Ansel Adams - Photography from the Mountains to the Sea

I had a free day today so I headed down to Greenwich to the National Maritime Museum to see the new Ansel Adams exhibition - Ansel Adams - Photography from the Mountains to the Sea.

It was the first time I had been to a photography exhibition at the Maritime Museum having only visited there once but it proved to be a good location.

The exhibition focussed on Adams work with water - rivers, lakes, waterfalls, snow, ice and rain.

Before going to the exhibition I wasn't sure what to expect other than a series of perfectly exposed (Adams is the creator of the Zone System) black and white landscape images.  I like Adams work but I must admit studying the Zone System and reading The Negative earlier this year kind of threw me a bit and gave me a bit of a mental block every time I've heard his name since.  However, I wasn't going to let this put me off.

The exhibition looked at the following areas:

Beginnings
Pictorialism V Modernism - Adams saw the camera as something different to traditional photographers.  He wanted to let the camera speak for itself and move away from the painted look photography believing that photographs do not have to look like paintings.

The images in this section look at some of his earliest work including some of his first images taken at the age of 13. We can see a young Adams developing an interest in representing the sea in all its glory.  His images of Helmet Rock, Lands End show his interest in the contrasting elements of solid rock and the crashing waves frozen in time.  Instead of opting for milky waters he set out to capture the moment and 'interpret the power of falling water, the light and airy manner of the spray particles and the glimmer of sunlit water' as can be seen in Diamond Cascade, Yosemite National Park 1920.

We can also see Adams beginning to play with the mirror lakes - reflections of the mountains and scenery in the water in front of the lens.

Sea and Surf
Here in this set of images we find his Surf Sequence where he set out to capture a wave as it hit against the shore and then moved back again.  He was very concerned with the way in which water changed with time.  He used the faster shutter speed to capture many of these shots showing something only the camera can show because it's action is faster that the human eye can see.

Coast
This set of photographs centres on 'extracts' from shipwrecks in San Francisco.  Adams didn't believe that you can have abstract images as the photograph was a representation of what was in front of you.  Instead he referred to them as extracts as the photography chooses the order to make out of the chaos in front of the lens.

I particularly liked these images as they were different from the landscapes associated with Adams and they also showed his skill at working with grids and sequences.

Rivers
These photographs mainly consisted of snaking rivers through the Yosemite National Park.

Waterfalls
Adams was a believer in the ability to express personal experience through photography.  Looking to Steiglitz's Equivalents, Adams idea of equivalency meant that the photograph should correspond to to an artist's emotional state at the time it was made.

The waterfalls images contain photographs from Yosemite where he has captured the cascades at full force as in Waterwheel Falls and through the use of longer exposure Fern Spring Dusk.

Rapids
In this collection of work we are introduced to the f/64 school and from this period onwards we see Adams shooting at the smallest aperture to creature sharper images throughout the frame.

Surface and Texture
Black and white is a good medium for showing texture and surface detail and Adams images here are no different.  They are extracts from water views with subjects ranging from limpets to grass.

Snow and ice
Some stunning images in this collection including Frozen Lake and Cliffs where he was satisfied to get the image as in a few days it (the snow) would be gone.  Again we see the impact time has in his work.

Geysers
Again the focus is the Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park.

Interviews
As part of the exhibition, a couple of short interviews with Adams from the BBC were being played in the video area.  It was interesting to see the man himself after seeing all his work.  He came across as being more down to earth than perhaps we are led to believe.  He spoke about his influences and how he got his exposure spot on.  On being asked about bracketing he replied it was 'a sign of insecurity'.

What I learned from the visit

• The importance of printing in Adams work.  He manipulated all his images darkening the skies to add mood and drama.  He has been known to work for up to an entire day on one image getting the print exactly how he needed it. 
• There are two ways to take a picture you can accept what the camera reading gives you and click and hope for the best or you can visualise the image before you shoot and that will determine your settings etc.  
• Adams use of composition - stretched the rule of thirds and made it work.  I grew up beside the sea and in many of his images I saw what is the familiar to every coastal area however his use of crop, his making sense of the chaos in front of him is what makes his shots truly amazing.  
• The theme of time ran through all this work.  This is something I need to think about as I continue to develop my work on Time.  
• Hard work and meticulous planning pays off in the end.  Adams worked every day of the week, year in, year out and never took holidays.  
• The prints were very small and hard to see.  I preferred those that were larger - they enables you to see the detail in his work. 
• Adams was ahead of his time in relation to his work with the environment and nature at a time when everyone was preoccupied with documentary photography.  It is only probably now that we can see the true value of his legacy.  

As part of the display there was an area where people could look at his books and also post notes about how Ansel Adams inspired them to...

There was a school visiting at the time I was there and I think one of the comments left by one of the kids will stay with me

Ansel Adams inspired me to... Grow a beard and be a good person.

As for me it has to be work harder!!!

Photoshop course

I have finally enrolled on an Advanced Photoshop course for Photographers at City Lit and I start this Friday.

