Assignment three : Monochrome piers

Monochrome piers...

For this assignment I decided to take seaside piers as my theme. I thought this might work well given the idea with this assignment is to bring out the monochrome image qualities of form, tonal contrast and texture. 

I always associate piers with  summer childhood trips to the sea  and even now enjoy spending the odd hour wandering around piers.The architecture and presentation of funfair rides and stalls always seem to vie with each other for attention and offer glimpses of a history stretching back to early Victorian times.

I wanted to capture a sense of place straddling the past and the here and now, using images of people using and enjoying the pier and then pier itself. And I always associate piers with  summer childhood trips to the sea  and so wanted to give a sense of the weather and season ..in this case, late summer.

I carried out a few test shots on Worthing pier to check out whether the theme would work
and what areas might be interesting to experiment with. Interestingly, my memories of Worthing pier like many childhood memories fell a little short. It did provide some very useful material ,for example, art deco architecture but lacked the 'old-fashioned ' fairground feel that I also wanted to include. For this I went off to Brighton which has a more traditional pier; one less sedate than its cousin in Worthing.

 
So the final selection of images are drawn from time spent on both Brighton and Worthing piers, taken on  a number of days in varying weather.

Pier people



P589: f2.8 @ 1/1250  ISO 80  4mm  AWB Cropped

Unlike these people, I didn't get a chance that day to enjoy the view and lovely sunshine from a deckchair perspective. I chose this composition to convey the timelessness of seaside piers. The horizon might have changed over the decades but the sight of people comfortable in deckchairs could come form any time over the last century. Shooting in monochrome enhances this timelessness. I adjusted the black and white mix to achieve a slight darkening of the sky to lend more interest in what was very much a uniform blue. I also adjusted the tone curve to bring out the pattern on the decking through increased contrast. 



P590: f10 @ 1/320  ISO 100  18mm  WB Cloudy

While I have never seen anyone catch a fish from Worthing Pier, it does not seem to deter fishermen. I like this image for a number of reasons; the puzzle as to what the fisherman is looking at; the weather coming towards us with the clouds lowering over the distant shoreline .. Here I increased the exposure to lighten the image slightly and then applied the tone curve to darken parts of the sky to bring out more the drama of the sky set against the calmness and flatness of the sea and decking.



P591: f2.8 @ 1/160  ISO 80  4mm  AWB Cropped

The intention here is to present the 'contrast' between the business man talking on his mobile phone and the 'timelessness' of the funfair decorations around him. The scene has a certain geometric feel coming from the angled roof lines and the patterned floor which I felt would come over well in monochrome. The challenge was achieving the right level of contrast. The image benefited from cropping and I decreased the exposure, decreased the shadows and highlights before adjusting the tone curve to achieve the final image above. I think it works well and delivers what I intended.




P592: f8 @ 1/400  ISO 100  55mm  -0.7exp.  WB Daylight. Cropped

I always find it difficult to take photographs of people going about their business ever since I was fiercely challenged in Portsmouth city centre when taking shots of a building (ironically) just as a man walk passed. So, given the number of folk out and about on the pier, I was perhaps rather wary of capturing people in any image, particularly children. OK, yet another 'back view' but following this elderly man down the pier gave me this  lucky shot of Frankenstein lurching towards an unwary passer-by. A contrast of the everyday image of the old man and his shopping basket and the fantasy creature. To improve the detail, I increased the blue and decreased the yellow in the black and white mix as well as adjusting the tone curve and cropped the resulting image. 

Around the funfair ...

I am always attracted by shape, pattern, architectural detail and abstract form. Brighton Pier had much to offer and what I found fascinating was the range of period style and fashion that could be found amongst the various funfair rides and sideshows.



P593: f5.6 @ 1/800  ISO 100  18mm  WB Daylight Cropped

This leaping figure in P593 reminded me of a Disney fairy tale character and was painted accordingly. What attracted me was not the colour of the figure and horse but the volume and line and how this might be enhanced in monochrome.

The figure stood guard at the entrance of a slot machine gallery; a strange juxtaposition of fantasy and fairy tale and gambling machines  - or maybe not, given gambling is often seen as a way of fulfilling dreams.

I took shots from different angles around the figure to see what might work best in bright sunlight and how I might use the shadows to best effect. Try as I might it was not possible to get a shot that conveyed this fairy tale /gambling juxtaposition. That said, I like the angle I eventually chose for P593.
Increasing the exposure, contrast and clarity helped to crisp up the detail to the level that I wanted. I darkened the sky slightly using the tone curve.




P594: f8 @ 1/250  ISO 100  33 mm -0.7exp.  WB Daylight  Cropped

I know from previous experience of photographing  carousel horses in colour how hard  it is to capture the traditional, excessive but attractive fairground decoration they carry. I thought it worth a second try in black and white though since I had good examples of volume, texture and geometry in front of me.
 It does work better in monochrome - helped by increasing the contrast significantly.




P595: f5 @ 1/160  ISO 100  38mm WB Daylight

One of the fairground stalls closed and part shuttered gave me a great abstract image with a real retro feel ( P595). I did wonder how the bright red seats would translate into black and white and decided to increase the red within the black and white mix and decrease the yellow to make the yellow stripe on the floor stand out more. I am pleased with the final image.



P596: f8 @ 1/250  ISO 100   21mm  WB Daylight 

  

I like the dramatic impact of this picture. The dramatic feel of the blue and yellow  'Turbo Ride' was heightened by darkening the sky and lightening the cloud within the circle of the ride.