I'm sitting here looking out of the window at the rain waiting to get out to take the images for my next exercise, 'Curves'. Bah! first chance to get out and the first rain since before Christmas!
In the meantime I have continued reading 'The Photograph' by Graham Clarke. As some of the other students have mentioned, it can get pretty heavy going in places! I do have to wonder sometimes if the author of the photograph actually read as much into their picture as they were taking it as the author of the book subsequently does?
For my own interest I am going to look further into the work of Lee Miller.I have come across examples of her work in various publications and have for some time been intrigued by her life. In particular the transition from model to surrealist, fashion and war photographer.
Tuesday, 28 December 2010
Monday, 20 December 2010
Diagonals in the text book
As part of the exercises about diagonals, I have looked at the photographs in the course text book, 'The Photograph' by Graham Clarke. There are many examples which show diagonals in various ways. Here are the pictures I found.
Photo 1. View from a Window as Gras, 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce.The shadow of a wall causes a partial diagonal.
Photo 13. The Open Door, 1843 by William Henry Fox Talbot. Partial diagonal by broom standing against the door frame.
Photo 19. Garden Implements, 1847? by Calvert Richard Jones. Diagonal caused by step ladder amongst collection of items.
Photo 22. Gathering Water Lilies, 1886 by Peter Henry Emerson. Diagonal caused by the location of the row boat.
Photo 27. Grand Canyon of the Colorado, 1883 by William Henry Jackson. Dark rock face diagonal in frame.
Photo 30. Dunes, Oceano, 1936 by Edward Weston. The sand dune creates a shallow diagonal.
Photo 52. Untitled, 1942 by Helen Levitt. Diagonal layout of stair bannister extended through the position of the three children.
Photo 67. The Chiffonier, 1904 by Clarence White.The way the woman is sitting creates a diagonal across the frame.
Photo 73. Bernard Berenson at the Borghese Gallery, Rome, 1955. The posture of the statue forms a diagonal.
Photo 89. Accidental Napalm Attack, 1972 by Hung Cong ('Nick') Ut. The children form a diagonal across the frame.
Photo 95. The Steerage, 1907 by Alfred Stieglitz. The gang plank of the boat leis diagonally across the frame.
Photo 99. Wall Street, New York, 1915 by Paul Strand. .Strong diagonal formed by the edge of the building and implied by the walking people.
Photo 101. Pool in Brook, 1953 by Elliot Porter. Diagonal created by the current of the stream and streak of light across the water.
Photo 104. Untitled, 1979 by Zeke Berman. Interesting diagonal created across the wooden block and the implied cube.
Photo 110. Jealousy, 1928 by Lászláó Maholy-Nagy. Diagonal formed across the frame by small and large rectangles.
Photo 112. Glass Tears (Larmes), 1930 by Man Ray. Strong diagonal caused by close up of eyes running corner to corner.
Photo 127. Rhodesian Refugees in a Camp, Zambia, 1978. The arms of the refugees create a diagonal across the page.
A surprising number of images have diagonals to lesser or greater extent. This may be an indication as to the importance of diagonals in photographic work.
Photo 1. View from a Window as Gras, 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce.The shadow of a wall causes a partial diagonal.
Photo 13. The Open Door, 1843 by William Henry Fox Talbot. Partial diagonal by broom standing against the door frame.
Photo 19. Garden Implements, 1847? by Calvert Richard Jones. Diagonal caused by step ladder amongst collection of items.
Photo 22. Gathering Water Lilies, 1886 by Peter Henry Emerson. Diagonal caused by the location of the row boat.
Photo 27. Grand Canyon of the Colorado, 1883 by William Henry Jackson. Dark rock face diagonal in frame.
Photo 30. Dunes, Oceano, 1936 by Edward Weston. The sand dune creates a shallow diagonal.
Photo 52. Untitled, 1942 by Helen Levitt. Diagonal layout of stair bannister extended through the position of the three children.
Photo 67. The Chiffonier, 1904 by Clarence White.The way the woman is sitting creates a diagonal across the frame.
Photo 73. Bernard Berenson at the Borghese Gallery, Rome, 1955. The posture of the statue forms a diagonal.
Photo 89. Accidental Napalm Attack, 1972 by Hung Cong ('Nick') Ut. The children form a diagonal across the frame.
Photo 95. The Steerage, 1907 by Alfred Stieglitz. The gang plank of the boat leis diagonally across the frame.
