The assignment task is to demonstrate visual contrasts in pairs of images. For example a photograph that represents the word "Heavy" paired with another that is indicative of the word "Light". From the given list of 21 contrasting pairs, I selected 11 and have narrowed that selection down to eight which are as follows;
For the contrasting "Opaque" image I simply had my model stand behind a pane of frosted glass in an interior door. The scene was lit using natural light again from a window to the left. I wanted to use a reflector on the right hand side to even up the lighting a little but it was physically impossible to fit anything in to the confined space. I decided to crop in slightly to the facial features as it seems to have a more dramatic effect. Tripod mounted, a focal length of 70mm was used and the image was shot at 1/10th of a second at f4.5. Due to the low light iso800 was selected.
To demonstrate "Broad" I decided to photograph the Martello Tower at Seaford. The broad base narrowing slightly towards the top seemed to illustrate the word perfectly. Using a focal length of 31mm I tried to avoid tilting the camera so as not to distort the image with converging verticals. I waited for someone to walk into the frame to give a sense of scale and was very lucky to have this small family do exactly that. The stepped shadows was a resultant happy accident! An exposure of 1/800th of a second at f8 was used.
I found some beach huts to demonstrate "Pointed" and selected the one with the most pointed apex. I moved in close under it and shot at 17mm pointing upwards to accentuate the angle. I then had to determine how to balance the frame and decided that giving the subject about 40% of the composition against the sky seemed about right. An exposure of 1/400th of a second at f9 was used.
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| Blunt |
The contrasting image entitled "Blunt" is a close up shot of a pestle, the most blunt implement I could think of. By shooting at a slight angle from above I have tried to include as much of the blunt surface as possible without making it appear flat. I also turned the chipped area towards the camera to add some depth and texture. Continuous lighting from above was used with a white reflector below and slghtly to the left to fill in the shadow. I set the aperture to f13 to obtain as much detail as I could whilst keeping the shutter speed below 1 second.
Liquid / Solid
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| Liquid |
I had decided at an early stage that I wanted a reflection to demonstrate "Liquid" but finding the right image was difficult. Eventually I drove past this puddle on a country lane and stopped to capture the image. I took the shot from quite a low angle so that I could position the brown grass tops in the reflection without having them appear in the top of the image. As a result of this the reflection blends virtually seamlessly into the grassy bank and if you invert the picture it almost looks as though it isn't a reflection at all. In the foreground I decided to keep the shallow part of the puddle with debris to add to the sense of liquidity. Exposed at 1000th of a second at f8
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| Solid |
I remember this wall being built and thought it would give a perfect example of the contrast to liquid, "Solid". I had to shoot from a corner to give some depth and the impression of solidity as a flat wall would have been exactly that. Flat, with no sense of mass. Bringing the corner about one third into the frame and concentrating the viewers eyes firmly on that one solid brick gives a real sense of strength to the image. This was shot on an overcast day using an exposure of 1/200th of a second at f8.
Light / Dark
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| Light |
For the image representing "Light" I shot directly into the light. I wanted a silhouette in the frame so I chose myself for this, firing the shutter with a remote release. The composition was a little tricky. I tried using the breakwater as a lead in line to the figure, from a slightly different angle. That didn't work. In the end I set the silhouetted figure off to the left and ran the larger object, the breakwater, in towards the centre of the frame. In this instance I think it works reasonably well. A focal length of 17mm was used and an exposure of 1/2000th of a second at f8 with a graduated ND4 filter
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| Dark |
I also wanted a silhouetted figure for the contrasting "Dark" image. A rock concert provided the opportunity and I got myself into position very early while the band were tuning up. At this time there were no lights to the front of the stage and the projector screen behind gave me the backlight I needed to create this image. The white guitar was a great subject to set the horizon to so I tilted the camera to add a little drama. This photograph was taken at 1/160th of a second at f2.8 with a focal length of 38mm.
Smooth / Rough
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| Smooth |
The picture depicting "Smooth" is a large garden pebble on a bed of shingle. I used a 105mm lens and set the aperture to f4 to achieve a nice shallow depth of field which I believe adds to the emphasis of "smooth".
