Wednesday 19 October 2011

Continuing Working at the ideas

In an attempt to stop me going rusty and to have me continue to learn the skills from the TAOP course, I have gone back and looked over the exercises and using them as a loose basis I created a brief for myself.

In this case I wanted to have another try at the lighting exercise and have a go at a combined dark field and edge lighting experiment.,

I setup the softbox behind a piece of A4 black paper which was clamped to a lighting stand a little in front of the softbox.

 Brandy Shot
D80, Aperture f27, Speed 1/180 sec, ISO 100, 145mm (35mm Equivalent 217mm), Matrix Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, tripod mounted, 55-200mm, Single Studio 180W Flash head with softbox.
Dark Field Brandy

I am pleased with the colouration of the brandy and that the curviture of the inside of the glass is shown by the small amounts of defracted light within the glass itself.

Large Brandy Glass
I then moved on to a larger glass, one which was almost as wide as the piece of black paper once it was composed on the table.

D80, Aperture f27, Speed 1/180 sec, ISO 100, 95mm (35mm Equivalent 142mm), Matrix Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, tripod mounted, 55-200mm, Single Studio 180W Flash head with softbox.

Dark Field Goblet

I converted it to black and white and then used photoshop to adjust the saturation colour on the glass to give it a very slight blue hue as I wanted to show the bowl shape of the glass.

Crystal Glass 
Again I changed glasses, this one was slighly smaller, but it had the one advantage of being cut crystal. This allowed the light to reflect around more within the glass as the crystal cuts helped to deflect and disfuse the light.

D80, Aperture f27, Speed 1/180 sec, ISO 100, 105mm (35mm Equivalent 157mm), Matrix Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, tripod mounted, 55-200mm, Single Studio 180W Flash head with softbox.

Dark Field Crystal Both Sides

While I was pleased with the glass and the light effect it produced I was not too happy to see that a lot of the table below the stand and the glass was being reflected up into the bottom of the glass. Next time I will have to place down non reflective black card to stop the reflections and to soak up some of the bounced light.

Crystal Glass Single Side

I adjusted the glass and the lighting stand holding the black piece of paper a little and then had another go at the crystal glass, this time I wanted only to capture one side of the glass.

D80, Aperture f27, Speed 1/250 sec, ISO 100, 105mm (35mm Equivalent 157mm), Matrix Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, tripod mounted, 55-200mm, Single Studio 180W Flash head with softbox.

Dark Field Crystal Single Side

Using the slightly faster shutter speed meant that with the adjustments I photographed the glass capturing only the light refelecting from once side. I was really pleased with this image.

What I learned
At the end of the shoot I looked over the images and ditched quite a few as I was not fully happy with the performance of the lighting; I have overlooked the power of the lighting and had set it too high forcing me to change ISO, speed and Aperture because once I started shooting I forgot that I could adjust the lighting power down even further. I did however get a few images that I was particularly happy with, including the single edge of the crystal glass.

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Bibliography

Ansel Adams: Born Free and Equal
Josef Albers: Interaction of Colour
Eugene Atget: Paris
Steve Bavister: Lighting for Portrait Photography
John Berger: Ways of Seeing
Karl Blossfeldt: The Complete Published Work
Clement Cheroux: Portfolio of images by Henri Cartier Bresson
Graham Clarke: The Photograph
Charlotte Cotton: The Photograph as Contemporary Art
Edward S Curtis: Native Americans. A portfolio of images published by Taschen
Magdalena Droste: Bauhaus
Steve Edwards: Photography. A Very Short Introduction
Michael Freeman: The Photographers Eye
Reuel Golden: Masters of Photography
John Hannavy: A Moment in Time. Scottish Contributions to Photography 1840-1920
John Hedgecoe: The Photographers Handbook
Roger Hicks/Frances Schultz: Still Life and Special Effects Photography
Fil Hunter/Steven Biver/Paul Fuqua: Light. Science and Magic. An Introduction to Photographic Lighting
Johannes Itten: The Elements of Colour
Ian Jeffrey: How to Read a Photograph
Tony Mendoza: Ernie. A Photographers Memoir
Steve Mulligan: Understanding Composition. The Complete Photographers Guide
Museum Ludwig Cologne: 20th century Photography
NPG: Vanity Fair Portraits
Bryan Peterson: Understanding exposure
Phaidon: The Photo Book
Phaidon: Century
Prestel: Icons of Photography - The 20th Century
Man Ray: A Portfolio of images published by Taschen
Susan Sontag: On Photography
Sara Stephenson: Light from the Dark Room
John Szarkowski: The Photographers Eye
Taschen: Photo Icons 1 & 2
Thames & Hudson: Magnum Photos
Thames & Hudson: The Great Life Photographers
Edward Weston: A Portfolio of images published by Taschen

just some of the influences!

I would just like a moment to note some of the photographers and artists whose work has an influence on me and who I had discovered as part of the Art of Photography Course.
Ansel Adams – I came to his work quite late, I enjoy looking at his landscapes and I can be lost in the composition for hours, but it was his work capturing the life of Internees which really captured my imagination, his portraits are perfect and work well as a narrative as well as a capture of space and time.

Edward Weston – I have always loved the indoor work on peppers as Weston has captured the shape, contours and contrasts of the subjects in simple but impressive monochromatic images.

Alexander Rodchenko – When I first encountered “Portrait of Mother “ by Rodchenko I was very impressed, with one single image he has shown his influence on film makers and on designers. His use of composition and rhythm in a image have had a great influence on how I see shapes and patterns.