Distance learning works for some subjects but for me teaching yourself Photoshop just didn't work.  Perhaps if I was more of a techie person I would have loved the challenge but sadly I'm not.

I think a classroom set up will be more beneficial for me.  I have tried learning new techniques and creative challenges from magazines and online videos but have failed miserably.  Most of the time I get half way through the instructions only to find that I can't go any further and spend hours then trawling the internet trying to find out why.  All this leads to is frustration!

I get the basics but I would like to take it to the next level and get more creative.

The course finishes in 5 weeks so by Christmas I hope to be able to show off some of my new skills.

Fingers crossed...

Mario Testino and his use of colour

Last week I visited the National Portrait Gallery and stumbled upon Mario Testino's British Royal Portraits.

The display consists of photographs of the Royal Family taken between 2003 and 2010 and includes the engagement photos of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Although I am not a huge fan of the Royal family I quite enjoyed these images.  I particularly liked Testino's use of colour and black and white.

From my studies on this course I know what makes a for a good black and white composition but lines and texture, shape and form are not always as easy to see when shooting people.

The first images in the display was the engagement photograph of William and Kate.  I liked the soft focus and colours.  The image looked slightly grainy and with the weak colours the image had an air of freshness about it. The subjects looked relaxed and happy and the crop was close up and tight which gave an intimacy to the shot.

If we compare that to the more formal engagement shot that Testino took the colours are stronger and the pose less formal and relaxed.  The subjects look more mature and serious rather than the loved up couple of the first image.

Testino shot both William and Harry on their 21st birthdays.  William's portrait shows him in a tuxedo a young man coming of age.  Testino opted for black and white here which I feel adds to the tone and focuses the viewer on the prince and his expression.

In contrast, Harry is shown working on a motorbike on his 21st birthday.  We can easily see who is destined to be king and who has the freer life, less weight on his shoulders and the pressures of life as a leader ahead of him.  We are given an insight into the playful and daredevil nature of Harry but we are not allowed to see beyond the layer of sophistication for the future king.

Testino did not use black and white for all the formal portraits as can be seen in his shot of Prince Charles with his two sons.  The shot is pretty high key and light which gives a fresh feel to the image.  Their poses are relaxed and casual and they are letting us see the intimate side to their relationship.  Unlike many black and white images we see of people this image looks modern and not old fashioned or dated.

The more formal portraits of Prince Charles on his own and also with Camilla tend to have stronger colours and more regal backgrounds.

I think what I liked the most about this display was the fact that I didn't care too much for the Royal family before I viewed them but now I feel like I have been given an insight into their personal lives.

Long exposure photography

I have been following @flixelpix on Twitter for a few months now.  I think I originally was just looking for landscape photographers to follow and I stumbled across him.

The majority of his images are long exposures - something I have only dabbled with in the past and a little again recently.  Flixepix has recently brought out an ebook on this technique and at the expense of a few pounds I thought I would take a look.  I also wanted to look into how he published his book and put it together.

The book explains what long exposure photography is, how you shoot it, the gear you need and how to process your shots in Lightroom.

I suppose most of this I knew already but I was looking for something to reinforce for me whether I actually had 'got' long exposure right.  And the answer was most of it.

I think I didn't consider taking long exposures during the day.  Now you can thanks to 10 stop ND filters.  I have used ND filters in the past but nothing like a 10 stop one.  I've had a quick look online too and they are pretty expensive so it may be some time before I get to experiment.

I also liked the way in which he explained how to calculate the exposure time.  In the past I just tended to randomly have a guess and then keep my fingers crossed as I waited to see what the image would look like in camera display and gauge from there.

The book did clear up a few niggling questions that I had in relation to things like Long Exposure Noise reduction and some of the equipment used, so I suppose it was worth investing a few quid in.

I plan to used some long exposure images in my final project for DPP.  I have completed a recce of the location - it may involve water but is not the sea!

For more information check out the website - http://www.flixelpix.com/

Here are some shots I have taken at night during my last trip to the west of Ireland in August.

David Goldblatt at the Barbican

As part of the Barbican's new exhibition Everything was Moving: Photography from the 60s and 70s, I attended In Conversation with David Goldblatt...

This exhibition surveys photography from an international perspective and includes the work of photographers from around the globe who worked during those decades.

It features 12 key figures including Bruce Davidson, William Eggleston, David Goldblatt, Graciela Iturbide, Boris Mikhailov,Sigmar Polke, Malick Sidibé, Shomei Tomatsu, and Li Zhensheng as well as important innovators whose lives were cut tragically short such as Ernest Cole, Raghubir Singh andLarry Burrows.

David Goldblatt's work has a sharp and subtle take on on life in South Africa under apartheid and in this session he discussed his work with the London based duo - Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin.

Goldblatt spoke of his latest project - portraits of offenders at the scene of the crime.  He was inspired by the violence and very high levels of crime in South Africa.  It is something that everyone experiences directly and it is a very big problem.