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| Rough |
For the contrasting image of "Rough" the humble Shredded Wheat seemed like the perfect subject. It was actually shot indoors using natural light through a window although the background used could be mistaken for sky. I included the edge of the biscuit to highlight the roughness shown by it. To obtain maximum depth of field I shot with the aperture set at f32 requiring a shutter speed of .8 of a second. Again the 105mm lens was used.
Black / White
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| Black |
For this pair of images I wanted to shoot black on black and white on white. For the image representing "Black" I placed a pool ball on a black glass table. I used continuous lighting to avoid flash reflections off the ball. The lighting was set to the left and slightly to the rear to give a rimlight effect. I deliberately underexposed the image so that the foreground blended seamlessly into the subject. Placing the white circled "8" to the front but off centre added depth. I tweaked the levels slightly in Photoshop to finish up with this effect. The 105mm lens was used and an exposure of 1 second at f3.2.
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| White |
My "white" image is simply three radiator tubes against a white wall. Again, natural light through a window from the left was used. I also placed a white reflector to the right to help eliminate unwanted shadows from that side of the photograph. A 1/8th of a second exposure was used at f5.6 and a focal length of 45mm.
Contrast within a single frame.
Straight / Curved
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| Straight / Curved |
My contrast within a single frame image is a reflection of the curved City Hall building in the straight lines of the Norton Rose building at Bankside in London. I used a 50mm focal length for this shot and a small amount of cropping was required to remove people from the foreground. The photograph was taken at 1/400th of a second at f5.6.
Assignment 1 feedback
Tutor
Report Form
Student
name:
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Robert
German
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Student
number:
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507010
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Course/Module
title:
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Art
of Photography
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Assignment
number:
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1
|
Overall
Comments
The assignment's images
illustrate some good uses of a variety of light sources, and a
reasonable range of techniques. Some of the subject choices were a
little stilted, whereas others worked very well indeed (particularly
'Dark'). Exposures are mostly good (see my later comment), as are
sharpness and colour balance.
Some
images are 'ticking the box' of satisfying the theme of the image
(rough,
smooth, solid & blunt)
without sufficient consideration of artistic input (The 'Art of
Photography' module). The assignment images should be the best shots
you can take (which some of this set may well be), the 'theme' is
just a parameter that the image needs to satisfy in order to show
that you can choose, and show, images of concepts.
A stop or two of exposure
compensation is required to lighten some of the lighter toned
subjects e.g. Transparent, Blunt and Smooth. Either use the camera's
manual setting or add +1 or +2 stops when shooting; check the
histogram of the image to see if there is an even spread of tones in
the image.
If you continue to
improve during this module, producing more eye-catching images (as
with several in this assignment), I see no reason why you shouldn't
go on to do well at assessment.
Feedback on assignment
Transparent/opaque
Transparent
is a creative still-life that just needs lifting by some direct light
to create light and shade, which would also create focused highlights
due to the lenses. The camera's auto-exposure has been fooled by the
white paper into under-exposing by around 2 stops.
Opaque
is a more accomplished image; it is slighly surreal in some ways. It
stems from imaginative use of a simple technique; shooting through
translucent glass. The level of softness is spot on - I can just
about make out all of the features.
Broad/narrow
I
like the dimensions of the broad building - it appears squat and
fore-shortened. The people add extra interest which was needed, but I
particularly like the inclusion of their shadows which are nicely
separated.
The
narrow image makes great use of the wide angle setting to create the
tunnel effect with exaggerated perpective. The natural framing has
centered attention on the figure at the end so it would have been
good if they were facing us, or had a more animated pose.
Continuous/intermittent
Continuous
is a very clear, straight run of track. It's not a view I'd normally
recommend for anyone else, but I guess you know what you're doing.
The light from the side shows up the relief of the tracks very well,
and there is a good reflection of the sky on the tops of the rails;
all it needs is a train to bring it to life.
Intermittent
is a well observed pattern shot. It could also have been used for
'curved'. I like the subtlety of the reflections and highlights. I
think there is just enough detail in the pattern and curve to hold
interest in the image. The composition is helped a lot by the
diagonal orientation of the curve, leading the eye through the frame.
