Cloudy weather and rain

I wanted to post this exercise but have been holding back to be able to do the first part, which is images in overcast and sunny weather. The conditions just don't seem to be occurring at the moment so I am posting the rest of the exercise as part I.

Mr & Mrs Newt Mann of Holston
The image on page 122 by Doris Ulmann, Mr & Mrs Newt Mann of Holston was taken in diffused cloudy light. Had the day been sunny and without clouds, the image would have been much more contrasty. This really would have not worked for this picture. By studying the shadows that you can see in the photo it will become apparent that a sunny day would have cast heavy shadows on the left of Mrs Newt Mann's face and the rim of Mr Newt Mann's hat would have put the top half of his face in shadow.

Images from my library
Below are two images from my collection that would not have worked so well had it been a sunny day. The London image would have had a burnt out sky (unless I had used a graduated Neutral Density filter) and even darker shadows cast by the pedestrians. The air show image may not have been possible at all depending on the direction of the sun.

The next three images were taken outside in my garden on an overcast day. The white balance was set to shade to eliminate a blue colour cast. The light is casting virtually no shadow as it is being heavily diffused as it passes through the clouds.

Images in the rain
Finally, some images taken in rain. The first one was on a visit to a local garden centre & gardens, where as luck would have it, it started raining! Here I am catching the rain drops in the pond.

Note that the shutter speed has stayed relatively high as the freak rain shower happened without dark skies and clouds.

The second was taken on a recent trip. The camera used was my compact which isn't really designed for the rain but we were caught in it by surprise!

Something to note in the last picture is that the colours have taken on a slightly 'cooler' appearance.

RPS International Projected Image Exhibition 2011

Feeling really please with myself today. Just had an email from the Royal Photographic Society of which I am a member.  Some while ago I entered an image for the RPS International Projected Image Exhibition 2011. I have just found out that the image had been accepted and will feature in the exhibition that will tour the UK and Ireland.

The image titled 'An artist and his self portrait' was taken a while ago and features my friend Vincent. Vincent paints in oils and behind him you can see his self portrait. The whole idea was to create a photograph in a similar style to the old masters. Vincent's studio has a North facing sky light and he was positioned in the light falling from this much in the same way he would position a subject for painting. I did experiment with the portrait on the right but both artist and his facsimile looking out of the frame formed a much stronger image.

The camera was mounted on a tripod and natural light was used. This resulted in having to use a relatively slow shutter speed - I used a small aperture to capture the self portrait in relative sharpness. When I look at the settings now I see the ISO was160 with F13 at 1/2 second with a 27mm focal length.

Here is the picture...

An artist and his self portrait.

Assignment 3: Colour - Reflection

After my feedback from assignment three, I have tried to incorperate some of the suggestions made by the tutor. It has not been possible to re-photograph all of the shots but i have been able to make some of the changes in Photoshop to be able to visualise the differences.

Complementary 1

Original Image

It was suggested that the first image of the posts would benefit from the front pot being closer to the front of the frame to make it the main subject. The many specular highlights were pointed out and these could have been avoided with a more diffuse light source.

Using cropping and a little cloning I have attempted to address these issues in the second photograph.

Complementary 3
The original image of the red shoes was found simple but effective and required no re-working. The tutor did suggest trying a more abstract version as well so here it is!

Complementary 4
The photograph of the bananas on the violet background was found too busy. Again I have re-cropped this image making it more abstract. Although there are still some undulations in the cloth, they now follow a similar shape to the bananas and I think this works quite well. The colour contrast also seems more 'contrasty' in this limited view.

Original

Edited

Similar 1
The flower at the bottom of the frame was cut in half on the original shot. I have cropped the shot to show just the main focus of the image and loose the distracting bottom part.

Original

Edited

Similar 3
The combination of blue/green worked fairly well. The tutor thought that the tree was a little heavy and could do with some lightening. I used the dodge tool in Photoshop to gently lighten the tree.

