WEEKLY PICTURE PROJECT 1 Last week we were set a brief to start off our weekly photography project. A brief explanation of what criteria was needed was given but it was left slightly ambiguous on purpose.
I think1. It was to see what our interpretation of the brief was as individuals
2. To get the ball rolling and start us looking at examples of work and start to cross reference things that influence us.
3. To get us to look at our surroundings in a unique and unexpected way and then document them.
For the conclusion of the brief we had to present 3 images that all had an element of the unexpected.
Bellow are my own three images and why i used them.
Words and themes given to us in reference for this brief were:- confusion, contradiction, ambiguity and irrationality amongst others and references of work included Roger Ballen and Henri Cartier Bresson.
WEEKLY PICTURE PROJECT 2 We all looked at each others work in this weeks lesson and Richard gave us all constructive criticism about our work and set us up for our next brief which would be portrait's .
The brief in short is a portrait took in aperture priority mode on our cameras with a wide aperture in black and white. We were told to look up hyperfocal distance and research it:-
http://www.dofmaster.com/hyperfocal.html
The above is a website i have found to cross reference and we were told to look up Jane Brown as an example of work to study.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/oct/18/jane-bown-photographer-retrospective-exposures
Nice link to a website above regarding her work.
Some nice tips given were :-
Get your subject talking ( especially when you press the shutter as it will relax them).
Use av mode on our cameras
Select the widest possible aperture
Focus on the eyes
Then we discussed that the weekly project might become a fortnightly project.
In today's class we went through a lot of the basics of actually taking of a photograph.
http://moodle.blackburn.ac.uk/file.php/742/Systems_Processes1.pptx
I have posted the link above to remind me what was said without having to go through my notes as its basically the same. This was interesting to me and i learned a lot from this. We could break all this down to the simple but important facts that :-
1. Aperture basically determines the depth of field
2. Shutter speed determines capturing movement
3. And ISO is set to suit the general light level
We also looked at different format's of camera's including a Hasselblad 500cm (medium format) and a Linhof "4x5" monorail (large format). They have some of these at the uni so we were told we could try some of them out at a later date. To top the lesson off we given a website to look at so that we could discuss the photograph's on it. It was very funny and caused a general discussion on bad photograph taking. The link for this site is below.
http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/
We we also told to go and look at Per Foreby on Flickr. Link bellow
http://www.flickr.com/photos/foreby/
In today's lesson we all again discussed each others work in relation to our portrait brief. This form of critique helps us as photographer's as it is constructive and it helps us to gauge our work, creativity and compositions against other students work. The portrait brief that we were set was quite specific in its outline of what was needed. In that it had to be:-
1. In black and white
2. It had to have a shallow depth of field
3. It had to be taken using only natural light
4. Focus on the eyes
5. We had to try and achieve good bokeh Bokeh is a photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field. It come from the Japanese, a noun boke ぼけ, meaning "blurred or fuzzy") Reference from http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/general-chit-chat/40585-what-does-bokeh-mean.html
WEEKLY PICTURE PROJECT 3
Today we went through our weekly picture project brief, which has now become a fortnightly project. This fortnights project will be on landscapes. We discussed different types of picture format ie square, panoramic, portrait rectangle and landscape rectangle.
Landscape rectangle is derived from the tradition of painting and aspect ratios vary from 4:5 to 16:9 which is also the same format used in the film industry for cinema.
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| Ansel Adams |
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| Joe Cornish |
Square images can be very difficult to pull off and require careful composition. Many landscape photographers use medium format 6x6 cameras for this kind of image. If done correctly as bellow the results can be stunning.
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| Michael Kenna |
We also looked at the different type of landscape photographers from commercial landscape photographer's like Charlie Waite, Joe Cornish, Michael Kenna and David Ward. To documentary landscape photographer's like Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, John Davis, John Blakemore, Paul Hill and Fay Godwin. I remembered Fay Godwins name from about twenty years ago when i studied A level photography on my foundation art course. We were given one of her books to look through and do a project on in a landscape brief. The book was called The secret forest of dean and it stuck in my mind all this time as i really liked her work.
We then looked at composition and went through the rule of thirds which can help us make our photographs more dynamic and well balanced. I found a nice website bellow outlining this technique.
http://www.digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds
Equipment needed for this brief would be:-
1. Our DSLR set 200 or 100 ISO, Raw, shutter priority or manual modes.
2. A tripod
3. Remote or cable release
4. Polythene bag
5. Tape measure
6. Optional step ladder
We were given lots of tips for this brief including going through how to take exposure readings with grey cards and spot meters and to why it was important for correct exposure.
http://spotmetering.com/spwhy.htm
How to avoid camera shake by, using bricks or stones in a bag to secure our tripods,using mirror up mode/a cable release/self timer and to screw the camera firmly to the tripod.
