Enrichment: Brighton

Here is a short summary on our visit to Brighton Art Gallery, we observed the photographs that had documented Brighton from the early 1900's until the present.  

Firstly I found the use of film very interesting, as there is a certain depth and character with film that you cannot achieve with using digital cameras. Furthermore I found the quirkiness of the image very inspiring. For example images depicting a group of men lined up next to their penny farthings, which today seems ridiculous, but the effect from that era is extremely effective today. I also found the representation of Brighton from another persons viewpoint very interesting, as people from the early fifties and onwards would see Brighton differently to the way people do now, which is reflected in their photography.

The exhibition used many interesting ways of presenting images, one way was by mounting cut out circles of  images of Brighton sky and mounting them on clear plastic perspex. Another way they presented images was once again by cropping other images of people, protests into circles and mounting them in small circular frames. This set of about eight different images all had a different coloured frame, the colours of these frames represent the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement. These colours appear on the rainbow flag which represents diversity, which is extremely important and apparent in Brighton's culture.

Below is my final outcome to this shoot. Firstly I chose this image because it represents a very stereotypical image of the seaside. However I believe that this image is more nostalgic than stereotypical and represents a much earlier decade. To achieve this effect I edited the image to make it look much older and more like it had been taken on a film camera.

 I did this by editing the curves slightly, to bring out the reds and the greens. I then desaturated the whole image, this takes out some of the colour adding a much more dated look. Next I added a filter which creates noise, which basically gives the photo a grainy effect that would normally have been achieved with a film camera by using film of around ISO 800. Finally I edited the levels to bring out the contrasts and make this image much more powerful. When shooting this image I used a shutter speed of around 1/30 to capture the movement of the object and managed to avoid camera shake, even though I wasn't using a tripod. Overall I am happy with the final outcomes of this shoot and I believe it represents and reflects Brighton and has clearly been inspired by the photographs displayed at the Brighton Art Gallery I visited.

"Fresh and Wild" Second Shoot
This is my selection of my best photos from my second shoot, for this shoot I went to the seafront, the lighting was quite good but there was enough cloud cover for me to get away with not using a polarising filter.  Once again I used a wide angle lens to capture the most out the landscape I was using.

This is my first image, I am very happy with this shot, I believe that it is successful due to the intensity of the colours and the dark contrasts. Furthermore I managed to capture the movement of the sea as it exposes the beach underneath, this adds another dimension to the water, which also reflects the dark sky.  This image is also successful because of the concrete arm, this helps keep the image interesting whilst also helping add more perspective to the overall picture. However I believe that this image is a bit too top-heavy, for example there is too much sky in the image which makes it seem unbalanced.

This is my second most successful shot from my second shoot. This shot is a lot more centred and balanced than the first yet lacks in drama compared to the first. However this shot is still successful as the concrete arm in this image leads into the centre of the image which is the where most of the impact will come from, the contrasts in colours, textures and overall perspective.

This is my most successful shot from my second shoot. This image captures the drama of the weather and the sea which creates an intense atmosphere. I am also extremely happy with the contrasts of textures that are captured within this image, for example, the texture of the pebbles, the water and the clouds overhead. I'm also happy with this image because of the different orientation compared to my other two shots. Being landscape it lends itself to the the wide angle lens and makes everything draw towards the centre of the image. Overall, everything combines to create a dramatic and atmospheric image.

I am extremely happy with this shoot, I believe that I have improved what I was unhappy with in the first shoot and used the equipment I have to the best of its ability. I also learnt a lot from these shoots which I can use to create better images in the future.