A Walkthrough in Photography

Photography is the art of taking, creating and processing photographs in a way, which may or may not please the eye. Examples of photography include; Fine art, Landscape, Portraiture, Architecture, Photojournalism, Nature and wildlife etc...

Wildlife Photography

Wildlife photography takes great patience and luck. The images are of natural and live animals it means the photographer can't forge the light and or the positions of animal therefore making it a very hard to capture an exceptional photo.

Yet Andy Rouse (http://www.andyrouse.co.uk) is a famous well known wildlife photographer. In this striking image on the left a hippopotamus slowly emerges from the black which contrasts from the whites, greens and pinks making the colours leap out of the image. the lighting coming from the right hand side is ambient and natural. this means that Andy has had to have wait a long time in order for the light to sit in the correct position. He has taken this shot at this moment because the subject at this moment is looking almost directly at the lens and therefore making direct address. The photo has been composed with the rule of thirds as the subject sits to the left of the frame. The image has been framed/cropped to focus the attention towards the Hippo itself and most importantly the eyes. The colours saturation seems to be enhanced but not to heavily edited upon, as it still looks realistic but he has done this to make the colours 'pop'.

Unlike Andy Rouse, David Lloyd (http://davidlloyd.net) puts himself in a position to capture the photo rather than waiting for a moment to come to him. In this photo he put himself in a helicopter during the great migration to capture the wildebeest running across the African plane. With this photo David Lloyd would have to used a high shutter speed to make sure there is no motion blur as the wildebeest are running at a fast pace. he has composed his frame with the animals running from bottom left corner to top right hand corner and this diagonal lines create a sense of movement employing the technique of closure David has cleverly increased and simplified the sense of dynamic movement David Lloyd has opted to fill the whole frame with a large group of Wildebeest rather than a single wildebai he does this because it creates a sense of scale and motion. A birds eye view creates a sense of distance and scale from viewer to subject.

Wildlife photography would be used in wildlife magazines like National Geographic or Wild Planet photos. Wildlife photography can be used for both commercial and personal use as they can be sold to clients who can frame them in their house, or can be taken and framed by the same photographer. Wildlife photos may also be bought by companies to use in certain campaigns or just a background on a website or magazine.

Fashion photography

Fine Art photography

Fashion photography is not just a pose and 'click' it is far more than that. A number of different elements and planning is needed to make a good powerful image. A theme/story is normally used throughout the shoot to keep continuity. Other factors like, location, lighting, shapes, colours, movement and angles are used to make the shoot interesting.

Jan Welters is a exemplary demonstration of the use of different techniques to take his fashion photography to the next level. for example in this image motion is used, this is clear as the models hair is flowing in front of her face. He has done this to create a sense of movement and life within the image. The use of movement gives the photo a sense of life, by doing this it shows that the outfit can be used on a day to day basis. Ambient lighting and most likely a reflector or flash lighting was used to light up any areas which were a bit dark or underexposed and also helped the model standout from the large coat and background. The large flowing coat contrasts her legs as they are dark and bright colours which gives an immediate pop off the dark. The use of brown shades gives a strong dry theme plus the added white shirt makes the subject pop off the background. The photographer has opted for a low and canted angle which helps the model look tall and powering. He has opted for this stunning angle as it gives a different perspective as to what we would normally see on a normal day. Fashion Photography would be used to advertise clothes or accessorises and is majority used in the commercial industry as they are set up and directed by a director or client. Fashion photography is most commonly used in fashion magazines or online stores which are selling fashion clothes or accessories.

Camera Equipment

Whereas Jan Welters opts for shoots which are on a location Andrew Loighterton Takes his photos inside a studio, he does this because it is easier to control the lighting and advertise or show off clothing more effectively. Inside a studio however it would need to be a more abstract pose or piece of clothing, this is because viewing a person wearing normal work clothes on a plain background can be quite boring, therefore the use of body posture and colourful and abstract clothes allows the image to be more interesting to look at. For example in this shot jewellery and watches are being advertised. The model has made herself become very white almost to the point where she is fading in to the background, this has been done so the jewellery and watches stand out more clearly so then anyone can look at it and clearly see what is being advertised. The use of flash lights have been used here to make the jewellery stand out and also make the model seem very shiny and white. The photographer has opted for a straight portrait shot which can be boring at times due to lack of story and colour. Yet in this instance has worked well because of the angle and positions of the models hands and arms. The placement of the arms and diagonal sweep of the arms creates a sense of movement and story. It is clear that this image is trying to promote jewellery and watches and this is clear because the bright colours contrast with the pale skin. This image could be placed in a jewellery magazine or placed on a jewellery companies billboard,

Architectural photography

Architectural photography is the art of taking photos of buildings or infrastructure, yet its not always just a shot of the skyline on the horizon it can be very abstract in different ways.

