Shoot 3-Doors and arches; Straight Images

Editing Technique:

Due to me wanting as closely related images as possible, I have decided that throughout my shoots I will be using the same style of editing on the images in which I shoot (obviously the second shoot editing has varied a little). So to display work similar to the work of photographers who have influenced my work, including Bernd and Hilla Becher, the main source of editing will be putting all of my photos in black and white.

This is because I find this most successful in complying with my work. I am doing manufactured structures but incorporating it with the historic aspect of Waltham Abbey. I believe if I were to leave them in colour, the images appear too new and to me that created an irony which I didn't want to include- I was focusing on history but adding the modern day using of colour technology.

Furthermore, much like the other shoots, the other style of editing I have used to edit the following images is the use of curves so that my final products have contrast and are not "flat" but have contrast.

As already mentioned, the final series of images in which I intend to capture is a head on composition which some images did not so I used the editing tool of cropping to readjust the alinement.

Camera Settings:

Focal Length: when completing this shoot, I didn't find that it was necessary for me to have the same focal length for each image because the aspects in which I was focusing on were all different sizes so I would have to change the focal length to adjust it depending on each structure.

F.Stop and ISO: Much like the other shoots, I kept the f.stop and ISO the same this is so that my final images would be as similar as possible. My reason behind these particular settings is that I wanted a long enough ISO so that I have a smooth and clear image and a low F.stop.

Shutter speed: As I was keeping my ISO and F.stop the same to help the images suit the lighting of the different changing weather, I changed the shutter speed, if there was more light I needed a faster shutter speed this is so not as much light is exposed to the lens.

Shoot 2- Old VS New; Straight Images

Editing Technique:

To edit the following images, I put both the old and new images on one document and changed one of the opacity of the images so that I could see both of the photos on the image.

This is what the image looked together once I lowered the opacity. This enabled me to aline the images properly as even though I was able to get a round about the same image, I would have been able to capture the exact same dimensions to the same pixel, therefore this was useful to create similar images.

I then double the canvas size so I was able to place them side by side.

Once both of the old and new images were next to each other, I changed the whole image black and white, this is because some of the old images were in a yellow sepia tone and I wanted all the images to be the same, therefore I decided to make the whole photo black and white.

Shoot 1- Shop Fronts; Straight Images

Editing technique:

As I want to create a cohesive series of images, I wanted all the editing to be the same, thus helping the similarities of the images come through to my audience. 

Firstly, as I am focusing on the historic aspect of Waltham Abbey buildings, I thought the main way of editing should be black and white. This is because this helps my work conformed to the work of artists such as Lewis Baltz who's work helped influence my project.

Then to help create depth within my images, I used curves. This is because on certain images, I found without curves they looks like flat and plain. I didn't use the curves drastically because I didn't want to have a high/ strong contrast with the images in my work.

Furthermore, as I am shooting these series with the aim of a head on composition, I want them to be "straight" and "neat", however when editing I found not all of them were like this so I used the cropping tool and slightly adjusted the angle of the photo to make it straighter.

When going around Waltham Abbey I came across this small Florists which was down one of the small side alleys and I thought it was really intriguing due to the vintage aesthetic the appearance of the building has. This is because I believe it very successfully highlights the how Waltham Abbey is such as small town because many people know each other and even though florists are losing business to supermarkets because flowers are much cheaper there, if this were close down it was mean too much to people within the town. 

For this image, I found it quite hard to get the same composition as I did in the other images shown in this blog, this is because there was a pole behind me and a bench next to me so I was unable to gain a head on effect. However the reason I still wanted to edit it and put it on my straight images is because of the context behind this image. I think it is really symbolic and interesting to highlight to my audience how all these buildings on sun street are listed and they cannot be changed in any way on the outside, although what is contained within is a different story. With this building alone, I know it has been a variety of different businesses and I think it just shows how even though the outside of a building may appear really old and run down the inside can be so much newer- this symbolism can therefore show how my work is personifying the structures that I have captured, giving them human symbolic nature.

Camera settings: 

Focal length: across this shoot I wanted to try and use the same/ similar camera settings because I found that the wider my focal length was the more distorted the image became, it would become like a fish eye lens and curve the building. This is an effect in which I did not want for my work because I wanted the lines to clear cut and straight- parallel to each other. Although as you can see from the camera settings I have placed below each image, there were some anomalies as not all the images has low focal lengths, this was because that on certain buildings, they were too wide to actually include the whole building in one frame, along in this case I believe it did work quite well; it didn't distort this image.

In order to gain as similar images as possible, I ensured that I kept both the ISO and the F. stop the same. Although I couldn't keep every camera setting the same because of the weather- I relied on changing the shutter speed to fit the natural lighting better.