Rankin – Rankin’s’ monochromatic portraits remind me of the production and promotional images created by many Hollywood photographers of the 20’s 30’s and 40’s. I have always been fascinated by this style of portraiture and the creative work that these photographers produced for Time Magazine and Vanity Fair.

Jack Vetriano – I has always liked his work but I have at time struggled to understand what he was presenting. Thanks to the course I now have a better appreciation of his work and some of his portraitures have had an influence of me.

Edward  Curtis – I found some of Curtis work at the start of the course and his simple monochromatic images made me want to see more of them and to examine his work.

Roger Hick and Frances Schultz – their work together in the production of advertising images has had an influence on me as it has taught me to little on the lighting requirements and skills needed to create these images.

The number of images and pieces of work and their artists which have influenced me is a very long list. Thankfully to the teachings of the course I have found a greater appreciation for art and artists than i had before. I know enjoy looking at art and being able to start to understand the representation and with a simple understanding fo colour theory and composition I can now start to understand why some images are more striking to me than others.

Following a Narrative

One of the images I came across when studying up on Narrative was by Ansel Adams, the image itself was insightful and in one single frame told the story. I then started to follow this up and find more images regarding this subject and its place in history and before I knew it I was reading a book by Ansel Adams called “Born Free and Equal” which details life for Americans of Japanese descent who were interred in camps during the Second World War. While reading this book I discovered another photographer whose images I was impressed by, this photographer was Toyo Miyatake an internee and official camp photographer. Miyatake had studied by Edward Weston, another photographer of influence to me; due to this discovery am I now searching for more of Miyatakes work.

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Assignment 5 – Applying the Techniques of illustration and narrative

What: The brief of this assignment was to show the command of illustration and narrative by producing a magazine cover and article
Where: Final Location – The Botanic Garden in Edinburgh
When:  Single Day – Just after the storms had finished on the east coast of Scotland.
How: First of all I made sure that I fully understood the brief of the Assignment by rereading the text. The then thought about what kind of article and images I wanted to produce, I spent a few days on line at the National Library of Congress of America looking at scanned copies of books by Edward S Curtis on Native Americans [1], Ansel Adams books and images of Americans of Japanese descent who were interred in America during World War 2 [2], I also looked at scanned images and articles at theAtlanic.com [3] and two articles on Military Working Dogs at foreignpolicy.com [4].

Looking at these gave me a few ideas to work on and also a lot to think about regarding the producing of images and how these photographers had an influence on me.

I had originally gone to the garden to do a social documentary comparing the botanic garden and the council owned park right next to it, as they are vastly different to each other. However I did not like the images that I produced of the park and I could not get a good comparison of the two locations. I then decided to document the Botanic garden as a location of interest as it an unusual place located in the heart of the city; again I had problems not only due to the fact that some of the gardens facilities were either closed or not working and also due to the fact that due to my limited mobility I could not get to all the locations within the Botanic Garden.

I then went round the garden again and noted the many differences in the buildings dotted around the location, I then decided to work on the idea of the evolution of the garden as it moved into the 21st century very much like the National Museum had done when it reopened a month earlier.

I was surprised to find when I started to dig, how much the garden had changed and evolved just at this location.


The evolution of the botanic garden

D80,Aperture f/13, Shutter Speed 1/90 sec, ISO 640, 70mm (35mm equivalent 105mm), Pattern Metering Mode, Daylight White Balance, Hand Held, 18-70mm lens

Cover - Light through Palm Leaf 2

In 1834 the tropical palm house which is now the smaller palm house was constructed to house a number of tropical palm trees; each of which has been culled when it reaches the roof of the palm house to make way for the smaller trees. Sections of previous palm trees are kept just outside the entrance of the palm house for the public to examine.

D80,Aperture f/13, Shutter Speed 1/125 sec, ISO 640, 18mm (35mm equivalent 27mm), Pattern Metering Mode, Daylight White Balance, Hand Held, 18-70mm lens

Smaller Victorian Palmhouse
In 1858 the temperate plam house was constructed beside the tropical palm house  to contain temperate palm trees and is to date the tallest in Britain.
D80,Aperture f/19, Shutter Speed 1/180 sec, ISO 640, 27mm (35mm equivalent 40mm),Pattern Metering Mode, Daylight White Balance, Hand Held, 18-70mm lens

Victorian Glasshouse

Part of the redesign was to reuse to original stone benches which now use temporary displays of flowering plants which would normally be kept out of public view in the research and support areas.

Here a pale rose is nestled amongst a collection of citrus plants all of which are sheltered in the shadow of a large palm tree. 
D80,Aperture f/13, Shutter Speed 1/90 sec, ISO 640, 52mm (35mm equivalent 78mm), Pattern Metering Mode, Daylight White Balance, Hand Held, 18-70mm lens

Pale Rose
The temperate palm house is now under maintenance to keep it in good condition. Glass that was broken in the recent storms is being removed by hand before being replaced with identical glass which is becoming harder to source.

D80,Aperture f/6.7, Shutter Speed 1/1500 sec, ISO 640, 34mm (35mm equivalent 51mm), Pattern Metering Mode, Daylight White Balance, Hand Held, 18-70mm lens

Repairing Window following Storm

In 1960s it was recognised that the original Victorian palm houses were in poor condition. It was decided that they should be restored to good condition and that 10 new glasshouses were to be built completed linking all the houses together. In 1967 this was completed and the new houses held a collection of plants in different environmental conditions.

