Photography 1: The Art of Photography

2010-08-06T16:56:00.007+01:00

Welcome to my Learning Blog!

Photography 1: The Art of Photography

Open College of the Arts

Down the right hand side of the page you will find an archive of all of my posts. On the left hand side there are quick links to the posts which contain completed Projects and Assignments. I hope you enjoy my Blog as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it in order to complete my first course with the OCA!

Student Name: Michael Moore

Student Number: 499246

Course: Photography 1: The Art of Photography

Final Thoughts and Next Courses

2010-07-14T14:02:00.003+01:00

Narrative and Illustration

The Aim of "7: Narrative and Illustration" was to help me to approach photography from the point of view of the subject and to show how to tell a story both in a set of pictures and within a single picture. This includes learning the techniques of visual analogy, juxtaposition and certain special effects.

During Narrative and Illustration I have learnt how to tell a story with a single photograph. Single shots are useful when a scene needs no explanation for a viewer to see what is happening or what has just occurred. Another use is within photo journalism, the subject will often be the most important factor and therefore if the shot is poorly composed or even unfocused it may still adequately tell a viewer something important. Narrative picture essays are useful for telling a story. They’re particularly useful as part of tutorials/guides and sets of instructions.

Narrative has further reinforced the importance of planning a shoot, which was touched upon in 5: Natural Light. Planning is important when capturing events so that viewpoints can be decided upon before the event occurs. It is then a case of getting to a your chosen viewpoint during the event instead of wasting time looking for one after it has begun. The same applies for shooting the sunrise. It is much easier to find a viewpoint in daylight the day before and then return the next morning when it is dark and simply await the sun’s arrival on the horizon.

Completion of My First Course

I have now (finally) completed my first course with the OCA (Photography 1: The Art of Photography) and have enjoyed it immensely. I feel it has helped me to vastly expand my knowledge of Photography and also my practical skills. Before beginning the course I had hardly used a DSLR and now I feel I’m a very competent user. I already had a vast interest in photography and have owned a number of compact digital cameras and a digital video camera and I felt I wanted to expand this hobby into something more. It’s taken me a little over a year to complete this course but I’m hoping to complete the next a lot faster. My work is due for Assessment in September so I’m eagerly awaiting my final result!

Next Course

Having completed the Art of Photography I have just enrolled on my next course Digital Arts 1: A Creative Approach in order to continue my journey towards a BA Hons in Photography. I’m very much looking forward to working on the projects of A Creative Approach as I feel I’m already a very confident pc user. Having seen a number of the projects, most involving the use of a scanner, I am not at all worried that I’ll have any problems as I’ve been using scanners for many years.

Rain

2010-07-01T17:30:00.002+01:00

Below is a shot I have taken that I feel portrays rain quite well. To produce this shot I simply sprinkled the garden hose over the bonnet of my car and set my camera on a tripod. It was taken at 22:02 on 30th of June therefore the sun was just about to set and the sky was overcast, as it would be if it were actually raining.

ISO- 1600, 200mm, 1/8sec, f/5.6

I decided to take this shot so late in the evening purely because of the dull light conditions. I like how even though the bonnet of my car is black, I can still see the colour of the sky reflected in it. The dull light conditions and extremely diffused light help to create a nice gradual contrast between the lit and shadowed areas. f/5.6 is the widest aperture I was able to achieve as 200mm and so I needed an alternate way to correctly expose the shot. I used a very high ISO of 1600 instead of a long shutter speed because some of the water droplets were moving and didn’t want them to end up blurred.

Assignment 5: Applying the techniques of Illustration and Narrative

2010-06-30T20:13:00.002+01:00

To see exactly what I sent to my tutor please visit my set on flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikemoore88/sets/Assignment5

For this assignment, I decided I wanted to create a storyboard of my girlfriend making some muffins. I feel the different stages clearly illustrate the passage of time and progression towards a final result.

Chocolate-Chip Muffins

Ingredients: (for 12 Muffins)

1 3/4 cups of Self Raising Flour (220g)
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder (Lindsay used Nesquik milkshake powder)
3/4 cup of Muscovado Sugar (165g)
3/4 small packet of White Chocolate Chips
1 cup of Milk (250ml)
1/3 cup of melted Butter (76g)
1 egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).

Put all of the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Put all of the liquid ingredients into a measuring jug. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and mix together. Lumpy batter makes the best muffins so don’t beat too hard. Place 12 muffin cases onto a baking tray and spoon the mixture into them. Bake the muffins for approximately 20 minutes or until they are dark, risen and springy.

Once the muffins are ready, remove from oven and leave to cool before eating.

(Pouring melted chocolate and sprinkling the remaining chocolate chips on to each muffin is a nice touch and adds to the flavour.)

Lighting: a mixture of the kitchen’s Tungsten lights on the ceiling, fluorescent lights under the cupboards and my flash unit aimed at the ceiling. Lindsay baked the muffins in the evening and therefore there wasn’t any light entering the room through the windows. I aimed my flash unit at the ceiling as it provided the most attractive lighting. The ceiling acted as a reflector and a diffuser. When the light was reflected back at my scene it became very scattered, meaning that shadows weren’t too harsh gave a nice modelling effect.

The Event: Baking Chocolate - Chip Muffins

Preparation: Get all of the equipment and ingredients ready for use and set the temperature of the oven.

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Open the ingredients, weigh the flour and add the cocoa powder to the mixing bowl.

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Add the white chocolate-chips and sugar to the mixing bowl and weigh the butter.

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Crack the egg, melt the butter, add them to the milk and mix into the dry ingredients.

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Stir the mixture Here I used a slow shutter speed to try and capture the movement of Lindsay stirring.

Spoon it into the muffin cases.

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Place the muffins in to the preheated oven and wait approximately 20 minutes.

When ready, remove the muffins from the oven and leave to cool.

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And finally it’s time to sample the finished article!

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Summing it up: Myself and Lindsay truly enjoyed completing this project!! I feel I’ve managed to capture some great shots that illustrate the recipe and instructions adequately. Also, Lindsay’s muffins were absolutely delicious!!

To see exactly what I sent to my tutor please visit my set on flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikemoore88/sets/Assignment5

Tutor Feedback

Overall Comments

Hello Michael,

Many thanks for sending in your fifth and final assignment which as usual you have handled very well. The print quality is good and the subject matter you have chosen would make a very good article for a womans magazine or cookery book, as you comment on in your notes. Please find below my comments in more detail:

Feedback on assignment

Cover Image

According to your notes you bounced the flash off the ceiling to light the subject. That’s fine, but be careful when using this technique. If the ceiling is colored the light bouncing back may cause a color cast of whatever the color is. Just something to be aware of. The image itself does act as a good cover shot, but could do with a bit more contrast as the example on page 5.

Page 1 Preparation

The first image is biting sharp and the wording on the ingredients can be seen clearly. To improve this image get rid of the cacti in the background using the clone tool as it is a bit distracting.

The second image is fine. It clearly shows what the hand is doing and the skin tones are excellent.

It looks like you have used flash for your third image and this has resulted in the “hot spot” on the stainless steel cooker. Also the temperature reading has turned out a dull red because of the flash. The answer is to shoot this one again with the camera on a tripod and don’t use flash. This way you should have a brighter red on the reading.

Page 2 Opening the Ingredients

These three images are fine although the first one could do with being a fraction lighter on the flour bag.

Page 3 Adding the Ingredients

On image 1 you have added a bit more interest in the picture by doing an action shot and the chocolate chips can be seen very clearly dropping into the bowl. Had you used a slower shutter speed (1/15sec) this would have given more movement to the scene, but a good shot nevertheless.

On image two Lindsay is about to pour sugar into the bowl which can only just be seen in the bottom right hand corner and a viewpoint from slightly farther back or zoom out would be better to include more of the bowl.

Images three and four are both fine, but I would have put the unopened pack of butter before the jug shot.

Page 4 Liquid Ingredients

All these images are fine except the third shot which from what you say in your notes you are aware of. The answer to this would have been to pour the milk from a slightly higher position and against a darker background, just as you have done in image 4.

Page 5 Mixing

Again these are competent shots that illustrate the subject well, but clone out the mobile phone in the fourth image.

Page 6 The Oven

Direct flash would improve the lighting on the first two shots so that the background was lit up. The third shot is excellent and you should have used this technique for the first shot. The muffins can be seen very clearly because of the better lighting and look very mouth watering.

Page 7 Sampling

All the images on this page are very good. The texture of the muffin is evident on the last shot in which Lindsay is holding in her right hand. Well done and a very interesting assignment.

Other

Thank you again for allowing me to view your work. As always I hope you found the comments helpful as they are intended to be. May I take this opportunity to wish you well for your assessment, but if can be of any further help now or in the future please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Kind regards

Peter

Amendments

Upon receiving feedback from my tutor I took note of his advice and have edited some of my photos accordingly.

Below is a list of the affected images and the advice my tutor gave for each:

Cover Image – Increase contrast
Page 1 Top – Clone out cacti
Page 1 Bottom Right – Re-take without flash
Page 2 Top Left – Lighten bag of flour
Page 3 – Re-arrange photographs
Page 4 Top Right – Re-take using a dark background
Page 5 Bottom Left – Slightly increase contrast
Page 5 Bottom Right – Clone out the mobile phone

During the completion of my amendments I will re-post all of the images from the assignment because they work together as part of a narrative picture essay.

Cover Image Amended ISO-100, 144mm, 1/180sec, f/9.5 This shot is the same as the original however I have slightly increased the contrast.

Page 1 Amended

To begin with, I added a title to this page.

Top Amended ISO-100, 28mm, 1/180sec, f/8

To improve this shot I cloned out some Cactus that was in the background.

Bottom Left ISO-100, 88mm, 1/180sec, f/9.5

Same as original.

Bottom Right Amended ISO-200, 34mm, 1/2sec, f/5.6

To improve this shot I placed my camera on a tripod and didn’t use the flash. I also cut a hole in a piece of card so that I could place it over my lens. The card stopped there from being any reflections on the oven. The technique works and the temperature can be clearly seen.

Page 2 Amended

Top Left Amended ISO-100, 72mm, 1/125sec, f/8

To improve this shot I cloned out some Cactus that was in the background.

Top Right ISO-100, 28mm, 1/125sec, f/8

Same as original.

Bottom ISO-100, 33mm, 1/125sec, f/8

Same as original.

Page 3 Amended

I re-arranged this page but didn’t do anything to the photographs.

Top Left ISO-100, 28mm, 1/90sec, f/8

Same as original.

Top Right ISO-100, 33mm, 1/90sec, f/8

Same as original.

Bottom Left ISO-100, 140mm, 1/180sec, f/8

Same as original.

Bottom Right ISO-100, 88mm, 1/90sec, f/8

Same as original.

Page 4 Amended

Top Left ISO-100, 72mm, 1/90sec, f/8

Same as original.

Top Middle ISO-100, 33mm, 1/90sec, f/8

Same as original.

Top Right Amended ISO-200, 59mm, 1/160sec, f/9

I re-took this shot using a black sheet of card for the background. The original had a white background and the droplet of milk was barely visible.

Bottom ISO-100, 48mm, 1/180sec, f/8

Same as original.

Page 5 Amended

Top Left ISO-100, 28mm, 0.7sec, f/11

Same as original.

Top Right ISO-100, 40mm, 1/180sec, f/8

Same as original.

Bottom Left Amended ISO-100, 144mm, 1/180sec, f/9.5

This shot is the same as the original however I have slightly increased the contrast.

Bottom Right Amended ISO-100, 18mm, 1/180sec, f/8

This shot is the same as the original however I have removed the mobile phone that was on the table between Lindsay and the jug. I used the Clone tool in Photoshop CS4 to remove the phone.

