Assignment 1 - rethink

Hard:

My original image was described as being 'sharp' rather the 'hard' by my tuyor, I was probably being too far fetched as I was thinking the flowers had a glass like look and glass is hard, but I agree with the comment so
2 possibilities here:

Metal held to metal, by metal. ISO 100, 45mm ,f/6.3 ,1/60 sec

Stone hard. ISO 100, 45mm ,f/6.3, 1/640 sec

I think probably the stone shows the concept best, but the metal also works. The metal is , however, a more interesting image.

Assignment 1–Rethought

Following my first set of tutor feed back from Alan several issues stood out:

1. My screen was clearly set much brighter than his because he is seeing my images as dark– and the ones he sent back read as ‘too light ‘ to me on my monitor although they print out with a reasonable range.
2. As I thought – I am thinking too hard about the meanings of the words and their connotations for me rather than looking at the images for purely visual information.
3. Following on from that I need to simplify and look, visual not verbal thinking.
4. I was right to try and take as many images directly for the assignment as possible.

So for a rethink:

Black and white.

Same subjects with a little redo.

 A slightly different view from the same session - which deals with the problem of a large black patch in the centre.

 

Cut down to a square format which epmhasises the white in the picture while leaving enough black for contrast.

Dark and light.

 

Contrast has been altered and white shows more detail as do the dark areas

Lighter and brighter than previously.

Many and Few.

Many - no alterations.

 Few - a change from a single tiger - which does imply few emotionally, although not just by looking at it,  to a direct contrast of few cars in a car park, dominated by the trees.

Hard and Soft.

Soft - no alterations

Hard - still working on this - some sun would be nice!

High and Low.

High - no changes.

Low - this directly links with high as it is another view of the old WW1 / WW11 defenses on the coast.  In this one the focus is on the low ground which was the base for the gun emplacement.

Rough and smooth.

Rough - no changes

Smooth -Significantly lightened down - reworked from the original RAW file, with less saturation to the colour.

Round and Straight.

No Change.

Diagonal / Round Composite.

Reworked from scratch and much lighter - shows more noise due to high ISO though.

Another possibility - also a hand held night shot - but less noise and confusion.

This has been an interesting exercise - reviewing my own images with a much more critical eye. Altering my monitor brightness has definitely made a real difference, also have been trying to think about just the visual information - not the verbal.

Responding to Feed back 1 - Screen Change

Following very helpful feedback from my tutor I worked out I was seeing all the images lighter and brighter than him, this especially effected the contrast, I have now changed it and will see what sort of effect that has.

Contrast 5

Continuous and Intermittent.

Intermittent means stopping and starting as opposed to keeping going (continuous). Both of these would be easy to demonstrate with a video, harder in a still image. However I was at the zoo yesterday and was reminded that in nature there are a lot of intermittent patterns that are mainly developed to act as camouflage, many of which have been copied to today's military forces.

The most striking of these patterns has to be the zebra. Interestingly, this pattern developed not to hide the zebra against the field but to confuse the eye and hide one zebra in a pack of others.

 

ISO 100, 200mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec

The opposite to intermittent is shown in nature best by a flowing fall of water (especially if taken at a slow shutter speed). Obviously this will only be continuous in a wet climate (Scotland) and would be very intermittent in the land of the zebras.

ISO 100, 72mm,f/4.5, 1/13sec

Contrasts:

1. intermittent and continuous
2. animal and mineral
3. fast and slow (shutter speed)

Many and Few. 

I went though a plethora of possibilities when thinking about this one. Flowers, sweety jars, books and then I saw the big cats at the zoo. The statistic posted was that there were only 29 Amur leopards alive in the wild. The ones in the zoo were not in a photogenic mood (pacing continuously) but the tiger, which is also endangered was.

ISO100, 84mm, f/4.5, 1/30 sec

A contrast to this was easily found, and also part of the reason that there are so few tigers left, in cars. It was not difficult to find a site for this image, There are opportunities everywhere.

 

  ISO 400,189mm, f/14, 1/60 sec

This is a very obvious contrast but important, it also shows:

1. nature and man-made
2. hard and soft

Contrast 4

Smooth and rough.

Smooth, smooth as silk, smooth talking, smooth to handle versus rough, tactile, hard, rough and tough. Smooth makes me think of cream,things slightly overdone, things that maybe are not quite what they should be. Rough is less polished, possibly more violent.

All of the above is musing on words - and not very helpful in pinning down images. This one came as I was walking down our street. It is a pile of old scaffolding tubes that have been left outside. I am not at all sure I would trust my life to them anymore.

19.5mm, f/3.5, 1/60 sec

and this was an accidental shot as I was trying to do something else but when I looked at it both the glass and silk background felt  'smooth' to me.

ISO 400, 45mm,f/16 2.5sec

Neither of the images were 'planned' but both show the contrasts that I was looking for. Lessons learned - keep a camera with you all the time and look at accidents before you discard them, (this one was actually much better than any of the planned images).

Contrasts:

1. rough and smooth
2. indoor and outside
3. new and old

High and Low.

Concepts here include a high viewpoint (looking down) versus a low viewpoint (looking up), high in the air or low on the ground, high church (very ornate) against low church (simple and plain).  High also means lofty, elevated, towering, high pitched, superior, excited and distinguished. Low means near the ground, depleted, muted, muffled, sad and depressed. Again a very large number of possible meanings and interpretations.

