LO1 - Understand professional photographers and their work

Nature Photography

Mike Lane

Photographic Category

Mike Lane is a nature photographer. He takes photographs of animals and other wildlife including birds and insects.

Purpose

Because nature photography can be striking and beautiful, it can often be found in homes as decoration. It can also be used as educational, in magazines to illustrate an article, and exhibitions about nature.

Image Analysis and Meaning

LANE. M (2015) 'Kingfisher 93155' available at: http://www.nature-photography.co.uk/gallery/kingfisher-15064/photo/kingfisher-93155-533208/large [Accessed 15/04/15]

The composition of this photograph shows the kingfisher in the very centre, meaning that it becomes the main focus of the image. In terms of the rule of thirds, again, the bird is in the centre, meaning it's in the middle of all four focal points. This makes it the main aspect of the image.
This picture is generally high-key, which was achieved with natural light. This connotes nature and makes the picture colourful and vivid. The exposure in this photograph will have been have been done with an average aperture like f/8. This is because the shutter speed looks as if it was also about average, because of the slight motion-blur on the bird's wings. The shutter speed would have been about 1/125 of a second, which is average.
Based on the generally normal other aspects, the ISO would probably also be something average like 400. The ISO affects how sensetive the camera sensor is to light. A too high ISO can make a photograph grainy, as it's picking out more spots of light.
Because of the normal aperture, the depth of field isn't massively shallow or deep. You can definitely see that the background is out of focus, so we can assume the depth of field is more shallow. This is good because it brings emphasis to the bird and splashes of water in the foreground.
The subject of the photograph (the bird) is framed by the splashes of water around it. The water brings the viewer's eye to the bird, emphasizing it.
This shot is a close-up of the bird. It's hard to tell what kind of shot it is because it features a bird rather than a person.
The angle of this photograph is like most; at eye-level. This is because the photograph is supposed to be seen from the point of view of the photographer.
The photographer may have used a tripod to keep the camera steady whilst taking the photo. The sort of lens I think the photographer used is a telephoto lens. This is because a telephoto lens can zoom in very far - anything above 100mm - and in nature photography, it's often too difficult to get close to the subject without scaring it away. so instead, the photographer used a telephoto lens to zoom in on the subject.


Sports Photography

Tim Clayton

Photographic Category

Tim Clayton is a sports photographer. Sports photography features action and movement often seen in sports.

Purpose

This type of photography can be for advertising and promotional purposes, such as on billboards or magazines. It can be also used in magazines for articles. It will also be found online, not just on the photographer's website but on sports websites and online sports articles. It will also be found in newspapers to accompany articles.

Image Analysis and Meaning

Clayton. T (2015) 'Tim Clayton Sports Photographer' available at: http://timclayton.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Greenwich-Polo-Connecticut-USA/G0000N680_sxcI_Q/I00004VJnKYcdO2I/C0000OZ0pGxUHni4 [Accessed 15/04/2015]

The composition of this photograph applies to the rule of thirds, in which the photograph can be split into 9 equal segments. There are four focal points where the corners of the segments meet, and this is where important visual elements of the photo are usually placed. In this photo, the jockeys' faces are at the focal points of the photograph. This makes sure that the subjects are balanced, they are both subjects of the photograph.
There is quite a shallow depth of field, created by using a wide aperture such as f3.6. However, there is lots of motion-blur, meaning the background is just a blur of green. The camera has followed the horses, meaning the horses and jockeys in the foreground are in focus but the background isn't. This brings emphasis to the two jockeys and horses, who, apart from motion-blur, are in focus. The motion-blur connotes the speed at which the horses are moving.
The lighting in this photograph is high-key and natural. It's hard to get a good photograph using natural light because it's always changing. The use of natural lighting connotes the reality of the photograph. To achieve the right brightness according to the aperture, there would have to have been quite a slow shutter speed like 1/30th used, which achieves the high-key lighting and also the motion-blur the photographer was going for, as slow shutter speeds capture more motion. The motion-blur highlights the speed of the chase between the two horses and jockeys.
There would have been quite a low ISO used for this photograph as highlights like the jockey's white top are very bright, however, it wouldn't have been too high because there isn't too much noise in the photograph. 
The angle of the photograph is eye-level, which makes the photograph more realistic for viewers as it is the sort of angle they would see the actual action at.
The trees in the background and the red stripe on the ground have been used to frame this image. This, and the speed shown by motion blur, connotes the fact that they are on a pitch playing polo.



