Collaborative Project - Portraits at Tourist Attractions

Theme & Plan Of Action:

For our project, we decided to take photos of people at different tourist attractions across Singapore. My partner decided to take photos at Marina Bay and Sentosa (the beach areas) and I decided to take photos near Gardens By The Bay and the Stadium. I feel that this relates to all types of tourists from sports fans to those who want to go to the most popular places in Singapore to those who just like to have relaxing holidays. I might try to incorporate some compositional devices which we learned about from last year to help enhance my photography techniques. I might try to incorporate point of perspective, the rule of thirds, and possibly framing. I might try to get some props as well to help add to the whole theme and feel of the images.

Images of Inspiration:

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In this image, I really like how despite all the commotion in the background, the tourists are still shown. I might try to use a low aperture to capture this effect. This would allow for the subject which is closer to me to be in focus and the background blurry. I might also use two people to make a scene.

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For this image, I really like the isolation of the subject with basically nothing surrounding it. I feel like this really shows emphasis on the subject and allows for a very powerful image. I feel like this could be cool to capture if I can find a place near a tourist attraction which is very empty and I can capture something similar.

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For this image, I really like how all of the attire helps to add to the whole theme and feel of the image. It helps to understand that it is very clearly a hiking photo. I also like the subtlety of the use of the rule of thirds as it really helps the image. I wanted to go to the stadium so I might try to ask my friends to wear their jerseys as this can help to add the effect of "fans" going to a stadium. Often times, people travel from many different places just to see their favorite teams play. 

Think Tank #1:

• Where are you going to go to take pictures?
• For this project, I wanted to go take photos at the National Stadium as well as Gardens By The Bay. What I really liked about these locations is how they are so different and capture unique vibes.
• Are your portraits going to be close up or far away?
• I want to take my portraits from a decent distance but I do want to still capture their mood and what they're feeling.
• Are you gonna dress your friends in clothes which are related to the locations?
• Yes, at the stadium I plan to make my friends wear kits of their favorite teams, and at Gardens By The Bay I want to make my friend wear something a general tourist might wear (cap, casual clothes).

Think Tank #2:

• Are you gonna keep the portraits in color or make them black and white?
• I want to keep them in color as the whole vibe and feel of the places which I am going to is about the colors and the scenery of the locations.
• Are you going to capture an even amount of images at Gardens By The Bay and an even amount at the National Stadium?
• I want to keep it pretty much equal, but I might do something like 2 at the stadium and 2 at gardens because there is less variety at stadium compared to gardens.
• Should edit your images in a similar fashion so they are not very different and so that they all have a uniform look.

Digital Contact Print:

• The first image that I would like to describe is the third image in the first row. This is a picture of my friends, Yoshi and Yoobin, looking up at the sign of the National Stadium. What I really liked about this image was that they are looking towards the sign and in a way, the way they’re looking guides you through the image and then you move to the sign. I really like this effect and is actually one of the compositional devices we learned about last year named “Follow the Eyes”. What I also like is how their jerseys pop out and add a lot of color and create the mood of the image very successfully. 
• The second image that I would like to describe is the second image in the second row. This photo is also of Yoshi and Yoobin. What I really liked about this photo was the angle I took it at. I liked the low point of perspective because it just created a very interesting image. What I felt added to the feel or mood of this image was the fact that both of them were wearing the same jersey and supported the same team. A lot of fans of teams comes to Singapore to watch games of their favorite teams because they don’t get to watch them in their own countries. For example, over the summer, I went to watch the International Champions Cup in Singapore with my friends and there were many people from Malaysia and Indonesia who came to support their favorite teams.
• The third image that I would like to describe is the third image in the second row. This photo is of my friend Brian. This was actually taken near the entrance of Gardens By The Bay. There is a pond which shows the trees and one of the domes and I just thought it was a really good scene for an image. This image has a similar effect to the first. We follow the eyes of the subject to the scenery. I really liked how a lot was going on in the water, from the fountain to the different sculptures and greenery. I also liked how the trees and domes of Gardens By the Bay were shown in the background.
• The fourth image that I would like to describe is the seventh image in the second row. This is also a photo of my friend Brian. When you are walking to Gardens By the Bay to enter the actual “park” or “garden”, you have to cross this bridge (if you come from the entrance close to Marina Bay Sands). This image was taken on that bridge. To get this image, I had to experiment with a lot of different positions which my friend would stand in. I took photos with him on the left, facing me, turning slightly, but finally decided that him looking at the landscape would allow for a better image. 
• The fifth image that I would like to describe is the second image in the third row. Yet again, it is a photo of my friend Brian. This was taken on a platform near the trees. What I really liked about this image was the fact that it was taken from a low point of perspective and faces upwards, capturing the subject (my friend) as well as the trees. I really liked how my friend’s face was covered by the shadow of his hat in half of it but not in the other half. I feel that this creates a really unique vibe and adds to the quality of the image.
• The sixth and final image that I would like to describe is the sixth image in the third row. This is also a photo of my friend Brian. This image was taken on the actual skywalk. We paid a bit of money to go on it, but it was definitely worth it. I really liked how in this image, I was able to capture part of the trees in Gardens By The Bay but was also able to capture the building of Marina Bay Sands. I feel this created a very unique image which is successful.