Pointed/blunt
The
peeling paint and strong graphic lines contrast really well with the
more naturalistic patterned sky. The colour range is limited to
whites and blues, adding to the strength of the impact. The tricky
exposure has come out very well considering the level of contrast.
The
blunt image is really too simple to be a sufficiently striking image
to stand out in this set. There isn't enough input from you to make
anything of it creatively. It also suffers from the under-exposure
mentioned earlier.
Liquid/solid
The
water in your liquid image has a still surface that maximises the
reflections. The light, colour and exposure are all great. I am just
left a little disappointed that the reflections are of grasses and
not something more interesting/exciting.
The
solid image is exactly that; it is competently shot in terms of
composition, sharpness, colour saturation, exposure etc. There is not
much more I can say really except that I can't see it making the list
of your top 30 best images, just because of the subject matter.
Light/dark
Light
is certainly a more imaginative shot than many others here. It is
difficult to get a shot into the sun that includes colour, texture
and tones in the rest of the image, but you have managed it. The
composition feels a little awkward as the groyne and the sun almost
line up but are too strong together to balance the man on the left;
just move a little to the left and recompose to set the groyne on a
more diagonal direction.
Your
dark image is the best shot here, in fact the best student shot I've
seen so far this year: It has bags of atmosphere. The guitar,
gutarist and mic are all clear but the reduction in detail, by
choosing a low exposure, has produced a stylized effect almost like a
graphic design. The exposure gives just enough information to see all
the components of the composition (imaginatively aligned with the
guitar), whilst still showing that the venue is dark and moody. Some
of the graphics behind are a bit distracting (on the right) and could
perhaps be cloned out.
Smooth/rough
Smooth
could be likened to 'blunt', with similar comments, although the
exposure here is better and there is the added interest of the
background colours. There really needs to be a reflected highlight
from a smooth object, to show the 'smoothness' (as in your 'black'
shot).
The
rough image is unusual and could have been great with some
directional lighting; as with smooth, the property (rough or smooth)
doesn't show up if the lighting isn't right (this is the subject of
assignment 4). Some light and shade would show the individual strands
off so that the texture was clearly rough.
Black/white
Your
black shot is simple and straight to the point. There is just enough
detail on the edge of the ball to show the shape, and the composition
is quite dynamic: simple but effective.
The
white shot has less detail and shape to it; hence I don't find it
works quite as well. It is subtle, so you need to look hard to see
the variations in tone and form. I think it just about comes off, but
I would add a bit more contrast to the shot, just to lift it a
little.
Straight
& curved
You
have managed to combine both buildings into the one shot whilst
keeping the framing tight, excluding any distractions from around the
area. The lone tree in the light has a good outline to add interest
to the mass of man-made forms of the buildings. It silhouettes well
against the splash of colour in the bottom corner. I would be tempted
to boost the contrast and colour just a little to add some more
impact, but otherwise it is a good image.
Learning
logs/critical essays
Don't
forget to update your log with any activities, plans and thoughts
about your work.
Suggested
reading/viewing
I
recommend reading 'Basics Photography: Lighting' by David Prakel.
Also
look
at Section 4 of this module 'lighting' (just read it for now), to see
how the size of the light source, its direction and its distance from
the subject, affect how harsh or soft the lighting is and how texture
is rendered.
Tutor
name:
|
Derek
Trillo
|
Date
|
03/03/11
|
Next
assignment due
|
07/04/11
|
Based on the feedback received from Derek on my first assignment I went about the task of correcting some of the weaker images. As far as possible I tried to keep to the original idea although I have substituted the "liquid" image with another that I shot shortly after submitting my assignment.
Transparent
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| Transparent |
For the second attempt at this shot I placed a tungsten lamp above left of the subject and took the picture similarly to the original submission.
Blunt
Liquid
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| Liquid |
The replacement for the "Liquid" image is basically a similar concept but with a lot more interest in the frame.
Rough
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| Rough |
Similarly to "Transparent", this image lacked some directional lighting to really highlight the texture of the biscuit.
White
 |
| White |
As advised by Derek I have boosted the contrast and tweaked the brightness and exposure to improve this image slightly
