Group Task- From Capture to Print

For the group task we were mixed with Group A, and all told to be on time at 10am as we would recieve a brief and have a set amount of time to produce a photograph in a group.

We recieved the brief and were given the following film titles to chose from:

• Breakfast at Tiffany's
• The Fountain
• Into the Wild
• Dead Man's Shoes
• Dog Day Afternoon
• Clockwork Orange
• Sunset Boulevard
• Three Colours Red
• Stand By Me
• The Thin Red Line
• Rear Window

We were told to put ourselves in groups of no more than three and then produce a photograph influenced by one of the films.

I was in a group with Faye and Ryan, quite quickly we decided we wanted to do Clockwork Orange, i suggested we printed a photograph so that we could keep this in mind when looking for our costume and thinking about lighting.

We found these two images and decided to recreate something similar:

We went into town and bought a hat, a white shirt and some false eyelashes then rushed back to the studio to dress our model- Ryan.

We used a continuous fluorescent light in the studio as this created quite a cold feel which we wanted.

Here are some of the images i took on my camera followed by the final image that we submitted.

This is the final image that we produced. We tweaked a few things in Photoshop but didn't do too much editing as we had magaged to capture the essence of what we wanted already.

Studio #4- Competitions

Wednesday 4th November- Andy Farrington


Today we had a break from the usual Studio session and instead Andy talked us through some useful things such as competitions, and useful websites.


Competitions


This is something i need to think about, entering competitions is a good way of getting your name and your work out there and if you win not only could you win money, a camera or something useful but in a way it is like free advertising.
Getting your work known and recognised is a good way of guarunteeing work after finishing the course.


The most important of the competitions is possibly the AOP awards:


http://hub.the-aop.org/


I have signed up for a student membership as i think this would be useful and means it is cheaper to enter the competitions, the below one is just £2.50 per single entry and you can enter something that fits into the following categories:


• Lifestyle & Portraiture (Single & Series)
Includes portraits and lifestyle images featuring people and/or animals as the primary element.


• Fashion & Beauty (Single & Series)
Includes fashion and beauty-style images.


• Landscape, Interiors & Exteriors (Single & Series)
Includes landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes, interiors, exteriors and architecture which may or may not include people, animals or objects as a secondary element.


• Still Life (Single & Series)
Includes still life and food shots where inanimate objects feature as the primary element.


I plan to enter this competition as i think the publicity that the winner gets would be invaluable to my photography career.


The AOP website is also useful for dowloading things like terms and model release forms.


Other competition websites Andy showed us were:


http://www.photoawards.com/


http://www.prixpictet.com/


http://www.photocompetitions.com/


I also setup an account with delicious- a website where you can save your bookmarks, the benefit of this is that you can log in to this from any computer so you can access your list of favourite websites from anywhere. It is also easier to organise them in Delicious than in the standard bookmarks you get with a web browser. Below are some of the websites i found and put onto my Delicious:


http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/


Useful for camera reviews, equipment and also photography competitions.


http://www.ephotozine.com/competitions


Competitions, information and directories of contacts for anything Photographic.


A useful site is http://www.photocritic.org/ there is an article advising how to win Photography Competitions.


The Taylor Wessing prize is a competition for which the prize is £12000!


http://www.npg.org.uk:8080/photoprize/site09/index2.php

Here is the winning Photo for 2009:

Photograph by Paul Floyd Blake- Rosie Bancroft
http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/Film_photographer_wins_12k_Taylor_Wessing_prize__who_needs_digital_news_291367.html
The above link is for an article on the winning photograph.
I saw the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of last years photos and as i am going to London again later this year, i plan to see this years exhibition so will put a post on my blog about this.

Studio #3- Working with Light outside the Studio

Wednesday 21st October- Andy Farrington


Today we were looking at different light sources and the effect they had when photographing someone.


We were split into small groups and asked to walk around the building and find as many different light sources as possible, including mixed lighting ie, tungsten light with light also coming in through the windows.


I know the title says Studio 3 and we arent in the studio, but this refers to Andys lessons which are usually in the studio and i want to keep my blog consistent so it is easy to follow.


First we had to set our cameras to Manual (as always) and then adjust the white balance according to the type of light we would be using.


We agreed that the temperature of the light would be between 2400k and 6600k and therefore we would need to set our camera to somewhere in between (most camera's wont go as low as 2400k) so Andy suggested we set the temperature to 4000k. My camera doesn't allow me to set the temperature so i set it to daylight White Balance which is the nearest thing to allow for all the various light sources we would be using.


The White Balance remained on daylight throughout all of the Photographs i took although some settings such as f stop (aperture) and shutter speed were changed slightly depending on the available light.


To give us a brief idea of what to look for Andy set up some lights in the studio and we took a photo of someone in our group and looked at the mixture of light on the subject.














Below are the various lights that we found and photographed:


Light 1


The ceiling light on the 4th floor corridor- Lucy stood underneath it.








Light 2


The lift, light from the roof, this was also reflecting off the mirror and onto george.








Light 3


On the stairs, the circular wall light, George standing underneath this, there was also light coming in from the windows around the building.





Light 4


On the stairs, unde.r the sign marked 4th floor, this again was mixed light as there was light coming in through the windows, lucy stood underneath it.