Page 6 Same as original

Top ISO-100, 88mm, 1/180sec, f/9.5

Same as original.

Bottom Left ISO-100, 200mm, 1/180sec, f/9.5

Same as original.

Bottom Right ISO-100, 40mm, 1/180sec, f/9.5

Same as original.

Page 7 Same as original

Top Left ISO-100, 48mm, 1/180sec, f/9.5

Same as original.

Top Right ISO-100, 18mm, 1/180sec, f/9.5

Same as original.

Middle Left ISO-100, 72mm, 1/180sec, f/9.5

Same as original.

Bottom Left ISO-100, 28mm, 1/180sec, f/9.5

Same as original.

Bottom Right ISO-100, 59mm, 1/180sec, f/9.5

Same as original.

Amendment Summary

During the completion of my amendments I re-posted all of the pages because they work together as part of a Narrative picture essay.

Below is a list of the affected images and the improvements I made to each one:

Cover Image – I increased the contrast
Page 1 Top – Using Photoshop I cloned out the cacti
Page 1 Bottom Right – I re-took this shot without flash
Page 2 Top Left – I lightened the bag of flour using Photoshop
Page 3 – I re-arranged the photographs on this page as they were originally in the wrong order
Page 4 Top Right – I re-took this shot using a dark background
Page 5 Bottom Left – I increased the contrast of this shot
Page 5 Bottom Right – Using Photoshop I cloned out the mobile phone

Overall I feel I have followed my tutor’s advice quite well and have managed to improve the shots that needed amending.

Imperial War Museum

2010-06-05T14:01:00.000+01:00

I recently visited The Imperial War Museum at Salford Quays in Greater Manchester.

The museum was designed by architect Daniel Libeskind and opened in July 2002. It was recognised with awards and prize nominations for its architecture. Libeskind envisaged a 'constellation composed of three interlocking shards' with each shard being a remnant of an imagined globe shattered by conflict. These shards in turn represented air, earth and water, and each formed a functionally distinct part of the museum. The 55m high air shard, provides the museum's entranceway and a viewing balcony above the Manchester Ship Canal with views of the Manchester skyline. The earth shard houses the museum's exhibition spaces, while the water shard accommodates a cafe with views of the canal. The museum features a permanent exhibition of chronological and thematic displays, supported by hourly audiovisual presentations which are projected throughout the gallery space. The museum also hosts a programme of temporary exhibitions in a separate gallery. I was particularly keen on viewing Don McCullin’s temporary exhibition of Photographs; Shaped by War.

Shaped By War

Delta Company, 1/5th US Marines in action during the Battle for Hue, Tet Offensive, Vietnam, February 1968. A mortar section sprints through the ruins of Hue under sniper fire.

Photograph © Don McCullin

For more than 50 years, McCullin’s images have shaped our awareness of modern conflict and its consequences. His courage and integrity, as well as the exceptional quality of his work, are a continuing inspiration and influence worldwide. This major new exhibition contains over 200 photographs, objects, magazines and personal memorabilia, and shows how war has shaped the life of this exceptional British photographer and those across the globe over the last half-century.

I’m terrible at reviewing things so please find an in depth review and interview with Don McCullin at this link. The Observer - Sean O'Hagan

The hundreds of photographs of war, poverty, fear, and destruction were extremely moving. I’m glad I visited the exhibition as I find documentaries of War very interesting and like to learn how War has shaped the lives of people today.

A Narrative Picture Essay

2010-06-04T15:33:00.003+01:00

For Project 63: A Narrative Picture Essay, I decided that I wanted to create a storyboard of a band playing a gig. I’ve merged this project with number 62: Researching an Event as they flow nicely into one another.

13/05/10 Researching – The Hungry Pigeon Festival

Band: Clockwork Radio

Date: 28th of May 2010

Venue: The Waldorf in Manchester

Having contacted the band’s bass player (Nadim Mirshak), he assured me that taking my DSLR wouldn’t be a problem as they appreciate any free advertisement.

Members:

Rich Williams : Guitar/Vocals
Iwan Jones : Guitar/Backing Vocals
Nadim Mirshak : Bass
Dan Wiebe : Percussion/Drums

Unfortunately, there’s a band playing before Clockwork Radio and therefore I will be unable to take any photographs of the band setting up the stage.

Expected shots:

Equipment on empty stage before the show
The band coming on stage
Band setting up
Band playing
Audience
Individual members of the band
Close-ups of equipment
Band finishing
Band leaving stage
Empty stage at end

28/05/10 The Event: Clockwork Radio @Hungry Pigeon Festival

Setting up: Although the majority of the equipment was already on the stage, I managed to capture a few shots of the band plugging in their instruments and the microphone before it was in use.

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Preparation and Tuning: The band also prepared and tuned their instruments on stage before beginning

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Beginning to play: As the band started to play, I battled the poor light conditions to attempt to capture sharp images.

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Well underway: A few songs in and I’m still shooting, experimenting with telephoto and wide angle

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The Crowd: The crowd watch on as Clockwork Radio do what they do best

Coming to an end: As the band play their final song I capture what I can of the remaining few minutes

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Packing up: The band pack away their equipment

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What’s left on stage? An amplifier, empty drum kit and an abandoned microphone

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I thoroughly enjoyed watching and shooting Clockwork Radio! Their musical style is exactly to my taste being Hard, Alternative Rock. Check them out at http://www.clockworkradio.co.uk/

I’m very thankful to Clockwork Radio for letting me take photographs at their gig to help me with this project and in return I have given them my photographs to help them promote their band.

Macro Photography

2010-05-20T22:43:00.000+01:00

Macro photography is close-up photography. The classical definition is that the image projected on the "film plane" (i.e., film or a digital sensor) is close to the same size as the subject. Lenses designed for macro are usually at their sharpest at macro focus distances and are not quite as sharp at other focus distances.

I feel that I have a very simplistic style and Macro photography some how suits this. I like how a subject can take up the entire frame but when magnified to the extreme it can be difficult to recognise. Another reason for my fascination of Macro would have to be that when a tiny subject is scaled up, we can see things that we may not have realised were even there.

At the time of taking this photo I was unaware that there was a spider web in the shot

Cactus with very short depth of field f/2.8

Centre of a flower in the garden

I decided to try macro in black and white as I find it to be very dramatic. I feel that the drama that black white brings to a shot gives simplistic subjects much more texture and interest.

Not quite as extreme magnification as other shots, however it is still macro and it is one of my favourites.

Juxtaposition

2010-05-13T14:32:00.003+01:00

My favourite definition of juxtaposition comes from the “Dictionary of Art Terms” on “BluemoonWebDesign.com”. They state that Juxtaposition is “the act of placing or positioning items in the image area side by side or next to one another to illustrate some comparison.” This definition clearly tells us that Juxtaposition doesn’t just mean “contrast” as I had previously believed.

I decided to take a photograph of my girlfriend Lindsay holding a Polaroid camera whilst looking at some of the photographs that she had taken.

Lindsay is a photographer, however she doesn’t shoot with a Polaroid camera. I took some of her photographs and created the “Polaroids” in Photoshop, these can be seen below in more detail.

Evidence of Action

2010-05-13T14:31:00.003+01:00

Evidence of Action implies exactly what you’d think, a shot of a scene where it is clear that something has just happened. I decided that one of the best ways to illustrate such an event would be to shoot a broken object. Being very clumsy it wasn’t long before I dropped a plate, so grabbed my camera and captured the result.

My shot of the shattered plate clearly tells us that it has just been dropped.

Examples of illustrations regularly used in advertising include:

Shields/umbrellas/fortifications and cupped hands (insurance)
Emotional Displays, smiling to show people are happy with product/service and vice versa
Companies create logos to make themselves instantly recognisable (Nike Tick)
Feathers are used to illustrate that something doesn’t weigh very much
Different shapes are used to symbolise many things, heart = “love”, crucifix = “hope and faith”, red cross = “help and rescue”
Colours are used to symbolise emotions and temperature, red = “hot and passion”, blue = “cold”
Growth; a shoot of a plant beginning to grow, silhouettes of 1 person at multiple stages of their life
Excess; something overflowing
Crime; white body outline, handcuffs, yellow tape, swag bag
Silence; finger held to lips
Poverty; people begging, starving children, people living in squalor

7: Narrative and Illustration

2010-05-10T22:33:00.005+01:00

"The aim of 7: Narrative and Illustration is to help you to approach photography from the point of view of the subject and to show how to tell a story both in a set of pictures and within a single picture. This includes learning the techniques of visual analogy, juxtaposition and certain special effects."

Photography isn't just about capturing attractive images. Sometimes the subject is far more important than composition, balance or colour thus meaning that a photograph for a newspaper or magazine is generally used due to how successful it is at informing us about a person or event. However important the subject is, the image will always be improved if it is skilfully handled.

In photography, a Narrative is the way of telling a story through a set of images. This tends to be easier than trying to sum up a story in a single photograph (Illustration). However, Illustration can have much more impact and ultimately be more memorable.

Thoughts and Feelings

2010-05-08T22:31:00.005+01:00

The aim of 6: Artificial Light was to familiarise me with the properties of Artificial Light sources so that I can achieve successful exposures and colour balance. Another was to introduce me to the use of photographic lighting and the idea of controlling light to create particular effects.

Artificial Light is much weaker than daylight, therefore a tripod needed if a low ISO setting (eg ISO 100) is being used. For hand held shooting, a high ISO setting can be used (eg ISO 1600). The drawback to high ISO is that photographs will be very grainy.

Whilst completing Artificial Light I have been made more aware of the three types of available light; Tungsten, Fluorescent and Vapour Lamps. With a camera's white balance set to daylight, Tungsten light photographs reddish, Fluorescent - cool blue, Sodium Vapour Lamps - Orangey Yellow and Multi/Mercury Vapour Lamps - cool tones. I have learnt that to counteract the colour cast from these light sources I need to place filters over my lens, eg to shoot with daylight balanced film in a tungsten lit environment, a blue filter needs to be applied in order to capture natural tones. Alternatively, when using my DSLR, I can simply change the white balance setting to Tungsten.

I have also learnt how to appropriately utilise Photographing lighting and the accessories associated with it. To help me in the completion of a number of projects I purchased a budget studio flash, diffuser and created some basic reflectors and an absorber. Using a diffuser reduces contrast and smooths out shadows. Reflectors are useful in reducing contrast even more. When placed on the opposite of a subject to the light source, they bounce light back towards the subject. Absorbers increase contrast. When placed as close to a subject as possible, on the opposite side to the light source, they inhibit light from reflecting back towards the subject.

To take a standard portrait shot with minimal contrast, the flash unit should be diffused, aimed directly at the model and be at the same level as her and the camera. Alternatively, a second flash unit could be used. Each one should be placed either side of the camera and aimed directly at the model, reflectors can then be used opposite each flash unit and slightly behind the model to ensure there's no dark areas on her sides.

Another use of Artificial Light is to capture light trails at night. This is the use of long shutter speeds to capture any light moving across the frame as a stream. One of the most popular ways to use this technique is by shooting cars head and tail lights. This is quite a technical process as the shutter speed has to be long enough to capture the passage of light (or multiple lights) through the frame, yet the aperture and ISO need to be set so that the rest of the image remains correctly exposed (or not exposed at all).

Light Intensity

2010-05-06T16:13:00.000+01:00

To help me learn what happens to light from flash units at different distances I recorded the aperture I would need to use to correctly expose a shot every 2 metres. I set my shutter speed to 1/25sec and laid out a tape measure along the floor. Unfortunately the cable for my flash meter is only 8 metres long and therefore could only take light readings up to this distance. Pointing the flash unit directly towards me and holding the meter towards it, I began to take readings at at ISO 100 at 1m then 2m, 4m, 6m and finished at 8m. I decided to take readings at different ISOs (100, 200 and 400) to compare the differences. My results are shown below.

