I manipulated the image below by taking a sky from one of my previous urban exploration photographs, darkening it to create a dark, looming sky on the brink of a storm, and placing it behind the outline of the building. In order to tie in with the environment, I darkened the building and decreased the hue, focusing on the windows by adjusting the blue colour to more of a dull, grey. Firstly, I decreased the contrast, to make the surroundings in the photograph seem dull in order to add to the dark, rough atmosphere. I then increased the sharpness, to draw attention to smaller details in the photograph, like the bricks in the background and the effects on the wood. Finally I added a black fade-out border to make the atmosphere seem cluttered and claustrophobic. This photograph of an abandoned barn or house was an opportunist shots taken by the side of a motorway. The access was quite difficult because of the location, and I wasn’t fully equipped with a tripod due to the nature of the shots, which made the photographs blurry. The weather meant it was also very bright outside and so some of the photographs became a little too over-exposed. For this photograph, I decreased the darkness. I then increased the sharpness and contrast, to make the details in the objects, such as the patterns in the tyres and stonework, stand out. This also brings out the colour of the leaves, which creates a contrast between the natural overgrowth and the stone of man-made structures, which is what Duggan has done in his photographs to achieve this effect. I then added a fade-out black border, also like Duggan’s photograph, to create a dark atmosphere. I like the low angle used on this photograph because it makes plants seem taller and more overgrown. The angle also captures the left over possessions on the ground, for example the ladder, tyre, and planks of wood. I think I may have decreased the brightness bit too much, as some of the objects in the photograph are quite hard to make out. For this photograph I firstly readjusted the angle and proportions of the photograph to make the pipe and building symmetrical, which highlights the height of the building and length of the pipe. I then increased the contrast to make the moss on the building stick out more. I also increased the sharpness to make the decay on the pipe stand out as well as the moss. Finally I cropped out part of the sky from this photograph: I chose a close-up angle for this photograph to capture all the details in the materials, such as the cracks in the paint and the discolouration of the concrete underneath. The low-key lighting, as well as the dull tone (which I emphasized by decreasing the contrast), gives the photograph a gritty effect, which I further emphasized by increasing the sharpness to bring out the textures of the materials. For the photograph below I increased the sharpness to make the peeling of the paint more noticeable, and give the photograph a gritty effect. I then increased the contrast to bring out the colours a bit more. The close-up of the peeling paint really draws attention to process of decay the door is in. The underlay paint on the wood is quite a striking rouge colour, creating a contrast between the old paint that looks almost smooth and untarnished, and the new layer that is being worn and weathered away. Presumably, the door hasn’t been opened in many years due to the building being in a state of abandonment, and has felt the forces of nature over the years.
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These photographs were taken on a trip I took wandering around my town looking for run-down buildings. I found many aspects of decay to capture, for example mossy walls, shattered windows, peeling paint and discarded junk from abandoned businesses. For the majority of the images below, I used Photoshop CS6 to darken the image and decrease the hue and saturation in order to drain away any colour and make the photographs look dreary and gloomy, reflecting the atmosphere of decay and abandonment. I also sharpened the images to bring out the tiny details and give the photos an overall gritty effect. Furthermore, I added a black fade border to emphasise the dark feeling the photographs give. In some of the photographs, I also slightly increased the contrast to bring out the colour of the moss on the buildings and the green overgrowth. |