D80,Aperture f/4 , Shutter Speed 1/750 sec, ISO 640, 18mm (35mm equivalent 27mm), Pattern Metering Mode, Daylight White Balance, Hand Held, 18-70mm lens

Water Lilly House

The radical design of these new glasshouses allows for maximum internal area as the entire structure is supported on the outside.

D80,Aperture f/6.7 , Shutter Speed 1/2000 sec, ISO 640, 105mm (35mm equivalent 157mm), Pattern Metering Mode, Daylight White Balance, Hand Held, 105mm lens

Front Range

The main elevation  the new glasshouses is called the Front range providing visitors with a pleasant, quiet space. The planting and is regularly rotated to provide continuing interest.

D80,Aperture f/6.7 , Shutter Speed 1/3000 sec, ISO 640, 105mm (35mm equivalent 157mm), Pattern Metering Mode, Daylight White Balance, Hand Held, 105mm lens

Hornet Feeding

In 1876 the gardens acquired the area surrounding Inverleith house. This was at first used as a home for the regius keeper and his family.

D80,Aperture f/19 , Shutter Speed 1/180 sec, ISO 640, 27mm (35mm equivalent 40mm), Pattern Metering Mode, Daylight White Balance, Hand Held, 18-70mm lens

Inverleith House Art Gallery

It also has undergone several incarnations and between 1960 and 1984 was the founding house of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. It is now an internationally recognised art gallery and it houses a continuous rolling programme of temporary exhibitions.

The landscape surrounding Inverleith house has been reworked and landscaped to create a view looking south out towards the rest of the city silhouetting the castle, St Giles and St Andrews Square.


D40X Converted to IR, Aperture f/9 , Shutter Speed 1/1600 sec, ISO 800, 35mm (35mm equivalent 52mm), Pattern Metering Mode, CustomWhite Balance, Hand Held, 18-70mm lens

View Over Edinburgh

The garden itself which has now grown to an 80 acre site is constantly monitored by the staff and researchers to ascertain the condition of the plants, from pine trees to alpines. The horticulture staff maintains the garden to ensure the plants are in good condition
D80,Aperture f/6.7 , Shutter Speed 1/4000 sec, ISO 1000, 105mm (35mm equivalent 157mm), Pattern Metering Mode, Daylight White Balance, Hand Held, 105mm lens

Purple and Yellow

In the last five years the garden has undertaken another evolution when the west gate buildings were cleared and the construction of a new entranceway was started. The John Hope gateway was opened in 2009 not only as the new main entrance for the public, The building also houses other facilities including an improved Shop, education room, a Real Life Science Studio, permanent and temporary exhibitions, interactive media, plant sales and Gateway Restaurant

The gateway was named after Professor John Hope regius keeper of the garden from 1761 to 1786 who was responsible for unifying the differentiates sites into the first botanic garden at its original site on Leith walk.
D80,Aperture f/22, Shutter Speed 1/45 sec, ISO 1000, 15mm (35mm equivalent 22mm), Pattern Metering Mode, Daylight White Balance, Hand Held, 11-16mm lens

West Gate Entrance


Summary

It was a bit of a problem to begin with as at the start none of my original ideas worked out or when I went to scout locations they images I had planned to take just did not work out. I was pleased to find that I just did not start banging off with the camera taking hundreds of images in the hope that I would get something workable. I took my time and planned and replanned on the day when things did not work using the original plan as a structure to work from.

References








Sunday 18 September 2011

Taking time

While looking over the coursework for part 5 of the course I decided that I would take two weeks annual leave from work and just apply myself to the coursework dedicating myself to the course completely. At first I did not think that this was going to work and that I would be left at the end with a lot of Assignment 5 to do. Happily however I can state that on the very last day of the two weeks annual leave that I have managed to complete the coursework in a steady state without rushing or making compromises to the work I produced. 

Exercise 47 - Rain

What: The brief of this exercise was to show the understanding of illustration by producing an original image for a magazine cover which demonstrates the subject of rain
Where: In the house
When: During the two days of storms
How: First of all I had to do was to reference some book and magazine covers and get an idea of what to avoid when coming up the subject of rain.

At first I wanted to produce an image of someone walking across the road at a set of crossroads where I could capture the silhouetted figure under an umbrella while the rain socked building could be seen going off into the distance using the perspective from the crossroads. However as the wind was so strong I could not find a position in my chosen location where I would not be buffeted by the wind and where I could catch someone using an umbrella, it appeared that umbrellas were not in use due to the very high winds.

I then thought about shooting out of a first flooe window into the dark night, placing a remotely fired flash on the ground floor below. I believed that the rain drops would be light up from below with the flash and this would produce a nicely light image of the rain. However the flash I am using has developed a fault and would not trigger correctly or produce a flash of the correct intensity. SO I had to rethink the idea again.

While at home I remembered an image I had taken a long time ago which had received some good reactions from friends and relatives. I then tracked down the original file and decided that I would like to use the concept to produce a new image

The original image produced in 2005 using one of my first proper point and shoot digital cameras.
break-in-the-storm

I waited during the stormy days until there was a moment when it was not too dark and that the rain was light enough not just to streak down the window. I then just shot a few frames in different directions out through the glass until I was happy with the background of the image.

D80,Aperture f/22, Shutter Speed 1/3000 sec, ISO 3200, 105mm (35mm equivalent 157mm),Centre Weight Metering Mode, Cloud White Balance, Hand Held, 105mm lens

Rain V2

I used cloud white Balance rather than shade as I could not get the right colour representation from either shade or auto white balance.