Randy Scott Slavin is a New York based photographer who has created obscure architectural shots. Instead of just the usual empire

state photo looking up to the sky, Randy wanted to show the area around and he did this by integrating a 100 different shots all together to create one abstract interesting photo he has chose to take this abstract and dynamic photo because it differs from a lot of other architectural photos. As the sky is very clear and blue it would have taken a while for him to make sure the weather was right before he could take his photos. Also the ambient lighting is during golden hour giving the buildings around a gold glow. The golden hour is one of the most popular times for architectural photos to be taken because some of the time the sunlight can reflect off the buildings and give lens flare or there could also be contrast from the back and front of the building where the light does and doesn't shine. He choses to shoot during golden hour because there is a yellow sunset glow coming from behind the buildings on the right which makes the image quite aesthetically pleasing and giving it a artistic attitude. The other photo on the other hand takes a well known, times square and obscures it to make the photo interesting and eye catching. He choses to obscure it in such a way because it shows something so familiar to a large number of viewers and changes their perspective on it. The light here is ambient from the sun and also the light from the towers and their big advertising screens. The different colours contrast off of each other and were most likely edited to be brighter and more colourful. He has chosen to enhance the saturation because it gives emphasis on the buildings and their shape. Randy has composed his photo with four main buildings which run diagonally from each corner towards the centre which directs attention towards right to the middle of the photograph. This chosen viewpoint of the city gives the audience another abstract angle to the city. These images might be found in places like photographers portfolios and art exhibitions as they are very abstract and obscure. They wouldn't be shown at a housing agency as it isn't informative and would not be helpful to try and sell a property.

Michael Stewart an American architectural photographer who differs greatly compared to Randy Slavin. His images differ because of the simplicity to them, they are simple due to the still and motionless image. He has chosen to do this because it allows the audiences attention to focus on the building itself and not get distracted by any movement. Again here we can see that the shot has been taken in the golden hour due to the aesthetic gold glow coming from the building. By doing this he is contrasting the building from the blue sky behind and by doing so making the building very eye catching and scenic. Deep focus has been used because Micheal wants to keep a professional look about it. Quite often a bokeh background can indicate it is more indie photography. This would have been done by the use of a medium to small aperture which means there is less depth of field and therefore keeps everything is in focus. This would be shown in property agency images as it is a good representation of what the building looks like and a bit of the area around. The photographer might also do photography of an iconic structure which could be sold to the public.

Fine art photography is and can be very abstract and sometimes more like a painting than a photograph. It is usually more abstract and artistic compared to an industrial or promotion type of photography.

David Keochkerian likes to use infrared photography as a form of fine art photography. This is done by the use of filters and sometime even by converting a camera to only capture infrared light and not visible light. With a filter it can drop the f-stop a large amount meaning it would have to be a longish exposure time(1 second) which is why a majority of infrared photography is landscape and of still objects. This

image is very abstract as the trees are yellow and the colours are quite dull apart from the trees which contrast highly off of the grey shades of colour. The eye catching use of yellow trees takes the viewer away from the real world as un natural colours take the place of a normal green shade. Due to the quirky nature of this type of photography it gives a new and unseen perspective of our world. David has tried to achieve this because it is a different take on landscape photography which makes it art. Fine art photography like this would be used for personal use, exhibition use or galleries. This would be because it is abstract and quite different to the world around us and wouldn't be used in a professional business like area of work.

Ansel Adams was an American photographer who died in 1984 at the age of 82 meaning his photos were all taken with film cameras and is also why all his photos are in black and white. He did a lot of landscape photos but also took fine art photos as well. This photo highlights the detail in flowers and wood. Ansel is trying to emit a intricate feel as there are many layers of wood and petals of the rose.

By placing the rose to the right hand side of the frame he is using the rule of thirds and more specifically the right power line. He has done this because the rose is the most striking object in the frame. The driftwood behind has many interesting layers which help contrast and compliment the rose and its simplistic petals. He has chosen these two opposites because it helps show diversity in nature. The black and white or monochrome shades makes it seem more artistic and simple because with black and white the shapes and textures are more visible and dominant. Ansel has chosen to do this because colours can sometimes get distracting and overwhelming so keeping it simple and monochromic gives off a real interesting mood. Ansel Adams photos are up for sale on his website as he was a professional photographer who specialised himself with fine art photography. Back in the day when he would have been selling or making a living from his photos, he would display them in galleries and art shows to sell to customers who liked his work.

There is a large variety of cameras and equipment and it is important to know the differences and perks of lenses and cameras. First off there are a number of big camera brands but the biggest most commonly known and used brands are Canon and Nikon these two brands are most commonly used by professional photographers.

Camera- A camera is basically a box which captures and records light, wether it being a digital or film camera it basically does the same thing. It is obviously used for the actual capturing of light and producing the image itself. So in this diagram we can see that the light comes in through the lens (which will be further explained in a bit) and gets bounced around on mirrors till it gets to the eye piece. now once the button has been clicked which takes the photo the mirror flips up and the shutter opens, this allows light to hit the film or sensor and it then records the light and turns it into a photograph. Nowadays most

cameras shoot digitally and in megapixels. The more megapixels a camera has the

more details are captured within the image. For example a Canon 5d mkiv is the latest

flagship camera that canon have realised and it shoots with a 30megapixel sensor

which is good but if the job is to print on massive billboards then once the image is

scaled up it would start to lose detail and would not be sharp. therefore the

photographer would want to use a Hasselblad or Phase One which are 100mp

cameras. these cameras are super sharp and can be scaled up 100x and not lose any

data at all. So depending on the job determines the camera needed.

Lenses- A lens is probably far more important as in the way the image will look

compared to the camera. This is because it changes the focal length depending on the

size of the lens. If the lens is an 11mm lens that means the image is very wide but can

give a larger depth of field. But if it is a 500mm lens then it is very narrow and the

object has to be a lot further away. likewise with cameras depending on the job determines the lens which would be needed on the shoot. For example if the shot plan was to shoot a group of people then it would be advised to choose a wide lens, like a 10-30mm lens which could capture a lot in one shot. Whereas sport photography on the other hand would need a lens to get up close to the action and this would be something like a 100-200mm lens to ensure that the players on the field are singled out and up close to the action.