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.

Assignment 1 – Completed!

Well, I have managed to complete the first section on time. What have I learnt?

I take way too many bad photographs. Sometimes there is a point to this, the zoo was a good example. I was trying to get pictures of moving wildlife and often they did move! So – do I get rid of all the bad ones, sometimes yes and sometimes no, some are for memory rather than for good images. This is an important point to separate out, watching the black leopard play with a cardboard box, just like a house cat would, was fun and not something I want to loose the record of, even though most of the pics are out of focus, or his head is behind a tree or in the box. The zebra is another example, the baby trying to get mums attention was fascinating and made a great sequence, while lots of unfocused shots of monkeys doing not very much at too great a distance (even for my tele-lens) should probably go.

I must remember to categorise and keyword my images properly. I used to always do this but have got sloppy. Spending hours trying to find the shot I know I have is not fun and also a huge waste of time.  Elements Organiser works well, but keeps crashing, possibly sheer weight of images. Lightroom seems much more stable – but I need to keyword things properly so I can find them – at present mostly using date to find, not helpful a year down the line.

I am not good at taking pictures ‘to order’ – a symptom of an untidy mind possibly, so I found the contrasts assignment hard. I would have had plenty of images had I trawled my back catalogue but I am determined to carry out this course taking new images where possible so that I think about what I am doing from the start. It was also complicated by bad weather so I had to experiment with some set ups and some very experimental lighting, using a son as an extra tripod. A mixture of whatever household lights are at hand can give some very peculiar colour casts which then need corrected, a set of inexpensive studio lights may be on the purchase list.

The main object of Part One was to get you to think about what you are taking a picture of. This seems an obvious statement but it is far too easy with a digital camera to snap away without considering where or what the main point of the image is. It is also important to think about what is surrounding the picture, where the horizon is and what sort of crop one should use. This is definitely helped by looking critically at what you are doing and also by looking at other peoples images.

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

Exercise - Cropping

The object of this exercise is to look at various pictures and consider whether cropping gives an alternate, and possibly improved, image. This should not be considered as an easy way out of a poor photograph but as a possible was of emphasising the main area. This can be looked at after the image is taken or considered at time as shooting, as there may be images that benefit from a particular format that is not available at the time of taking the image such as a long crop or a square crop.

Example 1.

This is the original image, pleasing but not very exciting.

A drastic crop to a very narrow very concentrates the eye on the vivid colours and gives and almost abstract feel.

Example 2.

The original photo here is dull, there is too much foreground and it is difficult to see the main point of the image which is a earth and water sculpture.

The sculpture contrasts well with the trees and Victorian buildings in the background, and its shape is exaggerated by the crop.

Example 3.

A sea view, showing the wave pattern and the contrasting clouds.

A less drastic crop than the previous example, this one focuses the eye on the patterns in the waves.

Example 4.

Pomegranates - a pleasant image redolent of summer.

A square crop closes in on the fruit and makes it appear larger in the frame.

While cropping should not be used as 'a fix' for poor original composition and lack of thought it is clear that a range of effects can be achieved that are not possible without it. Care needs to be taken to avoid a very small crop which when enlarged would be poor quality.

Exercise - Vertical framing

These are some of the other images taken while doing the exercise of taking 20 vertical images. In these cases either I have not been able to take a similar image in a horizontal format or the horizontal format was not effective.

All of the images clearly benefitted from a vertical format as it emphasises the height or the repeating patterns.

Exercise - Vertical and horizontal frames. - 3

Example 8.

More ceilings in the shopping centre, this time taken on the way in. The vertical format gives a good overall view of the roof and an idea of the length of the corridors in the building. The shodows mirror the glass and make an interesting pattern to balance the pattern of the glass.

The horizontal view(on the way out)  gives an odd perspective to the image, and is rather distorted. The effect of the shadows is less pronounced .

Example 9.

In the view of the street going down the hill to the distant fields the vertical format emphasises the height of the buildings and the sense of enclosure in the narrow street. The image was taken in bright sunlight but was almost directly facing the sun which was just blocked out by the buildings.

The horizontal version is much less effective at showing the visual distance and turns into a rather dull image of a street in apparently poor weather conditions.

