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.