Tuesday 30 November 2010

Symbols

Symbolism is one of the best ways to promote ideas in your photography, but there is a fine line between a creative idea and something that come across as a cliché. Looking at the words below I had to come up with an idea for more than one symbol for each to show different creative ideas:

Growth: Plants and different stages of development such as the seed, saplings and flowers in full bloom. Babies, eggs or any type of young or juvenile adult could also symbolise growth.

Excess: A money jar overflowing with coins, or a board showing the growing profits of a company on a chart.

Crime: A shot of a man in a balaclava would make a strong image. Guns or other weapons  and drugs would symbolise crime very clearly.

Silence: A library is always a quiet place, or someone with tape over there mouth would show silence.

Poverty: A beggar on the street is a very strong symbol of poverty, with outstretched hands would make it more meaningful. Something that is torn or broken may also show poverty and the inability to afford new things.

I also took a photograph that although may appear cliché, i thought was a slightly more interesting take on the idea of love:

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I used a lamp behind the ring to create a love heart shadow on the pages, and a large aperture to focus only on the area of the dictionary where the word love appears.

Hearts a very definitive symbol of love, as are wedding rings so although it may seem a clichéd image, the way it has been taken it slightly different with the abstract shadow and the words included. It was an idea I took from one of the photography magazines I have been reading.

A Narrative Picture Essay

Photographing an event and choosing photos that work together as a set takes a lot of preparation and planning. The variety of your images helps to make the selection much more interesting and work better on the whole. Also the lay out and size of the photos helps to impact on how they come across to the viewer.

I took an event to photograph and tried to capture a series of photos that showed the event in an interesting format as though it was part of a magazine spread with captions etc and try to get across the feel of the evening where Joe and Holly are Trick or Treating. I didn’t spend as much time planning as I would have liked, and kids are quite unpredictable!

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Joe and Holly get ready in there Halloween Costumes

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What a scary bunch!

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Trick or treat!

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Mmmm yummy sweeties, thank you!

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Booooooo!!!

It can be quite difficult to get the photos in the right order and how make them look more attractive and draw a reader in, but if you get the perfect mixture you end up with a set of photos that really pop out of the page! If they are good enough then a lot of the time you wont even need the captions to say what is happening in the picture.

I am going to be shooting some weddings for friends next summer, so I understand how much planning will be involved as I need to know what kind of photos they would like, where the location is, how many people I will be dealing with. Finding out about the location and going to view it first is a must if you can, so you can find different view points, see where the lighting falls at different times of day and help to improve on any ideas you might have for the shoot. It would also be beneficial to take some practice shots so that you can get a feel for the area.

When events happen in a sequence it is quite easy to use the photos in this way and produce a story of them, where it is more challenging to take one photo that tells a story. its all about the appearance of the photos afterwards that impacts on their story the most as even the most interesting images can be let down by there lay out. Also the amount of variety within the images such as horizontal and vertical, different techniques, lighting, angles etc all help to make the set of shots come together with interest and diversity.

Evidence of Action

This next exercise was to take one photograph that had a story behind it. This kind of photo is good if you are doing a still life portrait as you have more control o composition and lighting, subjects and objects that you would like to use to get your message across. Usually a picture of something happening or a hint of something that has just happened work the best, and additional props can give off hidden signals to a viewer that may not be clear or apparent on first appearance. By creating this kind of hidden relationship between objects and or subjects you can put a lot more emotion into your photograph and give it meaning.

It was suggested that an image of something half full or a broken item would work well. I choose to use a wine glass as I thought this could conjure up a few different emotions in different people, depending on how your outlook is. I tried a few different ideas and at first came up with this:

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It was slightly out of focus which I thought might have made it have a feeling of drowsiness, and the shadow in the background of the hand could show either a dependency on alcohol, violence through alcohol or possible a cry for help. Although the initial though process behind the way the image would come across, the composition and layout of the items didn’t really appear to work. It looks far too artificial and the glass in the middle looks too static.

I tried another approach with the same ideas about alcoholism in mind and decided it needed a more personal subject involved so that it would feel more realistic to the viewer:

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This worked a little better with the glass in focus to make it more predominant in the image, and the sleeping face just behind. I was happier with this kind of set up, but still wasn’t entirely pleased with the position of everything. Also I felt that in colour it looked too dream like as if the person was having a lovely sleep and hadn’t just passed out. Not quite the emotion I wanted to provoke.