Table of results

Graph showing how the distance from a flash unit effects exposure with the shutter speed locked at 1/20sec

From the graph we can clearly see that the closer the flash unit is to a subject, the smaller the aperture needs to be in order to correctly expose a shot.

I have also added two extra lines to the graph; at midday on a sunny day and at midday on a cloudy day. These lines are perfectly straight across the graph because distance doesn’t make any difference to how bright the sun is as it is already very far away.

Opening the aperture by one f-stop will let twice as much light into the lens. At twice the distance from any point near the flash unit the light level will be four times less so to compensate for this the aperture will have to be opened by two stops.

Gigs

2010-05-01T22:38:00.000+01:00

I have quite an intense love for music and so over the past few months I’ve been to a number of gigs with my girlfriend Lindsay. Unfortunately I was unable to take my DSLR to any of these but that didn’t stop me taking my 10megapixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS1 with 12x Optical Zoom. With my liking of Rock music and being up for hearing anything new I went to see Alkaline Trio (one of Lindsay’s favourite bands) and actually managed to capture some quite reasonable shots.

Alkaline Trio

The Damned

Next we went to see The Damned. The Damned have been my favourite band for almost 8 years (I’m 22 now so would have been 14 or 15 around the time that I discovered them). They formed in 1976 and became Britain’s first Punk band with their single New Rose, released on October 22nd, that year. This was quite a surreal experience for me as I never believed that I would see them live with not even being born when they formed.

The Damned – Smash it Up

Green Day

And finally we went to see Lindsay’s favourite, Green Day. Possibly the most famous of the three bands I’ve listed here. We were much further back at this one as it was in an open air stadium but the natural outdoor light has enabled me to capture some very pleasing shots.

In the future I hope to get my DSLR to some of these gigs and capture some much more impressive shots. It’s a shame at Green Day that my Battery ran out, they put on an incredible show of fireworks, explosions, water canons and all sorts!

Fluorescent and Vapour Lighting

2010-04-27T12:35:00.003+01:00

Fluorescent lighting can be found in many public places such as supermarkets, work places, offices and factories. Taking photographs under this light can produce green results. To correct this colour cast, a magenta filter can be applied to the lens. With a digital camera, the white balance setting will correct the cast automatically.

Below are a few example shots to show how different white balance settings alter the colour cast of a scene. Each photo is entitled with the name of the setting used.

Daylight Auto Fluorescent

FluorescentAuto Daylight

My first two examples were shot in my garage, one of an object in the room and the other directly at the source of the light. This light has given my photos taken with the daylight setting a slightly blue cast.

Fluorescent Auto Daylight

In this example, the fluorescent lights have given the image of a toaster a greenish cast when the daylight setting was used.

Using auto balance seems to over compensate for the colour cast and gives the shots an orange haze.

Vapour Lamps

There are many types of vapour lighting; they are most commonly found in street lights but can also be found in floodlights of public buildings and sports stadiums. The easiest to spot are sodium lamps, they appear yellow and can photograph orange, yellow or slightly green. These cannot be corrected and have no blue at all. Other types of vapour lamps include mercury vapour and multi-vapour. These look very similar; they give off an intense and slightly blueish white light. Mercury vapour lamps photograph blue-green whereas multi vapour photograph white.

Below are a few examples of a scene lit by a sodium street lamp.

Tungsten Auto Daylight

The tungsten balance has done quite a good job of correcting the bright orange cast from the sodium light, however it is not perfect and the scene is still orange. Auto, however has over compensated and turned the image yellow.

Playing with Light

2010-04-20T14:04:00.000+01:00

Taking impressive photographs using slow shutter speeds to capture movement and trails of light is something that I would really like to do well. The next photograph has really inspired me to give it a try and to keep trying until I get it right!

‘Powerful Music Waves 3’ by mmatasic (Marko Matasic) Click the photo to visit Mark’s flickr page

I have never come close to capturing a shot as impressive as this however my love of photography and music will keep me trying.

Below are a few of the shots I have taken when experimenting with light and long exposure times.

My first shot if of an amplifier. In a pitch black room I set the shutter speed to 20 seconds and aimed a small torch just at the parts of the subject I wanted to capture. I like the effect this has produced however it’s a long way off what I would truely like to achieve.

Next, I had a go at creating some light trails to portray sound waves… All I can say is, I failed. It’s an interesting effect but it’s nothing in comparison with Marko’s shot.

I decided to leave that technique for a while and give it some extra thought. I’ll post some more of my attempts in a later post.

Having left that idea for a while I tried a few different shots.

With my camera sat on a tripod in the dark I set my shutter speed to 3.2sec and wrote my signature in the air. This came out extremely well in my opinion.

After the signature success I got my friend Ed to draw some wings behind me and light me up slightly so that I was visible too. This came out very well but it is far from impressive, I’ll be experimenting further with this at a later date.

Next I wanted to experiment with different colours. I got my Red, Yellow and Blue lens filters out and held them one at a time over my torch whilst drawing a very basic scene. With 30 seconds of exposure time to play with, I drew an extremely scribbled beach scene. Looks like a child’s drawing but I think the technique has potential if only I could draw. In case it isn’t clear, the sand is the yellow bit, the sea is blue and the sun is that red mess in the corner.

Everyone loves sparklers on Bonfire Night. We had some left over so decided to get them out, flail them around and see what happened through the lens. Visually the sparklers are very attractive but three people just waving them in front of a camera doesn’t create an impressive enough scene.

I feel that the next shot is by far my most impressive on this page. In the darkness the only light is produced by the lighting of the sparkler. Taken at 1/60sec it isn’t exactly a long exposure shot but I like everything about it.

Having set my tripod on a bridge over looking the Carrington Spur in Sale, I was able to capture this shot of the head and tail lights of cars passing underneath. Shots like these really inspire me to keep on trying. My shot isn’t the best however I feel I did quite well for my first try. Definitely revisiting this in the future.

Assignment 4: Applying Lighting Techniques

2010-04-16T21:15:00.006+01:00

The aim of this assignment was to capture eight photographs of the same subject, each in a different light. Out of the eight shots, the physical properties of Shape, Form, Texture and Colour all had to be portrayed.

For each shot I had my camera sat on it's tripod and used a cable release to eliminate camera shake.

Shape – Flash

The best way to portray shape of any subject is to light it from behind and create a silhouette. My photograph clearly shows the shape of a female figure.

To light this shot I placed my external flash unit behind my subject and aimed it at the white background. Holding my flash meter against the background I was able to expose the shot so that the background was perfectly white and the statue can be seen as a silhouette.

Shape – Concentrated Flash

My second silhouette shot was again lit with my external flash, however, this time I placed a rolled up piece of black card on the unit to concentrate the light into a specific location. As before I used my flash meter against the lit area of the background to expose it correctly.

This is one of my favourite shots as for a very simple technique it creates a lot of contrast. The circle of light nicely frames the top half of my subject, instantly drawing a viewers eyes to this area.

Form – Flash from side

Form is the 3D (three dimensional) property of a subject. This quality is most visible when a subject is lit from one side by an undiffused light source and an absorber is placed on the opposite side.

Once again I used my flash unit, this time though I placed it on the left hand side of my subject, slightly in front of it and aimed directly at it. Placing an absorber on the opposite side increases contrast by minimising the amount of light that is reflected back towards the subject. I used a piece of black card as an absorber and placed it on the right hand side, just out of the frame.

Form - Candlelight

After using flash three times I decided to try different forms of lighting.

For this shot I placed a candle on the right hand side of my subject. Because candlelight is very weak, a slow shutter speed was needed to ensure correct exposure. This technique works perfectly to depict Form as the weak light ensures minimal reflection back onto the statue from the opposite side. The high contrasted shows the subject has depth and we can clearly see that it is three dimensional.

Texture – Rough Contrast

I used a 60watt Tungsten lamp to light this shot.

To emphasize my subjects smooth texture I decided to use a rough piece of bark as the background. Lighting the subject from above and slightly in front created a lot of contrast on the bark. Lots of small shadows show how rough it is. This drastically contrasts with my subject, therefore showing it has a smooth texture.

Texture – Smooth Contrast

I took this shot outside, the sky was overcast but quite bright.

My idea here was to show that even though my subject has a smooth texture, it isn't completely smooth. When placed against a white tile we can see that the surface of the statue is slightly bumpy.

Colour – Fluorescent – Cold, Blue

Under fluorescent light with the white balance set to tungsten the captured image appears with a blue haze. I produced this image to create a feeling of coldness using colour.

Colour – Vapour lamp – Warm – Orange

For my second colour shot I did the opposite of the first. Under a vapour street light I set my white balance to fluorescent to create this very orange and warm feeling shot.

It was very hard to focus this shot in the low light conditions.

On completion of this assignment I feel I captured some interesting shots that portray the four characteristics of shape, form, texture and colour nicely. I struggled with the texture shots but feel I have produced some adequate results.

Tutor Feedback

Overall Comments

Hi Michael,

Thank you for sending in your fourth assignment. You have produced a very interesting set of images all of the same subject but using different lighting techniques which is exactly as the assignment requires. The print quality is very good and the assignment has been very well executed.

Feedback on assignment

Form – Flash from side.

As a technical exercise (which all the images are in this assignment) this image is very good indeed. The background is nicely out of focus, thus concentrating the viewers eye on the subject. You don’t say what aperture you used, but if you had used the widest aperture this effect would be more pronounced.

Form - Candlelight.

The subject on this one is nicely placed within the frame and even though you have only used one candle you will notice there is still separation between the subject on the dark side of the subject.(left hand side)

You will also notice that the color cast is warm because of the lower color temperature of the light source.

Colour – Fluorescent – Cold, Blue

This one does what it says in the title, but the subject is not as sharp as it could be. The camera has focused on the background which is nice and sharp. In this case the subject has been laid on the background and it is better to have some distance between the background and subject.

Colour – Vapor Lamp – warm – orange

Again on this image the same comments apply. The subject is not as sharp as the background. Try using white background paper and place a colored gel over the flash gun. A toffee paper from Cadburys Roses or Quality Street is a very cheap source for gels, but make sure you cover the light source.

Shape – Flash

I like this one as it clearly defines the shape of the subject against the white background while at the same time there is detail in the side of the subject. Well done.

Shape – Concentrated Flash

As you say in your notes this is one of your favorite shots and I agree with you. The rolled up card has acted like a snoot to concentrate the light on the background to simulate a spotlight. Excellent.

Texture – Rough Contrast

As you say in your notes the subject has a smooth texture, particularly in the face area. Again the subject is nicely placed within the frame to give a nice simple composition and the tungsten lamp has given a nice sepia effect.

Texture – Smooth Contrast

This time the texture in the subjects face appears to be less smooth than the previous example and this is a very good indication as to what can be achieved by trying out different lighting techniques. Another good image, but the subjects head has been cropped off. Either include the head or do a more severe crop as in the previous shot, then it doesn’t look as though its accidental.

Other

Thank you once again for allowing me to comment on your work and you have completed this exercise in a very competent manner. I now look forward to your next assignment in due course. In the meantime I will return your prints in the post.

Amendments

Upon receiving feedback from my tutor I took note of his advice and have edited some of my photos accordingly.

Below is a list of the affected images and the advice my tutor gave for each:

Colour – Fluorescent – Cold, Blue – Re-take shot with the subject further away from background
Colour – Vapour Lamp – Warm, Orange – Again re-take with the subject further away from the background
Texture – Smooth – Crop more severely to improve composition
Texture – Rough – Again crop more severely to improve composition

During the completion of my amendments I will re-post only the affected images.