Photo 99. Wall Street, New York, 1915 by Paul Strand. .Strong diagonal formed by the edge of the building and implied by the walking people.
Photo 101. Pool in Brook, 1953 by Elliot Porter. Diagonal created by the current of the stream and streak of light across the water.
Photo 104. Untitled, 1979 by Zeke Berman. Interesting diagonal created across the wooden block and the implied cube.
Photo 110. Jealousy, 1928 by Lászláó Maholy-Nagy. Diagonal formed across the frame by small and large rectangles.
Photo 112. Glass Tears (Larmes), 1930 by Man Ray. Strong diagonal caused by close up of eyes running corner to corner.
Photo 127. Rhodesian Refugees in a Camp, Zambia, 1978. The arms of the refugees create a diagonal across the page.
A surprising number of images have diagonals to lesser or greater extent. This may be an indication as to the importance of diagonals in photographic work.
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Diagonals
The following four photos use diagonals. The first is similar to the 'Shaker Meeting House' image in the book, taken using a 17mm wide angle lens and displaying converging lines - including the implied converging lines in the cloud formations.
The final shot was my least successful. The diagonal runs from left bottom left to (almost) top right. Looking at this now I notice the eye is drawn more first by the telescope and then by the dark breakwaters behind.
All the shots were taken on a trip down my local sea front. I found that most of the diagonals were not natural but rather caused by the way the photograph was taken. 
Some of the diagonals were stronger than others. See the shot below of the breakwater. It is the contrast with its surroundings that is making this diagonal stand out. Compare this with the shot above. The diagonal is there but is more 'implied' as there are a fair few elements that give the shot its 'motion'.
One of the comments in my tutor feedback after assignment one was that I may wish to leave a little more space around my images on the blog. I have now adopted this new way of posting my images to give each one a little more 'focus'.
Monday, 13 December 2010
Horizontal and vertical lines
For this exercise I went out to explore horizontal and vertical lines. In doing so I found lines everywhere and managed to get quite a lot of images. After completing the photographic part of the exercise I read on through the chapter. The book mentions some examples I may have captured and I found that this was indeed the case.
Looking through my shots it became apparent that on the horizontal lines it was very easy to lose the 'line' if the picture was too busy. In several of the shots that were not selected for this feature this was true.
The purpose of this exercise was to show different ways in which vertical and horizontal lines appear to the eye and the camera. The book mentions that a successful example of a line will draw the viewers eye. I feel that the following images demonstrate this well.
Looking through my shots it became apparent that on the horizontal lines it was very easy to lose the 'line' if the picture was too busy. In several of the shots that were not selected for this feature this was true.
The purpose of this exercise was to show different ways in which vertical and horizontal lines appear to the eye and the camera. The book mentions that a successful example of a line will draw the viewers eye. I feel that the following images demonstrate this well.
Horizontal Lines
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| In this image the line is created by the white wall of the car park. The white of the wall divides the blue sky and the grey of the tarmac. F4 1/3200 ISO 200. |
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| The top of the railing creates a line through this image. F4 1/1600 ISO 200. |
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| Here the line is created by the horizon that splits the frame. F4 1/3200 ISO 200. |
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| A lot of horizontal elements in this photograph. The one that stands out is the row of bricks on the top of the wall. F8 1/2000 ISO 200. |
Vertical Lines
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| The long vertical wave forms the line in this image. F8 1/200 ISO 200. |
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| Not totally successful I think, but the edge of the building creates the divide here. F4 1/3200 ISO 200. |
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| The CCTV mast creates a strong vertical. F8 1/400 ISO 200. |
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| The frame is being divided by the yellow double line. F8 1/320 ISO 200. |
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Multiple points
This exercise took the form of laying out multiple points to form a still life. As can be seen from the pictures, first one object was added, then another and so on. The final image has ten objects. It was permitted to change the layout as the objects built up, to keep the arrangement interesting.
The camera was tripod mounted and aimed at a chopping board. I laid out some garlic just to create a little extra interest without it being too distracting. My objects were pieces of pasta.
I started laying out the pasta pieces one at a time, pausing between each new addition to try and keep the composition interesting. It proved quite difficult to do this and I made a few changes along the way. I think the most successful looking group is around the seven and eight pasta pieces. After this the group becomes to big and I found it difficult not to make it look staged. Less than seven pieces and the composition looks a bit 'empty'.
The final composition with all objects in place has some direction and movement. There are two triangles visible with an implied third triangle between them. The pasta pieces also seem for the most part to be pointing towards the edge of the board.
