Long Exposure Light Trails

Experimentation with Long Exposure - Light Trails 

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The photograph above shows my experimental piece using long exposure light trails. In order to capture light trails, I used LED battery operated lights, and waved them in front of my Canon 1200D, set to a long exposure time of 25 seconds, a low ISO of 400, and a focal length 18mm. A flash was not needed, otherwise this could over-expose the image. The image was taken at around 9pm, I believe this was a good time to photograph, because not only have I got an interesting and complex patterns within the light trails, I have also captured a beautiful orange sunset. I believe the use of two colored lights (Green and Purple) works well, especially the neon green, which are eyes are instantly drawn to. Because this photograph is my favorite, I decided to edit it in Photoshop, by increasing the saturation, hence why both the sky and light trails are vibrant. This was inspired by Andrew Whyte's 'The smile that lights the night' (shown below) as I have used the technique of long exposure to capture light trails. 

Title - 'The Smile that lights the night'
Media - Long Exposure Photograph
Date - 2013
Photographer - Andrew Whyte

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I believe the light trails in photograph 2 have worked well, this time I decided to use just one set of blue LED lights, I did this because orange and blue are complementary colours, so the blue lights work well with the orange sky. Although the light trails are good, unfortunately I made the mistake of moving the lights behind me at the start, this can be seen on the right 

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Unit 2 Relationships - Final Piece - Initial Ideas & Final Piece Evaluation

Initial Ideas for my Final Piece

'Relationships Within Nature'

Unit 2 - Relationships - Keynote Presentation in my Documents 
I have decided that for my final piece I want to create something that presents a series of photographs that I have taken throughout Unit 2. I will not be using my best edit from shoot 1 as although it strongly relates to Jelle Martens work, and my theme of Relationships within Nature, it would look out of place alongside my other photographs. The images I want to use for my final piece are displayed below...
The Final Piece consists of 5 photographs, all 5 are Fast Motion Photography shots, Three are taken from Shoot 2 - 'Capturing the Rain' and two are from Shoot 3 - Wildlife Photography. 

Displaying my Final Piece

My Final Piece will be displayed as a row of these 5 photographs, the photos will be connect horizontally in a zig zag shape, the photos will go in the order shown above, connect by a black board. 

Final Piece Evaluation 

My aim at the beginning of Unit 2, was portray the Relationships within Nature, I believe I have been successful in showing this, I have shown a range of relationships, from animals and their environment, to plants and the weather, and also in shoots 1 and 4, I have shown some impacts that we have on Nature. 

You can clearly see my influences throughout Unit 2, although my Final Piece concentrates mainly on David Lloyds Wildlife Photography, and his use of a Short Depth of Field, I have used a short depth of field in all of my photos in my final piece, and have also used fast shutter speeds, to freeze movement, similar to what David Lloyd does in his Safari Photography. You can also see that David Lloyds work has influenced me in my Final Piece as the images show how beautiful nature is.

I have sustained my Artist research throughout Unit 2, I've been constantly referring to the techniques used by my artists, and posting images which relate to my work, whether it be through the technique used, or the content of the image.

My experimentation has been clearly documented, as I have shown a range of successful and less successful images. Overall this Unit has been successful, I've used a wide range of techniques, including Fast Motion and Macro, I have also experimented with different lenses such as 50mm, 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses, I have also used Neutral Density Filters, but looking back, I wish I had experimented with Polarised Filters, so this would be something I would consider, if I was to redo this Unit. 

Unit 2 Relationships - Using Different Lenses and Techniques

Throughout Unit 2 I have used the same camera, the Canon 1200D, but I have used a wide range of different lenses, including the one shown in the photograph below, I used this for many shoots but mainly shoot 3, my Wildlife shoot, this lens is a Canon 75-300mm lens, and gives a great depth of field when fully zoomed, as you can see by my images from this shoot. 

When conducting my wildlife shoot I used I tripod, which I set up in my garden, and also some bird seed to attract any animals, I left the bird seed there for a couple of days before starting the shoot, so the birds would get use to it, I set the camera to 1/4000, the highest shutter speed.

Advantages of my method

• Using the 75-300mm lens meant I could zoom in and get close up shots of the wildlife.
• Using a tripod made it easier to take clear photographs as the further the lens is zoomed out, the unstabler it gets.
• Using the 75-300mm lens enabled me to get great short depth of field.

Disadvantages of my method

• Although I wasn't up close to the wildlife, the Canon 1200D has a loud shutter, which meant you only really had one shot at getting the picture right for each animal.
• Using manual focus meant I spent a lot of time trying to focus the camera, and some of the birds were too quick for me to capture.
• The lens did not have image stabilisation so unfortunately some of the images came out a little blurry, meaning it took longer to get a good shot.  

