Review of a Selection of Works from the Photographic collection at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne

This is my first real serious look at a photography book i.e. a book containing the work of others, rather than a "how to" book of photography. There are a couple of points that hit home, before reviewing the work which includes many artists considered icons of 20th century photography.

The first was that the invention of photography liberated painting from the need to replicate reality, and therefore became a means of documenting history and capturing moods and moments. Social-documentary photography was born with the likes of Lewis Hine. I find looking at many early photographs depressing in mood, but initially did not consider that this was due to the fact that such photographers were driven by the hope that their images would initiate change. I find this a very interesting concept, and looking through those eyes gives the images greater impact to me.

The photographic movement in France at that time surrounding Henri Cartier-Bresson contrasted with this in that the forces driving such photographers were their own aims & style, termed "author's photography". Other movements in photography in the early 20th century included its use as a means of political propaganda, surrealism and of course Ansel Adams f/64 group, so called "Straight Photography".

Given the expense and less practical equipment that was available then, it is even more astounding what images were created at that time. Most of those individuals were required to be technically innovative with their equipment as well as artists. This is particularly apparent with the likes of Ansel Adams and Harold Edgerton. In modern times, even by middle school, pupils are often separated into "artists" and "non artists", and the A-level system in particular tends to separate science from the arts so pupils can either be one or the other. I suspect not many students study physics with fine art, yet a number of those early photographers were required to be both.

From the entire collection in the book, the artists that stand out to me as those I would like to emulate would be:

Ansel Adams, for his sharp and powerful landscape compositions;
Henri Cartier-Bresson for his decisive moment; I particularly like Rue Mouffetard, Paris 1958;
Alfred Eisenstaedt for his street photography; V-day 1945;
Dorothea Lange for her moving social documentary photography during the Great Depression;

I remain unmoved by nudes, apart from Edward Weston's "Nude" 1936. I also strongly dislike surrealist photography, and photography which captures strong unpleasant subject matter such as "Bon Appetit" by Anna & Bernhard Johanne Blume. Indeed there are some images that I can hardly bear to look at. But I guess that makes them strong, albeit unpleasantly so!

Transient Light by Ian Cameron

This is a book about landscape photography, which I feel deep down is where my true interest in photography lies. When the children become too old to let me take their pictures, and I've had my fill of flower still lifes & insect macros, landscape photography is where I see myself going. Taking pictures of people still intimidates me; I never understood before how the personality of the photographer is such a driver of what they do. Being a shy, non confrontational personality translates into my dislike of photographing street scenes and people in general, other than my close family. I enjoy seeing street photography images, especially the likes of Dorothea Lange and Henri Cartier-Bresson, but it's pretty tricky right now with section 44. I have always found stations a rich source of people watching activity, and thought that may lead to photographic inspiration, but current intolerance & suspicion of photographers makes station scenes elusive.















Back to landscape photography. The appeal to me is that the scope for innovation is infinate, because of the light. An unremarkable scene can be transformed to a remarkable one by virtue of the season and the light. This gives infinate permutations. The other draw is my personal wonder at the landscape and it's beauty, I never cease to be amazed at nature's wonders and the colours of the sky. My current circumstances (2 young children and a part time office job) mean that my opportunities for catching the best light in the morning are missed, and I have not yet captured a sunrise, despite living 40 minutes from some beautiful coastline. I hope to rectify this over the next few months before the clocks go forward.

This particular book is a great source of helpful practical tips so I thought I would summarise some of the ones which took me by surprise.

• Including the moon in a landscape shot is difficult, and will record as a white sphere unless taken at twilight or shortly after (it overexposes). Long lenses/ long exposures will also cause some motion blur of the moon. I have only recently mastered shooting the moon, but have not yet managed to incorporate it into a landscape.
• Shadows shape the landscape, giving it texture and form, therefore the direction of light needs to be understood & managed.
  
• The effects of a polarizer are difficult to mimic through computer processing. The temptation with a polarizer is to have it permanently screwed onto the lens. However there are several problems with that. Firstly it is a 2 stop ND filter in itself. Sometimes that may be desired, but it restricts opportunities for hand held photographs which are always a preference for me. It is also of no use in front lit or back lit situations. At full effectiveness it can cause shadows to block up to full black, and also for rainbows to disappear. Twisting to halfway gives the best outcome in those scenarios, whereby contrast & colour saturation are boosted. A key workflow decision is deciding whether a scene will benefit from having a polarizer attached, and whether to use at full effectiveness.
  