In the end I finally settled for this image:

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Converted to black and white to stop the colour from distracting from the subject matter, and with the face slightly hidden but turned in towards the glass creates a tension between the empty glass and back to the face again. Also I liked the position of the subject this time as you could see the way the body is splayed across the bed in a hap hazard manor. I had under exposed the image in camera but also tweaked the shot on the PC afterwards adjusting the contrast so that the highlights became more pronounced and the shadows were darkened so that the reflections on the face and glass were picked out making the connection between them stronger. I finally cropped the image so that the more rectangular frame makes the shot feel like you are laying down at the same level as the subject, and the elongated frame exaggerates the line from the glass to face. This back and forth tug of war in the frame creates tension so it amplifies the ideas of becoming dependent on alcohol and the struggle of getting out of that cycle. I also like the fact its not clear that the subject is drinking for emotional issues as the monochrome colours and laid down position makes it appear like an old school romantic holly wood movie shot, yet at the same time a grimy dark despairing feeling as though it could be something more serious such as addiction.

Tony Vaccaro

Whilst searching for famous photo journalist who made a big impact on photography and showed the world to others in a different light, I came across Tony Vaccaro and I must say his shots are some of the most emotive I have ever looked at. He captures things in there rawest state, sometimes without having time to think about how he is shooting, but just being there to capture the moment. it just goes to show that not always the most technically brilliant photographs are the ones that stick in your memory.

He fought in World War II during 1944 and 1955 as a scout which left him some time to take photographs during the day. By the end of the war in Europe, Vaccaro had become an official photographer for the division's newspaper.

Sad homecoming 1st mar 1946

Sad Homecoming, 1st March 1946

"I wanted to collect evidence against the war, the futility, the destruction ... I said to myself, do not worry about how good the photo. When the eye sees it, do it ... The photos that I the front was, I developed night, in our helmets. The soldiers looked often and talked with me. Some died of the next day. "

Liberatiion of St Briac 15th aug 1944

Liberation of St Briac, 15th August 1944

"The camera has helped me to survive this war. I wanted to hold this hell, because I thought that believes us later, no one, how awful it was. So I ran many times faster, I tried even better from the bullets of the Germans to protect and yet at the same time to see everything. "

- quotes from Tony Vaccaro

The price of war 31st dec 1943

The Price of War, 31st December 1943

This last picture is possibly one of the most disturbing I have ever seen from this time period. The hole torn in the soldiers eye is dramatic enough but it is the lasting expression on his face that captures the pure horror it must have been for our serving men and women during this time.

The white death

White Death — Requiem for a dead soldier. Bihain, Belgium. January 12, 1945

Vaccaro won an award for the above photo, here is a video here of him explaining the true story behind the image:

Narrative and Illustration: Putting the subject first

Ok, last and final assignment to go! So as the title suggests, I’m going to be looking at how photos tell a story or get a message across. Photo Journalism is something I’m quite interested in, how pictures tell events or how symbolism affects the style and influence of the image. It is important to understand how the subject and the treatment of the photograph in terms of composition, lighting etc can be measured and what the best balance of each is to a narrative photograph. To some extent it really does depend on what you are using the image for or what message you want to get across; a photo that is taken as a technical exercise which is of little interest to yourself might actually be the perfect image to portray the subject of which it was taken. For example a photograph of a detailed study of light shining through some leaves might have been quite uninteresting as a subject if you were only trying to find settings in the camera to adjust the light, but for a gardening magazine it might be a perfect backdrop to one of there articles.

Getting the balance right of subject and handling of the image is purely a personal thing, some of the worst taken photographs of historical news events are sometimes the best ones that capture the moment of chaos, but sometimes photos that have taken hours to prepare for are also just as good as getting the right emotions across to the viewer. For example here are some photos that I think are at there most extreme in terms what has been the most important element: subject or technical ability:

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This photo was taken on my holiday to Spain, I just picked the camera up and took the shot without really thinking about the composition as the dancers were moving quickly, but the costumes and positions they were in were the most interesting part so I felt it made a good shot, even though I took no time to consider light, direction or any other skills I had learnt so far.The only thing I would say is that it was luck that there eye line draws you back and forth to create a more dynamic image.

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I think this is on a technical basis one of my best pieces of work. Its not a particularly interesting subject as the road is quite bare and there is no definitive subject, but the composition of the lines in the frame and how they move, the implied triangle in the road amplifying the way the light disappears into the distance and the very long exposure and how it plays in the lighting all make for a very technically well put together image. It wouldn’t make the most interesting shot to hang on your wall but you can appreciate the skill and time that went into it.