Landscape Photography

John Robinson

Photographic Category

John Robinson is a landscape photographer who uses techniques such as panorama. Different frames rates are used in landscape photography to achieve different effects.

Purpose

Landscape photography is mainly found in galleries and can be framed and displayed in homes and galleries as they are usually very nice images. They can also be used in advertising and promotion for products and places on things like billboards.

Image Analysis and Meaning

ROBINSON. J (2015) 'First Light Old Hartley' available at: http://www.johnrobinsonphoto.com/photo/first-light-old-hartley/

This photograph has a very slow shutter speed. We can tell this because the running water looks very smooth, as it's motion-blurred because it's moving. The rocks are in focus because they are not moving, so they are in focus. To balance out the slow shutter speed, the aperture would have to be a small one - around f/12 - to make sure the photograph isn't too underexposed, even though the low key lighting achieves the connotation of moodiness; with all the warm colours it appears very haunting and beautiful. The lighting, apart from where the sun is shining through the cliffs, is quite low key. With the warm colours it makes the photograph quite moody. The wide establishing shot allows the viewer to take in the beauty of the whole scene, with all of the different colours and shadows. It represents the location in a certain way to achieve this mood. The framing is an extreme wide or establishing shot, which is common in landscape photography. The photographer has done this to actually show the landscape, and this shows all the colours which makes the photograph. The angle of the photograph is eye-level: this makes it look as if the viewer is stood looking at the scene, giving the photograph more depth and bringing it to life. It has a very deep depth of field so that the background is in focus. This allows the viewer to see all the way to the horizon, and connotes the vastness of the scene. It allows them to see all the detail in the landscape and colours rather than going out of focus when everything gets further away.
The orientation of this photograph, as it should quite obviously be, is landscape.
The ISO in this photograph would be quite high, as the light is very low key.



Macro Photography

Heather Angel

Photographic category

Macro photography is very close-up shots of usually small things like insects. It is often used to show great detail.

Purpose

Macro photography can be used in promoting and advertising, an example would be to use it on an Instagram account. It shows lots of detail, so it's good for advertising well-made clothing products because it can highlight the stitches and how well it's made. Macro photography in nature can be used in advertising and promotion for wildlife organizations and events such as the Royal Chelsea Flower Show.

Image Analysis and Meaning

ANGEL. H 'Heather Angel' available at: http://www.heatherangel.co.uk/#/Portfolio/Macro/9/thumbs [Accessed 15/04/2015]

The first thing I notice about this photograph is the very shallow depth of field. The foreground with the insect is completely in focus, but behind that the image becomes very out of focus very quickly. This is a common characteristic of macro photography as it brings the viewer's eye to the subject of the photo. In terms of framing, the photograph also follows the rule of thirds by placing the insect directly in the centre of the four focal points. The lighting is very high key which, again, makes the photograph look more natural. The shot-type is extreme close-up as it makes a tiny insect look larger. It allows the viewer to see the tiny details of the insect, and the shallow depth of field makes sure the only tiny details we can see are on the insect.

The angle looks as if it's a very high angle looking down on the insect. This tells the viewer that even though the insect looks very large, it's actually very small as we're looking down from above it. The photograph looks like it's been taken with an average sort of shutter speed like 1/125, because the photographer probably wanted to avoid motion-blur at the same time as letting in lots of natural light. The aperture in this photograph would be very small to achieve a shallow depth of field, meaning the shutter speed would have to be slow - around 1/70 - to balance out the exposure. The ISO would be small because the photograph looks like it was taken in quite bright conditions; this means the ISO would have been around 100.
The majority of colours in this photograph are very warm, like pinks. There is a patch of green in the background, and the insect and the head of the plant are yellow. These colours are cooler, meaning that it contrasts nicely with the mainly pink background. This makes the whole photograph more appealing to look at, and the high saturation shows the vivid colours of nature.
The orientation of the photograph is portrait. This makes sure the insect can be shown as close-up as possible, and all of the detail can be seen.