Colour – Fluorescent – Cold, Blue Amended ISO-200, 72mm, 1/6sec, f/5.6 My original shot was underexposed and the background was too close. I re-took this photograph and placed the background further away. I positioning the subject further away from the background and using the widest aperture possible reduced the depth of field. If I’d used a lens that had allowed for an even wider aperture, the background would have been much more blurred. Under fluorescent light, setting the White balance to Tungsten gives photographs a Blue haze. With the camera on a tripod, I took the shot and captured my subject in what appears to be a cool blue environment.

Colour - Vapour Lamp – Warm, Orange Amended ISO-400, 88mm, 3.2sec, f/5.6 The background was again too close in the original shot. I re-took this photograph and placed the subject on top of a tall paint can which moved it away from the background. Using the widest aperture possible I reduced the depth of field which blurred the background. Under a Vapour light, setting the White balance to Daylight gives photographs an Orange haze. Using the Shade or Cloudy white balance setting increases the orange haze even more. In my original shot I set the camera to its Daylight setting, but this time I used Cloudy. With the camera on a tripod, I took the shot and captured my subject in what appears to be a Warm, Orange environment. The light was very dull so it was hard to accurately focus on the statue and unfortunately it was also raining hence the water droplets.

Texture – Rough Contrast (Portrait) Amended ISO-100, 55mm, 3sec, f/16 Following the advice of my tutor I cropped the original shot to improve the composition. The original was in Landscape format however, I’ve created a Portrait version which is much more aesthetically pleasing. The Rough Texture of the background greatly contrasts with the Smooth Texture of the statuette. I used a tight aperture to increase the depth of field and enable the viewer to see truly how rough the background is.

Texture – Smooth Contrast (Portrait) Amended ISO-200, 43mm, 1/2sec, f/5.6 Again I have followed my tutor’s advice and cropped this shot. The cropping has greatly improved the composition and a viewer can see a nice clear close-up of the subject. Against the smooth background the statuette now appears quite Rough in Texture.

Amendment Summary

During the completion of my amendments I re-posted only the affected images.

Below is a list of the affected images and the improvements I made to each one:

Colour – Fluorescent – Cold, Blue – I re-took the shot with the subject further away from background
Colour – Vapour Lamp – Warm, Orange – Again I re-took the shot with the subject further away from the background
Texture – Smooth – I cropped the original shot severely to improve composition
Texture – Rough – Again I cropped the original shot severely to improve composition

Overall I feel I have followed my tutor’s advice quite well and have managed to improve the shots that needed amending.

Northumberland Visit

2010-03-20T22:34:00.000Z

Being on the border of England and Scotland, Northumberland has been the site of many battles. The county is noted for its undeveloped landscape of high moorland, a favourite with landscape painters, and now largely protected as a National Park. Northumberland is the most sparsely populated county in England, with only 62 people per square kilometre.

Whilst visiting my girlfriend in Bedlington, Wansbeck we went for a stroll and stumbled across an old Styal during sunset.

Angel of the North

The Angel of the North is a contemporary sculpture designed by Antony Gormley, which is located in Gateshead.

As the name suggests, it is a steel sculpture of a graceful angel, standing 20m tall, with wings measuring 54m across. The wings themselves are not planar, but are angled 3.5 degrees forward, which Gormley has said aims to create "a sense of embrace".It stands on a hill, on the southern edge of Low Fell overlooking the A1 road and the A167 road into Tyneside and the East Coast Main Line rail route, and just south of the site of Team Colliery.

A silhouette of the Angel approaching from behind

Taken from in front of the sculpture

Behind the Angel and looking up from the base, this my favourite shot

The area was once part of the Roman Empire and as Northumberland it was the scene of many wars between England and Scotland. As evidence of its violent history, Northumberland has more castles than any other county in England,including the castles of Alnwick, Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh and Warkworth.

Warkworth Castle

Warkworth Castle is a ruined, although reasonably well preserved castle, situated in Warkworth, Northumberland, on a defensive mound in a loop of the River Coquet. It is a Grade I listed building.

Warkworth Castle was originally constructed as a wooden fortress, some time after the Norman Conquest. It was later ceded to the Percy family, who held it, and resided there on and off until the 16th century. During this period the castle was rebuilt with sandstone curtain walls and greatly reinforced. The imposing keep, overlooking the village of Warkworth was added during the late 14th century. It was refurbished, with much refaced stonework, by the Dukes of Northumberland in the late 19th century.

Taken from a distance on a Panasonic ZS1 compact

Taken from one side with Canon EOS 450d DSLR

A wide angle shot of the Castle entrance, taken with Canon EOS 500n film SLR

Dunstanburgh Castle

The Castle lies on a spectacular headland on the coast of Northumberland in northern England, between the villages of Craster and Embleton.

The castle is the largest in Northumberland and the site shows traces of much earlier occupation before the erection of the castle was started in 1313 by the Earl of Lancaster.

Tatton Park

2010-03-15T22:37:00.001Z

Tatton Park is one of the UK’s most complete historic estates. The Mansion, Gardens, Farm, Old Hall, 1,000 acre deer park and speciality shops offer something for everyone along with over 100 events annually. The award winning estate receives over 750,000 visits each year and many people return again and again to enjoy this stunning area of Cheshire. It has a history dating back to Bronze Age farming and has been home to herds of deer since the 13th century.

There’s plenty of things to do and see at the park, these include; Hiking or Cycling around the 1,000 acres of open park land, watching and photographing the 400 Red and Fallow Deer and other rare animals, visiting the Mansion, Old Hall or Farm, strolling round the picturesque Gardens, Fishing or Sailing in the Mere, explore the woodland, Horse Riding, playing with your kids in the playground and Maze, attending one of the 100s of events a year, Shopping, eating in the Restaurant or just having a picnic or BBQ, there really is something for everyone!

Below I’ve added a few of my photographs taken at Tatton Park. As soon as the nice weather returns I’ll be back there with my camera and this time with my bike so I can explore the area even further.

Bridge across the lake in the Gardens

Red Deer in the hundreds of acres of Parkland

More Deer

Ducks on the frozen Mere

Gate leading to Parkland

Ornamental oriental sculpture in the Japanese Garden

Part of the Japanese Garden

Lindsay in the Woodland near to the Mere

One of the many bridges in the gardens

Making the Best use of Built in Flash

2010-03-11T16:39:00.021Z

Using my cameras built in flash as the main source of light I have conducted a few tests to help me understand the different uses that it has. To view larger versions and technical details of all of the images below, please click on each ones title to take you to my set on Flickr.

Flash at different distances

Flash with objects

Flash with grey card

My first test demonstrates what happens when using flash to shoot multiple subjects at different distances. From the two test shots, it is easy to see that objects closer to the camera will be much brighter than those further back.

Using built in Flash outdoors

No Flash

Flash

Flash can be used outside to light the main subject (if it’s close to the camera) more than its surroundings. In the first test shot, the birdhouse is dull and blends into the background, however, when flash is used the birdhouse stands out and makes for a much more interesting shot.

Shiny Surfaces

No Flash

Flash

When photographing shiny subjects, whether using flash or not, their entire surroundings are reflected in their surface creating a very displeasing result. I was unable to create a pleasing image with my built in flash, however, I have studied shiny surfaces further and this can be found in Project: 60 - Shiny Surfaces.

Matt Surfaces

Flash

No Flash

Built in flash works quite well when shooting matt surfaces. A lot more detail is visible as it fills in the dark areas.

Bright Colours

No Flash

Flash (correctly exposed)

Flash (and underexposed by 2 stops)

Shooting very colourful subjects without the use of flash produces adequate results, however, when shooting with flash, the colours appear much brighter. It brings much more contrast to shots as the background is still quite dark. Underexposing by 2 stops creates the best results.

Macro (Cactus)

No Flash

Flash (correctly exposed)

Flash -1

Flash –2

Flash –4

Flash -6

Taking very close-up macro shots while using built in flash can overexpose subjects if the settings for shooting the same scene without flash are used. At the correct exposure, using flash, the background is quite bright, to alter this reduce the shutter speed by a number of stops. My tests show that even reducing the shutter speed by 6 stops will keep the main subject nicely exposed but give a dark background.

Telephoto

No Flash

Flash (correctly exposed)

Flash –1

Flash –2

Flash –3

Flash –4

Flash –5

Telephoto shots are the opposite to macro. The settings used without flash can still be used when adding flash but when reducing the shutter speed at all the whole scene, even the main subject, becomes under exposed. This is due to the distance that the subject is away from the flash. I have also studied this effect further and can by found in Project 55 - Light Intensity.

Intricate Detail (golfer figurine)

No Flash

Flash

When shooting subjects with intricate detail, flash creates harsh shadows and very bright areas on the subjects. More detail is visible without the use of flash. In the shot using flash, the face is too meaning that the detail of the cheek bones and eyebrows are harder to see.

Bright Background (Shadow Fill)

No Flash (Correctly Exposed)

No Flash (+1)

No Flash (+2)

Flash (shadow fill compensation –2)

Flash (shadow fill comp –1)

Flash (Shadow fill comp 0/standard flash)

Flash (Shadow fill comp +1)

When shooting subjects that are already brightly lit from behind, the subjects themselves can end up underexposed and appear as silhouettes. In my first shot, the background is correctly exposed but the main subject is too dark. When bracketing the shot, to see if I could correctly expose the subject, the background becomes too bright and overpowers the image. Using my camera’s built in flash to fill in the shadows I was able to obtain a correctly exposed background and subject. Setting my flash’s shadow fill compensation to –1 has given me the best result. Using standard flash with no compensation is also acceptable but I feel it’s slightly too bright.

Diffused

Flash

Flash + diffuser

No Flash

Finally I decided to experiment with a small homemade diffuser (piece of white paper). When using flash by itself, harsh shadows are visible in the photographs; adding a diffuser removes the harsh shadows and nicely exposes the subject. Without flash, the subject seems very dark as the background is very bright.

TECHNICAL SETTINGS AND BIGGER IMAGES

To view the technical settings used in capturing all of the photos above or just for a closer look at all of the images from this post please visit my Flickr set entitled Project 61.

Shiny Surfaces

2010-03-11T16:36:00.011Z

Shiny surfaces are very difficult to shoot well. They reflect everything around them and therfore a special technique needs to exist in order to capture them professionally. The subject I chose to use is a stainless steel measuring spoon.

The first image is a photograph of the spoon under normal conditions without the use of flash. My camera and I can be clearly seen being reflected in the spoon's dome.

When flash is added, the results worsen.

The simple technique of creating a cone from translucent paper to place over the shiny subject improves the results dramatically. The wide end of the cone is placed over the subject and at the small end there needs to be a hole for the camera's lens. Keeping the same composition as above I have added a cone and taken a few shots to show it's effect.

The first shot shows what the spoon looks like using a cone and being flash from infront.

Flashed from the left.

Flashed from the right.

And finally, flashed from above.

It is incredibly difficult to obtain attractive and accurate shots of shiny objects, however, I feel that placing a cone of translucent paper over my subject and placing the flash above is the best technique.

With a lot of objects the reflection of the lens could be hidden by altering the composition. The shiny subjects position could be changed, other subjects could be placed in front of it and/or the camera could be moved to a different angle.

Outdoors at Night

2010-03-11T16:34:00.001Z

Here I have some shots that I took outdoors at night. My first few are fireworks. It is very difficult to capture stunning firework images without the use of a tripod, however I feel I have obtained some acceptable results. For each shot below my camera was set to 1/13sec, f/5.6, ISO 400. Had I been using a tripod I could have used a much longer shutter speed to capture more of the explosion’s movement.

