that perhaps the shot could have been taken from further in, removing some of the unwanted space and homing in on the vast height of the staircase.

In conclusion, I believe that the photograph by Mathias Haker is the greater image, as it combines more photographic techniques and artistic style into it. Whereas, on the other hand, the other image is only intriguing due to how the landscape looks, not to mention the black and white giving it a greater sense of age and surrealism. However, in my opinion this is not enough in comparison to what the other photograph incorporates into it.