Tuesday 20th September 2011
In this lecture we discussed photographers that specialise in three elements of photography:
- Juxtaposition
- Decisive moment
- Visual Irony
We studied various photographs by photographers such as:
Robert Doisneau :
'Down to the Factory' - 1946.
Henri Cartier Bresson:
Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, 1932
Matt Stuart:
'Moorgate Underground'
All three of these photographers have an ability to capture surreal or absurd moments in time. These photographs are designed to stir the viewer, whether it be by making them laugh or double-take when looking at the photograph, as if they are not really sure what they are seeing. The element of juxtaposition includes the act of positioning close together, or side by side. Visual irony is putting the element of irony and ignorance into something that can be looked upon, and the decisive moment in a photograph is when the shutter is pressed at exactly the right moment. Each of the above photographs include at least one of these three elements.
We were then told to take our own photograph of something 'unexpected' for the following week.
My photograph was of a young girl playing the guitar on the street. I find this photograph interesting because it juxtaposes with the general idea that people who play instruments on the street are often doing it for money, often homeless people or 'tramps'. This girl was well dressed and clean, she was playing the guitar purely because she loved to play music. I took the photograph with the decisive moment being when her mouth was open to sing.
We also discussed the subject of 'Golden Hour' - this is the hour each day before the sun rises and sets. This is when the sun is in a particular point in the sky, the only time when a certain photographic oppurtunity is created.
18th October 2011
We have been set an assignment to produce a portrait using available natural light. We must look at the work of photographers such as Jane Bown for ideas:
We must consider factors such as black and white shading, portraiture, shooting with a 50mm lens, wide apertures to create shallow depth of field (Bokeh effect), to focus on the eyes and to set the aperture to its maximum.
Tips to include:
- Talk to your sitter
- Photograph above the eyeline
- Stay close to your subject
- Focus on the eyes.
This is my bokeh portrait, taken of my grandmother in her home. The photograph was taken with an aperture of f3.8 and a shutter speed of 1/250, then converted into black and white later in photoshop. I was fortunate with the light as it was reasonably bright outside and the photograph was taken directly near the window. I could have improved with the bokeh effect on the background, however I had already selected the largest aperture possible.
This week we have been set an assignment based on 'hyperfocal distance'. This type of photography involves setting the camera so everything in shot is in focus. This is often used in combination with long exposure to create a certain type of landscape photograph.
Below is an example of a long exposure hyperfocal photograph, similar to that of what I have been asked to produce:
The favoured style of lenses used for hyperfocal distance photography are standard and wide angle lenses, usually 50mm or smaller for 35mm cameras. These lenses have a short hyperfocal distance when set to larger f-numbers. For example, the hyperfocal distance for a 28mm lens set to f/16 on a 35mm camera is about 5.5 feet. Everything from 2.75 feet to infinity will be sharp in a photograph taken with this lens focused at the hyperfocal distance.
You can calculate hyperfocal distance with simple depth of field equations, or by using a chart like the one below (taken from http://www.dofmaster.com/charts.html)
08th November
We were given an assignment to use hyperfocal distance techniques to take a black and white long exposure photograph in natural daylight. I ventured to a local reservoir near where I live to take a photograph of a set of man-made waterfalls which have recently been restored. I took the photograph in the morning when the sun was not high in the sky, allowing me longer exposures without overexposing the photograph. I took the photograph with a 0.5 second exposure, with an aperture of f22. This was the end result:
I am going to expand on this project by experimenting more with longer exposures at different times of the day to see what effects it has on the photograph.
We have been set an assignment to create a still life photograph of flowers in a vase, using primary and secondary forms of light - for example, a mixture of natural and tungsten lighting, using information on colour temperature to adjust exposure (see chart below for colour temperature in Kelvin)
Kelvin (K) A basic unit of thermodynamic temperature (color temperature) used to measure the whiteness of the light output. The higher the number is, the whiter the light is. When over 5000K the light begins to turn to blue as daylight.
A manual focus is also needed for this photograph, to ensure that the depth of field is correct. This may involve using a tripod and a light meter to get the correct exposure.
Another technique which may be appropriate for this assignment is the use of a macro lens. True macro is when the lend can reproduce the subject at a 1:1 perspective.
There are several influences to look at when planning this photograph. Flowers have always been a popular subject for photography, and the book 'Flora Photographica' displays photographs from as early as 1895 from several different photographers.
There is also Robert Mapplethorpe's project on Tulips to look at.
Mapplethorpe uses a fantastic skill of flower arrangement, along with use of natural and tungsten light to create a soft and flattering light on his subject.
