Shoot Nine - Work Diary

For my ninth shoot, after capturing urban architecture, I wanted to expand on my previous work that involves people and how they interact in an urban environment, moving closer to my subjects and cutting out a lot of the wide angle landscapes I featured in my previous people based shoots. I went out into town without a tripod so that I could move more freely and tired to capture scenes that I thought would let the viewer of the image create their own narrative from; I shot from a documentary perspective.



I shot this using a shutterspeed of 1/250, with an aperture of f5.6 and an ISO of 200. I kept the shutterspeed relatively high as I was shooting freehand and as the subjects in this shoot are unknowing that they are being photographed, the lens was fully zoomed in so that I could remain unknown from a distance. I originally shot this in colour, but decided I wanted to make a large amount of the image black and white in editing after the shoot. I selected the image of the London Eye in the background using the quick selection tool, then inverted the selection and converted the image to black and white, with the selection meaning that area was excluded from the conversion. The use of the selective colourisation points out comparisons between poor and working class urban areas and affluent urban areas. The image of London being colourise creates the connotation that London is exciting and upbeat, and the sky blue colour that is featured heavily in the image creates the contrast between London and Harlow, which is represented as being dull through the use of the black and white.

 
 This image was taken with a shutter speed of 1/100, an aperture f7.1 and ISO 200. I set my shutter speed significantly slower than in the previously shown image, as the position I was in had the opportuntiy to capture people in motion, therefore I wanted a slower shutter speed to create some motion blur with the people in the foreground to link to the theme of the fast pace of urban life. I had my camera fully zoomed in so that I could capture my subjects closer. I focussed on the two women sitting down outside a coffee shop having a conversation, meaning the foreground is the part of the image that was out of focus. The presence of both people who are quickly walking through town and the two women sitting creates connotations of different paces of life that are present within urban environment, with some having no choice but to be constantly be busy to get by in life, while others have the freedom to participate in some leisure activities throughout the week.