Weird World task

For this task the three areas i chose were:
 - unusual perspective
 - lens foreshortening
 - wide angle

 Unusual Perspective

Lens foreshortening

Wide angle

Making the right lens choice

Aperture and focal length

In this lecture we learnt about aperture and focus length. We learnt two new terms, these were; the maximum aperture and the focal length. 
The focal length indicates the angle of view (sometimes called the field of view).
The maximum aperture limits the fastest shutter speed usable, as well as the depth of field.
Lenses are marked with their aperture and focal length (below).

What does this mean?

28-300mm is the focal length of the lens. This tells us that it will ‘zoom’ from 28mm, a wide angle shot, to 300mm a telephoto shot (magnified shot). 

1:3.5-5.6 is the maximum aperture of the lens. There are two aperture numbers because the aperture varies as you change the focal length. If you are ‘zoomed’ out to 28mm this lens will give you a maximum aperture of f3.5, and if you are 'zoomed' in at 300mm it will only give you a maximum aperture of f5.6. This would mean it is classed as quite a slow lens.

Forced Perspective Shots

Lens foreshortening shots

Unusual viewpoint shots

Telephoto shot

Wide angle shot

Task 05: Weird World


Over the coming week we were given the task Using to go out and
shoot in at least two of the following ways using an SLR:

• Using forced perspective
• Using lens foreshortening
  
• Shoot from an unusual or unfamiliar viewpoint
  
• Choose a specialist lens (telephoto, wide angle etc.) 

Great Photographers

In todays lecture we were given a task where we had to go away and prepare a presentation on someone we seen as a great photographer. Our presentation should examine what makes the photographer significant and why we believe the work has impact.

We were given a list of famous photographers (below) to help us if couldn't think of someone. 

• Henri Cartier Bresson
  
• Norman Parkinson
  
• Robert Capa
  
• Man Ray
  
• Ansel Adams
  
• David Bailey
  
• Walker Evans
  
• Alfred Eisenstaedt
  
• Diane Arbus

Having gone away and thought about photographers and who i thought to be great and significant the one photographer who jumped straight to mind was Lee Jeffries. I chose Jeffries because from an early age, before i got into photographer i have always admired his work and have always been so intrigued and fascinated by his work. 

  

Lee Jeffries

Lee Jeffries to me is an incredibly talented photographer. He is a self taught photographer but still has impeccable technical ability. What stands out for me about him is the situations he puts himself in to photograph these homeless people. It takes a certain type of person to go out into unfamiliar territory, outside of your comfort zone and take incredible photographs.

Below are some quotes from Jeffries:

“I specifically look at people’s eyes—when I see it, I recognize it and feel it—and I repeat the process over and over again.”

“When I’m talking to these people, I can’t then leave that emotion, so when I get back to my computer so emotionally involved, sometimes I will start to cry when processing the image,”

“I can’t change these people’s lives,“I can’t wave a magic wand but it doesn’t mean I can’t take a photograph of them and try to raise awareness and bring attention to their plight.”

For me Jeffries is an honest photographer. He isn't shying away from real problems which surround us, he is documenting an issue and raising awareness for these people and people who might find themselves in a similar situation. As a society we try to ignore or forget about homelessness. We turn a blind eye so to speak. If you were walking down the street and saw a homeless person chances are you'd ignore them and look away. Jeffries is challenging this and going up to these otherwise ignored people and getting the time to know them and their story. He is showing something we otherwise feel guilty to look at. His portraits are making something perceived by the public as 'ugly' into something beautiful and intriguing. 

some examples of Lee Jeffries work: 

20's and 30's cameras

In todays lecture we looked at a specific period of photography when there was technological, and stylistic shifts. 

Cameras up until the 1930s were large, heavy and often had a very slow acting negative. The slowness (30 second exposures) meant subjects had to remain very still for photographs which resulted in rather ridged looking portraits such as the one below:

A typical press camera of the 20s and 30s was the ‘Speed-graphic’ (below). This had a faster negative but was still a bit large and had no optical view finder.

Gradually the technology was developing. The introduction of flash meant that photographs in low light could be taken. This started as powder flashes using phosphorous, which was effective, but very dangerous. 

By the 20s electric flash had been developed but the only problem was that the bulb could only be used a couple of times before needing to be replaced.

A new stills camera was invented called the ‘Leica’ which used a celluloid film on a roll making the camera much smaller and therefore more discrete (see picture below). This lead too candid shots and this informal style set the tone for modern photography.