I then gave the image a title to look like a magazine cover and then a couple of lines of text as you would normally get on a cover.

What I learned

I learned from this exercise that sometimes a plan just does not work out and that you have to be flexible with your ideas. I quite enjoyed the exercise as it was a task where I had to exercise my imagination and come up with some concepts and the second part was the exercise in producing and photograph to a set specification.

Exercise 46 - Juxtaposition

What: The brief of this exercise was to show the understanding of illustration and an understanding of illustration by juxtaposition by producing an original image either a still life or a larger scale shot.Where: In the house
When: During the afternoon
How: First of all I had to do was to reference some book and magazine covers and get an idea of what to avoid when coming up the image concept. I then decided to do a book cover

I went with a murder mystery novel as I thought the concept would be a good challenge as there are a vast number of murder mystery novels and they all have different covers all trying to avoid the same cliché potholes.

My book cover I decided on is for Agatha Christies Murder is Easy; I then sat with paper and pencil and scribbled rough drawings and thoughts until I had formed and idea or two. I then refined the ideas down into a workable format.

I worked on the idea that if murder was easy then a child could do it, I then played with ideas such as child blocks or a lego gun, before deciding on a simple design of cut out people in a chain and one of them being murdered with a pair of scissors as simply we teach children to use scissors quite quickly.

D80,Aperture f/3.5, Shutter Speed 1/125 sec, ISO 400, 18mm (35mm equivalent 27mm),Pattern Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Hand Held, 18-55mm lens

Murder is easy V3

What I learned

I learned from this exercise that is can take some experimentation and practice to demonstrate abstract ideas through illustration; however once the concept has been developed and it can be demonstrated.
I was unfamiliar with the concept of using illustration of portraying ideas, but I now understand the concept and also the concept of symbolism and the requirement to find the right symbol for the illustration of a subject or idea.

Exercise 45 - Symbols

What: The brief of this exercise was to demonstrate an understanding of symbols and symbolism which could be used to illustrate a concepts.
Where: Everywhere – I have been thinking about this a lot
When: All day
How: First of all I had to do was to jot down some notes on what I thought would be a suitable list symbols for the following concepts avoiding clichés

Growth – Building being raised indicating financial growth. A sapling or field of shoots indicating the start of botanical growth. A macro photograph of a shoot as it just bursts through the soil.

Excess – Glasshouse crammed full with a giant banana tree.
A large display of different coloured sweets and chocolates, something like the old fashioned sweetshop displays or on a market stall.

Collection of expensive cars together with their owner.

Crime – Especially after the recent events in London, broken windows come to mind. Vandalism, mugging, fighting in the streets.
Stacks on money beside bags of white powder.

A gun with some bullets beside it, a smoking gun?

Silence – A Victorian statue on a gravestone – statue looking downward in sorrow. These are usually found on children’s  graves or on war graves.

I did think about a hand or finger over the mouth, but I am concerned that could now be a cliché, it certainly was the first thing to spring to mind.

Poverty – First thing that comes to mind in the slums of Glasgow, so I thought about a poor child in the street.

A beggar stilling outside a large chain store or chain restaurant.

I found this quite a provoking exercise as it allowed me to exercise my mind allowing me to think up, note and sometime discard symbols for the concepts. I enjoyed this exercise as it did allow me the freedom to exercise my mind although it was at times difficult to decide if an symbol I had thought of was a cliché or not.

Exercise 44 – Evidence of Action

What: The brief of this exercise was to show the command of illustration by producing an image where something has happened. I took the exercise suggestion of something which had been emptied.
Where: In the house
When: During the afternoon
How: First of all I had to do was to jot down some ideas; at first I had been struck by the exercise suggestion of showing something which was broken, but after looking at what I had to hand which was just glasses and bowls, I could not come up with a good composition which I liked. It was while sitting at a friend’s 40th party that I observed someone clearing up a stack of empty beer bottles, I then re-examined the course notes and decided to change to the example of showing something as being emptied.

Since I do not drink beer and I was not going to procure a dozen bottles to pour down the sink, I examined a cupboard in the house where I stick empty bottles until we have enough to take to the bottle bank. In there were a couple of empty bourbon bottles including one limited edition bottle.

I remembered that the notes had mentioned advertising as an example of dealing with abstract ideas and I decided that I wanted to produce a single image showing several empty bottles of bourbon.

I then setup a light tent, correctly this time around, and after sorting out the background I experimented with different light setups until I got the shot that I wanted.
D80,Aperture f/4.8, Shutter Speed 1/60 sec, ISO 640, 48mm (35mm equivalent 72mm),Pattern Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Tripod Mounted, 18-70mm lens

Empty

What I learned

I learned from this exercise that is can take some experimentation and practice to demonstrate abstract ideas through illustration; however once the concept has been developed and it can be demonstrated.
I was unfamiliar with the concept of using illustration of portraying ideas, but I now understand the concept and also the concept of symbolism and the requirement to find the right symbol for the illustration of a subject or idea.

Thursday 8 September 2011

Exercise 43 – Narrative and Storytelling

What: The brief of this exercise was to show the command of narrative and storytelling by producing a number of photographs which could be used to illustrate an event or sequence.
Where: Edinburgh
When: Last Night of the Festival
How: First of all I had to do was to jot down some notes on what I wanted to capture on the day,

The crowd – This is a well attended event every year
The picnics
The fireworks
The castle
The Ending fireworks – usually the biggest burst of the night.

