Final Images & Evaluation

Time to display my final images ...... the results of 16 weeks hard work and good fun!  I started out not knowing how to use my camera properly, always stuck on auto.  I've always had a passion for photography and have owned a camera from being a teenager.  I took the plunge and bought an entry level dslr about a year ago in the form of a Sony A290, it takes great quality images but I didn't know what I was doing with it.  I've learned so much during this course and my camera is now always set to manual.  I get a real sense of satisfaction knowing how to set the aperture and shutter speed correctly without having to rely on auto.

I've always been drawn to landscape photography and so chose this as my 'subject' carrying out research into different landscape photographers has been very interesting, if i'm totally honest I wasn't really aware of any of them, apart from Ansel Adams.  The photographer that has most inspired me is Fay Godwin, I've said in a previous most that I like her story and everything she stood for.  Many of her images had a bleakness to them and I feel that my images also have a similar feel.  I'm drawn to images that you can get lost in, or feel like you can just walk to and be there, part of the landscape ......

My initial theme was 'water' and I had grand plans to photograph at all times of the day in many different scenarios, waterfalls at sunset, the sea at dawn etc. however, I often found myself disappointed with results of any photo shoot featuring water and with time at a premium I hadn't fully considered how this was going to happen!  My shoots were always planned carefully, locations researched, equipment well prepared, but you can't plan for the weather and I often found that as I was heading out with my camera the sun would disappear only to give way to a dull sky with little or no cloud to make it interesting .... just grey.  I did consider changing my theme to 'dull' but quickly dismissed this!

While reviewing some images I had taken on a trip to North Yorkshire I felt very strongly that they should form part of my final 6, the colours were so vibrant and striking and I was really drawn to them and also the sense of isolation really appeals to me so my new theme is 'in the middle of nowhere'

My final images are as follows:

I'm very pleased with my final selection.  When I compare my early shoots with the final images the difference is huge, not only have I learned how to use my camera but I think my 'eye' has also developed as the course has progressed. 

This course has confirmed my passion for landscape photography and I'm looking forward to developing my skills further. 

It's been hard work at times and a struggle to fit in amongst everything else that working full-time and general life throws at you but it's also been great fun, i've had the pleasure of getting to know some great people and benefited from some inspirational teaching! 

What's not to like?



Manipulated Images - Fantasy Landscapes

We were tasked to create 4 fantasy landscapes to complete the maniuplated images section of the course.  Having never used photoshop previously I found this quite a challenge, I am pleased with my final images but it took a while to get there.  I have worked through several themes and cast each one aside as I failed to produce anything even remotely satisfying!  I started off with an idea based on open doors or door-ways which would show a different landscape as you looked through the door compared to the one on 'this side' of the door.  This was really early in the course and I got frustrated with my lack of expertise with Photoshop and decided I couldn't do it so moved on ..... Another idea was to use high street scenes and replace the street with a river, woodland etc. so for example it would appear that the shops were sitting right on the edge of the river and the river would become the 'high street', I persevered with this one for a while as I really liked the idea but couldn't quite make the river look like it belonged, it was too obvious and so it was time for something else! 

Right from the beginning I have loved the effect of multiplying layers and changing the opacity to give the best effect, one of my early posts shows two examples of this and so I decided to go with this and see what I could come up with, two of my final images are below:

This is the result of combining the top two images, I did this by creating a duplicate layer of each image, then dragging one image on top of the other, multiplying the layers and adjusting the opacity to give the best effect.  I love this, you really have to look twice and i'm not sure you'd even know that was a river
if you hadn't seen the original images.

As with the first image, this is the result of combining the top two images, I did this by creating a duplicate layer of each image, then dragging one image on top of the other, multiplying the layers and adjusting the opacity to give the best effect.  This is my favourite, out of all 4 manipulated images I think this works the best, I really love the shadow of the trees against the buildings and the carpet of leaves on the road

Although I love the effect of multiplying layers I wanted to show a different technique with the next two.

Using the woodland scene from the first two images, I created a duplicate layer of each image and using the magnetic lasso I copied the right hand side of the building and pavement and pasted it into onto the woodland scene, i then used free transform to adjust the size, when that was done I copied it and used the free transform again to 'flip' the image by dragging the cursor to the centre and through to the other side.  Once happy with the positionng, I used the blur tool to soften the edges. 
I'm very pleased with the result, it's kind of surreal ..... yet not. :-)

 

                             

 

Using the woodland scene from the first two images, I created a duplicate layer of each image and using the magnetic lasso I copied the left hand side of the fence and pasted it into onto the woodland scene, using the same technques as with the previous image, I then used free transform to adjust the size, when that was done I copied it and used the free transform again to 'flip' the image by dragging the cursor to the centre and through to the other side.  Once happy with the positionng, I used the blur tool to soften the edges. 
It's not my favourite image out of the four but I think it works well



As you can see, my 'theme' is the woodland scene that I have used as a basis for each image.  I have really enjoyed this section of the course and could happily spend many hours experimenting with photoshop and creating any number of manipulated images.  Although I know that i've only scratched the surface with photoshop I feel like I have learned an awful lot and look forward to learning more.