His workflow
Although many photographers have chosen to work on this subject, Goldblatt wanted to come at it from a different angle.  He is interested in their story, not in a way where he is a therapist or social worker or even trying to make sense of their actions.  He is interested in simply documenting it.

He interviews his subjects, they are told what he wants to do, where the images will be shown and the consequences for their futures is they 'sign up'.  Their pictures will be out in the open and if their misdemeanours are made public it could upset their job prospects or other future plans.  He pays 800 rand to any subject who signs up.

He shoots them at the scene of their crimes.  This, he explains, is often a very painful journey for them to make.  What strikes me most about Goldblatt is how much detail he knows about each subject.  You can't help but feel emotional about some of the stories - an emotion that he doesn't seem to share at times as he sticks to the role of documenter.

Black and white
The images he showed were in black and white despite having used colour for his personal work after apartheid.   Goldblatt feels there is something deeply wrong in South Africa and that is a dangerous and troublesome place to live.  He has returned to the black and white medium because of this and also because it is a medium he is very comfortable using.

Goldblatt sees all photographs as documents whether they are passport photos, his work, CCTV stills etc.  They all document something.

Text and captions
He spoke about the importance of text for him in relation to displaying his work.  It is extremely important for him to set out the context for each of his images.  I felt that with each anecdote he provided to the images he showed up new life was breathed into the pictures.  Their meaning had a greater significance.  He insists that text is always laid out beside his images and not in a standalone brochure when his work is exhibited.

I found Goldblatt to be very down to earth with a no nonsense attitude but not to the point of being arrogant.  He has a passion for photography, for documenting his people and his country.  But what strikes me most is his passion to always be true to himself and the honesty in and about his achievements.

Most interestingly, the title of the exhibition Everything was moving he said was incorrect for his photography as in South Africa everything was standing still.  No progress, no advancements.

I plan to attend the exhibition before it closes in January 2013 and I will write my comments on that experience on my blog.

http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=13613

Some websites I like...

I have spent some time looking at other photographers websites and here are some that I like.

Luca Sage

http://www.lucasage.com/portraits/

I like the fresh feel to this website.  It is minimalist and clearly laid out so therefore easy to navigate.  One drawback I would say is that on some sections there are too many pictures to scroll down.  I think less is more.  

Stephen Gill

http://www.stephengill.co.uk/portfolio/portfolio

Again I like the simple approach here however I do find it a little tricky to navigate as the print is very small and not clearly legible on the white background.  I feel that perhaps the website looks a little too basic and lacks a professional edge.  

Steve McCurry

http://stevemccurry.com/galleries

I like the simple layout of this website.  It is easy to find your way around and the themes are clearly labelled.  However, I am not too sure if I am personally a fan of the black background we see so often on photographers' websites.  I think I prefer the white and light approach.  Is black a better background for viewing photographs?

Roger Ballen

http://www.rogerballen.com/

I like the grey background in this website.  However, I did find it a little awkward to navigate.  The images are quite small too and the print is hard to read.  

I suppose the main reason I included this in my likes list is because of the grey background and also because of the simplistic layout of the homepage. 

Spencer Murphy

http://www.spencermurphy.co.uk/#/portfolio

I like this website.  It is fresh, crisp and easy to navigate.  The pictures are a good size and they look strong on the white background.  

From my research, I think I would opt for a white, clean background for my website instead of the rather commonplace black.  

I have also discovered how annoying it can be to come across a website that is hard to work your way around.  If you want your visitors to enjoy your work make it easy and pleasurable for them to see it.  

A web gallery

To produce a web gallery I have to look at the preparation of my images for on-screen display.  It is also important to look at designing the website in a layout that shows my images in the best possible way.

Image size
I will need to give consideration to the actual size of my images - for example large files would be timely to load and not very practical.

Lightroom lets you prepare your images in the correct format and size for a web display.

Editorial aspect
This aspect relates to the web pages and the sequencing of my images.  I believe the easiest websites to navigate are those that are not too cluttered.  All to often we see busy webpages and they are difficult to use and off putting to browse.

In previous jobs, I have been responsible for the layouts and content of company websites.  This has given me some experience although I would not claim to be an expert.

Things to consider when looking at websites

What do you want to get from your website?  What is its purpose? 

I would like to have a web gallery that would enable me to show my images.  I suppose you could call it an online.  I would like the gallery to present my best work on the internet.

Web address

Probably not the most obvious but I need to have a simple, memorable and short web address.  It has to be easy to remember and short to type.  It has to roll off the tongue.  It needs to be relevant and at the least hint at photography.

Displaying my best images in the best way possible

To display my images in the best way possible I would like to divide them into sections for example, landscapes, portraits etc.  This would make it easier for my viewers to work through the images and also give them information about what they will see.

Simple and clutter free

It would be very important to keep my website clutter free.  By this I mean no ads or pop ups.  I need to keep menus and pages to the minimum to make navigating easy.

