Part 1 The Frame; Project: Looking through the viewfinder (continued)

Exercise: A sequence of composition.

Objective: To help in and record, the practical process of composing an image.

Location: Alton Farmers Market, Saturday 08/01/11. The market was extremely quiet and the light was not ideal. I waited around a lot for the forecast sunny spells but only one arrived. I have shown below the sequence of images that I took and a larger version of the final image.

Camera settings: As I wanted to work quickly, I set the camera to Programme mode and the ISO setting to automatic (to cope with the low light and the sudden change that occured when the sun shone). That way, I could concentrate on framing the shots. Below are two contact sheets of  the sequence of shots that I took. Clicking on each one will open a larger version:

 As alluded to in the course material for this exercise, I did find it difficult to concentrate on framing a shot. There were a lot of false starts and distractions on the way but I have extracted a sequence and annotated it:

4124  1/250s f8, 40mm As the sun came out, I was by the bakers stall and framed this shot:

4125 1/500s f5.6, 150mm I zoomed in on the loaves to his left:

4126 1/200s f7.1, 32mm Deciding I wanted to include the bread  the baker and a customer, I moved around the stall:

 

4127 1/160s f6.3, 34mm The baker has bagged the customers purchase, I zoom in a bit closer:

4128 1/160s f6.3, 34mm The customer is handing over her money - sale complete:

4128 Final Image: After making a few adjustments to the levels and curves and a final crop, this is the result. I have recorded the bread, the stallholder and a customer.

What did I learn? The lady in the background with the red anorak is a bit of a distraction but otherwise I'm quite pleased with this outcome. When I get another opportunity, I will repeat this exercise, putting in to practice the the lessons I have learned about deciding on a subject and concentrating on working towards one final shot.

I also learned how to print contact sheets "to file" in my photo editing software, which makes producing thumbnails for this blog much quicker.