New Years Eve - Newcastle City Centre

My next image is actually a manipulation of the two photographs above plus a further four (all of which I shot). Having placed the photographs on top of one another and in my desired orientation using Photoshop, all that’s left to do is to set each layers “Blend Mode” to “Lighten” apart from the bottom layer; this creates an image that appears to have many more fireworks in it than it actually does.

My final fireworks shot was taken with the same settings as mentioned above and is a single shot of multiple explosions.

Next I decided to experiment with light trails; this is the use of long shutter speeds to capture any light moving across the frame as a stream. One of the most popular ways to use this technique is by shooting cars head and tail lights. This is quite a technical process as the shutter speed has to be long enough to capture the passage of light (or multiple lights) through the frame, yet the aperture and ISO need to be set so that the rest of the image remains correctly exposed (or not exposed at all).

First attempt – Taken from a window at home of three cars driving past.ISO 100, 6secs, f/5

If not enough cars drive past to leave a sufficiently attractive image, Photoshop can be used to layer multiple shots together.

Taken from a Pedestrian overpass along the Carrington Spur (Ashton-on-Mersey, Sale) ISO 100, 4secs, f/6.3

For my final experiment with light trails I aimed the camera at myself, shone a torch back towards the lens and wrote my signature in the air. I had to flip this shot horizontally in order for it to be the right way round and I feel I’ve captured quite an impressive example of the technique.

My signature (M L Moore) ISO 400, 3.2secs, f/3.5

Shooting buildings at night can be quite complicated. Getting the exposure right can be difficult as the lit areas are extremely bright and dark areas come out very under exposed. Below is an example of a flood lit building where naked lamps aren’t actually visible. In this situation, the camera TTL metering system works quite well at calculating the correct exposure settings to use. Setting my cameras white balance to tungsten seems to have corrected much of the orange haze visible when shooting with the daylight setting.

Sale Town HallTungsten Balance

Daylight Balance

Next, brightly lit buildings such as the take-away and DIY shop below completely overpower the shot. The store fronts are so bright that correctly exposing for them severely under exposes their surroundings. Correctly exposing for the surroundings would leave the stores ridiculously over exposed. The type of lights that are mainly used in these situations are fluorescent and therefore setting my cameras white balance to fluorescent will alter any colour casting.

When shooting scenes which contain small bright naked lights, overexposing these lights is the only way correctly expose for the rest of the scene.

The photograph below is an example of a shot over a city/town.

Taken from Werneth Low, Stockport – Looking towards Hyde

The shot below is the road outside my house. The vapour street lamps give the image and extremely orange colour cast.

For my final experiment I decided to take photographs of candles at night. My first image is of my girlfriend Lindsay behind two homemade lanterns. The very low colour temperature of fire, combined with the red colouring of one of the lanterns turns Lindsay’s face bright red even when using tungsten balance.

For my very last shot I placed lanterns on different branches of trees and correctly exposed for the lanterns; this give the illusion that they are floating around in the pitch black.

Tungsten Lights and Balance

2010-03-11T16:32:00.019Z

The purpose of the next two projects was to discover the colour of tungsten light and to use the tungsten balance setting to alter inaccurate colour.

At first, tungsten light appears to be a yellowish colour. As the sun was setting, so that the light outside was weaker than a room lit by tungsten lamps, I looked out of a window for a while and then turned to face the brightly lit room. I noticed that for a brief moment, the light inside the room appeard very orange. After letting my eyes adjust it appeared less coloured; as I looked back out of the window, the light outside was very blue. Colour film and CCD sensors cannot adapt to light like human eyes can and therfore, colour balanced settings and film need to be used.

Inside a room lit by tungsten lamps I used my handheld meter to measure the intensity of light in different areas. I had my ISO set to 100 and aperture set to f/4 for each test. In a brightly lit corner under a 40watt reading lamp I would have needed a shutter speed of 1/3 sec. In the centre of the room 2secs, and in an unlit corner 6secs. In all of these positions, the shutter speed was far too slow for handheld shooting. I set my camera on a tripod and conducted a series of tests. In each set of three photographs, the first image is overexposed by one stop, the middle is neutral and the bottom is underexposed by one stop.

Bright Corner - Daylight Balance

Daylight Balance + Flash

Tungsten Balance

In the brightly lit corner (using a 40watt reading lamp) the daylight balance clearly shows an orange cast created by the tungsten lamp. I prefer the overexposed shot as it is the clearest and most detail is visible.

Combining the built in flash with daylight balance helps to neutralise most of the orange colour, however, it leaves a slightly blue cast and gives the photograph a cool feeling. I prefer the neutral shot.

Using tungsten balance eliminates almost all of the orange cast and produces the most accurate image. The overexposed shot is again my favourite as it is the clearest.

Centre of Room - Daylight Balance

Daylight Balance + Flash

Tungsten Balance

Daylight images are very orange in colour. Over exposed is my favourite.

Daylight + Flash are much better. Orange has been neutralised, I prefer underexposed shot.

Tungsten balance - Overexposed is the clearest shot and has the most accurate colours.

Dark Corner - Daylight Balance

Daylight + Flash

Tungsten Balance

Daylight Balance - Extremely orange, all unatractive.

Daylight + Flash - Colours are very distorted, slightly pink.

Tungsten Balance - Neutral is definately the best shot. No colour inaccuracies and exposed nicely.

I then found a 45watt lamp and took further measurements, again using ISO 100 and aperture f/4 but I still would have needed a slow shutter speed of 1/10 sec. Too slow for handheld shooting.

45watt lamp - Daylight Balance

Daylight Balance + Flash

Tungsten Balance

Daylight - Extremely Orange

Daylight + Flash - Suprisingly has the most accurate colours

Tungsten Balance - Slightly green cast

The lower the number of watts of a tungsten lightbulb, the redder it will appear when using normal daylight settings. When shooting a scene that is lit by candles, this will appear reddest of all as they don't burn as hot as tungsten lightbulbs and have a lower colour temperature.

Daylight Balance - Almost red in colour, very dark orange.

Daylight + Flash - Good colours but slightly pink

Tungsten Balance - Best colours

Concentrating Light

2010-03-10T14:16:00.005Z

To experiment with concentrating light I took an A2 sheet of black card and rolled it into a tube around my flash unit and took a few random shots to test the technique.

For my first shot I wasn't entirely sure how much light would be cast onto my subject (the floor and stool leg) so I was unsure about the composition. Nevertheless, I took the shot and I'm quite happy with how it's come out. There is a visible circle of light within the image, nicely framing the subject.

I then stepped back and retook the same shot. The effect is the same, however the frame of unexposed area is much larger giving the photograph greater contrast.

After turning the stool onto it's side I returned to my original viewpoint and managed to capture this interesting and slightly dramatic looking shot.

Wanting to try this technique out on a person, Lindsay kindly offered to step in and model for me. Concentrating light onto a model's face directs a viewers eyes straight to it, creates contrast between the bright skin and black background and gives a slightly dramatic feel.

Overall, I feel this is an excellent technique to use if a photographer wants to direct a viewers attention to specific areas of their photograph. It creates contrast and gives photographs a dramatic feel.

Softening Light, Lighting Angles, Diffusers, Reflectors and Absorbers

2010-03-03T12:11:00.029Z

Naked flash is very rarely used in photography. Photographers usually diffuse their lights, one of the most popular diffusers is a white umbrella. Naked flash is still useful, however, if high contrast is what the photographer is looking for. To see the difference between diffused and undiffused flash, I have taken two shots of the same subject without changing anything about the scene or composition. For the first shot I aimed the flash directly at the statue without a diffuser. The shadows are very defined, dark and appear quite deep.

Cropped close-up

For the second shot I added my diffuser and opened up the aperture by 1 stop to correct the exposure. This time the shadows appear soft and shallow, this gives a much more flattering appearance to the photograph and reveals more detail in the scene. Diffusion is definately an improvement.

Cropped Close-up

The photographs below show the effects of lighting a model from different angles. The model is my extremely patient girlfriend, Lindsay Wilson. First I positioned my flash unit, camera and model all at the same level. To ensure that I correctly exposed my photographs I used my flashmate light meter aimed towards the flash unit and as close to Lindsay as possible before taking each shot. I also had my camera on a tripod at all times and used my portrait lens with a fixed focal length of 50mm.

Front Lit

Lit directly from left

Directly from right

Right and behind

Left and behind

Directly behind

Next I positioned my flash unit so it was angled at approximately 45 degrees towards my model.

Lit from the front and slightly raised

Left and slightly raised

Right and slightly raised

Right, behind and slightly raised

Left, behind and slightly raised

Behind and slightly raised

Behind, slightly raised and overexposed

I took this photograph by accident but have added it purely because I like it.

For my third set of images I positioned my flash unit above my model.

Lit from infront and above

Directly above

Behind and above

After experimenting with different angles I decided to play around with diffusers and reflectors. For each photograph I kept my flash unit 3 feet away from my model.

For the first three photographs I had an umbrella diffuser attached to my flash unit.

No reflector

White card reflector 3 feet on right hand side

Reflector 1 foot on right

For the next three photographs I removed the diffuser.

No reflector

White card reflector 3 feet on right

Reflector 1 foot on right

Next I decided to try some aluminium foil as a reflector to see if it gave a better shadow fill than white card. For photograph the foil is positioned 2 feet away on the right hand side.

Dull side of foil

Shiny side of foil

Crumpled shiny side

Last but not least, to increase contrast I used a piece of black card to absorb as much light as possible on the right hand side.

Light 4 feet on left + Black card 2 feet on right

Light 2 feet on left + Black card 2 feet on right

From my experimenting with angles of light, diffusers, reflectors and absorbers I have come to the conclusion that create the most contrast with in photographs, the light source needs to be as close as possible to the subject without a diffuser and an absorber as close as possible on the opposite side. This technique will expose the features on one side whereas the other side will be extremely dark if not black.

To fill in shadows a reflector with a very shiny surface needs to be placed on the opposite side of the subject to the light source. Again, the flash unit and reflector need to be as close as possible to the subject without a diffuser.

To take a standard portrait with minimal contrast, the flash unit should be diffused, aimed directly at the model and be at the same level as her and the camera. Alternatively, a second flash unit could be used. Each one should be placed either side of the camera and aimed directly at the model, reflectors can then be used opposite each flash unit and slightly behind the model to ensure there's no dark areas on her sides.

To emphasise a subjects shape, creating a silhouette is the best option. To do this, place the flash unit directly behind the subject and shoot towards it.

The form of a subject is it's 3 dimensional quality. To exploit this property, I've found that it's most visible when at least one of the edges are lit. To do this, place the light source to one side, slightly behind and aiming down at about 45 degrees towards the subject. A second flash unit in the same position but on the opposite side will greatly enhance the 3D effect.

Chester

2010-02-20T22:36:00.000Z

Chester is a walled City in the most southerly part of England's Northwest region and is also one of the traditional Marcher counties, bordering North Wales. It’s an extremly picturesque city with lots to see and do. It’s quite small and so getting around on foot isn’t a problem. And now for a bit of history; It was founded as a "castrum" or Roman fort with the name Deva Victrix in the year 79 by the Roman Legio II Adiutrix during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian. Chester's four main roads, Eastgate, Northgate, Watergate and Bridge, follow routes laid out at this time – almost 2,000 years ago. One of the three main Roman army bases, Deva later became a major settlement in the Roman province of Britannia. After the Romans left in the 5th century, the Saxons fortified the town against the Danes and gave Chester its name. The patron saint of Chester, Werburgh, is buried in Chester Cathedral.