The candid technique was pioneered and developed by Erich Salomon using a Leica and led to the development of picture magazines such as TIME and LIFE. Suddenly it was possible to see how other people behaved when no one was watching.

Below are two shots taken by Erich Salomon on a Leica camera.

Initial ideas

Initial brain storm:

after thinking through each idea i had i want to try and experiment with people's faces and facial expressions. i think i am going to explore this in a shoot and try and get some facial reactions. 

Intriguing and Inspiring photographs

We were sent away from the lecture and told to start thinking of ideas fro our main assessed brief. We were also given the task to research and find some photo's which we thought represented the decisive moment and which we think were intriguing and noteworthy.

below are some photographs which i found and which i think are inspirational and fit the brief very well. 

Photograph taken by Henri Cartier Bresson 

Brian Griffin's photograph for Joe Jackson debut album, look sharp - 1979.

Richard Avedon's photograph at cafe des deux magots, paris - 1955

I feel all three of these images are very engaging, intriguing and fit the decisive moment. Each photograph has it's own personality and talking points from as a whole i think everyone would agree that if these photo's were taken a second to early or late or with a different composition then these photos wouldn't have been as intriguing or amazing. 

To capture a photograph in its perfect form is not only a skill but takes instinct and luck. You ave to have the technical ability but also the creativity to instantly think on the spot of what could be an amazing photograph. 

Main Assessed Brief - The Decisive Moment

Main Assessed Brief 

In todays lecture we were given our main assessed brief for the first time. This main project allows us as photographers to explore our creativity and also demonstrate our understanding of the various photographic techniques.

The Decisive Moment

In 1952, French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson published the book 'The Decisive Moment' in this he stated:
"There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment. To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms, which give that event its proper expression".

The concept of the Decisive Moment suggests that there is a specific time in which the photograph will be at it's optimal strength. This could mean the composition, lighting, or the photographers timing. If the photograph is taken at it's decisive moment then it will create a more compelling and engaging photograph.

The brief itself:
'After experimentation with a range of techniques and ideas produce a set of four photographic images that individually capture a decisive moment. This means taking your shot at the optimal moment that best sums up the pictures content. The four pictures could have a related theme, concept or genre – what this might to be is up to you'.

In order for me to be successful during this brief i will need to develop good camera technique, a good workable and achievable concept and the ability to identify effective potential subject matter - i will need both creative thought and technical ability to fully achieve in this brief. 

Remember to consider the following:

1. Concept – What is your theme and does it allow you to be creative and experiment?
   
2. Technique – How are you going to create it, does it push your skills and is it achievable?
   
3. Audience – How are you going to convey your message effectively?
   

Developing Ideas

• Brainstorming potential themes that lend themselves to being portrayed through the use of The Decisive Moment using pre-visualisation (sketching, test shots etc).
  
• Be creative with your ideas – think about metaphor, context and the challenges of communicating ideas visually. Look for other artists and photographers who do this. This will help when it comes to evidence of contextualisation in your critical evaluation (see below).
  
• Think about what your pictures might convey about values and what you would like your viewer to be thinking about. Avoid it being too literal i.e. is it merely representational or do you want your viewer to be provoked or to reflect?
  
• Think about which techniques would be most appropriate to convey your concept. Depth of Field, Motion blur? Long exposures? How you use of available light? Portrait? Documentary? Action? These are just a few of the potential techniques/styles you could explore.
  
• Use post-visualisation to select the four most effective images in relation to your theme. This means taking many, many shots and then choosing the very best based on what you have learnt about photography. As Henri Cartier-Bresson said ‘Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst’
  
• Concentrate on developing the best camera technique you can to capture the decisive. Photoshop can be used to further enhance your shots if you wish but keep it subtle and photorealistic.
  
  

  Critical Evaluation (i.e. project report)

  We also need to provide a printed word-processed critical evaluation addressing the learning outcomes of the module and containing a bibliography using Harvard referencing (max 600 words).
  • The evaluation should be split into three parts:
  Context – what has influenced you? Historical influences and any critical theory employed
  Concept – What is it you are trying to say and are you doing it creatively? 
  Technique – How did you create it, did it push your skills and is it appropriate?

Autumn

In today's lecture we were given our 2nd task of the year. This task was called 'Autumn' and were told that the shot should be as striking and memorable as possible and convey something of what ‘autumn’ means to us.

Below are the first photographs i took for this task: 

When first given this task i was racking my brain and trying to think of what autumn meant to me. The first thing which came to my head was farm animals as i live on a farm and autumn is when the lambs from spring are nearly fully grown and out in the fields and when the cows are all out grazing. So i went out into the farm grounds and starting to photograph. When i had finished the shoot i was very happy with the photo's and thought they were good. 