I also had to procure the tickets so that I would be in the position that I wanted. I had decided on where I wanted to be, but in a event like this you cannot always book a position on the ground so I arrived early to that I could get a good position on the East side of the castle. I wanted the East side as I had seen the weather reports for the day and they said that the wind was going to be blowing inland to the west of the city.

Festival Fireworks Edinburgh 4th September 2011-09-06

D80,Aperture f/16, Shutter Speed 30 sec, ISO 100, 29mm (35mm equivalent 43mm),Centre Weight Metering Mode, Manual White Balance set to 4000K, Tripod Mounted, 18-70mm lens

DSC_0180

The traditional firework display and concert marks the formal end to the Edinburgh Festival, the concert and fireworks on the last Sunday of the festival take place on Edinburgh castle overlooking Princess Street and the gardens below.

D50,Aperture f/9.5, Shutter Speed 1/8 sec, ISO 1600, 40mm (35mm equivalent 60mm),Pattern Metering Mode, Daylight White Balance, Hand Held, 18-70mm lens
DSC_0012

The event attracts a large audience who sit below in the Gardens and watch the display of 10,000 fireworks in the night, while the Scottish chamber orchestra play a series of classic pieces matched to the display.

D50,Aperture f9.5, Shutter Speed 1/10 sec, ISO 1600, 18mm (35mm equivalent 27mm),Pattern  Metering Mode, Daylight White Balance,Hand Held, 18-70mm lens

DSC_0009

People arrive up to two hours before the concert many of them sitting on the grass banks and enjoying a quiet picnic; many were setting up cameras to capture the event.

D50,Aperture f/9.5, Shutter Speed 1/15 sec, ISO 1600, 52mm (35mm equivalent 78mm),Pattern  Metering Mode, Daylight White Balance, Hand Held, 18-70mm lens

DSC_0007

As the sun sets, the castle which is usually light up is silhouetted against the sky

D80,Aperture f/16, Shutter Speed 8 sec, ISO 100, 14mm (35mm equivalent 21mm),Matrix Metering Mode, Manual White Balance set to 4000K, Tripod Mounted, 11-16mm lens

DSC_0175


A flare is fired into the sky to test the wind speed and direction to ensure that the wind speed will not cause the fireworks to go out of control and drop into the crowds below.


D80,Aperture f/16, Shutter Speed 30 sec, ISO 100, 29mm (35mm equivalent 43mm),Centre Weight Metering Mode, Manual White Balance set to 4000K, Tripod Mounted, 18-70mm lens
DSC_0180

As the dark draws in the audience settle for the performance, and the lights are dimmed around the garden to allow the best view.


D50,Aperture f/11, Shutter Speed 2 sec, ISO 200, 55mm (35mm equivalent 88mm), Pattern Metering Mode, Shade White Balance, Hand Held, 55-200mm lens
DSC_0018


The concert and as the orchestra plays the overture to Glinkas “Ruslan and Ludmilla” fireworks stream from the castle into the night sky.

D80,Aperture f/16, Shutter Speed 30 sec, ISO 100, 29mm (35mm equivalent 43mm),Centre Weight Metering Mode, Manual White Balance set to 4000K, Tripod Mounted, 18-70mm lens
DSC_0187

Following Glinka, Borodins “In the steppes of Central asia” is played as the fireworks light the sky in colourful inspiration of the orient.

D80,Aperture f/16, Shutter Speed 30 sec, ISO 100, 29mm (35mm equivalent 43mm),Centre Weight Metering Mode, Manual White Balance set to 4000K, Tripod Mounted, 18-70mm lens
DSC_0193

As the concert progresses through the harmonies, melodies and rhythms of each piece of music the audience are dazzled by the pyrotechnics.

D50,Aperture f/11, Shutter Speed 8 sec, ISO 200, 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm),Pattern Metering Mode, Manual White Balance, Hand Held, 55-200mm lens
DSC_0033

As the concert draws to an end and the castle is lost from view in the cordite smoke, the finale of “oriental procession” from Sibelius’ Belshazzars feast the night sky is almost brought back to its’ daylight colours by the final burst of fireworks

 D80,Aperture f/16, Shutter Speed 30 sec, ISO 100, 18mm (35mm equivalent 27mm),Centre Weight Metering Mode, Manual White Balance set to 4000K, Tripod Mounted, 18-70mm lens
DSC_0227

What I learned

First thing I learned from this is that I am not very good at writing narrative due to my dyslexia.

Planning is required for a photography essay in this style, unless you happen to come across a sequence of events like Robert Lebeck did at Leopoldville where he managed to capture a sequence of images showing a young man stealing the ceremonial dagger from King Baudouin, then planning has to be done. Otherwise you just miss the scenes you want to photograph and you end up just shooting and hoping that you will capture something.

I also did some reading up on fireworks photography before the event to see if there was anu goood guidance on white balance. I did come across one site which recommended setting the white balance to 4000K as this give the best representation of the colours. I did this and I have to agree that it does give a good representation.

I also learned that after the photographs have been taken; that they can be juggled around to make them out of sequence which can make for a more visual narrative. I have noticed that in some magazines that they start start an essay with a different photograph out of sequence and then they will follow with the others in as rear a sequence as the story will allow.