Example 10.

This vertical image is cramped and, although showing the stalks and a leaf does not show the flower as the most important part of it. More attention is drawn to the roof and the lines of the glass.

In the horizontal image the flower clearly takes the central stage, giving a better balanced image where the eye's attention is drawn to it rather than to the surrounding area.

Example 11.

This image gives a good impression of the shape of the bananas growing on the tree and echos the upright shape of the fruit itself. An image taken with a slightly wider angle lens, or from further away, would show the whole bunch and some of the tree and possibly be more effective.

This format emphasises the roundness of the bunch rather than its sheer size and gives an extra dimension to the picture. Ther is also a tension between the upright bananas and the horizontal format. Both images work but show different information about the scene.

These 11 pairs of images show that images of a wide range of subjects can be taken either horizontally or vertically, both when taking distance views and close up details. However not all are equally successful and one needs to think about the purpose of the image and the focal point before making a decision. It is worth exploring both possibilities as it is not always the most obvious one that is the most successful.

Exercise - Vertical and horizontal frames. - 2

 Example 3.

This is the roof of our local shopping centre and the end of my trip before reversing my route. It was also memorable for being the first time I have had to deal with irate security guards trying to take my camera and throw me out. Eventually they accepted that it was a public place and I could take pictures of the roof!

In this case I think there is little to prefer between the two formats, the horizontal gives a more overall view and the vertical shows the height better but both have equal merit.

Example 4. 

This is a fairly attractive view of a local museum. The vertical format emphasises its height and size. The relatively close view shows the detail of the building well.

A horizontal format from slightly further away gives a better idea of the setting and size of the building, especially as there are now lots of people around but does not show the detail as well.

Example 5. 

These photographs were taken in our local abbey. I had gone in to take images that really benefit from a vertical format to show the extreme height of the pillars. Instead I found that the abbey was dressed in coloured silk and mirror glass as part of a son et lumimiere performance. This did interupt the concentration on '20 verticals on a row' as I knew that this was not something I could leave until tomorrow.

In this case both formats were utilised to show both the detail and the grandeur of the place contrasting with the reflections and the silk.

Example 6. 

This shows a reflection in the glass  of a conservatory. in the vertical format there are few clues as to the exact make-up of the image and it becomes almost abstract.

This format, taken from slightly further away is much more obvious and therefore possibly less interesting the the previous one.

Exercise - Vertical and horizontal frames.

The exercise here was to take  the next 20 photographs in a vertical format then repeat as many as possible of them in a horizontal format to look at the difference this made to the image.  When thinking about this task I went back and looked at my previous images and found that I do take about 1/3 of them in a vertical format. this is probably because I live in a town with a large number of high and old buildings and therefore vertical framing is often appropriate, I also enjoy photographing trees which also often benefit from a vertical look.

Here I have chosen to show some pairs of images in vertical and horizontal format and some single vertical images. Not all of the vertical images have been repeated due to inclement weather this week. Some of the images were taken in both orientations at the same occasion as I knew that they were not repeatable as they were part of a local sound and light show that I stumbled across accidentally while out taking my '20 verticals'. Thus nicely demonstrating the importance of always carrying a camera.

Example 1.

The original picture was taken vertically and I was quite pleased with it. This is the format I often choose to photograph trees as I feel it accentuates their height.

The horizontal picture was taken on my walk back though the park.  The light had changed and it was noticably  darker. In spite of my usual preference for a vertical format for trees I prefer this option as the image is more interesting and It gives a better feel for the distance one is looking into.




Example 2. 

Here I focused on an image of the tallest object in the playpark and the vertical framing acts to accentuate its height. It shows and interesting arrangement of curvews and horizontal lines and might make a good monochrome image.

A horizontal image shows the whole park but with  less emphasis on the  height. This was also taken with a wider lens and although  I was standing at almost the same spot the playpark is not shown as standing out from the trees in the background and the image is rather confused.

Having thought about it - I decided to do a monochrome version of this, and decided that I reather liked the spooky look of the deserted playpark and the rather science fiction look. I can imagine a story starting from this point.