Everything I put on the website has to be there for a reason.  There is not point adding things just for the sake of it.  There is nothing worse than reading a long story about an image which does little to enhance the viewing experience.  In fact, this can take away from the experience and possible make the view move on and away from your site.

Menus/pages

The following is a few suggestions I would consider for using for my website.

• About 
• Contact page
• Portraits
• Landscapes
• Prints for sale

Search engine optimisation

The website would need to be optimised so that it can be found when people search for it.  Google analytics would also enable me to see traffic to my website and see what pages are most popular.

Single image HDR toning effect

I came across this technique the other day and thought I'd give it a try.

I tried it first on a portrait and it looked pretty bad - too bad to publish - but it doesn't look as bad on a landscape picture.

This effect is basically created using the HDR toning selection from the Adjustments menu.  You need to be a little more conservative in your adjustments to the slider as they have more of a harsh effect on your image than when you merge HDR.

Here's the before and after.

Original

HDR effect

I think I would have to say that I prefer the original.  I find the HDR effect a little unrealistic in this instance.  It might have a painterly quality to it but I personally like the dreaminess of the water and the overall softness in the first image.  

However, this exercise showed me a way to create an HDR effect post capture when you have only soft a single image.  

Sharpening

Sharpening can be divided into two classes of operation.  One is to correct losses of sharpness due to processing and the other is to optimise the appearance of the image for the medium where it will be displayed.

Oversharpening can introduce artefacts into the image like halos around areas of contrast.

In this exercise I will examine the differences in sharpening for print and for on screen viewing.

To do this I have to take an image that I have shot with some edge detail and some smooth areas like a portrait.  In a portrait eyes have detail and the skin areas are soft, smooth areas.

My reference picture is as follows:

Reference image

No sharpening has been applied.   

I will make three versions of he above image with varying degrees of sharpening.  To determine the levels of sharpening I will be using Scott Kelby's The Adobe Photoshop CS5 book for Digital Photographers.  

To sharpen images in Photoshop you use the Unsharp mask feature in the Filters menu.

The Amount slider determines the amount of sharpness applied to the photo.

Radius determines how many pixels out from the edge the sharpness will affect.

Threshold determines how different a pixel must be from the surrounding area before its considered an edge pixel and sharpened by the filter.

It is important to note that the lower the threshold number the more intense the sharpening.

The recommended level of sharpening for a portrait.  
According to the book, the recommended level of sharpening for portraits is Amount: 75%, Radius: 2, Threshold: 3.  These settings provide a soft, subtle sharpening with enough punch to bring our the detail in the eyes.

Whilst viewing the image at 50% magnification I input these settings.

Maximum sharpening
For this image I used the maximum sharpening settings which are recommended for architecture and buildings.

Amount: 65%, Radius: 4, Threshold:3

Moderate sharpening

In this image I applied a moderate level of sharpening. 

Amount: 120%, Radius: 1, Threshold:3

Looking at these images on screen I don't see a dramatic difference between them.  The maximum sharpening looks the sharpest and I don't really like the fact that the hair and curves of the face are just as sharp as the eyes.  

The moderate level is slightly better with the skin having a softness to it.  

My preferred is the settings for portraits.  I feel that the eyes are adequately sharpened and the skin is soft.  

I will now arrange for my images to be printed so I can compare them in print.  Printed images require different levels of sharpening depending on the type of printer you are using and the paper you are printing on.  Based on the ideal print output sharpening can be calculated by looking at the normal viewing distance of the human eye resolving detail to around 1/100th of an inch.  This means that an image with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch will need a radius of 3.  

From my prints I have found that printed images can require a lot more sharpening that web outputs.  I have found that images that look distorted due to the level of sharpening on the screen look good printed.  

Playing around after Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it.

In a previous post on my attendance at Scott Kelby's Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it seminar I mentioned that I had started using some of the tips I learnt from him.

I don't usually take portraits, mainly due to lack of models or willing subjects and a lack of confidence.  However to show some of the techniques I have acquired I took this quick head and shoulders shot and enhanced it.

I must first point out that I do not like the images we tend to see of people on weddings days and in magazines where their faces have been softened too much and they start to look like a completely different person.

However, some subtle work can make a huge difference.

The original image with just the exposure tweaked. 

I applied softening to the skin and enhanced the eyes and lips.  This gave a nice soft texture to the skin which smoothed out some of the wrinkles and marks on the skin's surface.  I didn't want this treatment to be too extreme so you can if you look closely still see subtle lines around the eye areas.  

I applied a soft focus sharpening to the image to keep just the eyes sharpened and the skin soft. 

I converted the image to monochrome using the aged photo preset in Lightroom.  I just wanted to see what it would look like in black and white.  

I feel that my skills for doing quick portrait retouches have been enhanced by going to this seminar.  I will continue to look at ways in which what I have learnt on this course will enhance my photography moving forward. 

