David Hockney Inspired Pictures

I was looking back through my blog at the photographers I'd looked at for inspiration. I looked at David Hockney's My Mother, Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire again and it gave me a few ideas to practise with.

Here is my first panorama I tried out. 

As you can see it is one I have stitched by hand which is why it's quite rough and the colour's don't mix particularly well. However it was time well spent I thought because it gave me a chance to experiment and better understand panoramas.

Here is my second one - a circular panorama

I was quite impressed with how this turned out. Fortunately it didn't require any stitching from me either. Using the Photoshop photomerge tool it joined it all together for me. It did make me feel confident though that I was overlapping a good amount.

Chandeliers

These two pictures were from my trip to the Guild Hall I spoke about in the last post. These were two of my favourites. I had to take them hand-held because I had no tripod and nothing to rest on them so it was important I got the aperture and shutter speed balance right.

I think they came out quite good considering they were hand-held. I did take some brighter ones but I prefered these darker ones. I think there more in keeping with the victorian-esque style of the building.

Development Photos

Over the past few weeks I've been practising using different camera techniques hopefully so that I can implement some of them into my final panorama.

Shallow Depth of Field

To achieve these photos I had my aperture on a low setting. Because it was nice, bright day I was able to keep my shutter speed fast so they are crisp focus.

Shutter Speed

In these two pictures above I had to use a quick shutter speed to capture the birds in flight without them blurring. I really like the second one with the reflection as well as the elderly couple that bring a story to the picture.

This series of three pictures were taken at the Guild Hall in Worcester. I took a picture of one of the chandeliers and it came out blurred because I left the shutter open for too long accidentally. I then remembered what we'd done in class and thought it would be a great opportunity to try this technique out.

I have recently added this picture to the list. Its Steven Gerrard taking a corner kick at the Liverpool Vs Reading game I recently went too. I was quite pleased with the final result because I didn't have long to get the camera set up. Its a little bit too blurred though and out of focus. It would have looked better if I'd had a tripod and quickened the shutter speed slightly so it isn't so blurred.

Photography Research - Will Pearson

Will Pearson is a professional photographer who lives in London. He specialises in taking panorama pictures and has a wide array of them on his website. (http://www.willpearson.co.uk/)

The Shard View, Night

The Birds

These pictures illustrate how shutter speed can be used to create an interesting picture. 

Photography Research - Ed Jacobs

After spending a few sessions in class learning about camera settings and what they can achieve we have finally begun the main project: creating our own panorama. I will need to use a series of images I taken and then seamlessly stitch them together in Photoshop. 

For inspiration and ideas I have and will continue to research photographers.

Below is a link to a photographer's blog. His name is Ed Jacobs and has been regularly updating his blog since early 2008.

http://qjphotos.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/wavy-tokyo/

I thought the wavy technique he's used in his set of panoramas was particularly interesting because it created an unusual, rare effect.