After a couple days i was thinking more into 'what autumn meant to me' and i realised that although autumn is a time when the farm is full guns blazing and the animals are all out grazing it isn't what autumn fully means to me. For me autumn is all about colour and the natural beauty of our land. I wanted to do a series of two images maybe three which represent this colour which I love so much.

I didn't want to produce your average run of the mill photographs of autumn which i knew everyone would be doing so i decided to go out into Worcester town and photograph people. I came across a young lady called Amber who had full head of ginger dreadlocks and wearing an clothing which incorporated an array of colours. i asked if i could photograph her and she said yes which was much to my appreciation. 

My aim was to represent the colours of autumn through my subjects clothing and hair - capturing the natural beauty and joy which the land so delicately flaunts and represent it through a colourful, natural young lady. 

These were my final two photograph's for the ask. 

I am so happy with my final photographs and feel they really do represent autumn to me and hopefully others will understand the aim of these photos and feel sense of nature lurking into them even tho the photos were taken in a very industrial setting. 

Bitmap Vs Vector & Depth of field

Bitmap Vs Vector

Todays lecture was all about bitmaps and vector images. Studying a graphic design course this was all prior knowledge but i found it useful to go into the subject in a bit more depth. 

Learnings from the lecture:

You can divide digital images into two categories:

1 - Bitmaps – Which are made up of pixels (Used in softwares such as Photoshop and painter) 

2 - Vectors – Which are made up of coordinates (Used in softwares such as Illustrator, Flash and InDesign) 

Notes from the lecture:

• Screens are measured in pixels per inch (ppi)
• Printing is measured in dots per inch (dpi)
• Cameras are measured in mega pixels 
• Bits - This is a measure of the size of a binary number and this gives an indication of the number of colours a bitmap can contain:
• Compression - There are many compression standards for images but the most common is JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group). 

Camera settings:

P = Programmed Auto: Camera sets shutter and aperture itself to what it thinks is right.

S = Shutter Priority: You can choose the shutter speed, but the camera chooses the aperture.

A = Aperture priority: You can choose the aperture, but the camera chooses the shutter. 

M- Fully manual settings - you choose both the aperture and shutter.

Below is an image taken by  Ario Wibisono. This photograph was shot using a high shutter speed as the camera has caught the water in mid air keeping eat droplet crisp and frozen still. If this had been taken with a low shutter speed the water would be one blurry mask making it's way to the animal. 

Below is an image (don't know the photographer) which has shot on a slow shutter speed to capture the movement of the dance. In still imagery you can often loose pace and movement as most picture's will be shot on a high shutter speed freezing the subject as if it were a statue but when you turn the shutter speed down it lets you capture the flow of the subject and portray it as it was meant to be portrayed. 

Shallow depth of field:

Shallow depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene. the Area within the depth of field appears sharp and crisp whilst the areas infant and beyond the depth of field appear blurry. 

Example of shallow depth of field.

photograph of Samuel Beckett taken by Lutfi Ozkok, 1966

As you can see from the photograph the eyes (main point of focus) are crisp and sharp whilst by the time you get out the the ears and shoulders the image is blurred. This is to keep the focus of the viewer on the subjects eyes and not to get distracted by the background, foreground or any other aspects of the photograph. Shallow depth of field is often used in portrait photography. 

Large depth of field

Large depth of field is when the areas within the depth of field, in front of the depth of field and beyond the depth of field all appear sharp and crisp. there is no particular focus point - the whole image is important and each aspect should be clear and sharp. 

Example of large depth of field

Andreas Gursky - Kuwait stock exchange

As you can see from the photograph above, there is no real focus point and everything is in focus and looks sharp. Large depth of field is often used in landscape photography and some documentary photography. 

me. myself and maybe the dog

^final images from the task

After a brief introduction into photography and the camera itself we were set a task called 'me, myself and maybe the dog'. For this task we had to pair up with someone else in the class and photograph each other from the same angle's (portraits). Following this shoot we then had a photoshop tutorial lesson where the lecturer showed us some tips and tricks on how to blend two faces together using layer masks and the rubber tool to make one realistic face. Then came the time when we had to put our photographs into photoshop and blend the two together. This was tricky for me and my partner as my partner was a blonde haired girl and I'm a dark haired bearded man. after a few stumbles i finally got the knack of it and produced three final images which i feel do look like a potential real person. This task was a good starter as it got our creative juices flowing and most importantly was fun.