The final two images were just a little experiment to see the layout of the objects if they were allowed to fall naturally. Interesting that the second shot almost seems to form a 'two point' composition.
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| A still life with multiple points. |
I started laying out the pasta pieces one at a time, pausing between each new addition to try and keep the composition interesting. It proved quite difficult to do this and I made a few changes along the way. I think the most successful looking group is around the seven and eight pasta pieces. After this the group becomes to big and I found it difficult not to make it look staged. Less than seven pieces and the composition looks a bit 'empty'.
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| The lines that relate the objects. |
The final two images were just a little experiment to see the layout of the objects if they were allowed to fall naturally. Interesting that the second shot almost seems to form a 'two point' composition.
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| Objects allowed to fall into random position. |
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
The relationship between points
The following two shots are of naturally occurring subjects that have two points in the frame. The relationship is now between the two points as opposed to the single point images where the relationship was between the edge of the frame and the point.
In my image 1, the life belt and the bin, the bin appears as the stronger point. It has more mass and the red colour is a lot brighter than the orange of the life belt. It is a close thing though and you may well find your eyes wandering from the bin to the belt and back again.
In the second photo of the benches, the left hand bench is a lot larger and therefore commands the most attention. It is interesting to note that that in both images you tend to exclude the surrounding picture information. As the course book mentions, two points create an implied 'space' around themselves.
To demonstrate the unresolved tension in a photograph, see the image below. The eyes have been placed equidistant from the centre of the frame. N.B. in this particular shot there may be a slight favouring of the left eye due to the lighting.
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| The relationship between points 1 & 2 |
In the second photo of the benches, the left hand bench is a lot larger and therefore commands the most attention. It is interesting to note that that in both images you tend to exclude the surrounding picture information. As the course book mentions, two points create an implied 'space' around themselves.
To demonstrate the unresolved tension in a photograph, see the image below. The eyes have been placed equidistant from the centre of the frame. N.B. in this particular shot there may be a slight favouring of the left eye due to the lighting.
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| Unresolved tension between the left and right eye. |
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
Positioning a point
For this exercise I was required to take three images with a single point in the frame. In these images there should be a reason for positioning the point where I do.
The first photograph is of some bicycles left parked on the local beach. The cycles have been placed just left of centre about half way up the frame. The reason for this framing is the relationship between the bikes and the other very graphic lines in this shot. The balance is achieved through the point of the wood decking on the right and the bikes on the left. At the same time the bikes stand out as being the most 'irregular' shapes and darkest objects in the frame.
When we draw a horizontal and vertical line through our point we are able to see that the point implies division. In this particular shot I have also drawn a line through the balancing element. Here we can see that the frame has been 'divided' into three vertical strips, each almost a third of the frame wide.
The life belt shot has the point placed near the left hand edge of the frame. The reason for positioning it here, is to balance the bold, eye-catching orange of the life belt with the larger and less dominant building on the right of the frame.
There is also a feeling of 'high' and 'low' or 'diagonally opposite' in the relationship between the left and the right of the frame.
The final photograph of the chap walking along the sea front has him placed just right of centre. The reasoning behind this is to give some space in front of the character, for him to move into. I admit it's not the most interesting of shots!
All three shots go some way to showing 'movement' and 'division'. In particular I think the image of the life belt shows movement very well. I believe that the colour has also a big part to play in attracting the eye in the first place. This is interesting as there is also a strong diagonal running in from the right of the frame - I think the life belt wins and gets the eye's attention!
I think the bicycle shot is a good example of 'division' within the frame.
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| Bicycles |
When we draw a horizontal and vertical line through our point we are able to see that the point implies division. In this particular shot I have also drawn a line through the balancing element. Here we can see that the frame has been 'divided' into three vertical strips, each almost a third of the frame wide. |
| Life belt |
There is also a feeling of 'high' and 'low' or 'diagonally opposite' in the relationship between the left and the right of the frame.
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| Old man |
I think the bicycle shot is a good example of 'division' within the frame.
Saturday, 13 November 2010
Points
In part two of the course we are going to look at, and implement the basic principles of graphic design as used in photography. We start with points.
The point in the context of the photograph is a single isolated subject in the frame which stands out from its background. A common example of this seems to be an image of a single boat surrounded by ocean. It is the positioning of the boat in the frame that affects how the photograph is perceived.
