WR1

Plans for Shoot

For my first shoot into this project, I will be looking into the photographer Richard Billingham, who was recommended in the exam paper, and create my own shoot inspired by his work on the portfolio 'Black Country', and see where this will influence me for my final pieces.

Research

Richard Billingham

Billingham is a British photographer who in the portfolio 'Black Country' captures his childhood neighbourhood Cradley Heath in an eerie setting. He used the streetlights on the neighbourhood roads to capture areas with an artificial colouring. I further analysed Billingham's work in the blog post 'Photographer Research - Richard Billingham'. From research and analysis into Billingham's work, it was clear that he used shutter speed techniques to create his photos' light intensity and blur, so I will be taking that into account when recreating my own personal photos of Billingham's work.

Image bank

These are a few of Richard Billingham's pieces in the portfolio 'Black Country'. 

Contact sheet

These are all the photos I took for this shoot.

Best Photos

These are the best selected photos from this shoot.

Photos that require improvement

These two photos in my shoot were near the beginning of my shoot and I was still experimenting with the exposure settings to see roughly what was best to recreate Billingham's work. The first photo the shutter speed was 1sec, aperture F9, and exposure ISO3200. The issue with these settings is that the shutter speed is set for too long, the lens captured too much light into the photo and it removed the eerie appearance like Billingham's work. Once I made the shutter speed faster this issue was resolved and it appeared less exposed, giving more dark areas to the photo. Another issue with this photo was the composition, there is firstly too much empty space above the sign and the angling is also crooked, making the photo appear sloppy. I also resolved this by using my tripod and taking more time to better position my camera. For the second photo the shutter speed was 1sec, aperture F9, and exposure ISO3200. The issue with this photo was the shutter speed being too long, this was an experimenting photo so there are photos before and after this that had a better exposure setting. Due to the long shutter speed, too much light got into the photo and it has revealed too much of the surroundings, not creating an eerie atmosphere like Billingham's.

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

My Ideas

My intentions for this first shoot was to research into the recommended photographer Richard Billingham and then recreate his work to begin my influence into artificial lighting. From my research I learnt that Billingham used exposure manipulation to create his harsh lighting and vibrant hues, this helped me to recreate his work. When creating my own shoot, I took this information and varied my exposure to experiment and perfect my method in this street photography. Billingham's work was a symbolism of nostalgia in a bittersweet reality for his rough childhood, presenting his childhood streets in an eerie and mysterious atmosphere. I feel I was successful in my recreation to Billingham's work as I was able to experiment a lot and therefore perfect the method for each photo.

Reference to best photos

I selected this photo because I feel the harsh orange hue in the street light is a good recreation of Billingham’s work. For this photo the shutter speed was 1/2sec, this is what created the harsh glow and vibrancy of colour from the street light. The orange hue creates a mysterious and eerie atmosphere, similar to Billingham's work. The areas that were highlighted from the light are flattering and creates an effective frame to the photo.

I selected this photo because I feel it represents the warn down symbolism of council estates. The trolley left carelessly at a pole shows the lack of care that these type of streets are given, similar to the streets Billingham represented. Another quality of Billingham's work was that he never really presented the light source itself, which this photo also recreates. The shutter speed for this photo was 1/4sec, the lighting was still relatively dull because the light source was further away from the frame. The camera setting was still able to create a strong orange hue that highlights the trolley bars.

I selected this photo because I feel it had a strong orange hue that creates a mysterious and almost dangerous atmosphere. The shutter speed for this photo was 1/3sec, because the light source was so close to the lens the camera was able to capture a lot of light to create a vibrant light on the road. Similar to Billingham's work, the light source is undirectly presented.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

Shoot Process/Use of Camera

For this shoot, I walked around my estate at night and captured areas involving streetlights that I found intriguing. Each composition/area I would take multiple photos of with different exposure settings to see what would look best. I used my Nikon D3400 camera and tripod to capture these photos. The ISO typically stayed at ISO3200 with the photos since this sensitivity appeared best, the aperture varied from F8-11 in all the photos I captured, it would depend on the shutter speed setting. What I experimented with most was the shutter speed of the photos, varying from 1/10-2secs, it doesn't appear to be much but even a fraction of a second change would dramatically change the photos at points.

Experimenting

Some photos I feel lacked strong enough hues, so using Photoshop I enhanced the hue and saturation in some photos. It is not specified if Billingham used any photo enhancements for his photos, but I feel it could create a stronger effect for a few of mine.

Firstly, I pressed CTRL+J to create a copy of the original photo so I can go back it if needed.

 Next, I added an adjustment layer of curves, to brighten the photo slightly, this would reveal more potential areas of colour.

 This is the before and after of adding the adjustment layer.

 Then, I added another adjustment layer of hue/saturation to increase the colour saturation and slightly darken the colour to deepen the colour appearance.

 This is the before and after of adding the second adjustment layer.

 These are all the layers used to create the photo.

This is the before and after the editing process.

Overall, I feel for some photos being edited may be necessary, but it may take away the authenticity of the photos effect, and so the editing isn't necessary depending on the effect you intend for the photo.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

From my research, I have been able to practice and perfect my method in streetlight photography with the use of exposure manipulation. I was able to take multiple different shots with different settings and this helped me to learn what would look best for streetlight photos. Billingham's work helped me to learn more varied camera techniques and better perfect my exposure settings for photos.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements. 

Progression

Overall, I feel Billingham's streetlight photography is a strong presentation of artificial lighting, it shows the strength artificial light has to create powerful atmospheres and almost stories. I feel I should, however, move onto portraiture involving artificial lighting to see what inspires me more for my personal presentation. In my next shoot, I will be looking at the other recommended photographer Bettina von Zwehl and recreate her work.