Final 3 Images of Surfboard Shaper - Person At Work

My favourite aspect of this image is the composition. I carefully lined the stringer of the board up to be exactly in the centre of the frame. This effect is enhanced by the fact that the board is exactly symmetrical leaving a very aesthetic appearance. Also, the lights in the room were only waist high. After speaking to the shaper about this he told me that it was to create a shadow on the 'rail' of the board to help ensure it is symmetrical. Although I did not plan this to be part of my photos, I found that it made for interesting light because the image naturally becomes darker towards the top which is opposite to what would normally happen when shooting inside. The main subject of the image is the shaper checking the surface of the 'blank' that he has just sanded. He hand being raised adds interest to the image because it shows him pausing to check for minor detail in his work. I chose to have the shaper to be the only thing in the point of focus. The background is extremely plain as is the foreground and the foreground has been clearly dropped out of the point of focus to ensure the attention is just on the shaper clearly showing him at work. I chose to convert this image into black and white because the colours in the room were very dull and including them in the picture did not enhance it.

This image is in my final 3 for several reasons. Firstly the detail it shows in the shapers hands and his work has a distinctive contrast to that of the board. Although this is not an aspect that shows a 'person at work', it makes for an interesting image. The shot is quite tightly framed which shows the detail and precision of the work (this is the final stage of the process where the shaper writes the size of the board and signs it on the stringer on the underside of the board). Again I have used a high aperture to drop the foreground out of focus to draw the attention to the subject of the photograph which is the shapers right hand writing on the blank. I think this can be a useful and important technique for this project as it can help draw the viewer’s focus just onto the part of the image that clearly shows a 'person at work'.









This is my final of the 3 images I have chosen. I chose it because it shows the main part of the shapers job which is sanding. Each board must be sanded extremely carefully to ensure it has no defects in it which is very time consuming. In this image I have chosen to make the point of focus in the foreground of the image. This is a contrast to the other two of my final 3 images. One of the main parts of this image I liked is the action involved in it. If you look carefully at the image you can see dust falling from under the sand paper. It was quite hard to freeze the action due to the low light; therefore I had to push up the ISO to 1000. This has reduced the image quality slightly which is noticeable if you look carefully at the image. Also, there is a little too much empty space to the right of the image. I do not like this because I feel that everything in a picture should add to it or give it more information. An empty wall and untidy floor does not do this for me.