Further ideas to explore would include something on the side of a hill, a duck or swan in a lake, a bird or plane in the sky, the moon, a balloon in the sky, a light on a ceiling, something on an expanse of carpet etc. Lighting alone could create a point. Imagine the beam of a torch shining onto a plain background or the light of an out of shot window falling in a small area of a clear floor.
In each of the images below the point should be focussing our attention which I think it does.
Here is an example of a subject being isolated in the frame but too large to really be called a point. The first image of the aircraft obviously is a point but what about the second?
Further examples of points:
The point in the context of the photograph is a single isolated subject in the frame which stands out from its background. A common example of this seems to be an image of a single boat surrounded by ocean. It is the positioning of the boat in the frame that affects how the photograph is perceived.
Further ideas to explore would include something on the side of a hill, a duck or swan in a lake, a bird or plane in the sky, the moon, a balloon in the sky, a light on a ceiling, something on an expanse of carpet etc. Lighting alone could create a point. Imagine the beam of a torch shining onto a plain background or the light of an out of shot window falling in a small area of a clear floor.
In each of the images below the point should be focussing our attention which I think it does.
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| Some examples of points from my old photographs. |
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| Point & point or not? |
Further examples of points:
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| Point close to the edge of the frame and point situated near the centre. |
Saturday, 6 November 2010
Assignment 1: Contrasts
This first assignment marks the end of section one, 'The Frame'. Throughout the course so far I have been jotting down ideas in a notebook and have managed to take a few shots towards this assignment as I came across them. I have tried to draw on everything I have learnt so far to get the best out of the images for this exercise.
For the 'curved' shot I borrowed a friends Ammonite. We had used this on a previous occasion at the camera club for a macro exercise so it sprang to mind as soon as I saw the exercise.
The image was taken in my conservatory which doubles as my makeshift studio. It has a lot of glass and a plastic roof which provides a lot of diffuse light under the right conditions. The camera was again tripod mounted and the Ammonite was placed straight on to a work surface. I didn't use the macro setting for my camera as I wanted a better depth of field so instead I played around moving the camera closer and further and zooming in and out with the lens. When I was happy I again used my hand held light meter for an incident reading and used the camera on manual. The settings were: ISO100, lens 24-105mm set to 85mm, F11 @ 1/4 second, camera fired by remote.
RAW conversion was carried out as above and again a very slight crop was performed to remove an unwanted piece of background in one corner.
Liquid - Solid
This was fun! For the liquid shot I wasted a morning down on the beach trying various things with ND filters and very slow shutter speeds. I had noted in my notebook that the kind of 'milky' images that can be had that way might be good to represent liquid. The result of a mornings work was nothing that I felt would be any good for this assignment. Wandering round the house trying to re-think this, I spotted a very large glass jar. I filled it with water and played around dropping stuff in it and swirling it around and then came up with this. It is blue food colouring which has been released in to the water filled jar using a drinking straw as a pipette. I liked the blue swirls but the light was not too good so I introduced a flash gun and started playing around with that.
The final setup was as follows. The glass jar was stood on a piece of white hobby board. A second piece was stood a short distance behind the jar against a wall. The flash was set to the right of the liquid, initially pointing at the jar. This created an annoying hot spot on the glass so I pointed the flash towards the back board at about 45 degrees to the jar. This was much better. I added a piece of card between the camera and the flash to stop light shooting back into the lens. Finally I set a large depth of field and focussed manually on a straw I held in the middle of the jar. I started dropping the blue food colouring into the water and remotely fired the camera, trying to keep prominent parts of the blue colour in focus (manually). There were many shots to choose from at the end of this exercise!
Technical data is as follows: Light metering by flash meter and trial and error!, Lens 24-105mm set at 105mm, ISO100, F16 @ 1/200 second. Tripod mounted camera with wireless off camera flashgun. Camera set to manual and fired by wireless.
The contrasting 'Solid' image is of a paving stone in my garden. To a certain extent this mimics the swirly pattern in the liquid shot above. It was a fairly straightforward shot to take with the camera hand held pointing straight down and the 24 - 105mm lens fitted with Image Stabilisation turned on. Further technical details: ISO100, F4 @ 1/100 second, 24 -105 lens @ 58mm. The only post processing was a little sharpening and a little tweaking of the colours.
Strong - Weak
Pair three represents strong & weak. We have a strong coffee and a weak tea.Both shots were set up in the conservatory. As with the liquid shot I bounced a little light back into the frame using a large sheet of white foam board, a method I tend to use a lot. No flash was used on these two pictures though. As well as contrasting the strong coffee with the weak tea I tried to contrast the other objects in the picture as well.