Chester was one of the last towns in England to fall to the Normans in the Norman conquest of England. William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a castle, to dominate the town and the nearby Welsh border. In 1071 he appointed Hugh d'Avranches, the 1st Earl of Chester.

Chester has a number of medieval buildings, but some of the black-and-white buildings within the city centre are actually Victorian restorations. Chester is one of the best preserved walled cities in the British Isles. Apart from a 100-metre (330 ft) section, the listed Grade I walls are almost completely intact.

The Industrial Revolution brought railways, canals, and new roads to the city, which saw substantial expansion and development –Chester Town Hall and the Grosvenor Museum are examples of Victorian architecture from this period.

Below are a few of my photographs of Chester, unfortunately I didn’t visit on a particularly nice day but I’ve still captured some interesting shots that display the city’s aesthetic qualities.

Chester Town Hall

One of the Victorian Restored Buildings

This is Eastgate Clock, it is said to be the most photographed clock in England after Big Ben. Eastgate is the main shopping street.

Part of Chester Cathedral

A very friendly squirrel! There are quite a few, they seem to enjoy entertaining the public by rolling around in the grass and dirt only a few feet away

Part of St John’s Church ruins

Ruins of St John’s with the new St John’s in the background

6: Artificial Light

2010-02-14T22:30:00.002Z

"One Aim of 6: Artificial Light is to familiarise you with the special Properties of Artificial Light sources so that you can achieve successful exposures and colour balance. The other is to introduce you to the use of photographic lighting and the idea of controlling light to create particular effects."

Artificial light isn't used as much as Natural Light by amateur photographers as it requires more technical expertise and isn't as readily available. Daylight is easy to use as it needs no preparation, however it only illuminates everything outdoors during day time hours. Knowing how to work with the different types of Artificial Light extends the range of a person's photography as there is virtually no limit to the amount of lighting equipment that can be used.

I'm looking forward to learning how to use the different types of Artificial Light so that I can shoot not only during the day.

Re-think and Re-format

2010-01-13T15:29:00.008Z

Up until now in my learning Blog I had merely listed each project and completed them as I progressed, the dates on each post are inaccurate as I have attempted to keep each project in numerical order. I have decided to change the format of my Blog; this will involve me going back over my old posts to remove the "list-like" appearance, writing more about my experiences with photography, my ideas, techniques I'm trying, places I've visited and about the equipment I am using. Instead of making a new post for each individual project I will incorporate multiple projects into each post along with my thoughts, feelings and more information about where I was and what inspired me to choose the specific subjects. I will continue to keep assignments separate. This idea came to me after looking back over the work I have done, I feel the list of projects appears quite boring.

I have also added buttons on the left hand side to enable a quick search for specific projects if need be. Some posts incorporate two or more Projects and therefore the links to these posts have been added to my quick search list for each Project they represent.

Assignment 3: Applying What You Have Learned So Far

2009-12-08T18:02:00.000Z

Beetham Tower/Hilton Tower

My photographic prints seem to be a lot darker than when viewed on a computer screen, I have also uploaded them to my flickr account which can be seen here http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikemoore88/ in the set “Beetham Tower”.

Being from Manchester I wanted to choose a subject such as a landmark that is instantly recognisable and known to be in Manchester. I decided upon the Beetham Tower for Assignment 3 as it is the Tallest building in Manchester. At 554ft it is the tallest building in the UK, outside of London, and the tallest residential development in Europe.

I live in Sale (a town within Greater Manchester) and when approaching Manchester City centre from here by car, on foot, cycling or on the Metrolink System, Beetham Tower is the first major landmark that can be seen towering above everything else.

01. ISO400 18mm 1/320sec f/8 (Portrait)

I took my first picture from Castle Street in Castlefield, Manchester as it is my favourite view of Beetham Tower having the Lock in the foreground for added interest. I also felt that the contrast between the modern tower and old buildings also brings extra interest. From this viewpoint the full unique shape of Tower can be seen. Admittedly the weather wasn't brilliant on the day I took this shot but I feel the blue sky, along with the mixture of the grey and white clouds is more interesting than a perfectly blue sky. I took the shot around 1 hour after the sun had risen and therefore the sun is very low casting a shadow over the foreground and lighting up the lower section of the Tower. The diagonal lines through the photograph created by the canal draw a viewers eye to the same level as the Tower and then to the Tower itself as it vividly stands out in the empty sky. I feel that had I been able to chose a different viewpoint to crop the building on the right entirely out of the image and that would place the Tower either further to the left or right I would have captured a much more pleasing photograph.

02. ISO400 34mm 1/640sec f/8 (Portrait)

This shot was taken at around 9am and although being overcast, it can still be seen that the sun is out of view on the right of the shot as the sky is brighter here. I decided to take this shot because the building in the foreground to the left is Manchester's Science and Industry Museum; I felt that, as I was shooting the city's tallest and grandest engineering achievements, the two would compliment one another within a shot. I under exposed this shot by one stop to ensure the varying grey and white of the clouds could be seen.

03. ISO400 25mm 1/400sec f/8 (Portrait)

With the sun on the left and behind my subject I took this shot as I felt the pattern on the AMC Cinema in the foreground added interest and the diagonals draw my eye from right to left towards the Tower and then up towards the top of the image.

04. ISO400 21mm 1/320sec f/8 (Portrait)

This is my first shot of the eastern face of the Tower. Blue sky is visible and the sun is shining onto the face. I feel that this is a rather mundane shot as there isn't anything particularly interesting about it.

05. ISO400 25mm 1/400 f/8 (Portrait)

This sun is behind the Tower in this shot. The visible face appears quite plain but the terraced building in the foreground leads a viewer from left to right through the shot, it's pattern adds interest. The contrast of old and new between the buildings shows how Manchester has developed over the past century.

06. ISO400 24mm 1/125sec f/9 (Landscape)

Another of Manchester's major landmarks is “Manchester Central”, formally known as the GMEX centre. This building was once one of Manchester's main railway terminals and then became a convention centre. I wanted to take a shot of Beetham Tower and another of Manchester's landmarks together. I chose Manchester Central as it also has a unique shape. This photograph shows two of Manchester's major landmarks together and displays both of their unique shapes. The arched roof of Manchester Central creates a curve through the photograph that takes a viewer's eye from left the right and towards Beetham Tower. It's a shame I didn't get a chance to take this shot when the weather was nicer.

07. ISO400 20mm 1/125sec f/9 (Landscape)

Later in the afternoon, I decided to attempt to capture a couple of dramatic shots by getting as close as possible and utilising extreme viewpoints. I feel that the overcast weather adds to the effect and helps to create quite a dark, eerie shot. A viewer's eye is instantly drawn upwards from the centre of the image as my chosen viewpoint creates a triangle converging towards the top of the scene. The top half of Beetham Tower sticks out slightly on it's West side, I placed this area along the top line of the golden section to improve the overall composition of the photograph.

08. ISO400 21mm 1/160sec f/9 (Portrait)

Another dramatic shot showing more of Beetham Tower's design. I slightly under exposed this shot and took it in black and white to further exaggerate the dark and eerie feel created in the last shot. Again, a viewers eyes are drawn towards the top of the image as the viewpoint creates another triangle. The multitude of diagonals throughout the structure and the pattern of windows on the lower part of the right hand face create a lot of interest.

09. ISO400 21mm 1/640sec f/14 (Landscape)

For the last part of the assignment I ventured out to Hartshead Pike at sunset. This is a hilltop in Ashton-Under-Lyne; a town in the borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester. From this location, the City of Manchester (5 miles away) can be seen. Beetham Tower clearly stands tall above the other buildings and the city is instantly recognisable in the centre of the image. The yellow and blue colours of the sky contrast and together with the many different cloud shapes makes this shot of Manchester in the distance much more appealing than a shot of the same scene at midday with a clear sky. Viewers scan the foreground and are drawn up to the exquisite sky and then settle in the centre over the city.

10. ISO800 34mm 1/500sec f/29 (Landscape)

On top of Hartshead Pike lies a Tower (rebuilt in 1863) and an unusual circular structure that could once have been the original Tower. I thought that the structure had an interesting shape so decided to create a silhouette and place Manchester City centre in the background. To do this I under exposed the shot by one stop. Beetham Tower is clearly recognisable as the tallest building within the City. This photograph can be easily separated into thirds both horizontally and vertically which creates balance and a very pleasing composition. I used such a small aperture to ensure the capture would have very distant depth of field.

11. ISO400 55mm 1/500sec f/13 (Landscape)

A closer shot of Manchester City Centre, again taken from Hartshead Pike. I particularly like the sky in this one. I feel that the small amount of cloud over the sun diffuses its brightness. Manchester can be seen in silhouette and in the distance, Fiddlers Ferry Power Station in Warrington can be seen (around 30 miles away). I placed the City and the sun in the centre third as the dark areas in the upper and lower thirds nicely frame the shot.

12. ISO400 300mm 1/200sec f/13 (Landscape)

This has got to be my favourite picture in the series. A telephoto shot of Manchester City Centre, just as the sun was about to set. I was very lucky to get to Hartshead Pike on such a clear day (very rare around Manchester). Just the right amount of clouds keep interest in the sky. The Power Station is still visible and the peaks of the Welsh hills can now be seen as the sun reflects of them as it is about to drop behind them. Beetham Tower clearly towers above everything else.

13. ISO200 135mm 1/160sec f/7.1 (Landscape)

My final shot is similar to the past few, however, it shows Manchester at twilight. I took this shot around five minutes after sunset. The varying shades of orange and yellow in the sky along with the cloud formations make for a very aesthetically pleasing photograph. Manchester is now in darkness and appears to have closed for business as not many lights are visible; this adds to the pictures overall calm and peaceful feel.

Overall I feel I have successfully captured Manchester's Beetham Tower in many different light conditions. The overcast shots give a more accurate representation of what the weather over Manchester is like for the majority of the time and therefore had to be included. I was lucky to be able to capture such a nice sunset here and included those photographs because out of everything I have ever shot they are some of my favourites.

Tutor Feedback

Please click the images below to enlarge them and view the Tutor Feedback for this Assignment.

Amendments

Upon receiving feedback from my tutor I took note of his advice and have edited some of my photos accordingly.

Below is a list of the affected images and the advice my tutor gave for each:

Image 1 – Increase exposure by 1 stop
Image 2 – Again increase the exposure by 1 stop
Image 5 – Increase exposure
Image 6 – Slightly increase exposure and move tower further into the frame
Image 7 – Increase contrast to give more impact
Image 8 – Again increase contrast
Image 10 – Trim off some of the sky and some of the area below the tower to create a letter box style picture
Image 11 – Trim a lot off the bottom of the image

During the completion of my amendments I will re-post only the affected images.

Shot 1 (Portrait) Amended ISO-400, 18mm, 1/200sec, f/8 The original shot was underexposed by approximately 1 stop. I simply altered this using Photoshop CS4

Shot 2 (Portrait) Amended ISO-400, 34mm, 1/640sec, f/8 Again this shot was underexposed and so I altered the foreground using Photoshop CS4 however, I kept the sky the same exposure as the original.

Shot 5 (Portrait) Amended ISO-400, 25mm, 1/40sec, f/8 This shot was also badly underexposed. Using Photoshop I increased the exposure by two stops. I feel it’s turned out quite well.

Shot 6 Amended ISO-400, 21mm, 1/125sec, f/9 As well as being slightly underexposed, this shot had a poor composition. Luckily I had another shot of the same scene but from a wider angle. I couldn’t use the shot as it was due to the tree on the right of the shot being too big, it covered quite a lot of Beetham Tower. To combat this, I cloned out some of the tree and pieced in some extra pieces of Tower. I also added an extra strip of sky down the right and shrunk the tree. This brought the Tower further into the photograph and ultimately improved the composition.