Here I have illustrated the simplest of the possible contrasts: high

ISO 640, 45mm, f/7.1, 1/20 sec

and low

ISO 100, 200mm, f/5.6, 1/13 sec

On looking further at the pair of pictures they could also be reversed  as the trees are wintry,  and look plain and possibly could show a low mood, while the snowdrops are cheerful and a sign of hope and spring approaching - therefore a lift in spirits.

This shows that images can be looked at and interpreted  in many possible ways so even the most apparently straightforward one may mean something unexpected.

Contrasts:

1. high and low
2. winter and spring
3. dead and alive
4. old and new

Contrast 3

Black and White.

This seems like a very simple contrast and in a way it is. Black is the absence of light and white is all the colours of light added together. Conversely, when talking about paint, white is the absence of colour and black is all the 3 primary colours of paint mixed together. So it should be easy to take pictures representing them. Wrong.

When I thought about this I thought about what represents white; snow white, ice cream, milk, but none of these are necessarily white all the time. Then black; jet black, coal, obsidian, carbon.

There is also the contrast between metaphorical meanings, white is good, pure, used for a virginal bride (in the Western world). Black is evil and used for sorrowful occasions.

Photographing black and white is also not simple as they tend to confuse the camera sensor, snow often looks blue, black yellowish.

 ISO 100, 24mm, f/4.8, 1/125 sec

The simple way to show this would have been to do a monochrome conversion, but that rather looses the point of trying to show white (and not colour).  The snow still has a blue cast except where the light is pouring though the trees.  However the image represents snow, happiness, family and light.

ISO400, 45mm,f/1, 4.0sec

This image shows jet (in the foreground), black onyx (the goblet), obsidian (in the centre), haematite (the beads), and black tourmaline (the ball).  These stones were all often used in jewellery that was used in the mourning period and Victorian times and is now much prized by Goths, (the teenager cult, not the race).

Contrasts:

1. dark and light
2. joy and sorrow
3. near and far
4. old and new
5. hard and soft

Contrast 2

Light and Dark.

Walking around Newcastle we had to walk under this tunnel. It goes under the railway line and is pretty dark. This made me think of all the connotations of dark versus light. It certainly goes further than just the amount of visible light on a subject, dark is night, mystery, fear and the Gothic world of the Victorian Romantics now copied in our teenagers.

ISO 600, 28mm, f/5.1, 1/40 sec

On examining the image I saw the two somewhat threatening figures lurking at the side of the tunnel which balance the two people walking across the lit area at the end.

We went around a corner and came across another tunnel. This one is part of the High Level Bridge, which carries the same railway line over its top level. This time the path was bright. Both the bridge and the tunnel must have been built around the same time as both are associated with the railway but the are in completely contrasting styles, presumably one was aimed for use by the workers, while the other was a much more visible celebration of skill.

ISO 800, 37mm, f/5.6, 1/40 sec

Here one is also passing under a railway bridge - but it is much less threatening. One clearly moves from light and to light. Light is associated with day, the sun, clarity, and truth.

Contrasts here:

1. light and dark
2. safety and danger
3. under and over

Hard and soft.

These two images were originally planned to show the contrast between many and few, but when I looked at them more closely I realised that they fitted this category better. I took them having bought myself a bunch of flowers and having been struck by the contrasts  in it.

Soft implies soft to the touch and to the emotions. It is often associated with light colours and also a soft focus effect.

ISO 100, 45mm, f/22, 13secs

The first image is of the plant gypsophilium, know colloquially as Baby's Breath. The flower heads are tiny and multiple but when enlarged like this they look soft. Here the whole image also has a soft and dreamy look about it, emphasised by the muted colours in the background and the short depth of field.

The next two images are both a contrast to this one. Hard can be interpreted as metallic, solid, unbending, or difficult.

ISO 400, 45mm, f/11, 1/3 sec

Here the flowers are much harsher, with spiky leaves and stiff stems. In this image the processing has made the flowers look as though they are made of glass.

ISO 640, 45mm, f/16, 1/30 sec.

In the second contrasting image the flower now looks as though made of metal, possibly silver. I prefer the first image of these two, but the contrast is possibly less strong. Contrasts here are:

1. hard and soft
2. dark and light
3. many and few
4. colour and monochrome

Contrasts

I have started on the first assignment - choosing some of the images that I think embody contrast well. This has been much more difficult than I expected, I keep thinking of one of a pair and the struggling to get the other. This has not been helped by the very annoying weather we have been having, its lovely whenever I am at work, and raining when I am at home. If things do not improve I am going to have to work on my still life (not a strong point).

I have approached this by thinking about contrasts since I started Part 1 of this course. This is an interesting exercise and teaches you a lot about seeing what is really shown in the images. Often I have found that a pair of images have more than one contrast between them.

Curved and Straight.

 

 IOS 160, 28mm, f/5.1, 1/50sec

These pomegranates are round and glossy and look very tempting. They also remind me of the story of Persephone in the Underworld, who could only leave for 6 months of the year because she ate 6 seeds of a pomegranate and so we have summer and winter.

I originally wanted to contrast alive (or at least 'of nature') with man-made, as you get few straight lines in nature and more in the built world.  However when I was out walking to get an old brick building I came across this:

 

ISO 400, 51mm, f/4, 1/60sec

It is a dead stem of a giant hogweed and is about 4 inches in circumference. Now we have contrasts of:

1. curved and straight
2. life and death
3. edible and poisonous
4. summer and winter