Adobe Creative Cloud

In my last post I mentioned cloud technology and how it might be useful for archiving or backing up images.

I have now looked into it a little more.

Adobe offer various packages where you can download any of their apps from Creative Suite 6, get 20GB of cloud storage and sync so you can access your images from anywhere.

In theory this all sounds pretty useful.  You would always have access to the most up to date versions of their software for starters.  And seeing as they bring our a new version every year this is something that would work out very handy indeed.

I'm not sure about the 20GB of storage and how that actually works.  It sounds quite a bit but is it really?  We all know how PSD files swallow up memory.

The price is pretty good.  Well if you are a student it is.  Currently they are offering membership for £15.88 a month which works out at just over £180 a year.  This is the price of a student version of CS6 alone.

I think it is something definitely worth looking more into especially seeing as I am going to be a student for another few years.

For more information, check out their website.
http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/creativecloud.edu.html

Finishing

This section of the course looks at the end of our workflow and displaying the final image.  There are two ways in which we can display the final images - in print or in a web gallery.

Back ups
We should always keep back ups of our images and store them in a safe place. We can do this by saving our copies in a separate folder but is this simply enough?

It depends on how valuable your images are to you.  Would you be devastated if you were to lose them all? I think I probably would be really disappointed to see all my hard work vanish due to some computer malfunction.  All my images are backed up on an external drive which protects me from this.  However, what it doesn't protect me from is flood or fire damage.

Archives need a separate physical location because in the event of theft, fire or flood damage you need your images to be safe.

One option would be to look at backing up to a dvd and saving these off your premises.  This could be cumbersome.

Another option would be to explore the opportunities afforded us now with cloud technology.

Assignment 4 - Real or fake?

For this assignment I had to further explore the techniques covered in this section of the course and the ethical issues some of these techniques present. 

Throughout this part of the course I was presented with situations I had previously avoided.  As a raw shooter I am aware of the need to optimise images. However, I personally don’t see exposure adjustments or spot fixes for sensor dust or unwanted objects in your image as manipulation.  I think on the contrary that they are necessary enhancements.  Enhancements are something that I view as producing images that do not deviate too far from reality.    

I tend to see manipulation as the point where images cease to look real.  In many pictures we see in magazines, images are created using composites which to me is an obvious manipulation of a set of images.  It is clear that the final image is not the result of a single picture taken with a camera. It is the result of another form of creative design where your final image is made post production. 

I had the option of creating a book or magazine cover for this assignment.  I chose to recreate the front cover of Irvine Welsh’s book Ecstacy. 

I adopted a fun and minimalistic approach to the image.  I wanted the focus to be on ‘ecstasy’ with few distractions or busy elements in the final image.  I also wanted the image to be very bright with colour playing an important role.  In a sense I wanted the image to have a slight psychedelic feeling to it.  In relation to the book and its content I wanted to try and create some of the fun associated with the characters and their drug taking lifestyles.   

The image

I used two images to create the cover.  For the first image I shot a pink pill - a Neurofen tablet.  I felt that pink added a fun colour to the theme I was attempting to create for the book cover.  I then added the words ‘ecstasy’ to the pill to give the impression that the word was actually printed on the tablet.  I formatted the text to make it wrap around the pill’s curved shape. 

The pill also being round would be representative of the world - the drug taking world in the book. 

The second image I used was of a blue cloudy sky.  I had to use the clone stamp tool to remove the trees in the lower part of the image and I adjusted the exposure to make the sky very contrasty. 

In Photoshop I created a zoom burst for this image by selecting a radial blur filter.  This gave the image a sense of movement with motion trails emanating from the centre. 

I then cut the pill out of the first image and pasted it into the blurred sky so the movement now trails from the pill.  The movement draws the viewer into the focus point – the pink pill and in turn the title of the book. 

The blue sky provides the image with a universe for the ‘drug globe’. 

Outcome

I think I achieved what I set out to, that is, to create a ‘fake’ image. However I felt that the creative process was one that was very different to how I normally view an assignment or shoot.  I found that more doors were open to me and I could be less conservative in my work or approach. 

My workflow was altered greatly in this assignment.  Instead of working to get the best possible image from your camera in relation to composition, the camera and pictures served as elements which would make up your final image.  This final image and the majority of work to complete it was constructed in Photoshop. 

 In relation to ethics, I have already touched on how I feel about image manipulation, but for this assignment I had to manipulate my image.  I wanted to do this in a way that would not interfere with my ethics. 

There is nothing natural or real about the production or effects of drugs so from an ethical standpoint this image lives up to the themes running through the book.  

Tutor feedback

Overall the feedback I received on this assignment was positive.  However, my tutor suggested that I need to take this image further perhaps by pushing the manipulation of the tablet to strengthen the allegory of it representing the world or by improving the typography superimposed on the pill.  

He noted that the adjustments I made to the sky have worked well.  However the text at the bottom is harder to read so maybe I should try to change the type font or the colour of the text.  I think I like the font so I would opt for changing the colour to white and perhaps making it bolder or bigger or both.  