Final Edited Images:

• This is the first image which I decided to edit. It is the one of my friends, Yoshi and Yoobin, facing the National Stadium. I started off in Camera RAW by simply increasing the contrast and clarity to create a bolder image. What I really wanted to make stand out was the names at the back fo their jerseys. However, I couldn’t just increase the saturation and vibrance in Camera RAW because this would addd color to the whole image when I really only wanted to add color to the jerseys. This is why I used the quick select tool to highlight the jersey and then increased the saturation. I also used the high pass sharpening tool to sharpen the details of the entire image.

• This is the second image which I decided to edit. It is the second one with Yoshi and Yoobin. In this image, I also wanted to focus on the color of their jerseys but also wanted to decrease the amount of distraction caused by the signs at the bottom of the image. I started off with the same type of editing in Camera RAW and then used High Pass in Photoshop. The next step was to highlight their jerseys and add saturation. The final step was blurring the background, but still keeping my friends and the National Stadium sign in focus. I highlighted my friends using the quick select tool and selected the gaussian blur tool. I then inverted it so that the background would be blurry. I painted around my friends to make sure that there was no part of them which was blurry and that the transition was smooth. For the sign, I highlighted that using the quick select tool as well, and just blurred it a little less compared to the background. 

• This is the third image which I decided to edit. I also decided to show my editing techniques for this image. The image on top is the final product. The bottom comparison shows the before editing (on the left) and after editing (on the right) stages of the image. This is of my friend Brian facing the pond at the entrance of Gardens By The Bay. I started my editing process off in Camera Raw by increasing the clarity and contrast to create a bolder and clearer image. The next step in my editing process was to remove the path in the bottom left. To do this, I used the spot healing brush. Next, I increased the saturation of the trees and other greenery by using the hue/saturation tool. The next step was to make sure there was a difference between my friend and the background, but I wanted to keep everything clear so blurring the background using the Gaussian blur tool was not an option. Instead, I used the “sharpen edges” tool to make the outline of my friend bolder so that he stands out more. This was a new tool for me and found that it works really nicely and is a smooth tool to use. The final step was to use the high pass sharpening tool to just sharpen all the elements of the image and to make it bolder and clearer.

• This is the fourth image which I decided to edit was the one of my friends on the bridge entering Gardens By The Bay. I used a similar editing process in Camera RAW. I wanted to keep this image pretty similar to its original as I liked the components. To do this, I simply used the high pass sharpening tool to create a sharper image. Similar to the third image, I also used the sharpen edges tool to create the contrast between the background and the subject. These simple editing techniques allowed me to keep everything in detail whilst keeping my friend as the main subject and allowed for a successful image.

• This is the fifth image which I decided to edit. It is the image of my friend on the platform showing the trees of Gardens By the Bay. To edit this image, I increased the vibrancy and saturation in Camera RAW (as it was pretty dull before) and also increased the clarity and contrast. In Photoshop, I used the high pass sharpening and sharpen edges tools. However, I also decided to use the sharpen edges tool on the trees. One edit which I felt had a pretty nice effect was adding color using the hue/saturation tool to the sky. 

• This is the sixth image which I decided to edit. This is the image of my friend on the skywalk. In Camera RAW, I increased the vibrancy and saturation to add color to the image but also used the contrast and clarity sliders to add boldness to the image. To edit this image, I started off by using the spot healing brush to remove the bridge wires which hold it up from the tree. I did this because it allowed for the Marina Bay Sands to be in a clear view and it removed the distraction of the lines. I then used high pass sharpening to add more clarity. I used the hue/saturation tool in photoshop to add color to the sky and the yellow lines of the bridge because I felt this added to the image, making it more interesting. 

Final Print Document:

Successes and Challenges:

For me, I found this product to be a huge success. However, I found that there were many challenges along the way too. The first challenge which I faced was finding a time which matched my friends' schedules so that I could shoot with them. It was tough to find times which suited all of us, so I had to either convince them to change things up or I had to drop what I was supposed to do. This was very stressful. Another challenge which I faced was taking photos without the distraction of people behind. As we were doing tourist locations, it was hard to capture photos with just my friend(s) and the tourist attraction. I had to wait for long periods of time to get an empty frame and each time could only take 2-3 photos. This was quite annoying and time-consuming.

Although I faced many challenges, I had a few successes with this project as well. The first would definitely be learning how to collaborate on a project with someone in photography. This is something I have never done and am pretty proud of how I completed the project. Another success for me was discovering the "sharpen edges" tool on Photoshop. I never used it before, but it was very useful in the project and I ended up using it in the editing processes for many of my photos. Another success I had was capturing images which fit the theme of my project. I felt that I really captured the tourist vibe with all of my photos and felt that this was a strong series of images which I chose.