Technical data for the coffee shot is as follows: Lens EF50mm Prime, ISO100, F11 @ 0.8 Second, camera on manual metered by hand, camera tripod mounted.
Technical data for the tea image: Lens 50mm Prime, ISO100, F11 @ 0.8 Second, manual camera setting, metered by hand, camera tripod mounted.
Both images were shot as RAW and processed using Canon's Digital Photo Professional software. I carried out slight cropping and sharpening with a very small tweak to the colours. Maybe I should add at this point that I tend to crop most of my images a little as my viewfinder shows slightly less than I get in the frame of the processed picture.
Rough - Smooth
When out photographing the beach huts I also spotted this texture which I felt would be a good representation of rough. It was a metal sheet nailed to the side of a hut that had been left to the elements.
In contrast to this I have a panel from my car as shot in the framing sequence. In essence this is the same base as the beach hut, a thin steel panel. The car panel which has not suffered the same kind of neglect as the beach hut has retained its smooth texture.
Technical details for the rusty panel are: Tripod mounted camera, ISO100, F2 @ 1/15 Second, Lens 24 - 105mm @ 99mm. For the car panel: Tripod mounted camera, ISO100, F8 @ 1/500 Second, Lens 24 - 105mm @ 47mm. Both of the above shots used camera metering and again had the minimum of processing carried out on them.
Many - Few
The 'Many' and 'Few' images were again taken in the diffuse light of the conservatory. The camera was tripod mounted and the settings for 'many'were: ISO100, 24 -105mm lens @ 65mm, F8 @ 1/10 Second. Metering by hand held light meter.
The 'Few image was taken on a different day but in the same place. Shot settings were: ISO100, 24 -105mm lens @ 105mm, F16 @ 1/3 Second white balance set to auto. For both the above shots processing was contained to sharpening and colour balance.
Still - Moving
The still and moving photographs are of a stainless steel kitchen whisk. Both shots were taken using the same camera settings. Normally one would perhaps set a slower shutter speed for the moving shot and a faster one to freeze everything in the frame, but as the camera was tripod mounted and the whisk was fixed in position, I did not find this necessary.
The still shot was taken and then the whisk was 'flicked' to get the arms moving. As the shutter speed was fairly slow for both shots, when the whisk was moving it created the blurred effect.
The technical data for both shots is: ISO100, 24 -105mm lens @ 32mm, F8 @ 1/4 Second. Tripod mounted camera, Manually metered.
The whisk was clamped in position and flicked to get the movement. Manual focus was used and processing was restricted to sharpening and colour tweaking as per all other shots.
Sweet - Sour
Sweet and sour are two images created in the same session. I shot both these in my kitchen with a small table lamp for lighting and placed some pieces of white card around the subjects to bounce a little light back into the shot and lighten the shadows.
The camera was mounted on a tripod and the 24 -105mm lens was used but this time with a 12mm extension tube.The sweets were then shot at F22, ISO100, 47mm Focal length (on the lens) and shutter speed of 2 Seconds.The Lime was shot at F22, ISO100, 88mm Focal length (on the lens) and a shutter of 1 Second.
Both shots were metered with the camera and manually focussed.
High - Low
The final pair of images were taken at work and represent high and low. Both these shots were taken with the camera hand held. For this reason I chose a higher ISO than I normally would. For the low shot I got a little higher myself by climbing the steps in the warehouse and shooting down.
Technical data for the high shot is: ISO400, F5 @ 1/40 Second,28 - 135mm Lens @ 28mm, metered by camera, lens image stabiliser used.
For the low shot: ISO400, F5 @ 1/30 Second, 28 -135mm Lens @ 28mm, metered by camera, lens image stabiliser used.
For both shots the camera was used in manual mode. The images were taken in RAW format and converted using Canon Photo Professional.
Contrast in one image
I have chosen the following image to demonstrate the contrast between 'Continuous' and 'Intermittent' in one frame. In the context of this picture the wires represent continuous, entering the shot at the bottom of the frame and leaving at the top. They are not interrupted. The threats running across the guitar neck represent 'intermittent' for obvious reasons.
Technical data for this shot: ISO 100, F22 @ 1 Second, lens 24-105mm @ 105mm. Manually focussed. The camera was tripod mounted and the subject was lit by natural light through a window and a little bounced back with white foam board.