Light 5


In the 'tunnel' on the 4th floor, windows on both sides so daylight and spotlights from the ceiling, lucy.








Light 6


In the atrium under the floodlight, natural light coming in from the windows, george stood underneath it.












Light 7


In the canteen/bar, spotlight from the ceiling, lucy stood underneath, natural light also from the windows.








Light 8


In reception, spotlight from above the reception desk (different to the other ceiling lights and spotlights), george stood underneath it and there was also natural light from the main doors and windows.








Light 9


Old Photography building, lucy underneath the spotlight near the door, natural light also.








Light 10


Old Photography building, flourescent strip light in the ceiling, lucy underneath this and natural light from windows.








Light 11


Old Photgraphy building, strip lights in the other seating area (they appeared a slightly warmer colour to the other strip lights), george stood underneath them.








Light 12


Old photography building, in the corridor, a sqaure box light in the ceiling, lucy stood underneath this.










Light 13


Old photography building, in the ladies toilets, lucy underneath a block ceiling light.








Light 14


Old photography building, in the ladies toilets, george next to the window- mixed lighting from the ceiling lights and natural light.








Light 15


Back in the HE building, lucy in an area quite dark although some light coming in from the window, with a lighter near her face.





Light 16


Main college building, george in the corridor, spotlights in the walls and mostly pointing up at the ceiling so no light directly pointed at the subject.








Light 17


Main college building, lucy stood under neath the sky light with a small spot light pointing at her face.

Studio #2- Lighting Characteristics; Quality, Colour & Direction

Wednesday 14th October- Andy Farrington


Today we were going to be going into the Studio (the one with the floor to ceiling windows) and looking at lighting characteristics.


We were going to be using natural light and observing the effect it had on the models face, our model was George.


Before we went into the studio Andy went through a few things with us.


Light Temperature is measured in Kelvins;


Household Bulb- 3200k
Candlelight- 1000k (but most camera's settings probably wont go as low as this)


The lower the number in Kelvins- the warmer the light will be so candlelight will be a very warm orange light. At the other end of the scale there is something called a HMI light which are used in fashion photography and are very close to daylight at around 6000k- this is a very cold light, given that these lights cost around £10000 each it is unlikely i will be using one for a while!


The Characteristics of Light are (also shown in my earlier research from Studio 1):


Quality
Direction
Contrast
Colour
Intensity
Un/evenness


Andy wanted us to look at the work of some photographers who use the colour and quality of light as part of the narrative in their photographs- Gregory Crewdson uses different colour balances in his images to create an effect, although his shoots cost thousands and are very much staged like a film set, the end result is very effective and shows a mixture of different lighting.


We looked briefly at Gregory Crewdson and the lighting he used for effect in his images, below are some of my favourite examples of his work:

Photograph By Gregory Crewdson

Photograph By Gregory Crewdson

Photograph By Gregory Crewdson

I like Crewdson's work, the use of light is very clever, the mixed lighting he uses is a good example to look at with my Systems and Processes brief in mind (Location photography- 1), although if i were to reproduce something to get a similar effect it would be on a much smaller (cheaper) scale, not sure my budget can stretch to £thousands for the setup of one photograph!

Click the link to see an article i found:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/gallery/crewdson.shtml

 

In contrast to Crewdson, Alec Soth does this in a totally different way- he uses the available light from the scene.


Alec Soth uses light in a different way to Crewdson, mainly using the light that is already available and his shots arent so staged, click the link to go to his wesite:


http://www.alecsoth.com/


Below are some expamples of his work that i feel were most relevant:

Photograph By Alec Soth

I love this photo, it reminds me of the work of Joel Mayerowitz- the Provincetown image of the gas station, i have his book, cape light.

Photograph By Alec Soth

Photograph By Alec Soth

Whilst looking at his work and his site i also found a link to his blog site which i found quite interesting:

http://alecsothblog.wordpress.com/

Both photographers achieve a powerful effect with the use of different light sources, but they do this in a totally different way.




In the Studio:


Setup 1


George sat with the window on the left of him







F5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO 400, handheld, Unedited.


Setup 2


George lit from the front by the window







F5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO 400, handheld, unedited.





F5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO 400, handheld, unedited.


Setup 3


George lit from the back by the window with reflector boards in front of him





F5.6, 1/60, ISO 400, handheld, unedited.







F5.6, 1/60, ISO 400, handheld, unedited.


Setup 4


Same setup but we added an extra reflector and doubled the ISO to 800.





F5.6, 1/60, ISO 800, handheld, un-edited.





F5.6, 1/60, ISO 800, handheld, un-edited.


Setup 5


Into the curve studio, George lit from the sky light above.





F5.6, 1/60, ISO 400, handheld, un-edited.


Setup 6


Same setup just changed the ISO to 800.





F5.6, 1/60, ISO 800, handheld, un-edited.


Setup 7


Same light and settings as above just taken from a different angle, higher up, looking down on George.






Main Learning Outcomes


- When lighting someone from above, get the person to look up to avoid harsh direct shadows, unless this is the effect you are looking for, dependent on the look you want.


- I didnt realise that a flattering lighting effect could be produced using natural light so was quite surprised what a difference the direction of the light made to the photos.

Things to Improve/learn