• Any reading on landscape photography would have you believe that bright overhead midday sun means you can't take pictures. Whilst that may be the case for a lot of situations, it can lead to beautiful coastal scenes, particularly in conjunction with a polarizer, as the overhead light penetrates the depths of the sea. This is a useful tip for me, living near the photogenic North East coast, as it presents opportunities in Summer for landscape photography when the capture of sunrises is impractical for me.

• I have never yet achieved a decent frost tree shot. The conditions I need to look for are a clear blue sky, and combine that with a polarizer.
• Perfect reflections are rare outside dawn or dusk. I can't believe I haven't noticed this before.
• Virtually all lenses perform best between f8 and f11. I have previously used f22, believing that to give greater sharpness, however I will limit this to f16 maximum in future. It is preferable to use filters to block the light rather than a smaller aperture.
  

Taking Stock

I thought it would be useful to review my learning log so far and consider what I have learnt before moving onto the next stage in the course.

The key thing that sticks in my mind, my new toy if you like, is the use of focal length as a tool to create the image I have in mind. Previously my choice of lens was generally based upon how far away I was. This is now a key decision in the execution of a shot. The downside of this is that I change lenses far more now, often while out and about, so the inevitable sensor dust is more likely. I have included 2 "landscape" shots here, taken with long focal length. This is probably more a function of where I live, and the opportunities I get for taking photos (generally whilst dog walking in the local rural area). Those scenes lack water, and are also quite detailed, which makes them less suited for wide angle views.















Despite being ready to move onto "Elements of Design", I have still not completed project 8 "Recording a sequence". This is perhaps indicative of my reluctance to photograph people, but also partly logistics and the time of year.


Another learning point of interest was in the balance section, whereby placing a smaller subject close to the edge of the frame gives it more weight.

The Golden Section introduced me to the Fibonacci golden spiral, which I found a particularly attractive composition concept.

I have uploaded some images which incorporate a lot of the key learning points from the first section of the course.

Project 15: Cropping

The most difficult aspect of this project was selecting uncropped items from my portfolio. Cropping is something I generally do as part of my workflow, however I found 3 images that having been sitting in the archives. They are displayed with the original version first and the cropped version underneath.

The purpose of the crop of the station platform was to remove the emphasis from the arch of the ceiling to the repeating pattern of the posts. This has effectively changed the subject matter to a single architectural one rather than a view looking out from a station which incorporated some architectural features. I like it!

For the butterfly, the original shot was kept uncropped because I liked the expanse of white, the blurred hints of the 3 gerberas, and the small but prominent peacock butterfly. The only crop I could think of was to reduce emphasis on the white background and shift focus to the butterfly as a more prominent subject. Although I think the end result works, I won't be keeping it in my collection as I have a similar shot taken by creeping right up to the butterfly!

Finally the Bridge. I originally took this shot because I liked the distortion caused by the lens as it gave a different perspective of a much photographed subject. However I cropped it further to remove the distortion of the converging buildings. Unfortunately I feel this has created a rather static composition, as the converging verticals on the buildings, along with the light on the brick added some interest, as well as giving a sense of perspective, in my opinion anyway. However it could be argued that the cropped version is a more representational shot.

This has probably been my least interesting project to date, although it is always useful to take a fresh look at post production techniques. Cropping is regularly used in magazine critique; sometimes I agree with the suggestion and sometimes I don't. My mindset when cropping is usually:

a) to remove distractions
b) to alter frame shape to better represent the subject (e.g. panorama)
c) to make something bigger, such as the moon or an insect, albeit losing resolution
d) to improve the composition, usually at the same time as making something bigger or removing distractions
e) to shift emphasis

The latter is probably my least used reason for cropping but should probably take more importance i.e. what is this photo trying to tell me, what is it trying to convey. I expect it is used a lot in journalism.

Project 14: Vertical & Horizontal Frames

For this project I was required to find a compact location whereby I could photograph the same scene twice. Given that it's winter (and therefore dark when I'm not at work) I decided on my house as the most accessible compact location to try out this project. However I underestimated how difficult it would be to find 20 subjects naturally of interest around the house without resorting to special effects. However I think I found enough material to learn the objective from the exercise. It was also useful as I took pictures of things I would not normally photograph, some worked and some didn't. I also did add occasional special effects such as the neon glow to the door, otherwise the shots were lacking in interest as subject matter. The pictures included in the blog are the pick of the bunch, as it was logistically difficult to include 40 images in the blog. I have also included a shot from a different location at the end which shows a more extreme format taken around the same time as most of the shots for this project.