Hyper-focal distance was to be used to work out our optimum focus point. Hyperfocal distance is the point of focus where everything from half the distance to infinity falls within the depth of field.
http://www.dofmaster.com/hyperfocal.html
At first i thought that this would be a relatively easy project but i have found this the hardest one so far. I have been out in the late evening nearly falling in rivers. I have been out at 4am on a trip to Bolten Abby and ruined two pairs of shoe's standing in rivers to get my shots. I have waited for the rain to stop and the wind to blow the trees. Most importantly though i think that i have enjoyed this brief the most as it has pushed me and made me look at my surroundings. It has taught me to slow down and think about the kind of photographs that i am taking and not just to snap away at any pretty scene i see. It has taught me technique and to look at sunrise/sunset times and the weather.
WEEKLY PICTURE PROJECT 4
So this fortnights picture project has been set and its a vase of flowers. You could tell by the reaction at the mention of this, that a lot of people initially thought this would be a boring brief. We were given a few examples of images and then went through the brief on the 20/20 template set up by Richard.
First we looked at Robert Mapplethorpe who is infamous for his delicate flower still life's, male nude images and Studio portraits.
Then we looked at work by Andre Kertesz who's composition was groundbreaking at the time.
We also looked at image management today,(relevant to photography) and what it means and how we can break it down into three base words.
STORING
ENHANCING
OUTPUT
Hundreds of years ago cave paintings were first used to describe an event or place and this was done by painting onto cave walls ie a flat two dimensional plain. From that point forward we have used the same technique, although now of course the tools used to record this information have changed due to technology. Henry Peach Robinson was one of the first photographers to pioneer image manipulation. Although this was done in the darkroom as opposed to by the powerful computers that we use today.
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| Albumen print from six negatives |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwO4LP0wLbY
Then came Adobe with the original Photoshop program that was initially a tool for graphic design. It was very basic compared to its modern counterpart, due to the technological limitations of the Mac that it was originally released on.
Photoshop and digital media started to effect photography in a very big way. It actually had a huge impact and a couple of photographer's didn't like this. One of these was Bob Carlos Clarke and he detested the emergence of digital photography. Many people think that this could have been one of the reasons that he commited suicide by jumping in front of a train in March 2006. That and the fact that he was getting older while all his models seemed to stay around the same age and possibly that he doubted his own work.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/apr/26/bob-carlos-clarke-photography
Another photographer that also didn't like the emergence of digital was Brian Duffy and in 1979 he decided to burn all his own negatives and call it a day on photography.
http://www.duffyphotographer.com/biography.html
Now of course we have many programs that we can use to help us in the photographic field but the main two that allow us to use all 3 kinds of image management ie Storing, Enhancing and Output are:-
Lightroom by Adobe
So i have started on the weekly picture project now and just done my first set of images, these were tests and putting ideas down but already i love two of the images.
I have been looking at an old computer game that i have, as it reminds me of this project. Basically you are the wind and your blow petals around pollinating other plants to make them bloom. It sounds strange but it is a fantastic game and a chill out experience not at all what you might think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAQjvuyljZc&feature=related
Well this is my second lot of flowers now and i have gone for more of a traditional approach with this set, these are not an idea that i will use but i took them for a contrast against the other set.
CLASS DISCUSSION
In today's lesion we went though everyone's flower pictures and we were given constructive criticism about each image. Richard picked our individual images and it was a very positive experience. Then we had a class discussion on yesterdays visit by David Farnell.
David owns a photographic laboratory in Lancaster and came across as someone who is very passionate about their job. He discussed how his laboratory is one of a few left operating in the north of England. His lecture did not come across at all like a sales pitch, though inevitably he was here to drum up business from students that are looking to print out their work ready for their end of year exhibitions.
http://www.farnellphotographiclab.co.uk/
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| Acrylic By Farnell Lab |
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| Canvas By Farnell Lab |
We went through different processes with Richard and what they meant for us as photographers.
The E6 process
This is a chromogenic photographic process for developing colour transparency slide film. We discussed this in class and variations on this process.
The C41 process
This is a colour negative print process.
During his lecture David kept using the term "Digital Print". This means its a print that has been derived from a digital file.
We then went on to discuss how many photographic courses around the country are not good production facilities any more. This should be changed and its a shame really as we as photographers seem to be loosing our heritage.
Some important points raised in the discussion were :-
1. If sending files off to be printed make sure that they use the SRGB colour space as the Adobe RGB as printers cannot print some of the extra colours and the hues could come out funny looking.
