Assignment 208: Principles of Location Photography
Title: Revival of the Water Front.
The purpose of the following pictures that I have enclosed is to show the exemplary job that the Manchester and Salford councils have done in reviving the area that the old Manchester and Salford docks stood on.
The reason for my doing this particular subject is that I went to a Shirley Baker exhibition at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery where I seen her work based on the people of Salford and Manchester. The period covered was from the 1960s to the end of the twentieth century. On my way home I decided that I would like to take photos of the Salford Quays water front, but not just to take daylight photos, but also late on in the afternoon and into the evening also.
The photo imaging equipment and medium that will be used. I will be using my Canon Eos 450d and my Canon18-55mm lens. The reason for using this lens is, I can use the wide angle (18-35mm) section of the lens to capture some of the vast areas that I want to capture. Also I will be using mainly F/8 to F/16 apertures to provide me with a good depth of field. I will also be using a polarizing filter to enhance the blues in the sky and to give a more dramatic effect where necessary. A Tripod and a cable release will be used most of the time so that I can keep my ISO low whilst using slow shutter speeds, which should give me optimum results as I wont be photographing any moving objects. I have used an off camera flash once in this set of images. The flash gun that was used was used off camera and fired manually at 1/8 power, just so that I could lighten up a train wheel that I wanted to keep in the foreground. I have used Photoshop Elements 10 for any post processing that has been undertaken.
How light quality can be used to help convey the visual message. All of the images that I have taken have been taken outside using natural light. Some of the shots were taken on a stormy afternoon with heavy clouds to give a dramatic effect. Others were taken just as the sun set which give a beautiful effect in the sky. Although the darkness of the evening allowed the whole water front come to life with all the lighting of the various buildings and street lights, which gives a fantastic reflection in the water. I have left the White Balance set at auto on my camera, and I have made any necessary adjustments in Photoshop Elements.
Safety considerations as I’ll be shooting close to deep water there will have to be extra care taken especially with leaving equipment lying around near to my and other people’s feet. Also I feel that it will be especially important to let someone know where I’ll be and how long I’ll be there for. Both these and other local safety precautions I’ll have to keep fully aware of at all times, this is in the interest of myself and others.
Equipment, Settings and Reasons
Underbridge
Canon 450 D
Manual Mode: to give maximum control over the camera.
Raw file: to give better tonal range and exposure latitude.
Auto White Balance: for more flexibility in the post processing, i.e. adjustment of the colour temperature (white balance) etc.
Spot Metering: to set exposure for a particular area within the image.
Aperture, F/8: to give the required depth of field that I wanted.
ISO 200: this low ISO will keep digital noise to a minimum whilst keeping the exposure speed within reason (not too long).
4 Second exposure: to give optimum results along with my F stop and ISO settings
Lens 42mm: gave the area coverage from the distance required, and to give the illusion of distance /depth, within the image
Tripod: gave stability to the camera whilst using a long exposure.
Cable release: used so there wouldn’t be any camera movement, whilst squeezing the shutter release.
This image was taken on a damp and misty day as can be seen. I first took the photograph two hours earlier, but I couldn’t get the shot that I wanted due to the heavy mist, so I decided to come back later.
As I wanted to keep some of the detail in the bridge I chose to Auto Bracket my exposures. By doing so it meant that I would be taking three exposures of the same image, one exposure above the recommended, one bellow the recommended and the recommended exposure itself. This gave me the results that I found acceptable, which gave me some detail in the bridge, and a nice reflection on the hand rail. Unfortunately there were some unsightly bird droppings that I removed and increased the levels in Photoshop Elements 10.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Equipment, Settings and Reasons
Mechanical Bridge
Canon 450 D
Manual Mode: to give maximum control over the camera.
Raw file: to give better tonal range and exposure latitude.
Auto White Balance: for more flexibility in the post processing, i.e. adjustment of the colour temperature (white balance) etc.
Spot Metering: to set exposure for a particular area within the image.
Aperture, F/8: to give the required depth of field that I wanted.
ISO 200: this low ISO will keep digital noise to a minimum, whilst keeping the shutter speed within reason (not too long).
6 Second exposure: to give optimum results along with the F stop and ISO settings
Lens 23mm: gave the area coverage from the distance required, and to give the illusion of distance /depth, within the image
Tripod: gave stability to the camera whilst using a long exposure.
Cable release: used so there wouldn’t be any camera movement, whilst squeezing the shutter release.
This image was taken in the dark using Auto bracketing so that I had a choice of which exposure to choose from, either under, over or correctly exposed depending on the effect that I preferred. I used spot metering to expose in-between the main uprights of the bridge, as well as focusing on the same area.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Equipment, Settings and Reasons
Pipes
Canon 450 D
Manual Mode: to give maximum control over the camera.
Raw file: to give better tonal range and exposure latitude.
Auto White Balance: for more flexibility in the post processing, i.e. adjustment of the colour temperature (white balance) etc.
Partial Metering: to set exposure for a particular area within the image. Although this is a slightly larger area than Spot Metering
F/11: to give the required depth of field that I wanted.
ISO 200: this low ISO will keep digital noise to a minimum, whilst keeping the exposure speed within reason (not too long).
1/200 Second exposure: to give optimum results along with my F stop and ISO settings whilst freezing movement of people crossing the bridge
Lens 32mm: gave the area coverage from the distance required, within the image.
Polarizing lens filter was used to give a more dramatic effect in the sky and to take away some of the glare from the windows.
This shot was taken in the afternoon whilst there were heavy clouds in the sky and just before a heavy rain fall. I would have preferred to have got slightly more of the sky just above the building, but unfortunately I couldn’t move any further back as I had my back against a fence causing me to hold my camera upwards at an angle, which in turn was causing some distortion with the building to lean. Also there was lots of rubble just in front of me due to the ongoing building of the footpath that I didn’t want. Alignment issues were corrected and levels were adjusted in Photoshop Elements 10.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Equipment, Settings and Reasons
Wheels
Canon 450 D
Manual Mode: to give maximum control over the camera.
Raw file: to give better tonal range and exposure latitude.
Auto White Balance: for more flexibility in the post processing, i.e. adjustment of the colour temperature (white balance) etc.
Partial Metering: to set exposure for a particular area within the image. Although this is a slightly larger area than Spot Metering
F/11: to give the required depth of field.
ISO 100: this low ISO will keep digital noise to a minimum, whilst keeping the exposure speed within reason (not too long).
8 Second exposure: to give optimum results along with my F stop and ISO settings whilst freezing movement of people crossing the bridge
Lens 41mm: gave the area coverage from the distance required, within the image.
Tripod: gave stability to the camera whilst using a long exposure.
Cable release: used so there would not be any camera movement, whilst squeezing the shutter release.
I took this image just after the sun had gone down. I used a tripod and cable release so that I could use a long exposure, due to the lack of light. I also used a hand held manual flash at 1/8 power to try to illuminate the wheels. I didn’t just want a silhouette of the wheels I wanted to show some detail in the wheels and in the background.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Brief History
Queen Victoria Manchester Ship Canal May 21, 1894 , with a total of nine docks being built, which took twelve years to build. The main aim of the Canal was to stimulate industry for the area by allowing ocean going ships from all around the world to deliver and collect cargo directly to and from Manchester Manchester Canada
Within two years of the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal Trafford Park North America and Canada Trafford Park Trafford Park deer park
Fortunately almost twenty years after the dock closed there is a £120m plan to create a new inland port at Barton, as well as other projects that have been proposed.
