Assignment 3: A photographic commission

I looked at the ‘Lonely Planet Magazine Asia’ to get ideas for the layout for this assignment. One thing I noticed about them though is that whilst on their website they say that they accept photos in landscape format only, a significant amount of their content is portrait orientation. I initially took photos in landscape with only a few in portrait, and ended up returning to try and get a shot that could be used as a cover shot potentially.

I chose the palace at Gyeongbokgung because it is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Seoul, and I really enjoyed visiting it when I was on holiday there in December. I also used the photos from my December shoot for the layouts that come before this project, and liked how they looked. I needed to do a whole new shoot for the assignment though, and so set up some trips there. the main issue I had was weather, I would have loved to have blue skies like I did in winter, but that was not to be until I went back for the cover shoot! The palace was closed then however, but I was able to take photos of the gate. 

The palace grounds also includes the National Folk Museum, which I decided to dedicate 2 pages of the 5 to. The first page is the main Gwanghwamun gate, then we move through into the grounds, and page 2 is a double page featuring Geungjeongjeon, the main throne hall. I made lots of images the right size for a double page spread, but this was the one I chose as it was the most striking, and it also seemed the right position to have a double page spread. The magazine seems to either use double page spreads for the first or second pair of pages. I wanted my first page to be of the main gate but to also include the title information with it. The throne hall is also a part that most visitors stop at as they go through the palace, before getting swallowed up in the vast grounds where you never quite know whether you will see everything or not! There are also still some parts being renovated, but there was definitely more open than when I first saw it. I chose to focus on autumn colours and picked out photos with reds to illustrate this. I love the pavilion on the island, and although disappointed that it wasn’t as bright as it was on my first visit due to the lighting, but it was still reflected in the water and looks peaceful. Pages 4 and 5 show the National Folk museum, page 4 the museum building and statues outside, and page 5 the old street that is preserved there. I found the various statue collections fascinating and have a lot of images of them. 

To prepare for my shoot, I looked at the work of a few photographers. The first was Steve McCurry as he is a well-known Magnum travel photographer, and he has striking images of many Asian countries. The main set I looked at was of Japan, and although different topics, I liked the way he showed people in some of them, parts of people and people going about daily lives. Martin Parr is someone who’s work I have always admired, I like the way he uses close up shots to give a different view of traditional British pastimes. Again, he depicts normal daily life, but in eye-catching images. RJ Koehler is a photographer who has done some work around Korea, and I love his Autumnal shots. He has some interesting shots of the palaces from high places, and I need to go and find these places too. http://rjkoehler.tumblr.com/ Trey Ratcliff is a photographer that I listen to on podcasts, and I love his photos of New Zealand where he currently lives. I looked at his Korea collection http://www.stuckincustoms.com/category/travel/south-korea/ which are mainly HDR images. I am still not sure about HDR and if I like it, but found some of these images intriguing. For a magazine general travel shoot though, I decided HDR was not appropriate. 

I used my Lumix GX1 for the shoots, with the 14mm lens only as I didn’t want too many distractions. I also did take a few on my Samsung phone, although did not use them for the final edit. 

I then edited according to what pages I felt images were appropriate for, and looked through the magazine to determine image sizes. There was a lot of playing around and I finally settled with the images after changing a few around. I decided to use Helevetica neue as a font for the title and introduction, at a size of 36 for the title and 18 introduction. Initially I thought about using a coloured font, but then went back to plain black. Captions were in Verdana 12 point throughout apart from page 1 which I kept as Helevetica neue, and the main text in Times 14 point. I found putting the text in quite challenging, as I kept managing to delete layers, but then worked out what had gone wrong. I am not good at writing this kind of text, and so took it mostly from wikipedia and travel websites as I believe it is an assessment mainly of the photos telling the story. 

Exercise: Make a page layout

We were shown a few different layouts and asked to find various photos from our collections to try them out with. As we are later making a photo story, I decided to use photos on one theme and make this into a mini photo story project.

The first page I made has the title in Verdana font, size 21 then size 14 for the introduction. The reason I chose Verdana is that it is sans serif and very clear and simple. I then chose Times 12 for the writing, as serif fonts are easier to read. The 2 images show slightly different aspects of the palace grounds.

The second has Arial size 14 another clear sans serif font. I think it looks clear and very easy to read. The images were chosen to go together as they are of a very similar subject and I felt the colours also being quite pale worked. 

For the double page spread, I chose a subject with a strong visual and one that draws us in. It is slightly off centre. The text for the caption is  Helevetica size 14, another sans serif font. Both the sky and snow provide ample spaces for clear text, but I felt top left was the best place in this image. 

The heading is Tahoma, 30 and caption 14. For the text I chose PT Serif size 12,  I feel the 2 fonts interact well with each other. The images on the right show the effects of the weather more clearly.Again, I feel the contrasting colours in 2 images work with the paler images in the other 2. 

Exercise: practise writing captions

This exercise asked us to look at captioning used by various publications and then add captions to our own photos.

In the last exercise, I commented on the captioning used by some publications. National Geographic used long captions, sometimes in italics. All the online publications I looked at, The Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, Guardian and New York Times used captions with a short version of the story and places the images at the top. In some cases, photographer information was included in the caption.

Project: Research Published Layouts

For this project, we had to look at various publications and look at how they laid out photos and text, and how they used captions.

