Connecting Essay - Karl Hugo Schmolz

Here is one of my architectural photographs from my third shoot. I framed this image using the rule of thirds, positioning the office building on the left vertical line of the rule of thirds grid. This means that the building is the first thing you notice. I converted this image to black and white in photoshop after shooting it, as well as adding noise, creating a film grain effect. This image mainly consists of light tones, which suggest the positives of urban life. This is contrasted clearly by the architecture of the building, which resembles the brutalist urban construction of the 1980s, as well as the noise added to the image, which creates a sense of dread and fear. I shot using a wide aperture, focusing on the building in the foreground. The use of a wide aperture creates a sense of depth, making the background appear to be further away, as well as directing the viewer of the image to the section you wanted them to focus on. There are leading lines featured in this image; the barriers on the left lead your eyes to the base of the building, as well as the scaffolding to the left of the building that leads your eyes to the top of the building. Together, the set of lines make you notice the great size of the building more, creating the feeling of it towering over you and you being small and vulnerable.



Here is an architectural photograph by German photographer Karl Hugo Schmolz. It was taken in Cologne, Germany, likely shortly after the war had ended. The image captures a lot of straight lines; the architecture of the area is very much inspired by the Bauhaus movement, which was a prominent architecture and art movement from the 1920s and 30s in Germany and featured lots of squares and lines. The presence of this architecture suggests that this part of the city was developed in the 1920s/30s and as a result of the war, hasn't been updated. Schmolz has focused on the mid ground of the image, in which there is an open space where a few men in suits standing in a circle and having a discussion. Due to their dress style, they are likely businessmen by profession, and as they are standing in this area, it could be suggested that they are discussing plans for the development of the area. The shadow of the building in the foreground creates a leading line, leading the viewer to the mid ground where the mens are discussing.

My photo has been inspired by Karl Hugo Schmolz' work. You can see that these two photographs link; particularly through the use of lines. Schmolz' photo uses leading lines in the form of shadow of the building, which leads your eyes to the mid ground where the men are having a discussion. My image also uses leading lines, presented in the form of barriers that lead your eyes to the base of the large office building I focused on. The architecture the image feature also bear similarities; Schmolz' image features very square and angular architecture, as does mine, as the place I took the image had architecture inspired by the brutalist movement of the 1980s. I also attempted to link my work to his further with the editing style; I converted my image to black and white and added noise in an attempt to make my image look as if the image was taken on the black and white film that would have been used during the 1930s.

Shoot Seven - Work Diary

For my seventh shoot, I wanted to try the technique of tilt shift. The technique is usually accomplished through a tilt shift lens, though this costs a great deal of money. As a result, I researched and found out that I would be able to replicate the effect in Photoshop. I decided to go out with a tripod and get to a high point where I could take pictures of people to make them appear as miniatures, which is the effect created by tilt shift photos.



Here is one of my straight images for the shoot. To create the miniatures style tilt shift seen, I used photoshop's tilt shift filter. I went into filter-blur gallery-tilt shift, where it adds tilt shift guidelines. I dragged the guidelines so that the blur begins just out of range of where the people are framed. I set the gradient of blur to be quite short so that the blur is fairly harsh surrounding the people. The blur around the people is what creates the miniature effect; which is an effect I added to by greatly increasing the saturation of the colours of the image, as well as slightly increasing the contrast of the image. These together create a strong impression of the image appearing to be a miniature model set.

This was taken from the top of a multi-storey car park. I shot this image on f/8 as I wanted it to have a wide depth of field, as I felt a narrow one would have affected the tilt shift effect I intended to use later. I kept the shutter speed at 1/80 as wanted to avoid camera shake and any excessive motion blur that would ruin the illusion of miniatures that the photo creates. The presentation of people as miniatures could suggest that people who live in urban environments are metaphorically small compared to the architecture around them and the large presence of advertising and commercialism. The final edited image displays some very saturated shades of green, which represent nature. This creates a contrast to the grey shades throughout the rest of the image, and acts as a reminder that the urban environment was developed over what was once an untouched natural environment. The saturated colours are contrasted by some dark tones towards the left side of the image. They create some tonal contrast with the lighter tones shown to the right of the image, where the sun shines.



Here is another image that I also took from the top of a car park, only this focuses more on the main part of the town. I shot look down upon the bus shelter, where there were a large amount of people, which I felt would make for a good miniature model effect. I shot this on f/8 and 1/200 in order to achieve a wide depth of field and avoid motion blur or camera shake. This image has highly saturated colours, in shades of red, yellow and blue, which create connotations of happiness and urban bliss. This is contrasted by the architecture shown in the background, which is very brutalist and creates a sense of power over the viewer. The background also displays mainly shades of grey, which could represent the dull parts of the urban lifestyle such as having a daily routine job; this creates a contrast of moods between the mid ground and the background. In the centre of the foreground of the image is a man walking in the bus lane; he appears to be wearing a formal suit and be walking at a pace. From this, we can guess that he has an office job of some description. He makes a clear punctum of the image, as he is clearly walking where he isn't supposed to be. You could suggests that he is not following rules as his job is dull and revolves around rules and doing things 'by the book', therefore he is rebelling in a minor to create some excitement in his work day.

Shoot Ten - Straight Images

Shoot Ten - Contact Sheet