A scenic look

As well as looking at portraiture I also saw some good opportunites to take some slightly scenic, perhaps 'snappy toursit' type images.


This image was taken of a road next to the thames as we were walking over the bridge. I think the sense of direction in this image is prominant and seems to add some dynamic to the picture as it leads the eye.

This image is a classic 'down the Thames' type image however the blue of the sky and even the white railing running along the bottom adds a little more to the image.

Further expansion on covent garden

I changed the image of the man and his cat into black and white because I think it made it slightly more effective. It highlights different parts of the image, being black and white.

I also put two images together to see if they would fit well next to one another. I think they both outline some of the poverty yet christmas spirit that is all around.

I changed both the images to black and white and put them together and I think they both sit together well and they are effective. With the men both wearing santa hats and wearing coats it makes the image seem like they could be anyone, or even the same man. I really liked the idea of pairing similar images together as it makes more of a story within the images.

Covent Garden bystanders

I went on a trip to London and these images were taken in Covent Garden of some of the people that work on the market stalls and just generally 'hang around' in the area.

This man works on the brick a brack stall, I approached him asking for his picture and he was very apprehensive at first. In total I took about 6 photos of him to get the right image and this one I turned black and white in photoshop. I think it shows him in a very good light however he still seems very nervous.

This lady was fundraising for NSPCC outside the Marks and Spencer's. She again didn't really want her picture taken so I made a hefty donation of 50p and she accepted my proposition. She has got into character in the image and she looks very enthusiastic.

This image is one of my favourites and was the hardest to take. Many people were flocking around to see the cat do it's 'tricks' so many people got in the way of initial pictures however after some pushing in front I caught his attention and he freely gave me an image. This picture does outline some of the poverty around the area as this man was begging for money but he fully got into the Christmas spirit and told me about his 'twitter page'. I have edited this image in a number of different ways to get the full spirit but also emotion behind it. I changed it to black and white and for this image I changed the contrasted and also used the curve tool on photoshop to accentuate some of the red.

This lady ran a teddy bear stall. She was very up for having her picture taken but only with her teddies.

This was a completely random image, I was walking past the Starbucks and saw this man in the window, he was looking out and then started waving and luckily I captured this quickly!! The style of the image is very amusing and the smile on the mans face creates a pleasant feel to the image however the concentration on the face of the man sitting slightly behind does give a sense of detatchment in the iamges.

This image was taken on the walk to Covent Garden. I first started taking pictures and was going to take one of my friend however she turned away too quickly for me to get an image of her. I think the effect of the hair 'whipping' adds movement to the photo. It also creates a sense of the pace that is London.

Research for christmas images.

I am going to London soon and I think this will be a great opportunity to capture some really great images. The London feel will be different to anywhere else and I think this will ensure I get a vast array of images. I have researched Covent Garden which is one of the main places we are going on the trip to see what sort of images have already been captured. I was trying to see if many portraits had been taken of the people around Covent garden as this would fit perfectly into my portrait theme. I searched through many google searches and tried to see if there were any images taken of the Covent Garden scene but I found it very hard to find much other than of larger groups of people.

A christmas feel

As its Christmas I decided that I could incorporate this into my project of portraiture.

I did some research of looking into chrsitmas images however when i was searching I only found very stereotypical christmas portraits that were not very different to the rest.

I used the studio in class to shoot some images using some blue fairy lights. The studio set up was the same background as the hairspray shoot however I did not have the extra lighting as I did before. This meant that I had to decided how to ensure the model was illuminated.
 The idea behind the shoot was the stereotypical Christmas style of happy people in a festive state. I wanted the lights draped over the model to create a feeling of perhaps wealth and wholeness.

This first image is a darker image that still illuminates her body outline and the smile on her face. I think the image is effective as the look makes the model seem rich and wealthy. However the fact that the face is covered makes the image more universal as it could be anyone. I did slightly lighten the image to ensure some of the light was more available.

This image is a lot more fun and the movement in the light really makes the image have some more dynamics to it, in that I think the eye is taken all around the image and not stuck in one particular place for too long.

I next got my model to lay down and I think this made the image slightly more effective. I am trying to mae my images more commercial as that is the side of photography I am leaning towards and this photograph begins to look at different positions for the model to lie in and how the use of the fur coat changes the outlook on the images.

This final image is the most 'fashion' type of them all. I tried to use the model to make the image slightly more emotive and to create a style that seemed to fit in with everyday fashion photographs. I again slightly lightened the image to make the face more visible. I also used the hands to add more dynamic to the image to show a broader body rather than just a head shot.