Out of this world 2: 2012

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

During the project I was mainly focusing on lights, focus and exposure, as well as staging, composition and framing. I chose three subjects: (1) the Royal Exchange building, (2) city centre shopping mall and (3) one of the university libraries in Manchester. Each subject addresses a different structure and design, ranging from modern to old-fashioned.

I found taking attractive photos of interior spaces challenging but it’s a skill that any photographer (even beginner) can develop. Struggling with challenging lighting, dealing with a rapidly changing landscape and unexpected factors (e.g. a person suddenly coming into view) are definitely part of the fun and difficulty of interior photography. Interior photography can take us to interesting places and each shot can present new lighting challenges and new spaces to work with, which makes interior photography a great skill to know.

I tried to show the best view of my subject, be creative with my shots by exposing building with appropriate composition and capture of details. I found it difficult to deal with artificial lighting inside shopping mall, styling and where to position myself. I was shooting above f/6.3 to allow good depth of field and shooting at a low ISO to avoid noise.

My goal was natural-looking and realistic lighting across the whole composition. That’s why I wanted the light to be transparent and to flow naturally in my picture and help lead the eye.

In this ultra-sleek modern building (2), I was looking for unique light patterns and quirky architectural details.

I was shooting with a zoom lens from different shooting positions to make composition more attractive. Shooting from different angles and corners of the place, I made the interior look much bigger and spacious. It gave me opportunities to look for unique ways and experiment capturing the location’s personality and its true character. I tried to avoid distractions for the eye (clutter and crowd). By choosing an appropriate exposure, I was avoided over- or under-exposing a photo. I tried to keep horizontal and vertical lines straight up and down. Otherwise, the sense of tilt would be very distracting and crooked lines might destroy perception.

I think sometimes the building or place looks better without people. In my photographs I wanted the focus to be on the interiors. But one of the most interesting parts of interior photography is seeing how people interact with their environment. To capture more powerful image, I used postures of people in the background to show the big size of the café inside the shopping mall.
Every interior has its beauty but it’s up to us to discover it. I tried to concentrate on modern design, light, glass and reflection.

I used people, construction, images of floor, ceilings, obscure wall details, building manufacture (surface, tiles, glass) anything to make my photograph tell the story of that moment. I noticed that these elements keep viewers’ eyes on the horizon.

I tried to avoid just taking a picture because “it looked nice”; rather than that, I tried to challenge myself to take pictures that look beyond the surface and represent common connections.

I agree with one of the interior photographer’s (Michal Venera’s) opinion that: The better the lens, the better the shot. No matter how good you are, it'll never be its best if you don't have a great piece of equipment. Unfortunately, I had only an average lens available but in the future I will use gelled flash, tripod and a wide-angle lens to cover as much of the building as possible.

In my project I was inspired by Paul White (architectural and building photographer for architects, interior designers, developers, property marketing campaigns, building contractors and for property professionals). He also shoots a wide range of building materials for suppliers to the construction industry. I also followed Ben Thompson and Adrian Wilson (commercial space and interiors photographers) and Jeff Wolfram (industrial, interior, community photographer). All their photographs are shot in high resolution (digital) and image quality comes first and foremost.

The Royal Exchange Building

City Centre Shopping Mall

Library

Sunday, 9 December 2012

Shikhei Goh - macro photography

'First, determine what photography genre you are interested in. Learn, watch, copy and then modify. Never give, keep on practicing until people recognize your works.'

Shikhei Goh, a very talented photographer that has put a lot of passion, ambition and hard work into what he does. He accepts constructive criticism and learns from mistakes, in order to become the best.

He is the best photographers alive, that immortalize insects and tiny creatures, magnifying their looks, to satisfy the curiosity of people and delight them. Insects and small lizards are captured in unique poses, tainted with a little humor and screaming professionalism all over.