So the age old discussion of subject versus design continues, and not just in photography; a piece of art work that is just painted lines can be adored by some yet hated by others as lacking any skill or emotion. So for this next assignment I will be looking into how well a story is told by the images that have tried to capture it, be that by a series of photos or one single shot that can say a multitude of words. In my opinion its the single shot photos that stir up real evocative emotions in the viewer that are the most profound and expressive photographs, they don't need any extra evidence to support or describe the story any further and are usually the most successful.

Thursday 11 November 2010

Assignment 4: Applying Lighting Techniques

I have really, really enjoyed this project, even though it got me a little stumped in the beginning I have now learnt some invaluable techniques with lighting that have helped me to achieve some shots that I have always wondered exactly how they were made. So for my assignment on lighting techniques I was asked to take a specific subject and focus on displaying that object in different conditions to show how my knowledge on light and its effects has improved. The key things to look at were how the light showed shape, texture form and colour. At this point in my photography I felt that I had not studied more difficult subjects such as moving people, children, animals etc as much as I would have liked and wanted to use this assignment as my opportunity to choose a subject like this to gain some practice. Who better to help me out with this than my little dog :)

As with children, he could be quite unpredictable whilst trying to shoot and sometimes even camera shy! This made for a very interesting and varied subject for me and posed some challenges with either trying to keep him still or following his movements. An awful lot of bribery and dog treats were used!

So here are my photographs using the different methods I have learnt over the previous weeks to illustrate how they can make the subject appear with shape, form, texture and colour. Starting with Form:

FORM Daylight WB over exposed

FORM 1 - Exposure Time: 1/80 sec, F-stop: 5.6, ISO: 200, Focal Length: 55mm, White Balance: Daylight

For this first image I was out walking with Clancy and decided to try to capture him doing what he does naturally and felt that a perspective low to the ground would help show this as it is his viewpoint. Fortunately my camera has a feature where the screen swivels out at the back so I didn’t have to spend time laying in damp grass! I used Live View to capture this shot with the WB set to daylight to give an accurate representation of the light that morning. I used a slightly over exposed exposure to increase the brightness of the image as it was in a shaded area and this created some much lighter highlights in the lightest parts of the picture, especially picking up on the light shining off Clancy’s back. The over all lighting and depth of field through the grass and back into the trees gives this scene a very realistic feel of how three dimensional it is, with the over exposed highlights adding additional support to this desired look.

FORM Both modelling lamps, silver reflector, flash WB

FORM 2 -

Exposure Time: 1/200 sec

F-stop: 14

ISO: Low 1

Focal Length: 55mm

White Balance: Flash

Other: Flash head with soft box, Modelling lamp with umbrella, Silver reflector

 

This next photo is where I started to get more creative and really understood how lighting affected the image. I used two flash heads, one with a soft box attachment and the other with an umbrella attachment. I also positioned a silver reflector to the right of the photo to bounce the light on to Clancy’s back so that more detail was illuminated in the shadows. The flash head with the soft box I hooked up to my camera with a sync cable so that the flash was set off when I took the shot, but the flash head with the umbrella I set as a modelling light to use as a fill lamp on the right hand side. this meant that on the left side, Clancy was lit up by the flash to give a clear image whilst the soft box reduced any harsh contrasting shadows, and the fill light and reflector bounced this back onto the right hand side so that there is still an element of shadow to show off his form, but the details are visible. I was trying to achieve a studio look to this photo where you couldn’t see the background he was against, but unfortunately I couldn’t pull the sheet tighter to reduce the wrinkles in it. I think when I try this again in the future it would be worth investing in some proper backing material that is much stiffer, or possibly try to change the distance that my subject is from the background so that I can use a wide aperture to create more bokeh and distort the background so that creases become less noticeable. He wasn’t happy about sitting here for so long in the first place so it was difficult to try to change the set up.