Moving forward, I feel that I need to give this image some more thought and see how I can further improve it.  

Looking at the work of Jerry Uelsman...

Browsing the internet the other day I came across the work of Jerry Uelsman.  I think I may have seen some of his images before but didn't know who created them.

I think his images are very surreal.  They are also interesting in relation to this course and to 'ethics' when you consider they were not manipulated digitally.  I suppose most people believe the digital age gave birth to image manipulation.  However, this is not necessarily the case.

Looking at Graham Clarke's The Photograph which is a history of photography dedicating a chapter to each genre, image manipulation began in the early 1900s possibly with Alvin Langdon Coburn's vortograph.

I am still not sure where I stand on the entire manipulation thing but I can say that I am less resistant to the idea of manipulating images.  I can actually see the benefits now and also the fact that manipulation and the use of Photoshop doesn't mean you are cheating in any way.  It is just another part of the creative process in the piece of art you are making.

Back to Uelsman, I really like the dreamy feel to his work and I can see how his influence could work on 'Project Time'.

I also like the way the manipulation is subtle.  It almost looks like it has been painted/sketched.

http://www.uelsmann.net/

Researching assignment 4

Assignment 4 is all about using all the tools available to you to create a 'fake' or manipulated photograph.

As most of the work of photographers that I like does not use a lot of manipulation I decided to buy some Photoshop magazines for inspiration and I suppose guidance.

Some months ago I attended a seminar by Scott Kelby who is big into Photoshop.  The CD that was part of the seminar notes is a good resource for basic retouching especially for portraits.  There is also a section on compositing.

At the seminar he had a special guest - Glyn Dewis - who is a photographer, retoucher and Photoshop trainer.  He shoots a lot of promotional and commercial material and when I saw a section by him in Practical Photoshop I decided to buy that as a starter.

His 'How to create a portrait with punch' was interesting and although I liked the final image I was keen on attempting it myself.  Although the instructions were clear enough my portrait didn't look as punchy as his.  Perhaps my model just lacked that certain 'punchability' or else I just missed something along the way.  I abandoned the idea either way.

I liked some of the images that readers have sent into the magazine and I also found some of their ideas more inspiring than the real articles and 'how to' sections.

The challenge in the previous issue was a poetry inspired challenge.  The results in the issue I had were really good.  I liked the introduction of text to the image.  I felt that this was particularly relevant to my assignment.

I think I need to continue to buy Photoshop magazines to keep an eye for these types of images and to keep my options open as to how they would work in my own photography.

Thoughts on my personal project

I have been giving some thought to my personal project over the last few days and put together a short brief and some preliminary ideas.

The assignment

To create a series of 10-12 images from a theme of my choice applying what I have learned from this course. 

My personal brief

To date my assignments have been based on real objects/subjects – things that we can see.  I have set myself the challenge of working on a theme that cannot be shown directly but can be illustrated through the use of symbols and creative illustrative techniques.  I feel this will give me a good opportunity to utilise what I have learnt on the course giving me a greater creative freedom to explore a particular theme.

I have chosen the theme ‘time’ for this project.   I want to produce a series of images that capture and illustrate the essence of time, its effects, passage and cyclical nature.  Time is ever flowing but we are often unaware and oblivious to this.  The times when we become aware of the passage of time is when we haven’t seen someone for a long time and we see how they have aged or changed.  I also would like to explore how we tend to represent time and try to contain it – hours, days, months, seasons and years. 

I would like to look at what time means to me personally and show this in my images. 

Research

As part of my research and a basic starting point I have made a list of all items/symbols we would associate with time. 

General

• ·         Clocks – hands on clock, digital clock
• ·         Hourglass
• ·         Calendars, diaries and schedules
• ·         Decay
• ·         Graveyards
• ·         Newspapers
• ·         Passing of time, history

     Contrasts

• ·         Old and new
• ·         Young and old
• ·         Day and night

Camera specific

• ·         Shutter speed – extrusive time, frozen time,  still time, long exposures
• ·         Photographs are static how do you capture the flow of time?
• ·         Opaque and transparent – while some pictures draw you in others prevent you from moving into the frame
• ·         Colour V monochrome

Shoot specific

• ·         Street photography – capturing fleeting moments
• ·         Still life/studio work
• ·         Landscapes
• ·         Day and night
• ·         Times of day, year
• ·         Weather
• ·         Planned and unplanned shoots

As part of my research I plan to carry out a number of recces for planned shoots, identify possible still life compositions and undertake some random street shots where appropriate.  

Presentation

I believe presentation will contribute to this piece of work.  I have seen from the exhibitions I have been to the effect of colour and black and white prints together with the size of prints.  I would like to see how I might incorporate this into my work. 

I would also like to consider the use of dyptychs. 