Summary
This first assignment has been interesting and challenging. I hope I have interpreted the brief correctly. For all the images I have tried to bear in mind what has been learned in the exercises so far. I have tried to incorporate various types of image in this assignment. Many of the pairs were 'constructed' here at home. I had many of the ideas already jotted down in a notebook which I have kept since the beginning of the course. Other shots were stumbled across when I was out shooting for the other exercises. Not all of my ideas were successful and many shots were taken but not used.
I am looking forward to receiving my tutor comments to see how I have done and take any advice forward to the next assignment. I am also more determined to get better and more interesting images from here on.
The assignment asks for 8 pairs of images that demonstrate the extremes of different qualities. A list is provided to select the pairs from.
Straight - Curved
The first two images represent straight and curved in a very literal manner. Both images are about shape. The straight image is the side of a beach hut which has been freshly painted. This wasn't the first hut I found and I actually ended up with a lot of pictures of various coloured huts, all with strong straight lines. I felt this one fitted the brief the best.
Virtually every line in this photograph is straight. When some round items are introduced into the frame, i.e. the two locks, they still form a straight line with the door handle.Where on the left side we have no straight planking, the theme is continued by the painted green & white verticals.
The shot was taken using a tripod mounted camera fitted with a 24-105mm lens set wide at 24mm. ISO: 100, F11 @ 1/100 second, RAW. I used a hand held light meter and took an incident reading which I used to set up the Canon 40D in manual mode.
RAW conversion was carried out in Canon's Digital photo professional where the colours were tweaked just a little.The image was also cropped very slightly to remove a distraction on the left hand side.
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| Straight - Curved |
The image was taken in my conservatory which doubles as my makeshift studio. It has a lot of glass and a plastic roof which provides a lot of diffuse light under the right conditions. The camera was again tripod mounted and the Ammonite was placed straight on to a work surface. I didn't use the macro setting for my camera as I wanted a better depth of field so instead I played around moving the camera closer and further and zooming in and out with the lens. When I was happy I again used my hand held light meter for an incident reading and used the camera on manual. The settings were: ISO100, lens 24-105mm set to 85mm, F11 @ 1/4 second, camera fired by remote.
RAW conversion was carried out as above and again a very slight crop was performed to remove an unwanted piece of background in one corner.
Liquid - Solid
This was fun! For the liquid shot I wasted a morning down on the beach trying various things with ND filters and very slow shutter speeds. I had noted in my notebook that the kind of 'milky' images that can be had that way might be good to represent liquid. The result of a mornings work was nothing that I felt would be any good for this assignment. Wandering round the house trying to re-think this, I spotted a very large glass jar. I filled it with water and played around dropping stuff in it and swirling it around and then came up with this. It is blue food colouring which has been released in to the water filled jar using a drinking straw as a pipette. I liked the blue swirls but the light was not too good so I introduced a flash gun and started playing around with that.
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| Liquid |
Technical data is as follows: Light metering by flash meter and trial and error!, Lens 24-105mm set at 105mm, ISO100, F16 @ 1/200 second. Tripod mounted camera with wireless off camera flashgun. Camera set to manual and fired by wireless.
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| Solid |
Strong - Weak
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| Strong |
Technical data for the coffee shot is as follows: Lens EF50mm Prime, ISO100, F11 @ 0.8 Second, camera on manual metered by hand, camera tripod mounted.
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| Weak |
Both images were shot as RAW and processed using Canon's Digital Photo Professional software. I carried out slight cropping and sharpening with a very small tweak to the colours. Maybe I should add at this point that I tend to crop most of my images a little as my viewfinder shows slightly less than I get in the frame of the processed picture.
Rough - Smooth
When out photographing the beach huts I also spotted this texture which I felt would be a good representation of rough. It was a metal sheet nailed to the side of a hut that had been left to the elements.
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| Rough - Smooth |
Technical details for the rusty panel are: Tripod mounted camera, ISO100, F2 @ 1/15 Second, Lens 24 - 105mm @ 99mm. For the car panel: Tripod mounted camera, ISO100, F8 @ 1/500 Second, Lens 24 - 105mm @ 47mm. Both of the above shots used camera metering and again had the minimum of processing carried out on them.
Many - Few
The 'Many' and 'Few' images were again taken in the diffuse light of the conservatory. The camera was tripod mounted and the settings for 'many'were: ISO100, 24 -105mm lens @ 65mm, F8 @ 1/10 Second. Metering by hand held light meter.
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| Many - Few |
Still - Moving
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| Still |
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| Moving |
The technical data for both shots is: ISO100, 24 -105mm lens @ 32mm, F8 @ 1/4 Second. Tripod mounted camera, Manually metered.