My conclusions were that I naturally tended to look for tall subjects, which occasionally made taking horizontal compositions difficult. An example was the open door with the glowing light. Due to the small cramped size of my hallway, taking a horizontal equivalent meant that a wide angle lens had to be used which led to severe converging verticals so I don't think the horizontal equivalent really worked. Similarly, using the stairs as a lead in for a pet portrait was not possible in horizontal format. The bauble shot worked well in vertical but the horizontal version included more distractions and was less successful. Other shots such as the leaves and shoes worked well in both formats. Another factor I experienced was how much of a faff it was to use my tripod in vertical format, which is probably why none of my tripod shots have previously been in vertical format. I find I am also more inclined to use my compact for vertical composition because of its lightness. The DSLR, expecially with a flashgun on top, is quite uncomfortable to use vertically. I think I have quite an intuitive feel for taking vertical shots, and I have taken them in the past, although less so than horizontal, simply for the comfort factor. This is something I need to overcome as I was surprised at how well some of the shots worked, or at least had potential for a good shot, for example the stairs.

Project 13: The Golden Section

Despite achieving an A grade in pure maths A level, I am amazed how much I am struggling with this concept. The penny has dropped on the golden rectangle, and I understand how it relates to frame dimensions, but application to the composition within the frame, and the link with fibonacci sequence has me baffled.

However the templates included with the notes (and also in "The Photographers Eye") formed the basis of my attempt to compose some photos according to the Golden Section. I also found an online helper for testing photos at http://www.photoinf.com/Golden_Mean/photo-adjuster.htm.

All the images are straight out of camera with no cropping or editing, as I wanted to do the project with my naked eye through the viewfinder and see how close I came.

I included the yellow gerbera as approximating to the fibonacci golden spiral. When tested, the initial curve of the spiral went exactly round the flower centre, although the tail of the spiral couldn't be matched in the composition.

The Christmas Bauble approximated more to the rule of thirds than the golden section, as the golden section divisions were slightly off the centre of the bauble. A crop could probably bring this spot on to the golden section divisions.

The Moon, a simple composition, is probably the closest out the set, although it could be moved so that the frame subdivision axis fell exactle in the middle of the mean. In reality it was slightly to the left.

The bridges were taken from a ledge on a bridge at night. I included it because the low swing bridge and the illuminated pillar on the left of the Tyne Bridge divide the frame. In fact the swing bridge was too low and the pillar to far to the left to conform to the ratio.

For the portrait of our dog Ruby, my initial thoughts were for the eyes to divide the frame according to the ratio. When tested, the her left eye ran along the horizontal and the bridge of her nose along the vertical divisions, dividing the frame in accordance with the golden section. This one was pretty close.

Although the frame divisions are a lot clearer now (still to try out the golden triangle), it feels more intuitive to go with the rule of thirds. I was pleased to get at least 2 (Ruby & Moon) pretty spot on, and the others weren't a million miles away. When I first learned the rule of thirds, that felt quite baffling to me at the time, so I hope that these dimensions will become like second nature over time. I was particularly pleased with the Ruby picture, this is a very pleasing composition I think. This ratio is also very suited to positioning of the Moon, and I will use crops to try and achieve this going forward.

Project 12: Positioning the Horizon

The brief for this project was to find a view with a reasonably interesting landscape and in which there is an unbroken and clear horizon. Consider different placements of the horizon and take 6 photos where the horizon is placed from bottom to top. Initially my thoughts were to head up to the Northumberland coast where there are so many such landscapes to choose from. However I ended up choosing a hilltop view closer to home, simply for logistical reasons. When viewing the shots however, the nature of the landscape probably leant itself to the project better than a seascape would, due to more foreground interest.
As the sky was not particularly dramatic at the time of shooting, my preferred compositions were with the foreground making up most of the weight in the image as shown second from the top. This also gave a perception of the depth of the view, which is quite dramatic. The one problem with this image is the amount of weight allocated to the field, which is quite uninteresting. If I was to retake this image, I would probably take it from a lower viewpoint in the field to balance the image. I did not feel that the composition with the extreme high placement (shown top) worked as some sky was needed to balance the landscape.