Shot 7 Amended ISO-400, 20mm, 1/125sec, f/9 High contrast photography is one of my favourite styles of the subject and therefore I wanted to include some of these types of shots. Following advice from my tutor I increased the contrast of this shot even more and I feel it has indeed increased its aesthetic appearance.

Shot 8 (Portrait) Amended ISO-400, 21mm, 1/160sec, f/9 Again I increased the contrast of this shot and I feel it too has benefitted from the amendment.

Shot 10 Amended ISO-800, 34mm, 1/500sec, f/29 Admittedly the composition of this shot wasn’t excellent therefore cropping was the best solution. To improve the shot I cropped some of the black area from below the Tower and some of the sky from above, this created an attractive panoramic style image.

Shot 11 Amended ISO-400, 55mm, 1/500sec, f/13 As in the previous, this shot suffered from having too much black area below the Tower, I simply cropped some off to improve the composition.

Amendment Summary

During the completion of my amendments I re-posted only the affected images.

Below is a list of the affected images and the improvements I made to each one:

Image 1 – I simply increased the exposure by one stop using Photoshop CS4
Image 2 – Again I simply increased the exposure by one stop using Photoshop CS4 however I didn’t alter the exposure of the sky
Image 5 – I increased the exposure of this shot by two stops in Photoshop
Image 6 – I had another shot of the same scene but from a wider angle. I couldn’t use the shot as it was due to the tree on the right of the shot being too big. I cloned out some of the tree and pieced in some extra pieces of Tower. I also added an extra strip of sky down the right and shrunk the tree. This brought the Tower further into the photograph and ultimately improved the composition.
Image 7 – I increased the contrast
Image 8 – Again I increased the contrast of this shot
Image 10 – I trimmed off some of the black area from below the Tower and some above to create a letter box style image
Image 11 – Again I cropped some of the black area from below the Tower

Overall I feel I have followed my tutor’s advice quite well and have managed to improve the shots that needed amending.

Thoughts and Feelings

2009-11-15T14:29:00.003Z

The aim of "5: Natural Light" was to show the variety of outdoor light, how to make the best use of it and how to choose appropriate lighting conditions for particular subjects.

The sun rises in the East, so if a chosen subject is facing East a photographer would have to shoot it at Sunrise in order to light it from the front. The opposite applies for subjects facing West, they would have to be shot at Sunset.

Sunrise and Sunset are great times to take photographs as the sky has a much higher range of colours. The intense red and orange hues of the sky at sunrise and sunset are mainly caused by scattering of sunlight by dust particles, soot particles, other solid aerosols and liquid aerosols in the Earth's atmosphere. Sunrise colours are typically less brilliant and less intense than sunset colours since there are generally fewer particles and aerosols in the morning air than in the evening air. Night time air is usually cooler and less windy, this allows dust and soot particles to settle out of the atmosphere. Sunrise colour intensities can however exceed sunset's intensities when there are night time fires, volcanic eruptions/emissions or dust storms to the east of the viewer. A number of eruptions in recent times, such as those of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 and Krakatoa in 1883, have been sufficiently large to produce remarkable sunsets and sunrises all over the world.

Whilst completing Natural Light I have learnt to plan my shots in order to light subjects from certain positions and obtain a more aesthetically pleasing colour in the sky. I have also learnt that cloudy and dull weather doesn't stop me from taking impressive shots. Very cloudy and layered sky can provide a lot of contrast and ultimately produce some very attractive results.

Cloudy, Dull and Rain

2009-11-13T15:52:00.000Z

In cloudy weather the light from the sun becomes greatly diffused, therefore meaning that the level of light is lower thus requiring longer shutter speeds and wider apertures to correctly expose shots.

Clouds also alter how a scene is lit. Shadows become much softer and subjects are lit much more evenly.

01. Dunstanburgh Castle

Cloudy1/60sec f/9.5

Sun1/180sec f/9.5

02. My Girlfriend Lindsay

Cloudy1/20sec f/6.7

Sun 1/180sec f/9

03. Dear in Snow at Dunham Park

Cloudy1/125sec f/9

Sun 1/80sec f/13

As we can see from the technical data of the photographs above, in each cloudy situation I have had to use either a slower shutter speed, wider aperture or both to correctly expose the shots (in comparison with the ones taken in bright sunlight).

Having kept my white balance on the daylight setting it’s clear that in cloudy situations, there is a slight blue cast on the photographs. To counteract this effect, a straw coloured filter could be applied to the lens. The effect is most visible in my third set of photos. Shot during sunset, their is quite a dramatic colour difference between the two shots of the same dear. The one taken under cloud is very blue whereas the one in sunlight is quite yellow, even slightly orange.

Rain

Many people would consider dull weather to be unsuitable for photography and therefore rain is thought to be even worse. If you’re careful with your camera, keep it dry and wipe drops of the lens, many interesting photographs can be obtained in rainy weather. If you’re lucky and it happens to be sunny and raining at the same time, rainbows can appear and improve the most mundane photographs.

My photograph of a rainbow isn’t the most attractive, however, had I been in a more scenic location it would have been a great addition to my shot.

My next shot, taken at Dunstanburgh Castle is quite plain but the contrast in the sky keeps it interesting. I applied a graduated filter to my lens when taking this shot so that I could expose the foreground and the sky equally. The rain can be seen splashing in the lake and the contrasting dark and light clouds draw us towards the horizon.

My shot of a leaf is similar to one that I used in Assignment one to portray “Wet”. The texture of this specific type of plant’s leaves allows water droplets to remain on it’s surface after it has rained. This is a very interesting effect and is intriguing to look at. Viewer’s eyes constantly flick from one droplet to another as each one is the same yet quite different.

Rain hitting water leaves very attractive ring patterns if only for a brief moment. Capturing the patterns are very difficult to do but I feel I’ve acquired a couple of quite pleasing representations.

For my final shot, I layed a piece of glass above a dark green background and captured some very fine rain splashing onto its surface. On viewing this shot a person would instantly think of rain.

Graduated Filters

2009-11-12T15:47:00.005Z

To demonstrate how useful graduated filters are I have taken the shots below.. For my first test, I found a room that was lit by a window on one side. I set my camera on a tripod and aimed the lens at a wall perpendicular to the window. The window is on the right hand side in my shot.

No Filter

We can see that without the use of a filter the right hand side of the shot is lighter than the left.

Graduated Filter

Keeping the shutter speed and aperture the same; applying a graduated filter so that the darker half is on the right and the soft edge is vertical evens out the exposure across the wall.

Next, correctly exposing a shot for landscape will leave the sky very bright, we can see an example of this in my first shot.

No Filter

To counteract the bright sky problem a graduated filter can be attached to the lens.

Graduated Filter

Again the shutter speed and aperture need to remain the same. With a filter attached, it should be positioned so that the darker half is placed over the sky and the soft edge is slightly above and parallel with the horizon. This should help to both correctly expose the sky and the landscape.

The Edge - Alderley Edge

2009-11-01T22:43:00.001Z

The Edge itself is a wide red sandstone escarpment situated above the village of Alderley. It is a ridge of land which separates a narrow and short valley from the higher ground of south east Cheshire and Derbyshire. It rises gradually from the town of Macclesfield, until, at a distance of 7 or 8 kilometres, it terminates abruptly, having reached a height of nearly 215 metres above sea level, and 110 metres above the Cheshire Plain below it. From its highest point, the Edge offers panoramic views across Cheshire and the Peak District. There are walking paths through the property and one to the nearby National Trust property Hare Hill. From the Edge, the Cheshire Plain can be seen extending from the area of Macclesfield Forest (on the south east side with its undulating land and woods) towards the extreme easterly point of the Derbyshire peaks and northerly to Manchester and Blackstone Edge in Yorkshire. The area was once mined for copper and tours of these caves are available. It is also home to numerous myths and legends. The woodland offers peaceful walks but if you like a challenge then you can be a little more adventurous and walk on the sloping hillside.

View from The Edge aka Castle Rock

View from Stormy Point

Below I have added a couple of my photos, taken at Alderley Edge

Lindsay sat on The Edge

The Mythical Wishing Well

A shot of part of the woodland

An enormous strangely cracked rock

Choosing the Moment and Twilight

2009-10-29T13:14:00.000Z

Whilst visiting Hartshead Pike in Ashton-Under-Lyne I decided to try and take the photographs for a lot of my projects. I even used the location for a lot of my photographs for Assignment 3. It has stunning views over Manchester and when the weather's right, a photographer can take some excellent shots.

For Project 46 (Choosing the Moment) I decided to use the sun as one of the main subjects in my shots as it moves through the sky. Upon arriving at the location I had plenty of time to decide upon my favourite viewpoints.

As the sun began to set, I took my first shot in the series. I feel this is a good photograph however I wanted something better, something with a little more interest in the background.

After switching my angle of view so that I was looking directly towards Manchester City Centre I took my next shot.

Still not happy with the result, I attached my 75 - 300mm lens to get closer to the City.

After taking two similar shots, I still wasn't happy.

Five minutes later the sun had come from behind the clouds and the sky was blazing orange. Having rather stupidly left my tripod at home, I used a nearby fence post to keep my camera steady, set the focal length to it's maximum of 300mm to get some close up shots of the sun setting over Manchester.

Another similar shot.

Not quite right.

I'm very proud of my final shot and feel it is some of my best photography yet. The colours are incredible, the composition is balanced and overall it is a very pleasing image.

Twilight

Keeping in the same location as earlier, I waited for the sun to disappear further behind the horizon.

My first shot isn't true twilight as the sun is still slightly visible.

After changing to a wider focal length of 135mm I took another shot, this time of the entire City. The colours that twilight bring to a photograph really make for an interesting shot. I would have to say that this is my favourite out of the twilight shots.

Over exposing the shot slightly at 205mm much more detail is visible in the City but the colours are less dramatic. This is quite a surreal image.

My last shot is a silhouette of the tower on top of Hartshead Pike. It has quite a eerie and sinister feel to it.

Low Sun

2009-10-28T14:47:00.005Z

Within two hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset is when the sun is at its lowest, except for in winter when it stays low for most of the day. When the sun is low it can light subjects in very interesting ways depending on its direction and the photographers view point.

During my visit to St Martin's Church I decided to experiment with different view points on a Great War monument. The sun was low in the sky and I was able to move around the monument and photograph it from multiple angles to capture different lighting directions (front, side, edge and back).

Front Lighting (Sun directly behind camera)

ISO 200, 29mm, 1/250sec, f/10

Side Lighting (Sun 90 degrees to the left of camera)

ISO 200, 18mm, 1/200sec, f/10

Edge lighting (Sun in front of camera, slightly to the left outside of frame)

ISO 200, 18mm, 1/400sec, f/10

Back Lighting (Sun directly in front of camera and behind subject)

ISO 200, 28mm, 1/3200sec, f/10

Front lighting shows all of the subjects detail and the background very well. Side lighting shows half of the subject in shade and half illuminated, detail is still visible but hard to make out in shaded area. Edge lighting shows little detail as the subject is almost silhouetted but is slightly lit along one edge, perhaps using a tripod and longer exposure would have enabled me to capture more detail of the subject. Edge lighting has a much greater effect when the background is shaded as the light on the edge is easier to see. Back lighting turns the subject into a silhouette, the sky is detailed but only the outline of the subjects in the foreground is visible.

Using a Meter

2009-10-27T16:29:00.000Z

Film and CCD (charge-coupled device) sensors are less efficient than human eyes at recording what they see and therefore the suggested exposure settings produced by a camera's meter may not always be the best. A well exposed photograph as that which appears identical to how you remember the scene. Detail should be visible in the lightest parts and the darkest parts shouldnt be completely black or featureless.