FORM COLOUR Flash with soft box and silver reflector, flash WB

TEXTURE 1 - Exposure Time: 1/125 sec, F-stop: 8, ISO: Low 1, Focal Length: 46mm, White Balance: Flash, Other: Flash head with soft box, silver reflector

To help show texture using light I again used the reflector and soft box to cast light on both sides of my subject, but still leaving enough shadow to show up the cracks in the nose. Because the light source was predominantly on the right hand side it casts shadows over to the left making the texture in the nose and tongue really stand out. The only thing I wish I had done is cropped the photograph more closely to around the nose area to take away the distraction of the eyes and head shape so that it emphasised the point of the image being all about the texture in the nose. A crop like this one would have worked much better:

 FORM COLOUR Flash with soft box and silver reflector, flash WB crop 2

 

TEXTURE Daylight WB

TEXTURE 2 - Exposure Time: 1/125 sec, F-stop: 4.5, ISO: 200, Focal Length: 18mm, White Balance: Daylight

With this shot the slight over exposure in the strong day light highlights the fur very well, creating shadows in between the layers to enhance the effect of its coarseness. By using a large aperture the focus is concentrated onto just the area of the fur so that the trees in the distance don’t draw too much attention away but make a nice backdrop for the perspective the shot was taken at.

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SHAPE 1 - Exposure Time: 1/400 sec, F-stop: 5.6, ISO: 200, Focal Length: 55mm, White Balance: Shade

This is my personal favourite of the group of photos I’ve taken for this assignment. Having finally understood white balance and what effects it can have I knew that the way to enhance to orange of the light falling through the trees was to use the Shade white balance which tried to reduce the blue tones in the image and in turn increases the golden hues. The Lighting angle fell perfectly to illuminate the frame of my dog and cast a gorgeous glow on the autumn leaves. It makes a really lovely atmospheric image that portrays how nice it is to just enjoy a day in November walking through the leaves with your best friend, and the light shows off his rather proud stance brilliantly.

SHAPE Fluorescent WB under exposed

SHAPE 2 -

Exposure Time: 1/15 sec

F-stop: 5.6

ISO: 400

Focal Length: 50mm

White Balance: Fluorescent

 

 

 

Again this image was another backlit one to emphasize the shape around Clancy’s face and nose. I noticed when he had gotten settled on the sofa that the light from the near by window was casting a sort of moonlit looking glow, even though it was only around 4pm. To enhance the blue colour in this light I set the white balance to fluorescent, although I had intended to try to use settings on my camera that would show up more detail in the frame for the ISO and aperture settings I had chosen. In the end an exposure time of 1.15 sec was the slowest speed I could use whilst hand holding the camera, which produced an over exposed result but made the most of the highlights of light shining on the areas of my subject which would show off his shape the best.

COLOUR Shade WB

COLOUR 1 - Exposure Time: 1/500 sec, F-stop: 5.6, ISO: 200, Focal Length: 55mm, White Balance: Shade

I like the interesting pose of this scene, I want to know what he is looking out outside of the frame. To increase the over all orange hue of this image I used the shade white balance setting, and this has given the image a lovely warm autumn feeling and brought to life the golden shiny colour of Clancy’s fur which stands out very well against the contrasting lush green grass. The combination of vivid colours makes for a very dynamic image where the focus is drawn into the central point of the dogs orange fur on his head.

TEXTURE Flash lamp, modelling lamp,soft box, silver reflector, over exposed, flash WB

COLOUR 2 - Exposure Time: 1/30 sec, F-stop: 5.6, ISO: Low 1, Focal Length: 55mm, White Balance: Flash, Other: Flash head and modelling lamp with soft box, Modelling lamp with umbrella, Silver reflector

With this photo I’m not sure if everyone would agree it accurately portrays the idea of colour, but I find the very high contrast of this greatly over exposed image does create the effect that the the orange tones in the fur are the most important part of the image as they are projected forwards by the blinding whiteness around them. To achieve this I was playing around with my new flash lamps, and decided to see what would happen if I used the modelling lamps and flash at the same time whilst leaving the camera settings as they were from metering with just the modelling lamps. As you can see the side where the flash went off with the modelling lamp became so bright it is completely washed out and all highlights on the right hand side are blown out also. I actually really like the effect it produced, it makes the image look slightly over saturated which gives the illusion of increased intensity in colour.