The whisk was clamped in position and flicked to get the movement. Manual focus was used and processing was restricted to sharpening and colour tweaking as per all other shots.
Sweet - Sour
Sweet and sour are two images created in the same session. I shot both these in my kitchen with a small table lamp for lighting and placed some pieces of white card around the subjects to bounce a little light back into the shot and lighten the shadows.
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| Sweet - Sour |
Both shots were metered with the camera and manually focussed.
High - Low
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| Low |
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| High |
Technical data for the high shot is: ISO400, F5 @ 1/40 Second,28 - 135mm Lens @ 28mm, metered by camera, lens image stabiliser used.
For the low shot: ISO400, F5 @ 1/30 Second, 28 -135mm Lens @ 28mm, metered by camera, lens image stabiliser used.
For both shots the camera was used in manual mode. The images were taken in RAW format and converted using Canon Photo Professional.
Contrast in one image
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| Continuous - Intermittent |
Technical data for this shot: ISO 100, F22 @ 1 Second, lens 24-105mm @ 105mm. Manually focussed. The camera was tripod mounted and the subject was lit by natural light through a window and a little bounced back with white foam board.
Summary
This first assignment has been interesting and challenging. I hope I have interpreted the brief correctly. For all the images I have tried to bear in mind what has been learned in the exercises so far. I have tried to incorporate various types of image in this assignment. Many of the pairs were 'constructed' here at home. I had many of the ideas already jotted down in a notebook which I have kept since the beginning of the course. Other shots were stumbled across when I was out shooting for the other exercises. Not all of my ideas were successful and many shots were taken but not used.
I am looking forward to receiving my tutor comments to see how I have done and take any advice forward to the next assignment. I am also more determined to get better and more interesting images from here on.
Monday, 25 October 2010
Vertical and horizontal frames - part 2
I returned to Arundel for part two of this exercise. The shots that had been taken in part one were now re shot in landscape format. The exercise was meant to show that it is just as easy to take a portrait shot as a landscape one of a given subject. Although this did appear to be the case I had some trouble getting a 'nice' image in some of the landscape modes. I didn't make it easy for myself with some of the portrait shots I took!
I wasn't really to keen on this exercise and struggled a little with my subject matter. Although the task did prove a point I still believe that some subjects are better represented in landscape format whereas others are better suited to portrait. Agreed though, that the different format of the same subject may present a totally different view.
Monday, 18 October 2010
Vertical and horizontal frames - part 1
Part one of the vertical and horizontal frames exercise required me to shoot twenty frames in portrait mode. I reviewed my growing list of locations and set out initially for the sea front of the town where I live. When I arrived there wasn't much going on and the sun was high in the sky causing some very harsh shadows. I got back in the car and headed for location two, the town of Arundel which is not too far away.
The sun was still fairly high in the sky but I spent a pleasant few hours in the town centre photographing the old buildings and alley ways. Below are the twenty frames I selected. These locations will be revisited for a re-shoot in landscape mode.
As the exercise suggested, I did find myself looking for upright objects to shoot. In some situations the portrait mode was not the most suitable orientation resulting in large empty areas in the foreground. Sometimes this space was not easy to fill with something of interest. There are a couple of pictures in the collage above where this is the case, namely the white house on the corner (picture 11) and the large expanse of water in the image with the boats (picture 15).
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Positioning the horizon
In each of the following shots we have divided the frame horizontally. By varying the position at which we have done this, we have created a different balance in each shot. Taking the first shot which has been divided equally as our reference, notice that the second shot has become about the foreground. The same does apply to the third shot and this appears more interesting to me than the second as it includes a little more sky. If the sky and foreground had been more interesting this may have been a nice picture.
Moving on the the next three pictures. To me these are all skyscapes. The first really does not work for me. This picture would be better with no landscape at all. The second and third images on the bottom row are very similar - I did struggle to find a sixth image that was different from the first five. Both would have made impressive skyscapes had there been better clouds.
This exercise highlights that there can be many ways to represent a subject which may all work, but give a completely different impression.
Moving on the the next three pictures. To me these are all skyscapes. The first really does not work for me. This picture would be better with no landscape at all. The second and third images on the bottom row are very similar - I did struggle to find a sixth image that was different from the first five. Both would have made impressive skyscapes had there been better clouds.
This exercise highlights that there can be many ways to represent a subject which may all work, but give a completely different impression.