Sunday 21 August 2011

Assignment 4 – Applying Lighting Techniques

What: The brief of this assignment was to show the command of lighting techniques to bring out particular physical properties of the same object using daylight, available artificial lighting to photographic Lighting.Where: At various locations
When: Multiple days.
How: First of all I made sure that I fully understood the brief of the Assignment by reading over the text a number of times. As I progressed through the assignment I made notes at each shooting in my daybook in the style of a diary and included in the daybook some drawings and diagrams on some of the concepts that came to mind after reading the text and after looking at some previous photographs I had taken. I will include these notes and concepts in this assignment paper.

I looked at the main qualities for the images detailed in the assignment;

Shape – The outline or edge of the object, minimal detail visible in the object.
Form - The volume of the object, how three dimensional the object looks.
Texture - The quality of the surface detail
Colour - The Objects colour(s)

There is an allowance in the assignment to add in other interesting, unusual or attractive lighting.

In the beginning I experimented with a number of objects, a plain stone statue, a wooden model of a hand, a bottle of bourbon and a metal flask. In each of the experiments I found that I had a number of images which would work well within part of the brief, but were useless for the at one or two of the main parts of the assignment brief. In the end I abandoned all the ideas and after looking at a number of objects in varying lighting conditions, I eventually decided on a glass candle holder.

I then sat down and considered what kind of lighting I could use to create the qualities required in the brief, the glass candle holder had a unique texture, was colourful and was light enough that I could move it around into different lighting conditions and arrangements which would allow me to photograph the qualities I wanted by controlling the light. It also meant that I could sit with the object nearby and have it to hand if I wanted to suddenly experiment with a change of daylight or change in artificial lighting.

I also used Kevin Kertz lighting diagram Photoshop template to allow me to record the setup used when using artificial and photographic lighting.

Shape

1. Shape Number Three.

At first I wanted to reproduce and experiment with an idea I had seen described I a number of years ago which I had then used to photograph a glass object using the method of dark field photography. However I could not find a satisfactory shot which did not appear to be too dark.

This was the third selected image from my attempt to control photographic lighting through the use of a light tent. There was a single diffused flash off to the left of the subject which was further diffused through the white wall of the light tent. The object was sitting on the backdrop cloth of the text and I had turned the light tent around so that the back of the light tent was acting as a black flag soaking up any overspill of light from the flash. On the right hand side of the light tent was a white card reflector to bounce back some of the light for shadow fill. I did not want to make the object too dark as I did not want to lose the overall shape of the object entirely.

Nikon D80, focal length 38.0mm (35mm equivalent 57mm), aperture f19, speed 1/180 , ISO 100, Flash white balance, Pattern Matrix metering, tripod mounted camera, 18-55mm lens, Single flash.

Shape Three

The main idea of the composition was to show the simple shape of the upturned object, showing that the shape flowed from a bowl into a long stem. I wanted to draw the eye upwards through the shape and out the top of the frame. I really wanted the middle of the object to remain black and unfilled by light as I wanted the shape to be split by the darkness.

2. Form Number Three

I really wanted to use daylight for at least on one of by photographs as I wanted to show that I could control daylight as a lighting technique. At first I wanted to use daylight to produce the quality of colour as I knew that the glass object would light up when it was subjected to bright daylight. It was while I was outside waiting for a cloud to pass over that I started to experiment with the subject in non direct daylight. I started at first in complete shade, moving outwards until I was almost in complete daylight. In this image I was just on the border of shade and daylight and when I held the object up into the air I could see that the form of the object was well defined due to the lighting conditions. I went back to my camera and changing the white balance and ISO settings I took the image.

Nikon D80, focal length 46mm (35mm equivalent 69mm), aperture f11.0, speed 1/180 second, ISO 320, Shade White balance, Pattern matrix metering, Hand Held, 18-55mm lens, no flash.

Form Three

I like the fact that the simple shadow from the other side of the object flows through the shape and that it helps to define the bowl shape at the top of the object. I also like the colours produced and I almost entered this as a colour example, but I preferred the way that the volume of the object is projected.

3. Texture - Monochrome

One of the reasons I had chosen this subject was that the glass itself had quite an interesting texture, not only around the rim, but also over the bowl part where it was ridged and patterned between the colours.

At first I found it quite difficult to capture the texture of the object without using a Macro lens as the pattern was difficult to see in certain lighting conditions. I feel that the colour was detracting from the image and drawing the eye away from the texture and onto the colours and the overall shape. Finally I decided to use artificial light; in this case I used a small torch shining directly at the bowl part of the object. I then took a number of shots with different exposure values, and also using exposure compensation of +/- 1 stop. I then converted all the images to monochrome as I wanted to extract the colour which I felt was detracting the eye.

Nikon D80, focal length 42mm (35mm equivalent 63mm), aperture f19.0, speed 1/180 second, ISO 100, Flash White balance, Pattern Matrix metering, Tripod Mounted, 18-55mm lens, Single light source.

Texture - monochrome

I feel that the final image shows the texture and pattern of the object and shows the definition of its shape as well. I was pleased to see that the light was distorted inside the bowl and has produced a distorted reflection of the light and of the texture.


4. Colour

In the beginning I had wanted to use daylight for describing colour, but as I had produced the image for Form using daylight I decided to have at an attempt at colour using strong photographic lighting.

At first I experimented with having the light direct and above the object but I did not get the colour from the shape that I wanted. In the end I decided to point the studio flash at the white reflected card which I was using as a background; I knew some of the light from the flash would hit the glass object and I knew that the reflected light would bounce straight towards the camera lens through the object if I placed the reflector in the right position.