Ethics

In relation to ethics, I believe that working with the time theme will present a few ethical dilemmas with regard to representation and will therefore help me identify where my own ethical boundaries lie.  It will not be a case of shooting a subject but looking at a concept and visually portraying it in a variety of ways. 

Exercise: Alteration

For this exercise I had to take an image and remove a subject from the picture.

I chose this image of a gravestone.

I think the image would look a lot better without the distracting gravestone in the background.

Before

After

I used the clone stamp tool to remove the distracting headstone in the background.  I think although this alters the picture it enhances it.  

Experimenting with HDR

I have never really played around with HDR in my images preferring to go for a more natural looking.  However, I thought I would give it a try to see what my image from the previous exercise would like in HDR.

This first image was converted to HDR using the Photorealistic preset.  I don't think it looks too realistic myself, the blues in the sky are somewhat unnatural.

Using the More saturated setting in the Presets this looks very unrealistic.  

I'm not quite sure where I stand with the surreal effects of an HDR image. Perhaps it works better for some images that others. Perhaps it's something I should experiment with some more.  

Exercise: Addition

For this exercise I had to look at taking a landscape picture and changing the appearance of the sky.

From a shooting perspective I used a tripod to take a series of images at different exposures with a view to producing two images - one with the sky exposed correctly and the other exposed for the land.

For the land exposure I used the average meter reading from the camera.  For the sky I under-exposed by a stop.

Exposed as per the average meter reading

One stop under-exposed

Photograph adjusted in PS using the eraser tool.  

Another way of changing the sky is to use the Magic Wand tool to select the sky using the lasso tool where necessary to include or deselect elements accordingly.  Once the selection has been made you can the save it and delete the sky from the upper image.  This will leave you with a similar image to the one above.  However, you have more control over the image selection using the Magic Wand tool.  It is also a quicker way of achieving the result.

Image adjusted using the magic wand tool.

Adding a new sky to the image

There is also the option to add a different sky to the image above.  This too is intervention but unlike above it it not at legitimate.  You are taking two images one with a better sky and adding that to your landscape.  Above you are taking two images of the exact same scene which capture the full range of brightness in the image.  This seems more like a natural process.  

With sky replaced

I'm not so sure that this works.  Perhaps I would need a sky with more white in it or even a brighter sky.  Maybe because I know the sky does not belong to the image I know that it is not right.  The reflection of the clouds is not mirrored in the water correctly.  

I don't think that replacing the sky is something that I would ever really want to do with my photographs.  I feel that it is a step too far.  

Exercise: Enhancement

This exercise involves making changes that many would say go beyond reality.

I had to photograph a close up head and shoulders portrait in natural lighting for this exercise.

The first selection is basic dodging where I have to draw attention to the face by adjusting the brightness and contrast.

The second selection and adjustment is of the eyes - by exaggerating the colour of the iris by increasing saturation and brightness.

And then by using the hue.

This is the original picture.

Original 

With brightness and contrast increased.  This brings out more definition in the face but the difference is subtle. 

The difference between the original and the image that has been adjusted is very subtle and can be seen close up.  I think that the difference would be less subtle if the subject was more in the shade.

Here is an example of the subject shot in deeper shade.

Original

With the brightness and contrast adjusted. 

The second image shows the effects of the adjustment more.  I think both look natural and the adjustments enhance the image.  

In this image the colour of the iris has been exaggerated using brightness and saturation.  Personally I think this looks fake.  The eyes stand out and look slightly odd.  

The colour of the eyes here have been changed using hue.  Again they don't look natural to me.  

I feel that simple dodging and burning techniques produce natural results therefore I would see them as acceptable.  However, when you start changing the colour of the eyes the image starts to look tampered with.  

In saying that there are instances where I would consider adjusting the colour of the eyes.  If you are looking for a creative effect with a high key black and white image colour in the eyes however unnatural looking would be interesting.  The very fact that the image is black and white makes it unnatural as it is not the way our eyes see what is in front of us.  

Burtynsky's OIL

Last week I was able to visit Burtynsky’s OIL exhibition at the Photographer’s Gallery in London.  After reading the reviews, I was keen to see this body of work and see for myself what all the excitement was about. 

When I thought about the word oil and what this exhibition could possibly be about I conjured up images of money, wealth, deserts, cars, greed and I suppose lastly the effect the oil industry has on our planet.

