Picture Project- Hunger

Due on Flikr on the 24th November

Firstly when we got this theme it made me think that Hunger will mean something different to everyone- like any theme would. To me it made me think of a few things and one image that came to mind was this:

Photograph by Kevin Carter

I think this image would have a dramatic effect on most people, it certainly brought a tear to my eye and really made me think about the situation. The fact that the Photographer killed himself 3 months after taking this just goes to show how harsh the reality of seeing something like this can be. I personally think that the guilt of taking a photograph and walking away from the situation would be enough to damage most people.

This photo shows another world, as far as we are concerned as even though it is just as real and important as our everyday experiences, it isnt something we are used to seeing.

Hunger to me means something different, and i wanted to try and express this through my final image.

When i showed my photo in our tutorial John said it may have been better in just black and white- i had shown part of the image- the food in colour. So i decided to use the better image on my Blog.

And here is a link to my Flikr site where i posted the original image and you can view the comments i recieved:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathrynjefferson/4128814112/

Unit 1- Camera Lens Technique- Wide & Telephoto

3. Use both wide and telephoto lens' (or focal lengths) to make 2 photographs of the same object.

Wide angle and Telephoto Lenses offer a very different image, a wide angle lens for a DSLR Medium format camera such as my Canon 50D would be something like a 15mm, 24mm or 28mm lens. With a wide angle lens things appear further away than with a standard or Tele lens and the Angle of view is wider so you have more coverage, it exaggerates perspective.

A Telephoto lens for my camera would be something like a 85mm, 135mm or 200mm lens.
A Telephoto lens makes things appear bigger, gives less coverage and it flattens perspective, meaning this would perhaps be more appropriate for portraits than a wide angle lens.

For the wide and Telephoto shots i decided to use the studio and a controlled lighting setup.

I think that a good way to illustrate the difference between Wide and Telephoto is a Portrait, here are the shots i took:

F13, 1/200 Sec, ISO 100, handheld, edited in LR.

I have edited both images slightly in Lightroom by cropping them and desaturating them a little.

F13, 1/200 Sec, ISO 100, handheld, edited in LR.

This image literally appears flatter, although with some things that could be a bad thing, i think it works better when photographing people.

Unit 1- Camera Lens Technique- 2- Drop Focus

2. Make a photograph that employs the Drop-focus technique

When i started on this i first researched it on the internet and looked in books to try and learn what it was, i couldn't find it anywhere.

Andy explained in one of our studio sessions what drop focus was, it is a narrow band of focus on the subject/object when taking a macro/close up photograph.

The band of focus should be on the most appropriate part, in order to pick out necessary detail in the image.

When using the Macro tubes it takes away any control over the aperture and instead sets it to the widest aperture- lowest f number automatically.

I went into the studio with several flowers i had bought and set up the continuous fluorescent lights on either side of the product table, they were placed as close as possible to the flowers to give maximum light, looking back, they weren't the best choice of light. The main reason for this is that i already had limitations as i couldnt change the aperture due to the use of the Macro Rings and the Continuous lights do not have the option for changing the power so the only control i had over the exposure was the shutter speed and the ISO, which meant i was quite limited. On the plus side, the lights are useful for product photography as ythey don't generate as much heat as the other flash heads so wont melt chocolate or wilt flowers!

1/60, ISO 1000, handheld, un-edited.

The fluorescent light has really brought out the purple tone in this image.

1/80, ISO 1000, handheld, un-edited.

1/100 Sec, ISO 1000, handheld, un-edited.

1/100 Sec, ISO 1000, handheld, un-edited.

1/100 Sec, ISO 1000, handheld, un-edited.

Here you can see there is a band of focus going across the image diagonally this appropriately allows the darker purple tone to be in focus and the rest of the image is out of focus. This was done using all of the extension tubes at the same time so the flower was literally 2cm from the lens of my camera, this has given it quite an abstract effect as it is so close up unless in context with the other images you may wonder what it was.

1/100 Sec, ISO 500, handheld, un-edited.

1/100 Sec, ISO 500, handheld, un-edited.

Although this doesn't show a 'band' of focus it shows a very small part of the image in focus, the important part is in focus and everything around it has just disappeared into a colourful blur.

I like this image but think it could be a lot better with editing, which is the area in which i struggle the most!

This one has been edited in Photoshop. When i started the course i had never used Photoshop or Lightroom and although i now know how to work Lightroom with my eyes closed, i am still working out the basics in Photoshop. I have bought quite a few books and magazines and watched online tutorials on order to learn some new Photoshop skills. I like the Photoshop magazines as they show examples of what can be done along with step by step instructions of how to do it. I used one of them to create a sketch effect on a portrait and then i got thinking about how i could use this so tried out a few different effects and played around with the layers until i got an image i was happy with.

I am really happy with the final image, i think the editing has given it a painterly feel.