Assignment 3........Didn't quite make the cut.

I took many photos for this assignment that for one reason of another I felt weren't quite good enough. I wanted to show how I came to use the photographs submitted, and a bit more about my working process.

Colour harmony through complementary colours. 

Red and Green.

Nikon D90 1/1000 f4.5 ISO 640 40mm +0.3

I really like the bright red of the tree but felt that the ratio was slightly out. Also because of the frost, the grass was not particularly green and I was looking for a richer colour.

Nikon D90 1/500 f4.2 ISO 640 32mm +0.3

I came across this bus stop near to the previous photo and just by chance my friend happened to be wearing a bright red t-shirt. He kindly agreed to pose for this shot in the freezing cold! I felt that the ratio was nearly there, maybe a little more red present, but the light was reflecting off the sides of the bus stop too much, causing a distraction.

Nikon D90 1/750 f4.8 ISO 200 42mm

This is a variation of the shot I submitted. When shooting this one I have forgot to alter the exposure as the bright light bleached a lot of the red from the sheet. I have since altered this in Photoshop. I feel that by changing the models positioning I then produced a much better image.

Colour harmony through similar colours.

Red, Orange and Yellow.

Nikon D90 1/200 f8 ISO 200 70mm flash and tripod used.

This was one of my first attempts at photographing this colour combination. Post processing I have increased the level of black to even out the tone of the sheet. I felt that some of the flowers were not clear enough and was generally not 100% happy with this photo, although I cannot put my finger on why.

Blue, Violet and Green.

Nikon D90 1/200 f5.6 ISO 640 105mm -0.7 flash and tripod used.

I felt with the composition so rigid that it made the picture seem rather dull. Plus I don't like how the background is so plain and uninteresting. This obviously led me on to scattering the pencils and drawing on the background to create more interest.

Blue and Green.

Nikon D90 1/200 f4.8 ISO 640 48mm -1.3 flash and tripod used.

This was actually my favourite image using this colour combination as my model looks nice and relaxed and the colours are shown off well. Unfortunately the eye nearest the camera is blurred and out of focus so I could not use it.

Colour contrast through contrasting colours.

Red and Blue.

Nikon D90 1/4000 f4 ISO 3200 22mm -2.7

The problem I had here was that the day was very dark but the flash was causing too much reflection (I ended up shooting it in my porch). I used a high ISO to try and compensate for this. There was no room for my tripod to be set up so I had to use a high shutter speed as the freezing cold was making my hands shake. After doing all of this and then evening the tone of the sheet in Photoshop, I then decided that I was not keen on the composition. The same also goes for my next attempt shown below.

Nikon D90 1/4000 f4 ISO 3200 21mm -2.7

Colour accent using any of the above.

Blue and Orange.

Nikon D90 1/1000 f4 ISO 640 28mm +0.3

I should have altered the ISO as I feel it is too high but I think my problem is that I forget the settings I have previously used and then just leave the camera on them. I really need to get into the habit of checking and altering as I go. The day was very bright so a lot of colour was lost. I have altered the exposure and brightness in Photoshop, as well as increase the blue and orange slightly. Whilst I like this picture I felt that I could achieve better.

Nikon D90 1/4000 f4 ISO 640 28mm +0.3

I felt that this image meets the accent criteria quite well, my only complaint with it really is that its hardly very exciting and there is no real context for the ball (which is also out of focus)......it just seems to be sat in mid air. This obviously then led on to the photograph that made it into the assignment, with the hands having just thrown the ball into the air.

I wanted to show a small amount of the extra work that went into producing this assignment showing how I work and the processes I go through that leads to the work I produce.