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[rogersjonny74]

Major Project

So looking more into the technique of Vertorama I came across a very useful guide that explains and illustrates everything you need to do to create a successful Vertorama image

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As seen in this video, I had the pleasure of meeting Max Vassiades to get a rough idea of the exact technique involved with Vertorama photography. He simply rotated the camera up on a fixed axis of rotation to capture 3-4 shots of the area then stitch them together using photoshop to create a vertical panorama

[rogersjonny74]

Major Project

After the work review came out pretty conclusively that there would be no review if I have nothing to show, the idea was bounced around that the images I had presented were too ‘brouchery’ to fit into this field. So having to work out exactly what field I should focus on with this photography 

I have decided that i want to focus on presenting architecture in London through the ‘Vertorama’ technique as shown below... 

Max Vassiades (@dephreq, Instagram)

Looking at Max as inspiration for this technique as he is someone who has mastered this technique and produces stunning vetorama images

[rogersjonny74]

Major Project

Research into Archtiecture Photography Pt 3 

So after looking into the tips on how to create great architecture photos I now have to work out what theme within architecture i should focus on. Much like sculpture, architecture is seen as a form of art and therefore has many themes and differences to it. Not one building is the same (apart from houses) but im talking about city architecture. Aside from the themes of architecture there are also different genres of architecture photography, Cityscapes, Night-scapes and fine art to name but a few. 

[rogersjonny74]

Major Project

Work Review

Conc: Need some of my own work...

[rogersjonny74]

Major Project

Research into Architecture Photography Pt 2 

Long exposures of buildings and architecture subjects can have very powerful effects. You can use this technique to enhance the details in the sky and clouds, darkening the mood. This is also a great way to drop distracting subjects. During a long exposure, all moving subjects, such as people and cars become blurred. A lack of definition allows more attention to the structure.  If water is present in the form of a river, lake or sea, a long exposure can cut out the texture. This effect creates some interesting, abstract images. A style, such as this, adds interest and atmosphere to your architecture.

Photo by: Julia Anna Gospodarou

Photo by: Unkown.

Sourced from: pxhere

People make architecture, so allow them in the shot. From time to time. By including a few people in your image, you give the structure a sense of scale. They could even interact with the object, giving it meaning. The viewers will look and focus on the person or people in the image. This can pinpoint details and functions that might have been missed otherwise. A ghost city can make the scene look a little apocalyptic. By including people, you make it more accessible to the viewers, and more alive. You will need the patience to get the right look from their body language.

Photo by: Unknown

Sourced from: VultureLabs

Photo by: Gavin Dunbar

Architecture photography has a very big place in fine art photography. It is an area where you can take your time to plan and experiment, as they are static structures. The perspective you choose can give precedent to areas of the architectural subject.  Here, you create a feeling and mood of the setting. The building or structure needs to first evoke an emotion in you. How you interpret the subject through your initial impression is important.

Photo by: Sharon Tenenbaum

What's particularly apparent in all these different genres of architecture photography is that black and white post processing is very popular for successful architecture photographers. This is because with less colour the details and impressions in the subject are much more apparent and with a high contrast it makes the subject appear more dramatic than it really is. If it isn't black and white then it's a colour select, with only two colours shown. For example in the image taken by Sharon Tenenbaum the two colours are white and blue. No other colours are present in the photo.

[rogersjonny74]

Major Project

Research into Architecture Photography Pt 1

Looking into tips on architecture photography and how to take ‘good’ photos in the architecture genre I found this. Architecture photography is a lot slower than other fields. Especially compared to photojournalism or sports photography. You spend a considerable amount of time mulling over a scene or environment. This means your camera doesn’t need to focus on speed. Or continuous shooting modes, for example. You need to focus on quality. Use a low ISO, capture your images in Raw and utilizing editing tools. With these, you are halfway to capturing stunning images. A few lenses in your camera gear will allow you versatility. You can photograph a multitude of different structures and scenarios. Some photographers use specialized equipment. A large format camera helps to minimalize parallax errors. These are often found in angled images of structures. 

