Landscape Work Diary

Description of shoot:

After researching landscape photography and landscape photographers, I went out and captured my own landscape pictures. I was very interested in Rut Blees Luxemburg's work after researching her. So within this shoot I tried to work in her style. I used a tripod in order to keep the pictures steady, this is because of the camera settings. In order to maintain in the style of Luxemburg, I mainly took pictures of landscapes that were man made / artificial as a pose to natural landscapes and horizons.  In this sense, I focused on buildings, construction scenery, and car parks. I found that a main factor of her work that stood out to me, was how it seems to represent urban city life. This is a sense that I have tried to re create in this shoot.

Editing:

In order to further work in the style of Luxemburg, I edited my pictures in photoshop and tried to make them similar to the effects that her pictures have. I think her style is very clear and defined as most of her pictures follow this particular style which makes her work very recognisable and memorable. I also found that this made it easier for me to work in her style. I made most of my pictures underexposed to she the darkness and has a connotation of night life. I also manipulated the colours in the pictures by making the yellows and oranges stand out more so than the other colours to emphasise the warm undertones in the pictures. I also edited the levels in the pictures to make the dark tones and shadows even more dark to create that tonal contrast.

Examples and picture I liked:

The pictures below show two examples of pictures I captured and edited. It also shows screenshots of the processes I manipulated the pictures with in photoshop.

The picture above is my favourite picture that I took in this shoot. It is also the one that I think most represents Luxemberg's work. I was inspired by the image to the right which is one of her pictures. I have used a similar sort of landscape through the use of an inside staircase in an urban and rustic looking setting. The most important factor of editing this picture was creating the darkness of the shadows to create a tonal contrast but also to manipulate the colour balance in this picture. I focused on bringing out the oranges and yellows and I put a slight orange based filter on there picture.

Progression:

In order to improve the quality of this shoot, next time, I will try and get more of a variety. I can do this by looking at natural landscapes and scenery as well as man made landscapes e.g. buildings. This way I can explore all different types of landscapes to get a bigger range of images. I think the best way to achieve this is to go out to all sorts of different places and take pictures instead of keeping to the same places.

Here is a landscape picture from the internet. This is the type of image that I would aspire to get if I could re do this shoot. I think these are the type of landscapes I am most interested in as I am not really interested in very colourful and bright natural landscapes, I am much more interested in simplistic and minimalistic landscapes that have dark tonal features and muted colours.