Nikon D80, focal length 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm), aperture f32.0, speed 1/180 second, ISO 125, Flash White balance, Spot metering, Tripod Mounted, 18-55mm lens, Single Studio flash.

Colour

I was pleased to see that the colour just popped out of the white background and that the blues and whites were not overrun by the pink and purple of the object. I was also please to see that the main hue of the object does not vary down the full length of the image.


5. EL Wire

I had a play with this type of lighting previously and I liked the effect that I could produce with it. Here I am using the electroluminescent wire (EL wire) in there different colours pushed up through a hole in the base of the object; the wire I used was coloured, red, white and pink, although when used in this style they are more of a red/orange, white/blue pink/purple. The fact that the white and the pink hues were close to the hues of the object was a pleasant surprise and the red really stood out against the other colours and produced an eye-catching effect.

You can almost see the original hues of the wires as they run up the inside of the stem, but once they intermingle within the main bowl they take on an almost neon effect.

Nikon D80, focal length 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm), aperture f7.1, speed 1 second, ISO 640, Auto White balance, Spot metering, Tripod Mounted, 18-55mm lens.

El WIre

I did not want the bowl too loose its entire colour and become too underexposed so I went for a longer exposure than normal at a higher ISO as I wanted the entire object to be defined not just the wires. In the end I feel that I captured a strange combination of light and shape which I am very pleased with.


6. Form Two

Here I return to the quality of form. This idea was based around the unsuccessful dark field attempts, I just decided to back off a bit and remove some of the more complex parts of the idea and setup and just shoot a straight contrast/shadow fill using one light and a reflector. With a single studio flash with a white umbrella for diffusion on the left of the camera and a white card reflector on the right of the camera I took a couple of shots moving the composition of the subject around until I had it was I wanted it.

Nikon D80, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f16, speed 1/180 second, ISO 125, Flash White balance, Pattern Matrix metering, Tripod Mounted, 50mm lens.

Form Two

Using the 50mm prime lens allowed me to move in quite close to the subject and I relied on having the room in partial darkness to soak up some of the overspill light from the flash. While I am quite pleased with the final image and it defines the form of the object it was not the “first chosen” image but I wanted to see and to show that I could capture the quality of form using artificial light and with some experimentation on fill.

7. Candle

As the object was originally designed to hold a small candle, i felt that it was an injustice not to attempt at least one image where the object was light up using only candle light. I had to play around for a while to find a way that I could safely balance the object while getting above it to photograph it. I did not want to get too close for fear of burning either myself or the camera!

In the end I pushed the stem into a cardboard box and balanced the whole thing on a table. Under the box and extending off into a background in a large piece of black card as I did not want any reflected light coming back up into the stem or into the bowl. I just wanted to capture the light from the top as it shone out through the object.

Nikon D80, focal length 52mm (35mm equivalent 78mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/30 second, ISO 640, Auto White balance, Spot metering, Tripod Mounted, 18-55mm lens.

Candle

In this case I had to plump for Auto White balance as I felt that both shade and overcast weather white balances did not produce the right hues. As it was I not had time for a two shots before the whole thing toppled over and almost set fire to the black card and a chair. At this point I abandoned the idea of taking further shots.

I am happy with the composition and colours within the image as I feel that it gives a good representation of the colours that the candle light produced.


8. Texture 2

I had been experimenting with a Macro lens with a ring flash on it and had produced some up close images of the texture of the glass. However I felt that the final colour of the image was being overcast by the colour of the object. I went out and obtained a large piece of yellow card and placed this behind the object. I then removed the ring flash from the front of the lens and set the camera up on a tripod. This allowed me to turn on the artificial light in the room and I decided to work by the tungsten light instead of using flash.

Nikon D80, focal length 105mm (35mm equivalent 157mm), aperture f19, speed 10 second, ISO 125, Tungsten White balance, Spot metering, Tripod Mounted, 105mm macro lens.

Texture 2 - Violet Glass and Yellow Background - Tungsten Light

I again went for a long exposure as I wanted to capture the leaf like texture of the object and I wanted the yellow top break up the pinks and purple hues and make it more flower like in its shape and definition.

Additional Images – Fractal Candle

I am not sure that this can be a genuine submission as in this case the light was then enhanced in post production using a mathematical algorithm to distort the paths of the light. However I liked the image.

Fractal Candlelight

Summary

I have found this assignment a bit of a challenge to start with as I just could not find the right object. Once I had the right object then I feel things became better and I was able to freely experiment with differing lighting conditions and situations and take multiple images under these conditions. I also feel that I made the right choice straight away for some of my ideas and the lighting conditions just fell together and that I had full control of the light.

At the end of the assignment I have however started to re-examine the world around me for the way that lighting has an effect on shape, colour and definition of everything around me. I feel that I can now produce better images than before as I finally understand what is happening to the light around me and how that interacts with the camera lens. This part of the course has also reinforced the primary and secondary colours as well as composition as at times I had to move the subject around or move myself around to improve the final image. One of the main things to come out of this part of the course is that I now feel that I do not make enough notes and that I am going to have to try harder to make more complete notes as I think this can hold me back sometimes.


Wednesday 17 August 2011

Assignment 4

Almost ready for posting out to my tutor. Only a couple of corrections!