2. Images should be at 300 DPI (dots per inch)
3. Tiff files are preferred and this is a lossy format.
4. Use 8 bit data rather than 16 bit. ( Depth of data)
For general prints up to size A3 use Jpegs they contain about 8meg of data and for anything over this size use Tiffs and they are around 15meg of data.
We also discussed the use of different types of paper and what they were good for. Lots of printed work was handed out for us to look at the different qualities of the paper. Richard told us that we would all go through different fazes, when it came to the type of paper we would use in our work. Then he gave us some recommendations of what he thought looked the best for different types of work.
Black and white .... Fiber base paper glossy
Black and white .... Resin coated luster/pearl (good for contact sheets but not necessarily prints)
Polyester sleeves can make work look nice when used inside it.
Inkjet Fibre based glossy and matt.
For lab prints try matalic paper.
WEEKLY PICTURE PROJECT 5
This weeks project was set and the tittle of it is " Great British". As discussed in class this could be the hardest project yet as it is very open to interpretation. A lot of the presentation was contextual with us looking at what its like to be British and what that means to us. We could sum this up with words like Pride, Culture and Heritage. Or we could say we are ashamed of what its like to be British IE young people rioting, unemployment and youth yobish drunken behavior. As we can see this week we have a lot of scope and could use a variety of styles to portray this.
We looked at a couple if images from Tony Ray Jones, who was a very talented young British photographer that died young.
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| Tony Ray Jones Beauty |
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| Tony Ray Jones Glyndebourne |
His work just looks quintessentially British, it has a look and feel that we can relate to as British.
We looked over a couple of photographers that showed what capturing that British feel was about. These included:-
Martin Parr
http://www.martinparr.com/index1.html
Martin Parr is a magnum accredited photographer and has a fantastic and unusual way of showing that Great British vibe. His website is kitsch and has a retro feel to it that is undoubtedly British. He is a great documentor and chronicler of our age.
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| Martin Parr 1 |
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| Martin Parr 2 |
Don MCcullin
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/photography/photographerframe.php?photographerid=ph041
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| Don MCcullin 1 |
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| Don MCcullin |
http://www.markpower.co.uk/
Mark Power's shipping forecast photography project bases its imagery on the BBC shipping forecast, that is part of the iconic sound of Great Britain.
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| Mark Power Shipping Forecast |
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| The Pint |
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| The Pub |
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| The Punk |
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| Central Pier Blackpool |
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| Seaside |
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| Pier View 1 |
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| Pier View 2 |
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| Sweet Shop |
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| One Man One Flute |
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| Rolling A Fag |
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| Supporting Our Brave |
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| The Birds |
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| Birds in Flight |
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| Are You Lookin At Me ? |
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| Three Wise Monkeys |
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| Chit Chat |
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| Go On Buy Something |
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| Distant People |
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| Yum Yum |
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| The Coast |
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| Telephone Boxes |
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| I Am On The Phone |
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| Graffiti |
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| Deck Chair's ? |
I went to the barbers today to see if i could grab a couple of traditional shots for the brief, but was disappointed that they don't say " Anything For The Weekend Sir".
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| Barber's 1 |
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| Barber's 2 |
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| Barber's 3 |
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| Barber's 4 |
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| Barber's 5 |
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| Barber's 6 |
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| Undies 1 |
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| Undies 2 |
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| Undies 3 |
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| Undies 4 |
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| Undies 5 |
WEEKLY PICTURE PROJECT 6
This is our last weekly picture project and this week it is based on image editing. Richard gave us a Photoshop tutorial this week and i found this session to be very informative. We went through various aspects of image editing, and were told to produce an image that has been edited in Photoshop using at least 10 processes from the list below.
* Cropping - improving composition or reformatting.
* Levels - for image brightness, shadows and highlights.
* Layers - so actions can be separated for control.
* Curves - to control contrast.
* B/W conversion.
* White balance - to create or remove colour bias.
* Resize - image dimensions and resolution.
* Image mode/ bit depth - duotones, changing the bit depth.
* File types - different files for different function.
* Selections for feathering - for targeting specific areas or zones.
* Dodging and burning - to lighten or darken areas of an image.
* Creative borders.
* Cloning tool/ healing brush - to repair unwanted marks or pixels.
* Sharpening - making an image appear sharper.
* Gradient tool - give a sky or similar a smooth tone.
* Prepare for print:-
# 300dpi
# sized
# Aspect ratio
# Tiff
# SRGB
So below is my original image that i took this week at Huncoat power station.
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| Unedited pic |
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| Without Border |
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| Black Border |