Most scenes are neither completely light or completely black so the most convenient way of measuring the light is to point the meter at the subject. The meter will provide the photographer with a shutter speed and aperture that will give an average exposure. Through-the-lens camera meters work well most of the time.

My Canon EOS 450D has four different Metering Modes, these are:

Evaluative Metering; The camera analyzes the entire frame, it then selects an exposure that's designed to produce a balanced exposure
Partial Metering; The camera bases exposure only on the light that falls on the centre 9% of the frame
Spot Metering; Similar to Partial Metering however it only bases exposure on the centre 4% of the frame
Centre-Weighted Average Metering; The camera bases exposure on the entire frame but puts extra emphasis/weight on the centre

Evaluative metering is what I'll be using most of the time until I become a bit more experienced.

After flicking through "the textbook" (Photography A Concise History by Ian Jeffrey) I have found a number of pictures that I feel have been purposely over or under exposed in order to capture specific qualities.

The high contrast, black and white photograph on page 19 is slightly over exposed (Maxime Du Camp 'The Eastern Part of the Peristyle of the Temple of Rameses - Meiamoun. Medinet-Habou (Thebes)'. I can see from the shadows that the sun is directly overhead. The stone is white and due to the direction of the light the carved details can be easily made out.

Page 73 displays a slightly under exposed photograph (Eugene Atget 'Marble Vase by Jean Cornu, Versailles'. The Photographer possibly chose to under expose this capture to emphasise the shadows that outline the subjects detail.

Page 93 shows a photograph of an over exposed female. (Robert Demachy 'Academie'). The model's position combined with the direction of light emphasise her shape. The light source is above and behind the model, she is almost a silhouette however the photographer has over exposed his image to capture details of her body.

On page 201, the exposure of 'In the Kitchen' by Bill Brandt has been set to capture the table and models surrounding it as accurately as possible rather than averaging the light entering the camera from the entire room. The light source is directly above the table therefore this area is very bright, under exposing slightly will keep the table nicely exposed but make the background slightly darker.

I have taken four photographs which exposures are either lighter or darker than average, below I will explain why.

ISO 200, 55mm, 1/60sec, f/5.6

The snow in my first photograph made the background extremely bright, the meter tried to average the scene but the snows overwhelming brightness meant that the leaves were too dark. I had to over expose the shot by two stops in order to correctly expose the leaves and berries.

ISO 400, 18mm, 1/2000sec, f/6.3

I took my second shot outside Monument underground station in London. The Monument was erected to commemorate the Great fire of London and celebrate the rebuilding of the city. I over exposed this shot by 1 stop otherwise the monument would have appeared as a silhouette.

ISO 200, 36mm, 1/3200sec, f/5.6

I under exposed this shot by too stops because I wanted to capture as much detail in the sky as possible. Cropping a lot of the dark area at the bottom off this image would probably improve it

ISO 1600, 55mm, 1/25sec, f/5.6

The last photograph is of my girlfriend Lindsay. I decided to underexpose this photo because the light on her face is very bright and I like how my eyes are drawn straight to it without their attention being caught by the rest of the image.

‘Bracketing’ is the term used to describe taking a series of slightly different exposures of the same picture. This technique offers useful insurance to photographers that are unsure about which exposure setting will look the best.

Next I will bracket a few subjects to see if there are any exposures that I prefer to the average. There will be five versions of each image, average exposure in the middle, overexposed by 2 stops at the top and underexposed by 2 stops at the bottom.

My first subject is a plaque on the side of a World War One commemorative statue at St Martin's Church in Sale.

0 (average)

-1

-2

Out of the five exposures above I most prefer the shot that is underexposed by 1 stop. The detail appears more defined and the dates on the stone are very easy to read.

Next, during my visit to Hartshead Pike I decided to bracket some shots of the Tower there.

0 (average)

-1

-2

My favourite shot here is again the one that is underexposed by one stop. The suns rays are visible streaming round the sides of the tower which they aren't as much at -2 stops. The silhouette of the tower and the plant on the left against the highly detailed sky make for a very interesting photograph.

My next shot was taking in Newcastle, I liked the combination of the nice sky, trees, grass, fence and snow so I took the shot.

-1

-2

My favourite here is at +1 stop. Detail in all parts of the photograph are visible and the snow doesn't appear pure white, it seems a little grey but I like this as it truely portrays the time of day. The sun is setting and it's getting darker.

This shot was taken at Hartshead Pike.

-1

-2

I have two favourites here; my first being at -2 stops and second being at +1. I like -2 because the sky is very detailed and this highly contrasts with the silhouetted foreground. I like +1 because it's not so bright that detail in the sky has been washed out but it's bright enough to bring the foreground into view in full detail.

My last shot was also taken on top of Hartshead Pike. It is the view from the top towards The City of Manchester.

-1

-2

I feel that at -1 stop this shot looks the best. All of the detail in the sky, background are visible. The foreground is a little dark but as the day is coming to an end this helps to show an accurate representation of the time of day.

Weather, Illness, Postal Strikes and Work

2009-10-25T14:34:00.000Z

All I've been able to do recently is fill my notebook with ideas of places I'd like to go, techniques I'd like to try and subjects I'd like to shoot. Having taken on more hours at work; combined with severe Tonsillitis, Postal strikes and the extremely bad/usual weather of Manchester, my ability to complete projects and Assignment 3 are somewhat being hindered. The recent postal strikes have meant that books and equipment ordered online are taking longer to arrive. I tend to shop online opposed to going to actual shops as items can be found at much cheaper prices and it's usually a lot more convenient. I have managed to take my camera out on a couple of trips on the only two nice days Manchester has seen this Autumn. During these trips I managed to capture many usable photographs for the projects of Natural Light but still have a long way to go. As for Assignment 3, I would like to shoot Manchester's major landmarks or maybe even base it around Manchester's tallest building, Beetham Tower aka The Hilton Tower, I shall choose my landmarks or viewpoints during the bad weather and return when things perk up.

Through the Day

2009-10-23T15:47:00.001+01:00

Ok so I’ve finally managed to finish the Through The Day project!! It was a lot hard than I originally thought! My photographs are from multiple days because 99% of the days I’m able to be in one place all day the weather is terrible! I set my camera on a tripod at the end end of my drive and marked its position so I could return to the same spot and attempt to to keep the same exposure. I took these photographs throughout June 10 so that’s why the day is so long.

6:00

7:00

8:00

9:00

10:00

11:00

12:00

13:00

14:00

15:00

16:00

17:00

18:00

19:00

20:00

21:00

22:00

23:00

It is clear from the photos that there are many different types of light throughout the day. In the early morning and evening when the sun is low, shadows are long and the sky has other colours in it than just blue. When clouds pass in front of the sun, the light becomes diffused and shadows are less visible. I feel that the early morning and late afternoon light is the most appealing, the long shadows and colourful sky really help to produce an attractive photograph.

Infra Red Photography

2009-10-16T22:39:00.003+01:00

I am yet to test this style of photography. I find it very interesting and as soon as I get round to buying an IR filter I shall be trying the techniques listed on this tutorial: Getting Started with Infrared Photography

The Eye's Sensitivity to Colour and Judging Colour Temperature

2009-10-13T15:47:00.005+01:00

The idea of this project was to arrange the images I took during Projects 32 and 33 in their order in the spectrum; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet. When arranging them I placed the darker colours lower and the light colours higher, doing so creates a curve which is in fact a graph of our eye’s sensitivity to colour.

Light is colourless but we see colour when part of the spectrum is missing. During a sunset on a clear day the sky closest to the sun changes colour from blue to yellow then orange and sometimes even red. This occurs because there is more atmosphere between you and the sun at sunset. The higher density of particles scatters more of the light. The shorter wavelengths (blue) get scattered more easily leaving the longer ones (orange/red) more visible.

Colour Temperature

Below I have taken three photographs using the daylight white balance setting.

Full sunlight at Midday

Midday sunlight is colourless and so the first scene appears identical to how I remember it.

In the shade at Midday

In the shade, the scene appears very blue. At the time of shooting I didn’t notice any difference, this is because human eyes adapt to different colours and everything appears to be lit neutrally. To correct/neutralise the blue cast that shade creates (in scenes with a high colour temperature) a straw coloured filter can be used.

Sun close to Horizon

During sunset, my scene appears more yellow than I remember. The sun is low in the sky and therefore further away from us than at midday. Because there is more atmosphere between myself and the sun, the shorter wavelengths of light (blue) scatter more easily and colour photographs with a yellow haze. Using a blue filter will correct/neutralise the yellow cast of a picture with a low colour temperature.

Using Faster Film/Higher Sensitivity

2009-10-05T15:47:00.016+01:00

I haven't managed to experiment with film as of yet but I have been testing the ISO sensitivity settings of my DSLR. The Canon EOS 450D's ISO settings range between 100 and 1600 (100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600). To do this, I revisited Dunham Massey.

For my first three photographs I set my aperture to f/13 and then changed the ISO and shutter speed for each image. With a low ISO (eg 100) a slower shutter speed is required than at a high ISO setting (eg 1600). Each time the ISO is increased by one step it increases the exposer by one stop and therefore the shutter speed or aperture must be altered in order to obtain a correctly exposed photograph.

ISO 100, 1/25sec, f/13

In the low light and using the ISO setting of 100 I needed to use quite a slow shutter speed and therefore any camera shake or movement by the deer is visible.

ISO 400, 1/100sec, f/13

This shot is acceptable however it is slightly blurred, posobly due to camera shake.

ISO 1600, 1/400sec, f/13

My final shot at ISO 1600 is frozen solid and sharp!

High ISO settings are great in low light situations, they allow a photographer to use faster shutter speeds to freeze movement, however the images suffer from a slight grainy effect. In some situations this could be an apealing feature but in others it can be an undesirable factor.

The grainy effect isn't very noticable unless the photographs are blown up to full resolution. I have cropped small similar sections from each image to see how noticable the grain is.

Smooth area

100 400 1600

Detailed Area

100 400 1600

I feel that the grain is most noticable in dark areas. The darker fur in the first three crops show the distortion the most but the first two images are blurred and therefore I will compare two sharp images to see if the different is more or less noticable.

ISO 100, 1/320sec, f/8

To enable me to capture a sharp image at a low ISO setting I had to widen the aperture. This image has turned out quite dark, I must have underexposed it slightly.

ISO 1600, 1/1250sec, f/8

Keeping the aperture the same I increased the ISO to 1600, altered the shutter speed and took another shot.

Detailed view

100 1600

At ISO 100 the shutter speed is still a little slow and the image is slightly blurred, however, now that both photographs are sharp the grain of the high ISO image appears to be more obvious.

Next I set my camera on a tripod to see if the grain is more noticable between identical photographs.

Low and high settings
ISO 100 ISO 1600

Below are five shots I have taken (one at each setting).

Click to enlarge

(100 on left - 1600 on right)

The difference between each of these shots is barely if at all noticable so I have cropped a small section from each to further display the difference between low and high ISO settings.

100, 200, 400,
800, 1600

The difference between the lowest and highest setting is now more noticable. At the low end of the scale, the ISO 100 shot is crisp, clear and smooth whereas at 1600 the image is slightly grainy. The grain is much more noticable on dark areas. I feel that there is barely any difference between the shots and the effect would only be noticable if a photograph were to be scaled up to an A3 sized print. I need to experiment with film as I feel the grainy effect will be much more noticable. Having used ISO 400 film in the past I already know that to be quite grainy but I would like to see the difference between 100 and 800.