Unit 2 Relationships - Shoot 6 - Capturing the Wind, Rain, Sun and Rainbows

'Capturing the Weather' - Extension Shoot from Shoot 2 
I really enjoyed shoot 2, where I tired to capture Rain, so I've decided to revisit this topic of Natural Weather in shoot 5. In shoot 6 I will not just be looking at Rain, but will also be looking at Sun, Rainbows and Wind. Although this topic does relate to both David Lloyd and Jelle Martens, I will be concentrating mainly on techniques and experimenting with these techniques, as I feel like showing a range of techniques of for this shoot. I have devided this page into weather conditions and the techniques I've used to capture these weather conditions.

In this shoot, I will be experimenting with colours in Photoshop, for the two photographs below, I decided to see whether they would work as well in Black and White, and see what effect Black and White has on the water droplets.
Capturing the Rain...

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Image 1 and Image 2 both show the detail of the water droplets, in order to create water droplets, I used a standard spray bottle, filled it with water, and simply sprayed the plant, I sprayed from a distance to create small droplet, which did not run, like you can see on these images. I used a 50mm Lens to take these two pictures.

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Capturing the Rain - Edits

I changed the image from Colour to Black and White using Photoshop, although the coloured version shows nature in a more beautiful light, the Black and White image is more dramatic and feels like it has more meaning behind it.

Capturing a Rainbow... 

Capturing a rainbow was on of the hardest things to do throughout this whole unit, I had to experiment a lot, and here are the outcomes below. Although they are not the best in terms of professional photographs, I did reach my goal of capturing a rainbow. Look closely at image three, you may see a hose pipe at the bottom, this is how I created the rainbow, I changed the hose pipes function to spray, and placed it in a small tree. As you can see, I chose a very sunny day for this, as without the sun or a bright light source, I would not have been able to create this. Initially I started off by walking around it, with a 18-55mm lens connected to my camera, I thought it would be better to take these pictures with a fast shutter speed, however, when I tried this, the images came out very similar to those in shoot 2. I then experimented, using slower shutter speeds, but the images came out over exposed because it was so bright outside, so I decided to use a Neutral Density Filter, this darkens the image, so you can take long exposure shots in the daytime.

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Image 4 shows my best photograph from the mini Rainbow shoot, In this photograph I changed the lens to a 75-300mm lens, as I found I got better photos by zooming in further, If you look closely into the rainbow, you may see lines, this is because I used long exposure, so the waters movement has left a path, where it has fallen. Overall I think this shoot worked as I was able to reach my aim, of capturing a rainbow.

Capturing the Wind...

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I have been successful in this shoot at capturing the movement of the wind, all of the images worked well, but the palm trees do appear to of captured the wind more, the only disappointment with these photographs some dust which has collected on either the Lens, ND Filter or Sensor without me realising it, if you look towards the centre of the image, you may see two small dots, this is dust, I could edit these out on Photoshop, this is something I would do if it was one of my Final Pieces, but I've left it in to explain why its happened. If I  was to redo this mini shoot, then I would ensure the lenses and sensor is cleaned.

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For my 'Capturing the wind' mini shoot I set my Camera up on a tripod, once again I used the Canon 75-300mm Zoom lens for these photos, as I did with the Rainbow, I also used a Neutral Density Filter, this enabled me to take long exposure photographs in day time, I set the camera to have a shutter speed of 2", giving the camera enough time to capture the wind. The inspiration for this was one of David Lloyds safari pictures, (see below), where he captures the movement of Wildebeest, to me, it looks like he has used a technique called panning, where you set your camera to have a slow shutter speed, and follow the movement of an object, so the subject is in focus, but the background is completely blurred, this would explain why the wildebeest are in focus, and the background is not. Like me, he would probably also of used a ND filter for this photo, as to stop it becoming over exposed.   

'Wildebeest Marching'
'Great Migration Safari'
David Lloyd
Taken in 2014

Capturing the Sun

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Black and White Edit

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Unit 2 Relationships - Shoot 5 - Landscape Photography Relating to both Artists

For shoot 5, I decided to try landscape photography, although it does not directly relate to either of my artists work, both artists follow the theme of nature, but this shoot probably relates to Jelle Martens work more, as he does tend to use landscape photography in his work. For this shoot I decided to visit Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door, although it was a cloudy day to begin with, the photographs turned out well, and I believe it was a successful shoot.

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Photograph 1 is one of my favorite photographs from this shoot, what really makes this image stand out is the vibrant blue and green colours of the rope along with the black, against a soft blurry background. 

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Photography 2 was not as successful because I was using automatic focus, so the camera focused on the lobster traps, instead of the landscape, you could argue that this works well too, as the picture then uses the rule of thirds, with the traps at the bottom left hand corner.

