Photographs of London: Week 2: Potential Portfolio Photos
Hi everyone!
I am back for more potential portfolio pieces. This time, from my experiences during my second week in London!
Let me know what you think!
This beautiful white lion is named Moto and can be found at the Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne. I visited him on July 13th and honestly, I feel like he was smirking directly into my camera. *squints suspiciously*
This cat is a sculpture I found by the lion enclosures on July 13th. The sculpture was to show that "time was running out" for the lions - like many species, they are in danger of extinction.
This lady is named Tilly and is one of the Red Pandas that calls Paradise Wildlife Park home. I do not think that I saw her move from her spot the entire time I was there on July 13th. Nam Pang, the other red panda, was extremely active around feeding time and ran around their enclosure before climbing back up into the tree.
This photo was taken on Tower Bridge on July 12th when Bailey and I visited for Carol's class. The weather could not quite make up its mind on what it wanted to do. Enjoy the skyline!
I am back for more potential portfolio pieces. This time, from my experiences during my second week in London!
Let me know what you think!
This beautiful white lion is named Moto and can be found at the Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne. I visited him on July 13th and honestly, I feel like he was smirking directly into my camera. *squints suspiciously* 
This cat is a sculpture I found by the lion enclosures on July 13th. The sculpture was to show that "time was running out" for the lions - like many species, they are in danger of extinction.
This lady is named Tilly and is one of the Red Pandas that calls Paradise Wildlife Park home. I do not think that I saw her move from her spot the entire time I was there on July 13th. Nam Pang, the other red panda, was extremely active around feeding time and ran around their enclosure before climbing back up into the tree.
This photo of Tower Bridge was also taken on July 12th on my way to the bridge. I am sure that these flats are absurdly expensive.
This beautiful kitty was found at Highgate Cemetery during the July 8th class visit. She apparently just wandered in and is currently nameless. However, she was a wonderful model for us.
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteKeep up the awesome framing! The way you have shot most of these photos allows the viewer's eye to travel all over the image. I couldn't tell what the lion-clock sculpture was at first, but even without knowing, the composition was still well arranged! This one has very strong continuity. (This is a Gestalt Principle, if you are interested in looking it up. It wasn't covered in our definition list.) In the red panda image, the lines from the tree bring you right up to the nicely placed focal point. And finally, the lines in the Tower Bridge photo are just spectacular!
I would say the only exception to this is the photo of London looking through a bridge. Because of the framing device and directional lines, my eye just kind of gets stuck in the middle strip of the photo. As a result, I don't notice the really cool sky or the interesting light hitting the river.
I do have a few tips to give for editing. Be careful with how much you up the saturation in a photo. The photo I am talking about in particular is the one of the red panda. Do you see the purple outline on the twig and the orange outline on the trunk? Those are dead give aways that a photo has been over saturated.
Then with the white lion, I can tell this photo was quite under exposed before post processing. What is giving this little secret away is all the purple and green you see in his mane. This is
called "color noise." There are a few things you can do to combat this in Lightroom, but they aren't always super effective. I can show you where to find this corrective function if you would like!
I am also noticing some focus issues in this batch of photos. For example, the leaves in front of the graveyard cat are in focus instead of the cat. I can't quite tell if the lion clock sculpture in sharp focus. It looks like there could have been the smallest bit of camera shake happening there. The photo of the lion looks a little fuzzy, but this could also be from upping the exposure in post processing. I might suggest trying to turn off auto-focus. Does your camera have a manual focus option? Or is it a point-and-shoot camera?
Can't wait to see next week's photos!
Your photos look really great Sarah! I think your doing a really good job finding cool things to frame your photos that makes them look much more interesting than if you just photographed them dead on. I also think you got fantastic photos of the animals at the zoo, particularly the red panda photo! (It looks almost like some sort of postcard the zoo would sell!)
ReplyDeleteSarah,
ReplyDeleteThis week you have done a fantastic job of filling the frame, whether that be by using a frame within a frame or simply using negative or positive space, well done on the compositions. Some criticisms I have would be on the image of the lion and the cat at the end. For the lion, maybe consider editing with slightly more contrast in the image itself. Personally, I feel as if it a little flat, especially when comparing it to the image of the red panda with vibrant colors and amazing contrast. As for you image of the cat in the grave yard, I love the composition and color, and especially how the cats eye matches the color of the plants around it. The only aspect of that image I do not care for is where you placed the focus. The image, had the focus been on the cat, not the plant, could have been a lot stronger.
As you continue to photograph, my only suggestion would be to pay attention to the tiny details. But I also know you aren't a photography major, so a lot of these things may seem small and unimportant. First and foremost though, have fun, then sweat the details if you have time.
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteGreat photos this week! I’m a really big fan of how you filled the frame with the lion image, especially since it had such a great expression! Your framing tends to be excellent as well though I think it fell a little short in the image taken from tower bridge. I think you executed framing much better in the image following it!
Can’t wait to see next weeks!
Obviously you're an animal lover!
ReplyDeleteAll of these photographs demonstrate an understanding of the foundational principles of design. You're using framing elements and the rule of thirds, maximizing your positive space, and paying attention to texture and repeated forms.
The lion does have some noticeable 'noise,' as Jasmine points out (speckles of color, especially in the shadow areas). Likely the scene was dark and the camera boosted your ASA (which impacts noise), or you had to lighten the image after taking the shot. I'm guessing that this could also be exaggerated if your camera has both digital and optical zoom. I would check on your menus and turn digital zoom off if that's an option. Optical zooming is when the glass elements in the lens adjust to magnify the image. Digital zooming just enlarges the pixel information.
What I'm seeing in the red panda (besides a strong composition, sharp focus, and an interesting subject) looks like chromatic aberration, the color channels going a bit out of register. Hence there's a reddish line on one side of the branches (the red channel) and a cyan line on the other (the blue and green channels). Some lenses are just not great at always focusing colors in the same spot at every focal length (normal, zoomed in, and zoomed out). I'm not sure why this would happen here but not in your other 'zoomed in' images. This can sometimes be corrected in software, particularly if shooting in RAW. Ironically CGI artists actually create fake aberration effects in order to make it look as though animations are shot through a lens.
Personally I really like both of the Tower Bridge photos quite a lot. I find them inventive. I like the unusual framing of the city-scape through the stonework, as well as the framing of the bridge towers by the apartment facades and balconies.
The lion clock is interesting, but it's hard to know what one is looking out without your explanation.
I love how the green leaves and eye match in the cat photo. Nicely seen. I understand why folks would prefer to see the cat in sharper focus, though we certainly viewed quite a few images yesterday where focus wasn't critical.
Nice work, Sarah. Looking forward to seeing what you shoot in Scotland!