5 photos - Theme - Light and Dark

                                                                                  

Light & Dark

I chose light and dark as my theme for my photographs because the theme is so basic and simple so I am able to take a huge variety of photographs and manipulate them to fit the theme. It lets me play with effects more and it lets me take a photograph of almost anything. These photos make me thing of the battle between light and dark. I like the bold contrast between them and I like to think that theses photographs portray their own story. All of these images were captured by my Lumix DMC-G3 Camera. All of my 5 photographs link into the theme of light and dark, but in their own individual ways.

The First photo on the right was taken while I was in Austria at New year. The photo is capturing a tradition in the Austrian culture where people dressed up as trolls, witches and demons parade around with bells and flares to banish all the badness of the New Year. I took the photo from a slight angle which is why the people to the right look as if they are looking downwards. In the editing process I should have possibly cropped those people out. My camera was set on automatic so I let the camera decide on what it thought was best for the photograph. The non-edited image was a lot redder than this which I did like but I thought that it could look even more dramatic after I put effects on it. So on a computer I increased the saturation of the image as well as increasing the hue on the image. I was then left with the image which you see before you. The image goes with the theme very dramatically as the silhouette of the demon in the left corner and the dark night sky come into contrast with the flare which the figure is holding.
                                                                    



                                                                         

The Second photo on the right was also taken while I was away in Austria at New Year. This however is a picture of the Salt mine which runs through Austria and across the border to Germany. I was on a small mine train when I captured this image. The trains speed was about 10 mph and the mine was lit from above with lights every 3-4 metres. The camera was on automatic so I let it decide on what to do. I did however have my shutter speed on a slower slightly lower setting. This photograph is more of 'in the moment' kind of photo as I just chanced it when I held the camera above my head through the tunnel.

I felt that the original image wasn't bright enough for me so I cropped the image as there was excess space around the image  and I increased the contrast and the brightness to emphasize the contrast between light and dark and the sharpness of the photograph. I increase the saturation slightly, to give the image a more orange glow. The image works well for the theme light and dark as you can clearly identify the contrast between the bright light coming from the upper half of the photograph compared to the black darkness of the bottom half of the photo. The rays from the beam of light show a clear contrast between the lines of black. Looks as if the light prevails over darkness. If  I could, I would try and some how crop the people in front out but I think they help lead the eye further into the photo and down the tunnel. It adds mystery to what could be at the end.






The Third photography is of a sparkler for a birthday cake. I was struggling to find the handle held sparklers as they usually only sell them on bonfire night so I had to go with a substitute of cake sparklers. For this (seeing as they were too short to hold) I stuck them to a frying pan with some putty and I then switched all the lights off, lit it and then moved it from side to side as if it were a hand held sparkler. My camera was set on manual where I actually increased the shutter speed in order to get a clear image of the sparklers. For this image I only increased the contrast, to make the sparkles bolder and clearer. This is the image in which I was left with. I thought the image went perfectly with my theme of light and dark. I love sparklers which is why I wanted them to be apart of my theme. It looks like a little ball of magic light! If I could change something, it would be that I would have used hand held sparklers, so that i could create something more artistic, like words or a proper shape.










The Four photograph is of a burning match. This photo was literally taken before the match burnt out. This photograph was rather tricky to take as i do not have a tripod so i had to hold the match in one hand and the camera in the other. The original image of the match was very plain. I cropped the image more closely and directly to the match as that is the central object to the image. I then increased the contrast to show more definition to the flame on the stick. I brightened the image slightly to add more life to the flame and I also cooled the temperature of the image down to emphasis the blueness of the flame. My camera was set on manual where I focuses the camera on the flame to try and get the best quality out of the match. I think the image works well for my theme of light and dark as it shows that even in such a vast dark space, a little bit of light can bring life back into an image. I also think that the photograph portrays that the light doesn't always conquer over the dark. Sometimes the darkness survives shown by the match burning out.
To improve this photograph I think I should have used a tripod, it would have meant I could have got a clearer and possibly more dynamic image as this one was taken rather quickly as I was only using one had to take the photograph.

The Fifth Photograph is of a burning candle. The candle was in the shape of an apple which was a deep burgundy colour covered in a light coating of gold. I turned off all the lights and focused my camera on the glow of the candle. I then edited the photo by cropping it as there was a lot of empty black space around the outside. I increased the contrast to increase the difference between the light and dark. I decreased any shadows in the image and I actually turned down the brightness a tad as the flame was blurring out parts of the candle. I then added the more pink/purple tone to the image by decreasing the temperature of the image to the coolest possible.  The image goes well with my theme as you can clearly see the distinction between light and dark. I like the tranquility of this image. I think that candles and candle light are rather hypnotic and peaceful. To improve this photo I probably could have spent more time editing it and putting more definition into the inside of the candle and the flame and possibly would have darkened the background even more.