Higher Photography
For my Higher Photography project I chose public transport as my theme. Over the course of the school year I planned and took eight photoshoots across Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Edinburgh Airport and South Queensferry, covering a wide range of transport modes and techniques from long exposure light trails on Glasgow's motorway overpasses to candid portraits of commuters on the London Underground.
The project required me to research historical photographers and photographic techniques, produce detailed shoot plans, carry out the shoots, annotate contact sheets, edit the selected images and compare print samples before producing a final evaluated set of prints. I used a Sony SLT-A58 with a range of lenses and shot almost entirely in RAW, editing everything in Darktable which gave me a lot of control over the final look of each image without ever touching the originals.
The light trail and panning shoots were definitely the most fun. Getting to travel to London specifically to take photos was brilliant and I came back each time with a much better understanding of how to handle my camera in all kinds of lighting conditions. The colour red ends up appearing in every single one of my final prints which I didn't plan but really like as it ties the whole set together.
I researched the specific techniques I planned to use: long exposure, panning and nighttime photography. I made detailed shoot plans for each location covering camera settings, equipment, logistics, safety and a full scheduling calendar. I planned eight shoots spread across the school year. I also researched two historical photographers: Art Sinsabaugh, known for his wide format monochrome transport landscapes, and Eva Besnyö, which their candid and unposed observational style I tried to bring into my own photos.
Across the eight shoots I captured any and all public transport I could (trains, trams, planes, buses, cars and boats) in a range of locations across the UK, annotating every image on contact sheets to explain what worked and what didn't. I edited my selected photos in Darktable, adjusting exposure, colour balance and saturation and in a few cases pushing the colours in a more creative way. I tested prints from three companies: DS Colourlabs, Photobox and Snapfish comparing colour accuracy, dynamic range and paper type before settling on DS Colourlabs silky paper for the final prints.
Settings: F5.6 1/1000 ISO400
Location: Edinburgh Waverley Train Station
Settings: F6.3 1/60 ISO3200
Location: London, Liverpool Street Elizabeth Line
Settings: F5 1.3" ISO400
Location: London, Liverpool Street Train Station
Settings: F22 15" ISO100
Location: Glasgow M8 Overpass
Settings: F5.6 1/30 ISO800
Location: London, Baker Street Metropolitan Line
Settings: F5.6 1/1000 ISO400
Location: London, Southwark Underground Station
Settings: F9 1/100 ISO100
Location: Edinburgh Airport Boathouse Brig Viewing
Settings: F6.3 1/500 ISO100
Location: Dalmeny Train Station