Architectural Shoot

Location: Royal William Yard

This is my original image that I took on a digital SLR camera. I only manipulated the image by converting it to black and white. I like this image as I think the position of the archway works really well. This combined with the lamp posts is really affective in keeping our focal point in the centre of the image. In order to get the detail in the sky, with capturing the mid tones, I had to keep the rest of my photo dark. This was due to the overcast lighting the day I shot this image. I could have edited it through camera RAW to dodge the sides of the archway but I did not feel this was as affective. This image was shot on F/22 on a 1/20 0f a second, using a tripod. I shot on f/22 to maximise my depth of field to capture the majority of the photo in focus to create a very documentary style image.

This image was created on photomatix to produce this HDR final outcome. To get this image I used 13 images to get different exposures so that not only the background would have detail but the darker areas around the archway would too. Personally, I feel the HDR has made the sky look flat and extremely greyscale not adding a specific mood or feeling apart from it feeling slightly surreal and unreal. My favourite part of the image is the floor and the texture it and the brick work make, once it has been produced through Photomatix. Lighting is also another part of the image that I particularly like as it works well with the textures. It helps to show the roughness or shimmer of the floor and walls.

Although I enjoyed this shoot and visiting the Royal William Yard, I found it hard to get excited and inspired by what it had to offer. Not only this but the day we visited it, the weather was terrible, creating very grey and bland colours in the sky. With architectural photography I think the weather and detail in the sky is extremely important as it completely creates the mood of the image and the way in which we view the building. Although the textures and brick work was beautiful and created such interesting lines, I found the colours very cold - hence why I decided to use black and white for my final outcomes. I tried to use leading lines to create contrast with the new features compared with the old building in the background (the glass metal new fencing against the old, brick building.) I also like the use of levels in this photo, with the new housing on the left on the image next to the old, tall building next to them. I think this creates a statement of how things have changed from then to now. This was shot on F/22 at 1/10 of second, using a tripod to ensure that the entire image was in focus.