Research-Martin Waugh

Martin Waugh's photography is brilliant in my eyes.  So good that I gave it a go myself to try and take similar images.  I don't think I really give his photography justice, but I had lots of fun trying.  You can see my attempt of a water droplet from my final images and I'm sure with practice they will get better.



Martin Waugh-classic01







My attempt using a very slow shutter speed and tripod.  Using a standard lens as I don't have a macro lens.



Martin has a degree in physics and uses his knowledge of science to create these wonderful images.  He lives in Portland and exhibits his work in museums and it can also be bought for corporate and private collectors.

Martin Waugh explains below about his artwork:


'What you see on this site are high-resolution photographs of liquids in motion, captured with high-speed flash photography. I use Photoshop to clean up the background, balance the color and tidy up a bit. I don't alter the shapes or composition. What you see is what nature provided. (One exception: the lips in "Big Wet One Red" were crying for red lipstick, which Photoshop provided.)'



Big wet one


All images on this blog page have been taken off the internet and are copyright to Martin Waugh





Research-Chris Gloag

Chris Gloag is a portraiture photographer working in London for corporate and advertising clients.  The business was set up in 2000 with many years experience. Most of his photographs are taken for magazine purpose. Chris' photography does fascinate me with all the famous people he has photographed.

I love Gok Wan and seeing some of the images that Chris has taken really drew me to his photography.  This is from his work titled New Work and is quite recent.  These photos have obviously been taken in a studio environment with studio lighting.  He has placed Gok off centre which also leads the eye to the shadowing of the staircase. 

Here is some of Chris' corporate work:

I really like this image, I love the way the temple is faded out in thebackground showing a narrow depth of field.  To me it looks like it has been taken by the Taj Mahal, but I'm really not sure.  Chris has used location lighting for the shoot and you can see that he has used reflectors to enhance the models face and clothes.



This image actually looks like it has been manipulated, but I can't find anywhere on his wedsite that says anything about it.  I like the way the sun is reflecting, but it looks like there is also some location lighting being used.

All images on this blog page have been taken off the internet and are copyright to Chris Gloag

Unit 101 image capture (1b)

Task 1b: supporting evidence

Theme - water

All of my images were taken with a sony DSLR a390 and a standard 15-55mm lens. They were all shot either using image quality raw, fine or standard.  Only one image has been manipulated to make a better photograph all the others I left as they were originally taken, as I think this shows my work rather than a completely different image.  I also used auto focus for all shots, apart from my close up water droplet.

Photo session at the marina:

For the images taken at the marina I set off with my camera, spare battery, memory card and tripod (also my hubby and son in toe). I set off looking for the best things to photograph, being at the marina gave me lots of choice for my water theme.  I snapped away playing around with the aperture and shutter speed.  As I was outside and it was a sunny day I didn't need to use the flash. 

For this shot I knelt down on the floor and rested the camera on a ledge rather than using the tripod to steady the camera.  I just felt this shot needed me to be low down to get the full effect from the scene.  I purposely had the grass at the front of the shot to give a wide depth of field and to draw the eye into the photo.

 

Photo session at the fountain:

To be honest I just stumbled across this setting whilst on a spa day.  Luckily my camera was as hand so off I trudged getting lots of pictures.  I didn't have my tripod, but the wall around the pond came in very handy to rest the camera.  The shot of the fish look like they are behind a sheet of glass.  I rested the camera on a ledge and zoomed in to give me this image.  I wanted to give the impression of the fish being framed and I feel I have done this well.  The pattern on the water has been captured nicely and gives a marbled effect.

 

I love this image, its such a peaceful photo.  You can see the water rippling which is the effect from the fountain .  You can see quite a lot of detail on the leaves.  I wanted to shoot this photo to show a slight  narrow depth of field and I think I have captured this quite well as the main focus is on the leaves, but the background is slightly blurred out.

Photo session at bath time:

I had to be careful for this photo shoot as I had to keep an eye on my son and take photos at the same time.  I also had to make sure the camera didn't get splashed as my son really enjoys bath time.  I played around taking lots of photos, I felt this was the best image and really illustrates a narrow depth of field.  I really like the quality of this image, the boat is in really good focus.

Close up water droplet session:

This session took some time to set up.  I used coloured paper as backing and a silver dish to catch the drops of water.  I also set up the tripod so I could get really steady shots and get in really close.  I needed to use a slow shutter speed so the shutter was open longer to get the full effect from the water.  I took so many photos and only really one was good enough for me to share with you.  I created the colour in this image by using some fancy yellow rubber gloves.  I couldn't use auto focus for this shot as I needed to get in very close and the auto focus wouldn't let me therefore had to use manual focus.  I'm sure with lots of practice I can manage to get much better shots in the future.

I feel all my images relate well to the water theme.  Each image has water in the photograph or has something to do with it for example the boat at bath time.

