A Reel Slice Productions

PHOTOJOURNALISM

&

TECHNICAL PRACTICE

THE INDIVIDUALS

I took two trips to Portsmouth for my photojournalism essay, using both the 550D and 650D Canon SLR cameras to shoot my photos. On my first trip, I wasn't exactly sure as to what my essay was going to be about, so I took photos of things that interested and caught my eye. After reviewing the first days photos, I came to realise that my most interesting shots were of people who stood out in the crowd to me. Therefore, on my second day of shooting, I mainly focused on finding people that carried a certain individuality with their appearance, personality and just the overall way they carried themselves.

I used two lenses with the 650D/550D which were the 50mm and the 18-135mm. I found it much easier to use the 18-135mm as it has a long zoom to reach subjects in the distance and has a larger depth-of-field. Whereas the 50mm lense's depth-of-field is very shallow and so makes taking pictures much harder, especially when attempting the Henri Cartier-Bresson's decisive moment technique. However, the quality of the picture when captured right looks much better.

The 'Observational mode' (decisive moment) was the main technique that I used during my photojournalism as I believe it captures a more accurate portrayal of reality because it's unstaged. All of the subjects are not looking towards the camera which is what Bresson believed to a key element in decisive moment. On the other hand, Martin Parr's Staged Ontology's has the subject pose for the picture where they may not act as they actually would in reality, although with this technique it does allow the photographer to interact more with the subject, allowing for a much better in-depth knowledge which could influence the style of the photo.

I was also influenced by Walker Evans 'Poetic Mode' when taking photos as I believe this can sometimes add a certain iconography and abstractness to my photos. I wanted to do this because it will hopefully make the viewer think about the message behind the photo, without it being directly served to them.

On the first day of shooting, there was heavy overcast which meant that I needed to set the ISO between 400-1600, the aperture around f/6.3 and at time a low shutter speed in order to let more light in, although I soon the discovered that with the right ISO and Aperture, the shutter speed didn't matter too much. However, on the second day to Portsmouth, there was a moment of sun which had me completely altering the camera settings (low ISO, low aperture, high shutter speed). Having the ISO so low made the images look much clearer and smoother, especially compared to some of the first days images which came out grainy at times.

I found it a little bit tricky to find the right camera settings for the environment at times, making the mistake of having a high ISO which would make some of my images grainy. At times the graininess actually fit with the photo. Finding the right camera settings could be a pain especially during decisive moment shooting, but I found that a lot of this could be fixed in RAW editing to a certain extent.

After a lot of technical practice on the first day of shooting, the second days shoot was much more professional with the right setting for the right environment and a lot of experimentation with the camera.

I've decided to upload 10 of the photos I took for my photojournalism essay which I think have the most interesting individuals and experimentation with the camera.

Shutter Speed - 1/4000 sec.

Aperture - f/7.1

ISO - 1600

Focal Length - 69mm

This picture would fall into the Observational mode and perhaps arguably the Poetic mode. The subject caught my eye because he simply sat on a stall in the high street of Portsmouth with his eyes closed, just relaxing in the sun while the world moved around him. For me the picture says something about the importance of relaxation.

Again I used the 18-135mm in order to keep my distance from the subject in case I disturbed him, which might make him look directly at me. This would have completely ruined the mood of the photo.

During RAW editing, I realised that the picture was a bit grainy as I made the mistake of having such a high ISO. I was able to save this a little by reducing the clarity in order to soften some of the graininess, but not entirely.

Shutter Speed - 1/13 sec.

Aperture - f/13

ISO - 100

Focal Length - 39mm

With this picture I was experimenting with the shutter speed of the camera. I wanted to see the effect of motion blur in pictures and during this moment a guy came walking past in gothic clothing, with bright blue hair. I took the chance to take photos of the subject.

The picture is mainly observational, but also says something about how much style has an effect on how we perceive certain people in society. I would assume that this person listens to death metal rock music simply because he wears gothic clothing.

During this photo there was a lot of sunlight, so I had to turn the ISO down very low, but it was hard to find the right balance as the shutter speed was also very low, letting a lot of light in during the photos.

During RAW editing I darkened the blacks and shadows of the picture a little to draw more attention to the black clothing of the subject. I also turned down the exposure as the picture was pretty high in that area.

Click Here for High Res photos - Flickr

Shutter Speed - 1/4000 sec.

Aperture - f/5.6

ISO - 1600

Focal Length - 135mm

This picture would fall into both the Poetic and Observational mode of documentary as it was taken without intrusion (I asked my friend to pretend to pose for a picture and then zoomed past his shoulder) and also paints quite an abstract message about poverty. The subject appears to be poor as his clothing is ripped and a little tatty, yet he still looks towards the distance full of beautiful nature. The birds add to the abstract element of the picture as they are attracted to his presence.

I had to use the 18-135mm lens for this photo as I didn't want to get too close to the subject in order to not disturb him and especially the birds as they might fly away. I tried to make sure to focus the lens mainly on the foreground, in order to lead the viewers eye to that area.

When editing the photo in Photoshop, I brightened the image while raising the contrast at the same time as the original image was a little underexposed. I also realised that the high ISO gave the image a grainy texture, which I thought actually added to the picture as it seemed to fit well with the gritty life that I assume the subject has had.

Shutter Speed - 1/4000 sec.

Aperture - f/3.5

ISO - 1600

Focal Length - 50mm

A picture that is both Observational and Poetic. The subject caught my eye because she was so much more colourful and vibrant than those around her. The picture potentially makes a statement about conformism in society, as all the subjects in the background wear the standard black jacket which perhaps gives them a sense of formality, whereas this woman wears colourful stripes as a way of seperating herself from them.

At the time I had a high shutter speed set on the camera as I was performing a lot of decisive moment photography. However, I wish that for this picture I would have thought to turn down the shutter speed a little in order to give the four subjects in the background a little motion blur and I feel it would have fit the picture better.

During Photoshop editing, I decided to use the pen tool to mark around the female subject and then proceeded to heighten the brightness & contrast and also the vibrance & saturation in order to give her this glowing effect in the picture so that her colours stood out more.

Shutter Speed - 1/400 sec

Aperture - f/5

ISO - 800

Focal Length - 31mm

For this decisive moment picture I pretended that I was taking a picture of the gate in the background, but had set the focal point to the left side of the frame in order to capture the subject in focus as he walked by. I felt that I had to take this picture as the individual just had this outstanding military style that I had never seen before.

I was in a rush when taking this photo and when I looked at it in editing, I realised that it was pretty overexposed. Luckily in RAW editing I was able to save this quite a bit by turning down the exposure, which made the foreground of the picture much more balanced.

I used the pen tool again to mark a trail around the subject as I wanted to change the mode of the subject to grayscale and also make it a little more coarse. I done this in reference to Don McCullin's war photography which had a similar look to it.