15th November
This was the resulting image from this week's picture project:
I got the idea for this image from researching other people's ideas on the photograph sharing site Flickr. I came across this image of a vase of flowers, with polaroid images of flowers stuck to the top where normally the buds would bloom.
I found this interesting and original and decided to build on the idea. I drew a very childlike set of flowers onto a piece of plain white paper with a thick tipped marker pen and cut them out using regular scissors. Using a combination of tungsten and natural light, I used a very large ISO speed of 800, a large aperture of f3.5 and a shutter speed of 1/10 to create a bright optimistic lighting, I stuck these drawings on to the buds of the real flowers and took photos from an angle to make it appear cartoon-like and two-dimensional.
I would like to build on this idea more and work with a variety of mediums such as pencil, pastels, paintings and photographs in this way.
David Farnell Photographic Laboratory
We had a special visit from David Farnell, owner of Farnell's photographic laboratory in Lancaster. This company specialises in professional photographic printing, which will be very useful when I have to print my images for assignments and also as a contact later in my career.
http://www.farnellphotographiclab.co.uk/film-proc.html
The lecture also provided some interesting notes such as what image size is best when printing on a certain paper.
For example, when printing on A3 paper it is best to use JPEG. The best resolution size is 300DPI in 8-bit colour. If planning to print on a larger paper size than A3, it is best to work in TIFF.
Using RAW files is good when lots of post-production is required. However it is best to NOT sharpen the image in post production as this can make the image appear noisy in final printing.
We were introduced to several different types of photographic paper and discussed what images would be best to use for different types of photography. This included recommendations such as:
- For black and white photography, it is best to use a fibrebased gloss paper.
- When using a resin coated paper and printing black and white, a lustre paper will give the best results.
- When printing on inkjet paper, it is best to use glossy matt.
- Metallic paper is best when printing lab prints.
22nd November
This week we began to discuss our next weekly picture project, which was 'Best of British'. We discussed some photographers which were relevant to the project, including Martin Parr and his books 'The Last Resort' and 'Think of England'
The main idea of the project was to realize the essence of being British and what it means to be British.
This included a talk about Britain in history, and whether we have reason to be guilty about our history. Britain has been known to jump into conflicts with other countries, caring not how we affect them. This led to learning about the British Empire in the 1920's, and the imperialism over West Africa, Australia and India. Britain had complete sovereignty over Canada, the largest land mass on Earth. This demonstrates how powerful the British Empire was. It had it's pick of any of the natural resources from these countries for labour purposes.
However despite it's history in relevance to these countries, the British hold a certain negative attitude to people from these countries returning to the country. Though we have reduced the empire, our languages and pastimes have survived. The English language is the 3rd most spoken language in the world. We are famous for our culture involving movies/television/music, our industry and inventions including the steam engine, the jet engine, electric light bulb and computer science.
Our language combines many words from other countries and eras, including French, German, Roman and Anglo Saxon.
Our music is historic, with bands such as the Beatles, Thin Lizzy, Def Leppard and The Rolling Stones being known and listened to all over the world. There have been ideas for Beatles theme parks in Japan.
There have been multiple documentaries about our country and what it is like to be British, including one from Tony Ray Jones, including photographs such as the Southport Beauty Contest of 1967.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/04/in_pictures_the_english_by_tony_ray_jones_/html/1.stm
Mark Power - The Shipping Forecast inspired by BBC world service broadcast and the Iconic Sound of Britain.
So what ideas could this project hold?
Ideas of being British = greasy spoon cafe's, Blackpool, fish and chip shops, real ale, corner shops, cobbles, British weather, British landscapes, cars, sports, pubs.
I decided to photograph the exteriors of three shops that I think summarise Great Britain. This included a fish and chip shop, a sarsaparilla bar and a village store that is still under the management of an englishman. I photographed them in natural light and layered them in a triptych in photoshop later.
6th December
This week we were given our assignment for the final weekly picture project. This was to take a photograph which could be heavily photoshopped. We had to perform 10 or more photoshop actions on the photograph.
13th December
This week we handed in our photoshopped images. I decided to take a photograph whilst working on a project in a primary school, of a bunch of helium balloons hung on a door.
I then performed the following actions on the image:
1. Crop
2. Resize
3. Change image resolution to 300dpi
4. Colour Selection
5. Curves
6. Spot healing
7. White border 0.5mm
8. Magnetic lasso
9. Desaturate
10. Clone stamp
11. Healing tool
This was the final result:
We have got to print the final photoshopped image to a professional standard and on a4 - 8x10", and present it in a professional form - I chose to present it bound in a clear protective plastic and handed in along with the other five picture project photographs in a portfolio box.