The mid horizon placement showed that this particular view doesn't really suit a static mid horizon composition, because it lacks a key point of interest which would balance the central positioning (such as a monument).

I believe that a dramatic sky could probably make the low horizon position (second from bottom) work quite well. There is still some capture of the depth in the foreground, which would hold interest against the sky.

The final placement shows the horizon almost at the bottom of the image. This particular composition is so much sky that it would only work with a particularly attractive sunset, cloud formation. I also think it may need some strong shapes in the horizon to give it more prominence and compensate for the foreground being placed so low. Therefore this particular view isn't really suited to this low placement.

Project 11 - Balance

This project required selection of 6 or so photographs, to decide how the balance works in each one. The selection process was quite difficult in itself, although the rule in the notes about fewer and more distinct elements making the balance more obvious definately applied.

I couldn't work out how to draw a weighing scale for this blog, however I have highlighted the main components affecting balance and will discuss each one in turn.

Starting with my favourite image, "Puppy Love". This is a perfect image for this exercise as it has 2 key components, which are of marked different sizes, against a plain background. This image was taken back in May 2009, and was cropped at the time. In hindsight, this was probably to achieve a balanced pleasing composition. The big dog (a very old man) occupies a central position about the fulcrum, but with the majority of his body on the right hand side of the frame. Ruby, the little pup, is placed close to the edge of the frame thereby enabling her to exert more force from a balance perspective.

I haven't marked the plain rose. I considered this to be a symmetrical and balanced composition, with the lines of the petal edges curling around this centre. I took a lot of "rose" shots earlier in the year, and I naturally composed them all in this way. Although static compositions are often discouraged in other situations, I feel that rose close ups work best when symmetrically arranged like this. I'm uncertain why this feels to be the case, but perhaps it is the beauty of that flower itself that drives the rules for its composition.

"The Butterfly Proboscis" was my first butterfly shot, earlier in 2009. Photographing butterflies on buddleia is commonplace, but it still feels good to get your first one! Again there are 2 key components, and a non descript background, so the balance is obvious. The buddleia has more weight in the image, by virtue of it's position and size. Therefore this is not a balanced image. The question is whether unbalanced tension adds sufficient interest to an ubiquitous subject, or whether this image should be improved by cropping closer to the butterfly so it exerts more weight and balances the image out. I have tried such a crop, and it probably does improve the image, but it still remains unbalanced.

"The Bee" had 3 key components as shown. The flower that is a different colour to the rest stands out and occupies a fulcrum position. The off-centre bee is then balanced by the expanse of flowers in sharp focus on the right. This was also a crop undertaken prior to the course, unwittingly to achieve balance.

"The Groyne" . I considered that there were 2 key components in this image, namely the groyne itself and the empty expanse of beach beside it. The distant sea, horizon & sky did not affect balance in my opinion, as they run through the back of the image in a strip and are therefore neutral. I think this is a balanced image, as the larger and heavier groyne is balanced by the fact that the expanse of beach beside it (the empty space) extends right to the edge of the frame and therefore exerts more force, to use the weighing scale analogy.

Finally the chocolates. I considered that the 2 milk chocolates and their reflections were actually one component because they were not sharply in the focus. The sharp focus however makes the white chocolate a single dominant component. In this particular image, my feeling is that the area in sharp focus has more weight than the areas which is out of focus, it is "denser". Therefore, with that assumption, I consider this image to be balanced and I think it works for that reason.

It has been interesting to revisit some basic laws of physics that I haven't done since school, and apply them to images taken!

Project 10 - Focal Lengths & Different Viewpoints

This project is an extension of project 9, but instead changing viewpoint at the same time as changing the lens. The scene must have sufficient space to allow a change in viewpoint, but also sufficient depth. My chosen subject for this project was Gibside Hall, which is a National Trust Property in a state of ruin. I don't usually photograph National Trust properties as I find them quite dull, but this one is attractive because of it's derelict state. As the property is in ruin, the windows are absent from the property, which I hoped may give a view through the building to the countryside beyond, and this would illustrate the impact of using different length lenses.

The project required me to take an initial photograph at the maximum focal length, which in my case is 300mm, making a tightly framed composition and noting the edges of the frame. I was then required to change lens to my shortest focal length, 18mm in my case, and walk towards the hall until the same subject filled the frame.