COLOUR Small lamp, tungsten WB  TUNGSTEN 1 -

Exposure Time: 1/15 sec

F-stop: 5.3

ISO: 400

Focal Length: 46mm

White Balance: Tungsten

 

 

 

 

 

TEXTURE Small lamp, tungsten, black reflector WB 2

TUNGSTEN 2 - Exposure Time: 1/13 sec, F-stop: 5.6, ISO: 400, Focal Length: 52mm, White Balance: Tungsten

These last two images I felt showed more than one property that I was asked to look at so I didn’t include them as separate entries but I really like how a single lamp in a dark room creates a very moody style of lighting. I was originally going to use the images to show texture within the fur and colour from the dog tag but when the prints arrived I wasn’t so keen on how the colour had appeared, but still like the styling so chose to use them at the end of this assignment. I have used this type of lighting before and love how the undiffused shadows can create depth and interest, and you can create either a warm feeling as my images show, or a dark moody image where some details are concealed by shadows. Below are some examples of a photograph I took for a friend to celebrate her growing baby bump, with just one ordinary bedroom lamp to cast shadows to make it look more dynamic and create interest in showing off her shape. We took a few similar to this and I’m really fond of the effect, I’ve had much success with it!

Bump 2 Bump 6

Over all, this assignment has been the most enlightening one (pun intended!) as it has made me very aware of how to manipulate my cameras settings to use light to my advantage and produce images that I could only imagine before. This has been my most successful assignment of the course as with previous ones I took photograph sometimes without realising what I was doing, but with this one I actually planned and executed all of the photos in the style I could envision in my head, and they turned out as I had anticipated. There were a few slip ups and shots that weren’t quite what I had in mind, but there were also some pleasant surprises along the way which I have learned to take control of. I’m now very interested in how artificial lighting enhances an image and intend to use it much more in future ventures in photography. The style that I think I would like to practice a little more is studio inspired photos and the use of flash and other props, possibly different colour lights or gels and the use of diffusers and reflectors. The way light creates depth or adds to it can make such interesting and emotive photography I hadn’t realised it would enhance the way I take photos so much!Also the other style of photography I found interested me greatly was long exposures. I would have liked to have tried this as part of my final assignment, but with a subject that can’t sit still for more than 2 seconds it would have been a little more than challenging! So in closing I am more than happy with what I have learnt and achieved in this chapter, I hope it shows in my work how greatly improved my skills in this area have become now that I can meter light correctly and understand the effects of over and under exposing an image, and how to use light to my advantage.

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Contrast and Shadow Fill

I set up a simple still life and took some shots using my new modelling lamp, its soft box diffuser and a few different types of reflectors. I have one of those huge disc shaped ones where you can zip on and off the different coloured reflectors. This exercise is to help show how high contrast images can have a greater impact but also how using shadow fill can illuminate details in the scene that you want to be able to see by bouncing the light back at the object with different types of reflectors.

Single bulb

Single bulb – casts deep shadows behind the objects

Diffused

With soft box attachment – the harsh shadows from the wall behind are greatly softened and the light is more even and lighter across all the objects. Notice how the compact in the bottom right has more even colour tones to match the rest of the image where as the first shot it is much darker as it is further away from the light source than the perfume bottle.

White card 1

With this shot I used the white reflector about 3 feet away from the objects on the opposite side from the lamp. it has cast a little more light on the shaded side of the objects so that the shadows show some more of their detail.

White card 2

With the white reflector held even closer it illuminates the objects even more making the lighting even across the whole image. It casts the light naturally without adding any extra colour tones or highlights.

Gold reflector

By using the gold reflector a warmer feeling light is thrown over the scene.

Silver reflector

The silver reflector adds more shine and highlights to the opposite side of the objects and increases the light overall.it makes the objects more defined with the addition of the extra highlights.

So I now have more options on how to manipulate the light I’m using as part of my images. White reflectors to lighten the shadows, silver and gold ones to increase highlights and warm the scene. Sometimes though the high contrast of having deep black shadows and bright white reflections can create a much more interesting and dynamic photograph. Depending on how I would like the image to appear and feel to the viewer I now have a range of options to create emotions with light.

Monday 8 November 2010

Softening the Light

So I had a random morning where I splashed out on a flash kit! This is turning into a very expensive hobby! LOL

So I now have an Interfit 2 head kit, with reflectors, and umbrella and a soft box – perfect for the next exercise. Just to show the different effect diffusing the light would have by using the soft box, I took two photos of myself - one with just the the modelling lamp turned on, the second with the soft box attached.

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1/13 sec, f/5.3, ISO 200 – Modelling lamp

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1/10 sec, f/5.3, ISO 200 – modelling lamp and soft box

As you can see the first photograph has very deep shadows with a lot of contrast, the second shot it much softer, the light looks more even through out the depths of the frame and harsh shadows are reduced.

This is a brilliant technique to create a much softer image,  but it’s worth bearing in mind that sometimes the contrasting shadows can actually give an image more interest.