Assignment three: Monochrome.

Whitstable a small fishing town with a vibrant community of foodies and artists living side by side is the subject I have chosen as my assignment.
A Small fishing town on the Kent coast famous for its oysters has in recent years under gone a transformation, however some areas are still neglected and the aim of these photographs is to show both sides.
I felt that black and white photography would suit this subject very well.

I have decided to try light room to process nearly all of these photographs, this is something I have had for a long time but never really done anything with, but after reading good reviews about it on the oca student site I decided to give it ago.

1)I used F11 and 1/100's to take this iconic boat this photograph was actually taken on a previous visit to Whitstable but I decided to include it as when I went back the second time there was far too many people around to get the shot I wanted. I used a black and white treatment and adjusted the clarity, I then adjusted the black and fill light sliders before taking the contrast down very slightly.

2) F13 @ 1/160's is the setting I used for this photograph of the oyster stores, I did a very amount of cropping to remove part of a window at the top which detracted from the rest of the photograph., Again after changing to black and white I adjusted the exposure and blacks sliders before lightening a couple of small shadows and finally cloning out an ugly light on the front of the building.

3) This photograph shows part of Whitstable that needs some care, these old beach huts are in the main ramshackle which is such a shame as others that have been renovated are hired out at a premium. This time I used part light room and part elements the settings were F14 @ 1/125. After processing the black and white conversion I adjusted the clarity, exposure and blacks, however after these adjustments I was still not happy and went on to make further adjustments using the red green blue sliders, finally I opened it in elements and using layers I adjusted the mid tones.

4) Heading in the other direction towards Tankerton, the beach huts have been renovated and stand proudly just off the beach.
F13 1/250's the usual black and white conversion is followed again by adjusting the clarity and blacks, this time I used the point curve to produce a strong contrast using the red, green and blue sliders, I then used a 3% burn on the sky through elements as I felt the sky was just a bit too bright.

5) Coffee and cake were calling me so I found my way to the harbour, the huts you can see are used by fishermen and it is possible to buy fish straight from the boats around this area. F9 1/200. This time I again opted to do part in light room and part in elements, I did the conversion , blacks and clarity sliders in light room I then used elements to adjust the contrast and to burn the sky @ 1%.

6) Coffee and cake over  I wandered around the narrow streets just behind the beach, I found this shop selling all sorts of vintage items, Whitstable has many famous residents but with out a doubt one of its most famous ones was Peter Cushing. Looking in this shop you can almost feel his presence. settings used F13 @ 1/200 again the usual adjustments were made, including tonal curve in elements.

Whitstable also has a thriving Yachting club and this photograph shows many of the smaller boats which are used.F14 @ 1/160's black and white, exposure, clarity, red, green, blue sliders before converting depth in elements.

Overall I think I have shown a selection of photographs of Whitstable a place I have grown to love over several visits, I wanted to try and do justice to this quaint old town something which I hope I have achieved, I could have taken more photographs around the harbour but the tide was out, (getting the tide in any where at the moment eludes me) and the harbour just looks tatty when there is no water in it. I also didn't want too many people in the shots as I didn't want to detract too much from the actual place.

Below are two photographs that didn't make my final selection.

 The bike was just a quirky thing I saw and the other one of the harbour I almost included but wasn't sure.

Well that's the end of assignment three and I am feeling proud of myself as I have actually got this one in early, I enjoyed this section of the course, as black and white photography is something I both enjoy taking and looking at, I think it will gradually become my medium of choice.

Tutor Feedback

This is always a slightly worrying time has enough work been done is the standard high enough etc are all thoughts that go through my head. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my assignment was good with just a couple of tweaks for formal assessment.  Overall the conversions have worked apart from a couple that needed a bit less contrast and more detail brought out from the shadow areas, this is something I will rectify and show on this blog.
The first one that needs a bit more work is the boat houses that are 'in need of care' and the shadows need 'lightening' slightly I will try and do this is in elements first as my light room has crashed and at the moment I can't get it back.

I have lightened the shadow areas using the magic wand tool first to select the area I wanted then I adjusted the brightness and contrast sliders. I tried to keep the tones of the rest of the photograph intact.

Another photograph came out slightly too dark and again I will show the adjusted version below.
I must admit I was slightly unsure on this one when I submitted it I thought it was slightly too dark but decided the best think to do would be submit it and wait for the feedback.

I used a new layer and adjusted the brightness and contrast sliders I took the brightness up quite a bit this time and I think it has improved the photograph, one thing this has taught me is that I need to have more confidence in myself and trust my judgement a bit more.

The finished photograph.

Finally I need to adjust some converging verticals, I have never done this before so it will be a learning curve for me. I firstly need to see exactly how to make the adjustments.

Having looked at the link my tutor sent me I adjusted the converging verticals in the above photograph..  I needed to bring the top part of the photograph out so it was wider at the top,
 I did this by opening the photograph in elements then going filter correct lens distortion.  by moving the vertical perspective slider to the left it widens the top half by moving it to the right it widens the bottom half.  I clicked on ok when  I was happy with the results.
One final thing I was also told to mention other photographers artists of pertinence to this area, and two names spring to mind Brian Aris a world renowned photographer who lived in this area for a while who was famous for photographing Paula Yates in fact he took several photographs of her on Seasalter beach just a few miles from Whitstable. I must admit a thought has just occurred to me that these photographs might have been pre digital however the second photograph is also a local resident of considerable knowledge and skill his black and white photography is superb, I have included more details about him under the section photographs I am interested in and also photographers I have met. A link to his website is also included here for ease of reference.http://www.nickmoorephotography.co.uk/.