Other equipment, such as tilt and shift lenses also add a creative touch to your shots. If you wish to dabble with long exposures, a graduated ND filter is a great item to have.This filter cuts out the amount of light hitting the sensor. This is great when you have exhausted your exposure triangle options.A cable release or off-camera shutter release system is great for keeping the mirror shake to a minimum. It also means you don’t have to hold the button yourself for extended periods of time. One item that is beneficial is the spirit/bubble level. In architecture photography, straight lines are very important. This little gadget helps to keep your camera level on three different levels at the same time.

[rogersjonny74]

Major Project

It’s pretty apparent that locations in London that are unusually popular that aren’t popular landmarks are mostly architecture based. They are popular for their design and are seen as aesthetically pleasing. After looking on LocationScout.com i have found several locations across London and its suburbs that have been shared as photo locations worth visiting these include pretty much all architecture photography spots such as Gherkin, pedestrian tunnels across london including Kingston, Canary Wharf and Poplar to name a few. All of which are popular for there architectural assets.

Maybe I should do a architecture photography project instead🤔

[rogersjonny74]

Major Project

The question that can be explored is how much has tourism helped in this case. Tourism figures for the City of London. VisitBritain states that the official tourism forecast figures shows that actually over the past 2 years there has been a decline in numbers of oversea’s visits into London. 

Instagram in comparison has seen a huge increase in numbers over the period of its launch in 2012 to 2019 with now over 1bn users worldwide and over 700m monthly active users. In the UK alone from 2014 to 2016 the amount of connected users rose from 15% to 22%. 

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Major Project 1

I have been on the popular photo sharing platform Instagram for 5 years now and whilst interacting with the photo community in London it became apparent to me that a lot of photo taking involved  a lot of exploring around the city to find spots that look good in photos. Im not just talking about the popular landmarks I’m talking about spots you wouldn’t of thought of. They can be tucked away from the public eye or they could be right out in the open. 

For me it’s very apparent how these spots in London have blown up in popularity over the past 5 years due to Photographers sharing the locations to other photographers and with Instagram more accessible than ever photography has never been easier to do and share. 

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Project Statement

Urban Exploration

Have you ever wanted to just go out and explore London, well these guys do exactly that but only to more extreme measures. The practice of Urban Exploration has been around in London for a few years and has been fuelled by its popularity on social media. I set out to create a short montage to show you what it is all about and to give you a small insight into this.

Music Used:

Strangers by Far out

 Subtitles of Video:

As the rapid urbanisation of London has taken hold it has given way to a new craze Urban Exploration.

Urban Exploration or Urbex as it has become known is the exploration of man made structures often abandoned or hidden from the general public, photography plays a large role in the popularity of the hobby the historical documentation has also become a factor as urban landscapes change ever more quickly over time. But what exactly does it involve, well let me show you.

So after watching that footage you’re probably questioning the legality of it all, to be honest I really don’t blame you. But it might shock you to find out that actually what we do is within the law, urban exploration in any form comes under ‘Civil Trespass’ which is a non-criminal act and therefore isn’t punishable. However to get around this many construction sites in London have high court injunctions against them which criminalizes any attempt at unauthorised entry.

Youtube and Instagram have mainly been to blame for the rise in popularity for Urbex. As you can imagine Urban Explorers get some pretty insane footage and photos from doing this, which means they have gained quite the following on social media and from this they inadvertently influence others to copy them, oh and er don’t try this at home…

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Evaluation for Screen Module

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Wall Page and Screen

UPDATE

After looking at it more I decided to last minute change the Narration so it includes the mention of social media and sounds more upbeat and natural. As the previous version was a little monotone for my liking

New Script is as follows

As the rapid urbanisation of London has taken hold it has given way to a new craze Urban Exploration.