Cropping
I have selected three images from my collection of photographs which could all benefit from some cropping. In doing so I have had to consider what I am trying to achieve by cropping an image. One of the main reasons is to focus the attention on a particular area or object in the frame.
My first image is of the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth taken from a cross channel ferry in the early hours of the morning. The original frame had a lot of extra sea and sky. The subject of this image is the tower and the buildings leading into it. I think this is better reflected after cropping.Another good reason to crop is to get rid of unwanted intrusions. In this case the picture of our model Zoe is being spoilt by the intrusion of the person in the stripy top. We could of course try and Photoshop this out nowdays but cropping this to an almost square shape has given us a different feel to the image.
It was of course necessary to decide how much to crop. Here we have roughly divided the frame diagonally in half.
The final image is of a mediaeval story teller. The interest in this picture is the characters face. Some of the surrounding information is very distracting and awkward. By cropping in closer we lose the distractions and make it clear to the viewer they should be looking
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Preparation for Assignment 1: Contrasts
I have been spending a little time on preparation for my first assignment until I can get out to take the shots for my next project. This involves selecting contrasting pairs of images from the collection of photographs I have already taken. A list is provided with contrasts to select from and here are some of mine so far.
The first is light and dark. The light is the white stone of a statue, a section from the impressive war memorial at Vimy Ridge in France. This has been contrasted against the dark clouds of a storm.
The next image shows the contrast between many and few. The 'many' parasols were decorating an entrance way to a Thai festival while the 'few' stones were seen looking down from Bognor pier when the tide was out.
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| Light/Dark |
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| Many/Few |
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| Rounded/Diagonal |
The third pair were both taken at the same location, Fort Nelson in Hampshire. The 'rounded' image is a rusty canon ball stuck in a bronze canon. The second image is of the fort itself, showing the strong diagonals in the shape of the wall. Fort Nelson is a Napoleonic fort that now houses the Royal Armoury collection.
The final pair represent high and low. The high shot was taken during a hot air balloon flight. The low shot of Saltdean Lido was a tripod mounted camera with the tripod set almost at ground level.
Out of this selection the canon ball really does it for me. This also has a contrast within the picture - rough and smooth.
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| High/Low |
Out of this selection the canon ball really does it for me. This also has a contrast within the picture - rough and smooth.
Monday, 4 October 2010
Balance
The balance of a photograph can be made up of many different factors such as colour, tone and the placement of objects within the frame. In this exercise we will be looking at the balance in some existing images.
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| Vimy Ridge War Memorial |
In this image the balance is fairly obvious. The photo has its elements centred forming a symmetry around the vertical centre line. The two main elements are also balanced in numbers - there are two columns and two people approaching them. You could argue that there is a slight in-balance in the colours of the jackets of the couple.
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| Canon at Fort Nelson, nr Portsmouth. |
In this second image the composition is balanced by the positioning of the canon, which is a little off centre to the right. The wall is right up to the left frame. Although the size of the wall is still quite large, the dark colour of the canon adds to it's weight thereby balancing the picture.
The balance in this picture is more difficult to represent in the scales diagram. The balance is created by the dark objects in the opposing bottom left and top right corners. Although the tree is smaller than the road, the fact that it is situated higher in the frame seems to add extra weight to it.
Here we have a storm at sea photographed from Worthing pier. This images is divided horizontally into three strips. The centre strip consisting of the horizon line doesn't really play a big part in this picture although the small boat in the middle of it does. This is a central point in this image even though technically it is not in the absolute centre. Above we have the sky while below the sea.The sea is denser and balance is achieved between it and the sky by allowing a larger area of sky in the picture.
The fisherman's hut has an orange gas canister nestled in the bottom left of the frame. This is balancing the mass of nets from the right of the frame. As the gas bottle has more mass the balance is achieved by having a larger area of nets.
For my final image I want to include these buildings in Ghent, Belgium. I really don't think this can be represented by the scales but still think this picture balances very well. I believe this is a good case of strong movement in one direction having an opposite sense of movement to balance the photo, as discussed by Micheal Freeman in his book 'The Photographers Eye'.
With the exception of the last image these pictures were all reasonably straightforward to represent with the scales diagram. Other images in my collection had a clear balance but this was achieved through methods that were better demonstrated by other means.
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| A storm at sea |
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| Fisherman's hut, Dungeness |
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| Ghent, Belgium |
With the exception of the last image these pictures were all reasonably straightforward to represent with the scales diagram. Other images in my collection had a clear balance but this was achieved through methods that were better demonstrated by other means.
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