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I took photographs like pictures 4 and 6 incase I wanted to recreate Jelle Martens work again, the texture and shapes of the rock make the image really interesting, as it makes the viewer try and visualise what the image is, here i used a Canon 1200D with a 18-55mm Lens attached, I zoomed into on these steps, so they filled the picture, and i think the chalk grey and dust brown colours along side the hint of green grass in the image works really well. I wanted to change this photo into Sepia, as i think this will make the image more interesting, and give it an old look. (See this Edit at the bottom of this post)

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Image 7 could be seen as one of the least interesting photos from this shoot, as the sky is a dull grey, and matches the colours of the sea, which doesn't make the photo as interesting, this photograph may of worked if the it was a sunny day with blue skies and a few white clouds.

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Image 10 is another one of my favourites from this shoot, once again I tried to use the rule of thirds, which is why the cliff is to the left hand side, I like the way the water looks soft and calm, and the colour of the water near the rocks positioned in the centre of the image makes the picture feel very calming.

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In photograph 12, I should of used a polarised filter, as the sky is a little over exposed, the polarised filter would of darkened the sky and shown the clouds more dramatically.

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Although picture 14 isn't the most exciting picture, one thing that does work well is the tonal variation along the beach.

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Photography 15 is one of the least successful, the sun was positioned behind the arch so it was hard to get the rocks clearly without over exposing the image, I tried many different ways, increasing the ISO did not work as this only over exposed the image, as did the changing of the shutter speed, I decreased the shutter speed, and this made both the sea and the sky bright white, I also tried using a Neutral Density Filter, but this had no effect either.

How would I improve this shoot?

If I was to redo this shoot, in order for me to improve I would use a tripod, as this would enable me to improve the composition, I would also think about using a Polarised filter for photos 5,9,10,13 and 14, polarised filters work by giving more depth to skies, so they become darker, and clouds become clearer, they also eliminate reflections so the water becomes clearer and also more vibrant, so Polarised filters would be something interesting to experiment with if If i was to go back and redo this shoot. 

Image 4 - Edited 

Changing Image 4 to have a sepia filter wasn't as successful as I'd hoped it would be, I prefer the original to the edited, because this seems to of lost the contrast between the brown/grey with the green of the grass.  
How does this shoot relate to my Artists?
This shoot relates to both of my Artists, firstly the Natural theme within the images relates to the natural theme which also runs through David Lloyds work, although he does not take Landscape shots, this shoot also relates to Jelle Martens work, specifically photographs 4 and 6, as Jelle Martens looks at different textures in his work, and I've taken 2 photographs showing different textures of rock.

Unit 2 Relationships - Shoot 4 - Animals in Captivity - Inspiration David Lloyd

Influences

Lioness Eye
David Lloyd
February 2015

Red Fox
David Lloyd
2008

The influences for this shoot are shown above, here I am looking at Davids Lloyds wildlife photography, concentrating on his use of depth of field and also how he captures animals eyes, to make the image have more dramatics and more meaning.
For shoot 4 I wanted to look at Humans Relationships with Wild Animals, so over the Easter Holidays I visited Monkey World in Dorset, a Ape Rescue Centre, I wanted to try and capture human relationships with animals. In this shoot I used a Canon 1200D, with a 75-300mm lens connected, I decided to use this lens because I wanted to get close up to the animals, and capture their facial expressions, to make the viewer of my photos think about how these animals have been treated in the past. I found that when using the 75-300mm lens, the outcome was a sharp foreground and a very soft blurry background, this is shown mostly in image 7. I had the challenge of chain link fences, which made taking photographs quite hard, likewise reflections in windows and smudge marks on glass. Here are the images from this shoot, which was also inspired by David Lloyd...

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Despite the mesh in front of the monkey in this image, I believe this adds to the message, the monkeys eyes are looking out of the mesh, the way his eyes are separated by the mesh adds to the message that he's been kept in captivity, I think it works well as the mesh in the bottom left hand corner is blurred, but the top right is in focus, with the whole of the monkey in focus also.

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As you can see in Image 4, I had trouble getting a nice clear image with the mesh fencing, I tried my hardest to eliminate this from the photo as much as possible, by zooming in further, I would say this is one of the weakest images from this shoot as its hard to see the subject i'm trying to take a photo of, instead your eyes are instantly drawn towards the blurry fence.

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Photograph 7 was one of my most successful photos on this shoot, although I was taking this photo through the fence, I managed to zoom in enough so you can hardly see it obstructing the photograph, I really like the depth of field in this picture, as the background is so blurred, its hard to see that the monkey is in an enclosure. I believe this is an interesting photograph because of the monkey's facial expression, and the way he is almost looking away from the camera, suggests he has a troubled past, which most of the monkeys have at Monkey World

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