Thursday 11 August 2011

Exercise 42 Shiny Surfaces

What: The main brief of this exercise was to make a covering for the camera lens so that I could photograph something shiny without reflecting the camera lens or reflecting the light back from the subject into the lens creating an overexposed image.
Where: Inside the house with the outside light blocked by blackout curtains.
When: During the evening.
How: I first of all I cut up some large sheets of tracing paper and made them into a cone, I then fitted the cone round the camera lens and mounted the whole lot onto a tripod, so that I could point the camera down at the shiny metal cup. I then moved the light around the cone and also move it towards and away from the cone to see what would happen when there was a lot of light or not enough light.

Shiny Surface 1

D80,Aperture f/9.5, Shutter Speed 1/30 sec, ISO 100, 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm),Pattern Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Tripod Mounted, 18-55mm lens

Shiny Surfaces 1

Shiny Surface 2

D80,Aperture f/9.5, Shutter Speed 1/30 sec, ISO 100, 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm),Pattern Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Tripod Mounted, 18-55mm lens

Shiny Surfaces 2

Shiny Surface 3

D80,Aperture f/9.5, Shutter Speed 1/30 sec, ISO 100, 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm),Pattern Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Tripod Mounted, 18-55mm lens

Shiny Surfaces 3

Shiny Surface 4

D80,Aperture f/9.5, Shutter Speed 1/30 sec, ISO 100, 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm),Pattern Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Tripod Mounted, 18-55mm lens

Shiny Surfaces 4

Shiny Surface 5

D80,Aperture f/9.5, Shutter Speed 1/30 sec, ISO 100, 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm),Pattern Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Tripod Mounted, 18-55mm lens

Shiny Surfaces 5

Shiny Surface 6

D80,Aperture f/9.5, Shutter Speed 1/30 sec, ISO 100, 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm),Pattern Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Tripod Mounted, 18-55mm lens

Shiny Surfaces 6

Shiny Surface 7

D80,Aperture f/9.5, Shutter Speed 1/30 sec, ISO 100, 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm),Pattern Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Tripod Mounted, 18-55mm lens

Shiny Surfaces 7

Shiny Surface 8

D80,Aperture f/9.5, Shutter Speed 1/30 sec, ISO 100, 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm),Pattern Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Tripod Mounted, 18-55mm lens

Shiny Surfaces 8

Shiny Surface 9

D80,Aperture f/9.5, Shutter Speed 1/30 sec, ISO 100, 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm),Pattern Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Tripod Mounted, 18-55mm lens

Shiny Surfaces 9


I can see that by moving the light around the cone that I can produce differing levels of contrast and that when the light is near to the cone that it overpowers the diffusing effect of the cone and it lights up everything including the background.

I can see that the cone is acting like an improvised light tent and that the cone is diffusing the light and not allowing it to concentrate in one area. Off all the images I produced on this exercise I prefer the lighting in the very first image as I feel that the image is neither over nor under exposed and that the amount of contrast is perfect for defining the cup.

Exercise 41 Concentrating Light

What: The main brief of this exercise was to make a covering for a light which would concentrate the light onto just part of a scene.
Where: Inside the house with the outside light blocked by blackout curtains.
When: During the evening.
How: I first of all set up a studio flash and a rudimentary snoot to control the light but I found that the amount of light was still a little too much. So I then used a non diffused small standard camera flash head with a couple of A4 white paper sheets taped around the head. I then set the flash on top of a light stand and pointed the whole thing down towards my subject.
I then used a large piece of black card on the other side of my subject as a black flag as I did not want any light to be reflected back onto her.

Concentrating Light 1

D80,Aperture f/32, Shutter Speed 1/180 sec, ISO 100, 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm),Centre Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Hand held, 18-55mm lens

DSC_0096

I like the way that the light just falls off and that only the top of her head and her shoulders are light by the flash. I also like the small shadows on her face as it helps to define the relief and shape.

Concentrating Light 2

D80,Aperture f/11, Shutter Speed 1/125 sec, ISO 125, 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm),Centre Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Hand held, 18-55mm lens

DSC_0098

Moving the flash up slightly meant that the light was now being cast over her head and that only the top of her head would be light up. Here I was trying to replicate the portrait and fashion lighting of the 1930s and 1940s which is such an influence on me.


Concentrating Light 3

D80,Aperture f/13, Shutter Speed 1/125 sec, ISO 125, 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm),Centre Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Hand held, 18-55mm lens

DSC_0102

Here I pointed the flash head down and forward as I wanted to drop her face into shadow. I wanted to see if I could just concentrate the light in front of her and try to silhouette her face.

Concentrating Light 4

D80,Aperture f/13, Shutter Speed 1/125 sec, ISO 125, 52mm (35mm equivalent 78mm),Centre Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Hand held, 18-55mm lens

DSC_0107

Keeping the light in the same position, I had her turn her face and move into the light, so that it passed over her face leaving her body unlight and in shadow. I am happy with this image as it has the effect that I was looking for, just concentrating the light enough so that only part of her face was light.

Concentrating Light 5 -  Monochrome with a Red Filter

D80,Aperture f/13, Shutter Speed 1/125 sec, ISO 125, 52mm (35mm equivalent 78mm),Centre Weight Metering Mode, Flash White Balance, Hand held, 18-55mm lens

DSC_0107 Monochrome - red Filter

Here I added a high contrast red filter and shot in black and white. The filter helped to diffuse the light and to bring out her eyes and the relief of her hair. It also helped to redefine the contrast of the image and created nice dark shadows.

I was pleased with this exercise as I really wanted to see if I could replicate the lighting style of images which fascinate me. I was happy to see that using a snoot allowed me to concentrate the light right down to almost pinpoint accuracy and that it can be used to project a beam of light onto the subject.