The first magazine I looked at was the May edition of National Geographic. The cover shot showed a baby, on a very plain white background for text. The first story I looked at was called 'On Beyond 100' and started with an image that was almost a double page spread, and the second page was a large image covering most of the 2 pages and a small amount of text. The next was a smaller photo and a large amount of text. The photos are in a square format, with white space around. On some pages the text dominates and some the photos do. The photos are portraits, some with lots of background and some with other people in them.
'Russian Refuge' starts with a portrait image, then a double page spread. The images are mainly of wildlife and often fill the page and spread to the second one if not a full double page spread. Italics were used for captions, which made them stand out more than others.
'Breaking the Silence' opens with a double page spread, and then has one more before a whole page portrait shot. There are then maps and more double pages to illustrate the story. Other pages are portraits taking up a whole page each, taken on a black background.
'Our Fertilized World' starts off with 2 double spreads. This article has long captions with no italics. The next page has an image at the top and maps and 3 images over the text.
'Element Hunters' starts with a portrait on one page. All images are optioned, no italics. Captions are lengthy, some in white depending on the colour. All images are the same style.
'China's Ancient Lifeline' starts off with a double page HDR image, then another double page spread before the text and maps. Then come landscape images at the top with the text under, and there are more double page spreads.

The next magazine was Wild Travel. There was an image of a frog on the front, with room left for the magazine title. This is a magazine I have not seen before, and I was quite surprised at how many images were used.
'Sun Sea and Shearwaters' starts off with a double page spread, with an introduction and large title over it. The next page has images at the top, with text underneath. Then there are 3 more images, 2 landscape and one portrait, large blocks of colour. The next page has 2 images that go over the middle, with others on each side. Then there is a single page with images of different sizes.
'The Hills are Alive' has the first image over 1.5 pages, with a portrait next to it. There is an image of a vast landscape next to a close up. Lots of animal shots. The text is lots of animal info and lots of small photos to illustrate.
'Fade to White' has a double page spread then a mix of shots of people, animals and the terrain and travel - one image goes across two pages.
'Guide - Destination Costa Rica' - This starts off with a portrait image and one page to introduce the guide, then a double page spread. Small images are used, mixed sizes. Some are photos of animals in a circular shape.
'Beach Patrol' - Starts with a double page spread but this time the text crosses the middle of one page. There are collages showing the differing stages of a turtle's lifespan at the top of a page with text under.
'Force of Nature' starts with a double page image with the introduction on it on one side. Then it is followed by various sized landscape images, over both pages. The next page has a mix of portrait and landscape images of various sizes.

Guardian Weekend, from 27/4/13, had a very small amount of text on the cover, overlaying the image.
'A Woman's Place' opens with some text on a white space, and includes an image of a woman in the workplace in square format over the rest of the double page. The images throughout are of women in their workplaces, the women are clear but there is a lot of background included to indicate where they work. Some are portrait, some landscape. The colours are very rich. Some pages have 2 images. There are no captions, the text around the photos tells the story.

Observer Magazine, 28/4/13, has a cover where the text of the title goes behind the photo.
'After the Massacre' uses captions that are quotes from the person in the photo. The opening page has 2 square format photos of people, put facing away from each other, maybe to symbolise loneliness or wanting to turn away from people affected. The full portrait shows a person and her injury is the main focus. The next double page has some text down one side, then 5 photos of varying sizes, showing the victims in different places, one with obvious injuries.

You Magazine 28/4/13 again had text from the title behind the persons head, the rest of the text was fitted around.
'Our Children Were Murdered by our Husbands' started with a large image and some text down the side. Captions were on the inlay with text and were of newspaper articles. The lighting highlighted the faces of the mothers. The next page shows each mum in the same place as the initial photo, one is portrait style and one landscape. Each has a caption and photo of the children, plus a quote. The story ends with an inlay of the children and newspaper, a full page (portrait) of a woman.

Stern Magazine, 8/5/13 has a title that goes behind the subject and you can almost not read the title at all. The format is what makes us know which magazine it is, the star on the top left corner.
'Bilder der Woche' each one is a double page image with a small text for each one in a corner.
'Heiss Erwartet' has a double page spread, with a short caption and title. The next page is 2 images and text, then smaller images.
'Dolce Vita' starts with a double page image, title and introduction, then there is a square image over 2 pages leaving a space on the right for one more image. The double pages have some colour images and some black and white.

Paris Match
'Cleveland la Maison de l'horreur' starts with a double page with some introductory text in the bottom corner and the title. Then there is a collage of images of the house and suspect, missing posters and then a large picture of the girls now, which appears to be taken in a hospital. There are then some police images of the suspect.
'Haiti la lecon de vie' starts off again with a double page image containing some text. The next page has an image over the centre bit then 3 on the side showing the classroom - this format was used again.

Dorset Maagzine May 2013 has quite a busy title page, the sky in the image holds the title.
'The Broadchurch Effect' starts with a portrait of the writer in landscape format, and one of people below it. There are short captions for each image either on the image or just below. The next double page has collages of 3 or 4 images at the top and text under. The last page has an image of 3 people taken in the same place as the initial portrait.
'Pedals, Peaks and Padding' starts with a half page image, on which the caption is placed sideways. Then follow images of cyclists and maps with text around them. The photos are all different sizes and formats.

Whilst doing this project I was struck with the varying image sizes used and the fact there seems to be no set pattern any more. I guess that the images are taken on various cameras and there is no standard size, which may explain this. Captions also vary, some in italics and some sideways, some on the image and some just below. Some publications varied this too, again no set theme.