Original

Edited

Contrast 2
The side of the boat shot was again found to be ok but seemed a little light on the screen. I have taken the original shot and using the levels control in Photoshop, have added more black. It has given the image much more punch. I am pretty annoyed with myself for not spotting this earlier!

Original

Edited

Contrast 4
The tutor commented on the main point of focal interest being lost in the busyness of the leaves. I can now see that clearly. As it is not possible to re-take this image now, I have used Photoshop to try and mimic a suggested solution i.e. using a shallower depth of field. Here is the result. Unfortunately this hasn't really worked at all and this could do with being re-photographed.

Original

Edited

Accent 2
The accent image of the ireses suffers from a similar problem to the contrast shot above. Unfortunately the irises aren't out any more to redo this shot, and that is what is required. A valuable lesson here seems to be that violet also does not stand out well from green.

Original

Accent 3
For the final correction I was asked if I had a shot where the red hoody was in focus. Unfortunately I don't but the other tutor comment was about the old gentleman's shadow being cropped out of the frame. This I can correct and the modified version can be seen below.

Original

Edited

Lighting & Richard Avedon

Some of the lighting in this section of the course has caused me to take another look at some of the black & white portrait work by Richard Avedon. I am a big fan of the fashion genre and Richard Avedon was instrumental in showing me the 'art' in fashion photography.

Audrey Hepburn

Looking over a collection of his work it is possible to de-construct some of his lighting techniques. With my new found knowledge I am able to better asses how these pictures work. Here are a few of Avedon's images - some iconic and some not so well known.

In the images of Audrey Hepburn & Twiggy we can see soft, diffused light. The light is wrapping around the subject and the graduation from light to shade is gentle. In the case of Audrey, the light appears to be coming from two sources, one camera left just a little higher than her face (see the shadows behind her glove and on her neck) and the other camera right from higher up (shadows under and in front of her arm). This is a truly beautiful portrait of a beautiful lady!

Twiggy

In the photograph of Twiggy, she appears to be looking straight into the main light.  This again must be diffused - we can tell by the soft shadows under her chin and on her neck- alternatively this may be due to some light being bounced back with a reflector? This could also conceivably be taken in daylight, maybe from a high window - note the blurring in Twiggy's face which suggests a slowish shutter speed or at least slower than a flash speed.

Barbra Streisand (1965)

In contrast to this we have the pictures of Barbra Streisand and Elizabeth Taylor. Both of these photo's have harsher lighting although this is by no means detracting from the images. Of the two,  Streisand's image seems to have less contrast, be it only by a fraction - see the shadows on her neck and under-arm. The main light appears to be coming from high up camera left. This makes for a lovely sculpture like image which is further enhanced by Streisand's slightly unusual features and the shape of her haircut.

The image of Elizabeth Taylor is extremely well carried out. Of all the images in this post, this must have the harshest light but at the same time this is very well hidden. When you look at the light drop-off on the arms you may think that the light is quite soft but looking closer at the shadows under her scarf, chin and beneath her nose, you can see that there is almost no graduation from light to dark. It takes a good look to notice this though as each shadow is almost hidden.The contrast between light and dark across the whole image, combined with the shape of Elizabeth's torso, which seems to push our eyes up to her face and then traps them within the ring of hair and scarf, serves to place our attention firmly on the mesmerising stare straight out of the picture!

Elizabeth Taylor (1964)

Tungsten and fluorescent light

Different light sources emit different colours of light. This is not always obvious to us as our eyes adapt quickly. Our cameras are not so flexible and will record the light as it is. When we view images taken under different lights, we can often be surprised at some of the colours we see.

This exercise is to make us aware of some of these different light sources, mainly tungsten, fluorescent and vapour. 

For the first exercise I have illuminated the room with standard tungsten lighting and waited for the light level outside to drop until there is just a little daylight left. I have spent about a minute staring out of the window so that my eyes have adjusted to light outside. Turning quickly to look into the room, I have noted that the light is very orange/red before my eyes adjust to the light.Turning to look out of the window again, the light now looks more blue. 

For the next part I have measured the light around the room. With my camera set to ISO 100 and the aperture set to F1.4 which is wide open for this lens, the shutter speeds are generally to low for hand holding.The shutter speed near a reading lamp measures at 1/15th of a second (which may just be possible to hand hold) but in a darker part of the room is as low as 1/4 of a second.

The room is shown in the next three images which have been exposed using three different white balance settings. The first image has been taken with the white balance set to auto. The second with the white balance set to daylight. Note that both images are very similar. The view of the street outside seems to have the correct colouring which suggests that the cameras auto white balance is set to favour normal daylight. Note the orange tint to the light in the room.

The third image is very different. The white balance has been set to tungsten so the camera is trying to make the room interior fit our view of normal daylight. The result of this is that the interior is much less orange but this in turn has made the view outside a lot more blue.

Fluorescent Lamps
For the second part of this exercise I have been tasked to find two different interiors lit by fluorescent lamps. The first of these is my garage. I have taken two shots, the first with the white balance set to auto, the second with the white balance set to fluorescent.

Examining the two images above, the first thing that becomes obvious is the difference between the auto white balance and the fluorescent white balance. The auto white balance image has a much more yellow cast. The book suggests that fluorescent lights do not emit the full colour spectrum. Looking at the second image which is set to the correct white balance, it does indeed appear somewhat 'washed out'. In particular the reds and the blues are very pale.

Contrast and shadow fill

The main benefit of working with photographic lighting  is that we have complete control over how our finished subject is lit. To create interesting images we control the contrast, i.e. the difference between light and shade. This is yet another factor that helps us to build up a 'style' of our own.

When working with one light, we can control the level of contrast by using a reflector of some sort. In the images below we look at the effect a large piece of white foam core has on our subject. The white foam core is an inexpensive way of creating a versatile reflector.

First, here is a diagram showing the initial light set-up. We have a stand mounted flash at right angles to the camera and our subject set on a table. The camera is tripod mounted. I have placed a large black  portfolio behind the subject (didn't have any black paper or card big enough!). The camera was set to 1/200, my flash synch speed. All shots bar the first were at F5.6. The first was at F8 to compensate for the extra light falling on the subject without the diffuser.

Note that the first photograph has been made without the diffusing umbrella.

Here are the images. CR stands for Camera Right:

The image above has been taken without diffusion. A characteristic of this light is that it is very contrasty. This is often called 'hard' light. This light might be good for a very contrasty body light sculpture.

The image above has been shot with the diffuser in place. The contrast is now not as harsh as the previous image. Technically this relates to the size of the light source. By putting an umbrella in front of the light we have increased the size of the light source. A larger light source results in softer shadows as the light 'wraps' around more of the shape of the subject.

I have now introduced a white foam core reflector 1 meter to the right of the statue. The effect is very subtle but you can see a little more light coming in if you study the area around the statues chest & collar bone.

The reflector is moved closer to the statue by half the distance. The effect is again subtle but look at the area around the statues left thigh.

I have now wrapped kitchen foil around the foam core with the dull side facing out. This has dramatically increased the amount of light being reflected back into the shadows.

Now the foil has been reversed so that the shiny side is bouncing light back, Notice that the reflected light has taken on a much 'crisper' appearance.

Finally the light is being reflected back by crumpled foil. There is slightly less light coming back which at first seems strange but when you stop and think about what is happening it makes sense. The crumpled foil is reflecting light off in all directions so that not as much light is getting back to the statue.

This exercise shows that with just a single light source and a reflector you have quite a lot of  latitude on how you light a subject. It is worth remembering that this light source need not necessarily be a flash light. It could be the sun!

What would I have done differently in this exercise? Well, I think the images would have benefited from more depth of field. If you look at the hand with the discuss you can see it is out of focus. If this had been a photograph for anything other than an exercise I would not have been happy with this.