Work Record 1

Plans For Shoot:

In this shoot, I will be looking into Sky photography with Landscapes, using Masahisa Fukase as my influence. I will be going to a field to take my photos using a tripod and my Nikon D3500.

Research Influence:

Masahisa Fukase:

Masahisa Fukase was a Japanese photographer, who was renowned for his obsessive and intense photography. Masahisa Fukase was born in the town of Hokkaido, Japan, in 1934, the son of a successful local studio photographer.

The reason why I chose this photographer is because I like the harshness and darkness of his photos.When looking into how Fukase created his photos, especially his book called The Solitude of Ravens, I found the technique that inspired me for my editing, Burning and dodging. Even though Burning and dodging can be seen as a simple technique it can change a photograph dramatically.

It can also help negative space and the zone system, a technique used by Ansel Adams,my second influence.

Ansel Adams:

Ansel Adams was an american landscape photographer, best known for his black and white images of the American West.

Ansel Adams, along with Fred Archer, made the technique called the Zone System. It is an approach to a standardised way of working that guarantees a correct exposure in every situation, even in the trickiest lighting conditions such as back lighting, extreme difference between light and shadow areas of a scene.

This technique helped me know how I was going to later edit my photos as I hoped to use the Zone system throughout my work.

Contact Sheet:

Some of the photos in this shoot are from my preparatory shoots. They are circled above on the contact sheet.

Best Images:

Images that need improving:

A01: Demonstrate how your work is influenced by an artist you have researched.

My work has been influenced by both of the photographers researched. This is because burning and dodging was used in my edits below to create a Zone system. The technique of burning and dodging influenced me when I started to research Masahisa Fukase. This is because Fukase used the technique to create her photos of the ravens, due to them being hard to photograph. Ansel Adams has influenced me as I tried two capture as many tones from the Zone system as I could. Below is a screenshot of how I burned and dodged a picture and then the analysis of it to the zone system.


In the photo to the left you can see the inverted curves book with little black dots in it. The black dots are where I used burning and dodging in my edit.

A02: Demonstrate your ability to experiment and Review and refine your work as it develops.

Below are my settings for my best images, I think my choice in settings worked well. However, if I was to redo this shoot I would like to try to expand more on the depth of field, using higher f stops like 22.

Setting of best images:

One:

Shutter speed= 1/500
Aperture=f/6.3

Zoom=70mm

Two:

Shutter speed=1/500 
Aperture=f/8

Zoom=300mm

Three:

Shutter speed=1/500 
Aperture=f/8

Zoom=300mm

Four:

Shutter speed= 1/500
Aperture=f/11

Zoom=70mm

Five:

Shutter speed= 1/500
Aperture=f/11

Zoom=70mm

Editing:

To edit my photos i have first turned all of them into black and white. After this i selected the curve tool and look at how i could make the photos darker. In most cases, i then had to invert the curves to start burning and Dodging, due the curves making some parts of the image too dark or making them silhouette. After this i changed more things like the levels, contrasts and added a brighter curve to bring back some of the white patches. This can be seen in the screenshots below, where there is an original black and white version of the image and the difference after burning and dodging. 

Start image:

After the burning and dodging:

In this screenshot you can see where i am using burning and dodging with a bright curve to add small details of lightness on the trees. I did this in all of my images with trees in as a main aspect.

A03: Reflect critically on your work and progress.

I think my first shoot went well and captured my idea of a dark atmosphere with a powerful sky. I think i have made a great progress from my preparatory shoots and have created photos to my best ability. Over the time of this shoot and the editing process, you can see how my photos have improved and look a lot better. This shoot has linked to the exam paper as they can be connotated to show a 'drifting atmosphere sky' like Brain Eno

About my best images:

I believe my best images have produced the best connotations of a dark sky with power. This is because they present dark clouds. I have enhanced this through my editing by burning and dodging some parts of the clouds to look darker than others, making them fuller and more overpowering.

A04:

My A04 Is in an overall evaluation called 'Final Evaluation'

Final Edits: