Dan Boulton

Born in 1973 in Enfield, London Dan Bolton was a photographer. The type of photography he did was street and  documentary. Skateboarders being a main focus. A collection of his work was published as a limited edition book. Working alongside Ed Templeton, Dave Schubert and Tobin Yelland in the 'Film Por Vida' show created by Angela Boatwright. Running at London's Wayward Gallery in June this year (2014) Using a Leica M6, a 50mm f/2 and Liford HP5 film.
Choosing a urban black and white art style, the pictures work well with the whole "youths on skateboards" theme.

http://media.blog.leica-camera.com/images/CDBoulton_02_LeicaBlog.jpg

In this image it shows two young skaters in a skate park, as you can see from the artwork behind them. It's out of focus giving it a slight style, it was made like this on purpose. Maybe to show movement, of a skater? The style fits the skater life, it really shows the darkness and the roughness of skaters.

http://media.blog.leica-camera.com/images/CDBoulton_11_LeicaBlog.jpg

This image is more of a portrait sort of image, it really shows personality. It shows off someone in the skater community and the black and white colours make him stand out. It gives the image a tiny essence of depression.

http://media.blog.leica-camera.com/images/CDBoulton_12_LeicaBlog.jpg

Another image using a moving theme, it shows more movement in the image. It creates a sense of a faster theme. The dog shows a rebelling theme in this image, and the black and white keeps it nice and fresh.

Question for Dan Boulton:

Do you skate, who inspired you to start being a photographer?

Final poster/dvd

Finished Poster/DVD

So here they are at the end of everything, all the images edited together to create my poster/DVD. And I think they fit perfectly in the way I used them. I feel like the mug looks like it's actually there, it doesn't look edited in. It looks comply natural. I feel like all the colours fit well together and it made my poster/DVD look indie. Which after everything is what I wanted.

Photography Evaluation Write-up (desk)

This picture is one of the most important images of my whole project, as its the background for the poster. I needed it to also be simple, to fit the environment of a mug. The shot type I used was a long shot of the desk, showing the windows in the back. I needed the windows to be out of the depth of field   so everything would look more realistic.

I never saved the main image I chose (I only saved after I edited) The reason I selected this photograph was because the lighting off the desk, and how clear everything in the image is. The background (through the windows) was perfect for what I wanted to do.

So, I used the image rotation tool to rotate the image into a portrait image (fitting poster conventions) Then I cropped the image to create a more centre piece, then in the background I made the outside red (recently removed) to try and create an evil feeling in this shot. I also boosted up the colours in colour correction.

Finally the finished picture, I really liked how it turned out. It was completely natural and fitted the piece so much. I loved the lighting, the background is so colourful and the final quality is really smooth and visually it's what I wanted!

Photography Evaluation Write-up (More characters)

For this I wanted it to be very balanced and in all honesty a simple picture. I wanted to show off the themes for the movie more than creating a crazy image. Obviously I wanted it too look good, but it was more about where I was placing the characters. I wanted them dead centre giving them power in the image. I used the depth of field to make the characters stand out a little, while keeping the background in a blurry state.

I used this one in the end as it looked the best out of the bunch, keeping both characters to each side of the shots. I liked that in the end as it gives the image more of a filled style, instead of having two plain sides. It keeps this image focused, I also liked the colours in this keeping mostly boring.

I used the contrast tool to turn the brightness and contrast down, making the colours more gritty and dirty. I then cropped it just a little to make it look less wide, and framed it better to keep it clean. I also kept to the rule of thirds and made the characters fit into each section. 

In all honesty I didn't like this photograph in the end, I felt like it wasn't as nicely shot as everything else on my dvd/poster covers. But I liked the gritty feeling of this image, it is good quality and the lighting is nice. But something doesn't work...

Photography Evaluation Write-up (Character)

I wanted an image that would create a sense of the cinematography for this "film" as you can see with the image I picked I used one with a big depth of field. The background is blurred out with the focus on the character. Some images were not picked because the acting in the images was a bit off focus. Also some were not used because the depth of field was not good. Also sun flair got in the way! The shot type I used in the end was a close up, to show off the characters personality and expressions.

I selected this photo in the end as it showed off what I wanted all along. It kept the depth of focus the way I wanted it, with the character in focus in the fore-ground and the college out of focus in the background. Keeping the personality of the character booming out! I also liked the colour in this image a lot, it has a lot of green, making it a bright image. This was suitable for my film/dvd as it looks very different and interesting (indie).

Firstly I used the colour corrector to change the colours up a bit, making it a more vibrant shot. Then I used the crop item, and cut off the sides a little bit. Making the rule of thirds work better with this image. I also turned the contrast down a tiny bit.

I am really proud of how this came out in the end, it came out really high quality with good lighting. I am impressed with the style I chose in this picture.

Photography Evaluation Write-up (mug)

Firstly I wanted to use a whole image on this mug as it keeps it in focus, showing off every detail. I wanted it to be in a shadow to keep it looking realistic in the final image. I kept a huge focus on the angle I took the picture at, as this was important in the final image. I also kept in mind the size of the mug, making sure it wasn't too over the top. It needed to look like a mug after all!

I wanted to frame it in a close and important way, basically it was the most important thing in this whole shot. I needed perfect lighting on these images, it needed to look completely natural and unedited in this shoot. In the end I picked a medium shot of the mug, keeping some desk in (edited out in the final image) I made sure the mug was completely in focus, using a depth of field that made the mug stand out as much as it could.

Here is the original photograph (only the mug, as I lost the final image) but it fulfilled the purpose as it's exactly what I needed. A mug. It's at a perfect angle to use in my final image, the lighting on it really keeps it real. The colours are very natural and all in all it is a very detailed picture of a mug.

This picture is suitable for my poster/dvd box because it's the most important thing, this one image of a mug is what I want people to focus on, it keeps things simple (like I wanted) it's also what I wanted to make my film feel a little bit "indie".

As I lost the main image here is the edited one again, I used the cut tool to cut around the mug in the image. Using crop to make the image smaller first, then correcting the colour slightly to make the mugs colours look more natural. Then I carefully cut around it, and then I blurred the rough outlines to make it more smooth (creating a natural feeling and look).

I'm really happy with the finished photograph as it has kept it's high quality texture and remained as simple as I want it, it looks like a normal mug. Which is really nice, the lighting really brings it out with the texture shine it makes it look smooth and real!