 

However, I did some preliminary research and found the themes of the exhibition included:

• ·         The industrialisation of land
• ·         Photography as a medium for environmental issues
• ·         The visual language of scale, perspective and detail

For over 12 years Edward Burtynsky has travelled the world documenting oil extraction, refinement and its effects.  The exhibition OIL shows a selection of work from these travels including:

• ·         Extraction and Refinement
• ·         Transportation and Motor Culture
• ·         The End of Oil

“In 1997, it occurred to me that all the vast man-altered landscapes I had perused for over 20 years had been made possible by the discovery of oil and the progress occasioned by the internal combustion engine.  Over the next 12 years I researched and photographed the largest oil fields I could find.  I went on to make images of refineries, freeways interchanges, automobile plants and the scrap industry resulting from the recycling of cars.  I began to look at motor culture, where vast tribes come together with vehicles as the main attraction”.  Edward Burtynsky

As part of the research I listened to his talk (link below) where he describes himself as a fine art photographer who struggled to get away from the trap of the ‘calendar art’ type landscape images.  It was by accident after taking a wrong turn and getting lost that he came upon an open coal mine which was a landscape “totally surreal, transformed by man.”  It was then that he discovered that the two could work together – the landscape and man’s transformation and industrialisation of the landscape and this could be his lifetimes work.    

http://www.ted.com/talks/edward_burtynsky_on_manufactured_landscapes.html

Extraction and Refinement and The End of Oil contain images of places that are often remote and not known to us.  They are vast landscapes that are scarred by the extraction of oil: oil fields, refineries and the urban sprawl invading our natural landscapes.    

Although his images show the horror of man's influence or invasion of his natural landscape there is also a beauty in his imagery.  They are attractive and repulsive in almost equal measure. The use of a large format camera brings out the detail in his images and works well with his use of scale.  

The beauty and the horror also works to highlight the contradiction of man wanting all the trappings of the good life despite the consequences of that on our landscape.  In his images we see first hand what we are usually shielded from - the processes required to give us the materialism we crave.  We can see first hand the destruction of our landscape which ensures we have oil for our cars.

Transportation and Motor Culture is a series of work that sets out to depict man's dependence on motor vehicles not just for work but also for recreational purposes.  As someone who is not that interested in cars I found this particularly stimulating.  The land speed trials starting line in Utah, Talladega Speedway and the rows of Harleys at the Kiss concert are a sad reminder of man's obsession with the motor vehicle and also are dependence on oil.  

Burtynsky draws attention to the coming end of oil as we face its rising cost which is having a huge impact on us now but also the dwindling supplies and availability.  

From a photographic point of view, Burtynsky uses large format cameras to capture every detail in his images.  This can be seen in his work on the interiors of oil refineries and also the vast landscapes.  

His large scale prints add impact to the themes in OIL with some work presented as diptychs to highlight the vastness of the landscapes.  

As someone who is interested in landscape photography and also industrialisation of the landscape I found the birds-eye view Burtynsky's images very appealing.  However, I'm not sure when the day will come where I'll be able to utilise helicopters and cranes in my work!

Exercise: Improvement or interpretation?

For this exercise I had to look at creating the old darkroom techniques of dodging and burning digitally.  Although there are a few ways in which you can do this, I chose to use the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom as I felt it gave me personally more accurate selections and control over the image.  I think the results were more realistic looking too compared to what I would achieve in Photoshop.  This probably has more of a bearing on my Photoshop skills than the software itself.

The before image.  

And after dodging and burning

I felt that the bookshelf in the background was rather distracting and took away from the subject in this picture.  I adjusted the exposure to darken the image and then used the Adjustment brush to make local exposure adjustments to the subject.  In addition I added a blur effect to the background to give a lens blur effect.   

The enhancements of this image are realistic in the sense that it is just the lighting effect that has been altered. This draws the viewer's attention to the subject as he stands out more from the background.

I feel that there are limits with this type of enhancement which would be reached once the lighting effect looked odd and not in any way realistic.  The additional blur effect affects the depth of field naturally.  Had I used a wider aperture when I shot the image I would have achieved that result.

Perhaps the limit is reached when you know that the alterations/enhancements you have made could not be achieved in camera at the time of shooting.

Exercise: Correction

For this exercise I decided to use the sample images provided in the OCA student website.  The images I had with flare dominated the entire image so I wanted to use one with a little lens flare.

I also chose the dust image as my images only have a little dust specks and the editing wouldn't be as noticeable.

This is the original image with the dust specks.

I started editing in Lightroom but then imported the picture into CS5 so I could use the clone stamp tool and make more precise removal of the dust specks. I must admit I found it hard to determine which was dust on the sensor and which specks weren't.  This was made equally harder seeing as I was not the person who shot the image.

Original

Corrected version

As you can see from the second image I removed a lot of dust specks and blemishes from the image.  Using the spot healing brush is not as good as the clone stamp tool for the edges or where the spot is near to detail but it is very easy to use in free open space.  It would probably be useful for general spots in a sky.  

The clone stamp tool is a little harder to use as it is difficult to work in closely to the fine details of the edges of the objects using a mouse.  Your mouse tends to jump too far or not go far enough which is frustrating.  I think I made great use of the Edit Undo feature for this exercise. 

Flare

Original

Corrected

Correcting the lens flare was a lot more difficult to do than remove the spots.  I think if it was my image I may have been inclined to leave the flare in the shot as it adds to it and it is not regarded as so much a distraction these days.  

Again the clone stamp tool was very difficult to use.  I don't know if I'll ever get the hang of it.  I suppose practice makes perfect.