Urban Exploration or Urbex as it has become known is the exploration of man made structures often abandoned or hidden from the general public, photography plays a large role in the popularity of the hobby the historical documentation has also become a factor as urban landscapes change ever more quickly over time. But what exactly does it involve, well let me show you.

So after watching that footage you’re probably questioning the legality of it all, to be honest I really don’t blame you. But it might shock you to find out that actually what they do is within the law, urban exploration in any form comes under ‘Civil Trespass’ which is a non-criminal act and therefore isn’t punishable. However to get around this many construction sites in London have high court injunctions against them which criminalizes any attempt at unauthorised entry.

Youtube and Instagram have mainly been to blame for the rise in popularity for Urbex. As you can imagine Urban Explorers get some pretty insane footage and photos from doing this, which means they have gained quite the following on social media and from this they inadvertently influence others to copy them, oh and er don’t try this at home…

[rogersjonny74]

Final Version

Video Breakdown

To replace the 20 seconds of blank screen at the beginning of a video I pulled a hyper lapse off youtube of a sunrise in London from a rooftop on the South Bank. The hyper lapse was orginally used in the 51 degrees movie. I then overlaid some ambient city sounds just to help create and establish an urban theme. The Voice over remains the same through out the video. Most of the footage has been colour graded with small tweaks to the temperature and exposure.

Apart from this the other tweaks I’ve made include adding new footage into the last scenes just to smooth out the cut from the rooftop to the drone footage. I think going from a cinematic shot to another cinematic shot does this quite well.

As previously mentioned I have taken inspiration from both Leonardo Dalessandri and Harry Gallagher (aka NightScape). Dalessandri in the way he edits and creates atmosphere between scenes. Using different visual references in different scenes that he keeps the same. Continuity helps to establish some form a narrative and makes the video smoother in terms of visuals. I have used Harry Gallagher as inspiration for the way he uses music to enhance the audiences viewing experience by timing events in the music with events or transitions in the video itself. I also changed a few scenes in the first rooftop footage. When doing the fast cuts I had to prolong the footage originally so i could time the cuts with events in the music but in doing so failed to see that I had not taken into account that the footage was not shot in 60fps so the footage slowed down to the point where it didnt have enough frames so it stuttered horribly. So i fixed this and changed a few scenes so that the video footage timed with the music. And that was it pretty much!

[rogersjonny74]

Wall Page and Screen

Final Review Feedback

The general consensus on the first draft is that it does what it needs to do but there are a few things that could improve

The audience could try and find links between the lyrics in the music to the video even though there aren’t or weren't meant to be. The idea might be to try and align the video with music that could relate to Urban Exploration, i.e music that urban explorers might listen to or music where the lyrics have relation to the video. Or the other idea was to include just instrumental music. 

The voice over was received well but was too quiet at the beginning so the audio levels need to be changed so that my voice is more understandable.

The involvement or reference to social media and how its helped in the rise of Urban Exploration. I think I might change the script for the voice over to include some mention of social media.  

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Finally leading up to the reveal of the second view. I made sure i had my friend walk up to the edge and look down. I knew he had a gopro on and i had the idea of conisiding this footage showing him walking up and looking down with the footage of him looking down at the ground below and then up with view.

Again the idea of continuity being my main drive inspired by what Dalessandri does in Watchtower of Turkey.

I then cut the next sequence exactly the same was as the first with the cuts in times to events in the music exactly like NightScape does

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I went back to the building in which my first shoot took place and filmed a run up to the door of the building. This fits in with the whole narrative idea. With a lead up to the first segment it only made sense that i had some form of run up into the second segment. It also served as a perfect mid video voiceover oppurtunity. I coinsided it with a lull in the music.

Then i made sure that i had the entry to the place and showed the means of getting to the roof (i.e. the elevator) i got super lucky that someone opened the door when i got there as my original plan was to stop the footage at the door. Then showing the hatch i had used as entry to the roof to keep up the narrative. Again warp stabilizing all footage and cutting it in a fast pace sequence like Dalessandri does.