Unit 101 image capture (1a)

Task 1a: Final images for my water theme

Landscape 

 



f8 1/3200 iso 100


 I love this photo, the barges on either side seem to draw the viewers eye into the photograph with the barges acting as leading lines.  I also feel the barges frame the water and other barges.  The sun is shining just right between the barges and seems to light the picture up.  I captured the light so you can see the shadowing of the barges in the water. With it being such a bright day I used a really fast shutter speed so not to let too much light into the lens.  It took a while messing about with the aperture and shutter speed to get it right. I purposefully had the grass in the foreground to create more of a frame, but really feel I shoul have cropped some of the sky out to make more of an intense photograph.



This is a lovely photograph of my husband and son, they look so peaceful looking out to the lake.  I slightly changed the original image to come up with this final shot.  As you can see from the image below there was a buggy in the corner which I thought took away from the photo, I used the cloning tool in photoshop to get rid of it.  I also altered the contrast and brightness  to make the picture sharper.  As you can see from the image on the left I have cropped the picture to remove the people in the background. My family are situated slightly off centre therefore having the water as the focus.  I love the shadowing  caused by the natural lighting. 

  Here is the original photo:



f8 1/400 iso 100



Close-up:  



1/80 f5.6 iso 200





This is a great example of a frame in a frame. I took the image from a height therefore had to zoom in quite a lot, but I feel that the fish are in very good focus.  I love to see the water rippling causing a lovely pattern above the fish, making them look like they're behind glass.  There is shadowing on the water caused by the natural light.





1/125 f5 iso 200

 

This a lovely calming picture showing showing a narrow depth of field just focusing on the leaves and the background slightly blurred out.  I would crop this image slightly for presentation purposes to create a sharper picture.











1/6 f36 iso 1600



I'm really impressed with this shot, it took me ages, but I finally got a half decent close up of water droplets.  It's not perfect, but it shows the use of slow shutter speed and colour.  I feel it could have done with better lighting, but this is the best I could do at home, with not a lot of equipment. I used a really slow shutter speed to capture as much detail of the water as possible and by using the tripod it kept the camera steady so as not to get camera shake.  When I learn to use photoshop better I will try and play around with this image to make it better.

  

 






1/25 f5.6 iso 1600

 
This is a shot I got of my son playing in the bath with his boat.  I love the focus on the boat, it really illustrates a narrow depth of field.  There is also focus on the water droplets on the bath handle.  Looking at this image I think it would look good if a changed the entire picture to black and white then added the boat back in colour.

  All images were taken with my sony a390 camera, with a standard 18-55 mm lens. The only photograph I used the flash for was the close up water droplet.



Photoshop-sepia and text

I had a go at turning a colour photograph into sepia, here is how I got on:

I desaturated the image first which took all the colour from the photo, I then selected colour balance.  After playing around with the photo I came out with this final image.



Shutter speed 1/125 f10 iso 100


I am very pleased with the final image, it reminds me of an old postcard, it really gives a warm feeling to this cold winters day.  Just by looking at the photograph I can hear the waves crashing against the prominade. 



I then attempted to put some text into the same sepia image, I played around with the words and thought it went really well in the sea crashing in the waves.  The words look as though they are being washed out to sea

  

Manipulation task

For this task we were asked to have a go at manipulating some images, I had a play about and this is what I came up with, I cropped the image into 6 sections and used variuos filters to to change the image.


Image 1

I used chalk and charcoal, craquelure, stamp, coloured pencil, fresco and graphic pen




Image 2

I used mosaic tile, cut out, glass, dark strokes, spatter and water paper












Image 3





For this image I cut and paste the image of the shoe  (using the magnetic lazzo) from another photograph and placed it into another photograph of the sea.  I moved the shoe around until I found a good place for it.  I re-sized it and this was my final image.

I haven't quite got round to manipulating an image into sepia or to put text in as to be honest I struggled doing what I did in class and don't have photoshop at home to play around with it.  If we get a chance I will have a go at this in my next lesson.











Ideas of water photographs

I tried to get a shot of running water.  I used a shutter speed of 1/125 and a small f stop of 4.5. I had to put the iso to 3200 as it was quite dark inside.  I do like this photo, I feel it captures the flow of water really well that I can almost hear the water.

I took a day trip to Barton Marina and seeked an opportunity to get some photos of barges and water shots. It was a lovely bright day therefore I only had to use an iso of 100. I used a quick shutter speed of 1/125 to get the rippling of the water and an f stop of f16 

This photo didn't really come out as planned.  I was supposed to have got a shot of the water running from the fountain.  I tried a variety of shots, but found it difficult as the water was splashing out.  I used a shutter speed of 1/200 and f8 and  It was a bright day again therefore I only needed the iso on 100.