I was able to take a tightly framed shot of part of the hall, but it became apparent when moving towards the hall that the decline of the hill, and scaffolding surrounding the building, would make it pretty impossible to mirror the frame edges of the telephoto shot with the 18mm lens. Time for a change of subject. Gibside Hall also has a fully functional chapel, which is used for weddings, and an amazing avenue of mature trees which takes you to the old ruined hall at the other end of the avenue. For more info, see here: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-gibside

Standing at one end of the avenue, I took a photo of the chapel at full zoom i.e. 300m. I had left the tripod in the car, as it was bright and sunny when I left the car park, however I realised that the tripod would have been useful at this longer focal length, especially as I wanted to use a narrow aperture to keep the shot sharp. Another lesson learnt. I then started walking down the avenue towards the chapel, but it was difficult to find the exact frame edges because all the trees looked the same. I took a number of shots at 18mm and eventually identified one that appeared to have the same frame edges as the 300mm shot. The only way I could give the chapel the same presence as the 300mm version was to stand right in front, but that meant excluding all the trees, so it wasn't quite mirroring the 300mm image frame edges. For completeness, I have also included a crop of the 18mm version - this was an attempt to make the chapel the same size as in the 300mm version for comparison.

Image 1 at 300mm was my preferred image of the 2. Although it was too soft, because I was unable to use the required small aperture without a tripod, the compression of linear persepctive gave the chapel real presence in the image. Compression of linear perspective meant that the trees lining the avenue appeared bunched together which in this image gave a beautiful dense Autumnal bloom. The chapel appears close up, although there is a slight enigma in the image as the couple walking in front are so small that they appear far away. Because of the compressed linear perspective, this makes the chapel appear even larger to the eye . It does appear that the depth from foreground to the chapel is short, however the piles of leaves in the foreground are a substantial distance from the chapel. All the images taken with the wide angle 18mm lens were well beyond the piles of leaves.

So, in summary, the telephoto shot:

1. Gives more presence to the subject, in this case the chapel;
2. Loses depth so that the foreground (the leaves) appears close to the background subject;
3. Loss of diminishing perspective from the row of trees lining the avenue, thereby further losing the sense of depth; and
4. Inclusion of people at a distance from the main subject makes the subject appear even larger. As human figures give a sense of scale, and in this particular case they were some distance from the subject and therefore small, this gave the impression that the chapel was larger than it is in reality.

The wide angle shot at 18mm gave much more emphasis to the depth and breadth of the tree lined avenue leading up the the chapel. This became the main subject of the shot, rather than the chapel itself which occupied a much smaller proportion of the frame. Clearly the chapel appeared smaller and further away than in the equivalent shot at 300mm, even when the image was taken close to it. Because of the light on the day (high contrast early afternoon) this image was not particularly inspiring with the emphasis on the avenue rather than the chapel. A different composition and light would make this a more attrative shot. Interestingly, when this image was then cropped to attempt to make the chapel similar in size to that of the telephoto shot, it lacked the same presence, probably because it didn't include the trees or human figures in front.

Once again, the outcome from this project has been a bit of a revelation. I thought it would be easy to walk towards a subject and recreate it using a shorter focal length, but because of the extreme focal lengths chosen this was not possible with my first choice of subject. I underestimed the impact of the compressed linear persective. Although I have read about this in previous courses, the penny hadn't really dropped as it never seemed that obvious with the illustrated images that were shown to demonstrate. Actually being at the scene made it hit home, especially with the piles of leaves and human figures in the 300mm shot. In hindsight, I think the chapel at Gibside was an excellent subject to display this effect, because of the lines of trees, the chapel itself as a subject, and the visitors to the site giving an added sense of scale. I plan to go back to this site, but this time with a tripod, to get a nice sharp shot at 300mm, and I felt this gave a more dynamic image of the building rather than the standard reportage shots typically seen in brochures etc.

Again my instincts were proved wrong, as I expected the wideangle shot to be far more dynamic because of the broad avenue of trees, but they caused the chapel to become "lost" in the image. In the past, I have only tended to use zoom where I can't get close to subjects, or occassionally for taking candid pictures of my family. In fact my zoom lens has been lying dormant for about 5 months until project 1 when I realised it was faulty. It would never have occured to me to use it for a building where I had the ability to get up close, or a landscape type view. This gives me yet another factor to consider when composing a shot i.e. do I want to enhance or weaken perspective by using a different focal length lens.