It’s a 60 Zone is a collection of photographs of roads where the speed is 60km/h. The main focal point of every image is the speed limit sign, which always appears in the top right third of the photographs. I shot over two days, with one day travelling away from Melbourne, and the other travelling towards the CBD.

One of the things I wanted to show was how 60 zones are used in a wide variety of areas, from wide inner-city boulevards, and middle-ring arterial roads, to rural town outskirts and winding roads in the middle of nowhere. I also wanted to demonstrate the different scenery that a 60 zone could be in – be it through an industrial estate, past a hospital, or even along a tram line. The different vehicles shot also helped differentiate each area.

To highlight the importance of the sign, and to show the moving cars, I used wide apertures (between f/2.8 and f/3.5) and slow shutter speeds. This combination of settings gave me the desired depth of field and blur for the photographs.

On the first day, I completely forgot to adjust the white balance, making the original photos too cool. They were also noisy, as I had set the ISO at 200 – higher than I needed. As I shot in RAW, I was able to change the temperature in Lightroom. I also lowered the highlights and whites, and brightened the shadows and blacks, which in combination made most of the colours more vibrant. I also applied a small amount of luminance noise reduction.

On the second day, I had learned my lesson, as I had lowered the ISO to 100, and adjusted the white balance. I still performed the same type of adjustments in Lightroom – though not as much as with the first day’s photographs.

If I could retake the photographs, I would change the framing, because having the sign in the top-right corner meant that some photographs blocked off the road. I would also spend more time learning the settings of the camera. I couldn’t figure out how to customise the white balance on the camera, so I had to use presets, which meant more adjustments in post, something that could ruin the photographs.