FMP
Editing Develpoment
After applying a variety of edits to my images, I needed to make a decision as to whether I wanted to continue with the deadpan style of editing and whether I wanted to edit in black and white or in colour. After reviewing the images I have decided to come away from the deadpan style of photography. This is because on display in the summer show, my images will look quite flat and dull on the wall when being exhibited and will not look very appealing to anyone. The other reason that helped me to make this decision was my chosing to edit in black and white. This will create a stunning final look to the images when being presented. This also means that for black and white to work better, I will need to have more contrast in the images. This will really help my images to stand out and give them the finishing touch. To back these choices up, I have looked at another two photographers. Stuart Franklin, for the compostion of images to try on my second shoot, and Sebastião Salgado to look at the black and white editing.
Stuart Franklin
Stuart Franklin began his career after college, working with the Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph Magazine. He later went on to work with Agence Presse Sygma in Paris. Working here he began to absorb the skills of news photography, and he began to follow the same approach to photography as Henri-Cartier Bresson's work. Frankling was invited to join Magnum Photos in 1985 and has been a member since 1989. I have picked two of his images to look at for my research.
Stuart Franklin began his career after college, working with the Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph Magazine. He later went on to work with Agence Presse Sygma in Paris. Working here he began to absorb the skills of news photography, and he began to follow the same approach to photography as Henri-Cartier Bresson's work. Frankling was invited to join Magnum Photos in 1985 and has been a member since 1989. I have picked two of his images to look at for my research.
These two images are good to look at for composition as the show how to capture a great sense of depth in a landscape. The key to the success in both of these images is that fact that they have been well composed. The first image has a great lead in line that takes you right as far as the eye can se within the image. This really helps draw you into the image. There is a good difference to the first image between the bowed trunks of the trees lining the edge of the road, to the perfectly shaped and aligned cone trees in the background. This suggests that the trees at the edge of the road are protecting the pristine condition and serenity of the cone trees behind.
The second image is of a complete different composition to the first. It is a lot more of an open landscape and has the main subject off to the side utilising the key rule of thirds when it comes to composing great landscape images. There is a great amount of detail in the landscape, and the rolling hills help lead you into the image, another great feature for landscape photography. There is a good balance between foreground interest and sky. Both of these elements have a lot of detail in them so there is something different that you see each time you look at the image. Great detail in the clouds really helps add drama to a black and white landscape image. It doesnt look very appealing when there is just a solid bank of cloud as in a black and white imag this will just be block white. I will try to get the right weather conditions right in order to capture great detail in the clouds for my images.
Sebastião Salgado - Genesis
Sebastião Salgado's Genesis project is about documenting landaacpes, wildife, seascapes and indigenous peoples trying to raise public awareness on the changes to the enoronment and blobal warming. These images are true to Salgados work, and are excellent examples of true black and white photography. Starting in 2004, he began to capture nature in its original state and show the indigenous people work with the landscape instead of against. This was an eight year long process in whcih he created a total of 200 final images worhty of exhibition.
I have chosen these two images from the Genesis project as they are perfect examples of the type of editing I am going to try to recreate in my work. Both images have a very high contrast and show massive amounts of detail in each image. The first image taken of part of the Brooks Range in The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, USA shows a great tonal range withing the image. What you could imagine to be really dark shadows in a colour image and otherwise not recognisable are brought out in the black and white and the editing to the image really shows the beauty in the hidden detail. The sharpness of the mountainrange and detail that is visible within the image is phenomenal. I want to try to create these types of tones when editing my images. I know that I will need to work on dodging and burning the images to capture the perefect balance of tones within my images.
The second image of an iceberg in the Antarctic Channel really give across the feeling of the icy cold water due to how dark the ater is compared to the iceberg and cloud. If this was a colour image then this wouldnt come across as strongly and wouldnt be as successful an image. The iceberg really stands out from the skyline due to its ragged edges and defining cliff top. The editing has been really succesful in this image as it gives a great depth to the image and shows the true scale of the iceberg and gives it a dominant feel over the water. Again the range of tones really help to separate out the different elements of the image. If I am able to edit my images as well as these and get a great range of tones in my images then I will have been successful in my images.