Location (Brighton), and Darkroom

Well back in November last year we had our first photography location shoot.  The city of choice was Brighton (somewhere I had never been, but I was really looking forward to), although I had put my back out, and the prospect of lugging around all my camera equipment was a bit daunting (just sitting on the coach was to prove an uncomfortable experience)!!!

I do feel that having a bad back did hinder me as I wasn't really able to move about freely, relax, and eventually get a selection of images I would be happy with. In all honesty I have to say that I was not that pleased with my images, but they did fulfil the brief.  I think that in different circumstances I would have gotten more images to choose from. 

I did use an ND filter to try and capture the movement of the water.  For these images I tried a 10 second exposure.  (I have since obtained a 10 stop ND filter which I am really looking forward to using). I did make the mistake of not using a tripod, and therefore several of my images had camera shake and I was not able to use them.  I know this can be a very common problem, but trying to set up a tripod, and camera under these circumstances was just too uncomfortable, something that is regrettable.  I did also use my Fuji XF1 camera as well, and some of these images were a bit better (this was the first outing for this camera, and I was still trying to get used to the settings on it).

Darkroom

It had been a good few months since I had last ventured into the darkroom at college, so the Brighton trip would be the first opportunity that I would have to take 35mm film photographs.  I did use my Diana camera.  Due to the fact that I hadn't been into the darkroom for sometime I did decide to do a bit of research to refresh my memory.  As with my DSLR I was a bit worried about the possibility of camera shake as I hadn't utilised my tripod, but this I wouldn't find out until I finally developed my film.

Digital Editing

Once we had taken our trip into the studio, and finally done our location shoot in Brighton it would be necessary to edit our images.  I edited both my studio work, and the location work in both Lightroom and Photoshop.

It was necessary to take screen shots to show the process.

I think that both Lightroom and Photoshop need to be used constantly in order that you are able to use them with confidence.  With the continued use of these editing programs I do become more confident using options such as levels, hue and saturation, and contrast.  These options are only a small part of Lightroom and Photoshop, and hopefully I can expand on the other options in future blogs.