Official Photographer

I have previously blogged about our local photographic society in my village. I was asked to photograph our village garden walkabout, in conjunction with any other volunteers from the society. In the end I was charged with photographing the gardens, along with any "street" shots to capture the event. There were 12 gardens in total and I thought this would be a leisurely job - I planned to visit all the gardens twice throughout the day.

It was a steep learning curve! Here is what I learned on the day.

1. It was not a leisurely job at all - I just managed to visit all the gardens by the skin of my teeth, and I also had to go home and change my shoes as I had blisters after the first hour.
2. I had underestimated the impact of the strong contrasty light on the day. Whilst this gave some interesting shadow play & dappled light, it made photographing some of the gardens extremely difficult. The strong contrast also resulted in incorrect exposures for some of the pictures, so I had to use exposure compensation.
   
3. I made use of my circular polariser to give greater depth of colour, however some of the shadows were blocked up further by that.
   
4. In a high pressured photographic assignment, there isn't time to think about camera settings or changing lenses. I carried 2 lenses about on the day which I could have left at home. I used Aperture Priority, but I am considering revisiting Program mode for these scenarios.
   
5. I managed to gain the confidence to ask a few people that I didn't know if I could photograph them. This was a major step forward for me. I also had a few refusals which I politely respected.
6. I found it very stressful to think on my feet, and TAOP went out the window when I felt pressured to get a shot. I think this emphasises the importance of practice, practice, practice so that these things come naturally & intuitively like driving a car.

Thank goodness for Adobe Lightroom, purchased with the benefit of my student discount from OCA! It managed to save many of my washed out skies on the day, and boost the vibrance of bleached colours.

So what would I do better next time?

1. Do a dry run to better assess the size of the task.
2. Have some contingency plans for different kinds of light on the day.
3. Revisit my camera manual; in particular different light metering methods & Program modes. I must be 100% confident & knowledgeable at "driving" my camera, so all my thoughts can focus on composition & subject. When the pressure mounts, it can all go wrong very quickly.
   

I plan to use some of the shots for Assignment 3 "My Neighbourhood" and will also upload some of them here when they're ready.

Traffic Jam - Inspired by William Eggleston

Following my earlier post on the work of William Eggleston, I decided to take some inspiration from him and also fill a very boring hour stuck in a traffic jam on the day of the England game in the World Cup (Wednesday 23 June 2010).

It was a very sunny day, giving the contrasty light that often features in his work. It was also apt to take the shots from my car, as I read that a lot of his work was captured whilst he was waiting in a parked car and therefore his subjects were unaware they were photographed. The compositions were loose and unplanned.

I tried to look for interest in the mundane; things that captured the feeling of the hour. They included the England flags flapping from another car, the laughing faces of the couple in the car behind (they were playing paper, scissors, stone to pass the time), the reflection of the glaring sun on the car window whilst the occupant chatted on his mobile, me taking pictures from my car window and the landscape framed by the passenger window, also reflected in the wing mirror. I also set the colours to "vivid", as many of his pictures contain saturated colours. But other than the increased vibrance setting in Lightroom and to block out any number plates, these pictures are straight out of camera.

They are quite different to my usual style, and wouldn't win any competitions, but I am pleased with my captured memories of the day they closed the A69!

William Eggleston

I was recommended to review some of the work of William Eggleston by my tutor. He was one of the pioneers of colour photography, and this was included in feedback for my colour assignment.

We don't tend to have photographic exhibitions in the North East of such famous photographers (or there certainly aren't any on at the moment) so my research was restricted to the internet.

My first thoughts were "unimpressed". But then I went back to his official site http://www.egglestontrust.com
and had another look.

And then another one.

And then something began to stir, a feeling. A reaction to some of his shots. I suddenly found myself drawn to certain of this images, because they captured for me the light & colour of my childhood. Quite a magical sensation, like smelling a scent from childhood that evokes such a strong emotional response that you've almost gone back there, back in time. I then noticed his fondness for using strong contrasty light, the very sort that current photography magazines would have you avoid at all costs. But using it to create magic, feelings, that almost transport you to that place, inside the image.

His bold colours are well documented, but for me it was the application of those colours. They are often specific fashion colours that you don't see nowadays, except perhaps in a house that hasn't been updated for 35 years. So their capture, and vividness, places the image strongly in a time & place. Hard to explain really.

Then there is his capture of the mundane. Sometimes it doesn't work for me, but then at other times it really does. It's difficult to say why some of them move me, while some of them don't. The use of light & colour make them interesting, but not always so for me. His portfolio captures such diversity that I would imagine that there is something for everyone in his portfolio.

For me, there were a couple of images that I absolutely love. I'm not even sure what they are called.

1. Los Alamos

http://www.egglestontrust.com/los_alamos_port.html

It's the one of the drink in the plane window. I love this image for a number of reasons. I like the high contrast, shadow play and the sparkly shadow made from the drink. I like the colour of the drink, and the hand with the stirrer. I like the sunny light in the window. I even like the brown seat and the old fashioned pattern on the plane interior "wall". But most of all, it captures how flying used to be. Something special. He didn't know at the time about Easyjet, Ryanair and all their Americal equivalents. How cheap flights would make nothing special anymore (an observation made my Roald Dahl). But it is as if he did know that moment would one day be special. And he caught the essence of it beautifully.

2. Dust Bells

http://www.egglestontrust.com/dust_bells_v1.html

This time it's the one of the girl lying in her bed with the television on and all the shoes hanging on the door. I surprised myself by liking this one so much, but I think it is the natural intimacy of it and the fact of the television being on all night. Again this captures a bygone era, because the television stations run all night now. But I particularly like the colour, because they are so specific to that era. The bedspread colour & pattern defines the time period, and for that reason I find this image very nostalgic, as well as very attractive.

I also liked a lot of his room interiors, and point of view for shooting.

I would guess that he is an acquired taste. But sometimes art is like an olive - you have to eat 6 before you like them, and then you like them forever more.

Talk at the RMPS & Irving Penn

A new photographic society has been formed in our village at the start of the year. It is a small society, and its specific aims are to share knowledge & experience, and not to be competitive like a lot of camera clubs. Anyway, I made the mistake of offering to do a talk on "Composition" using some of the things I have learned on my course, and immediately regretted it as I absolutely hate giving talks. It came back to haunt me, as these things tend to, and so I ended up doing a talk on "Elements of Design" last week. Despite being a small group, it is a very professional and well educated audience which was pretty intimidating as I was terrified of making a fool of myself. As a result, I spent a lot of time on preparation reviewing my notes, making summary slides and, most importantly, seeking out examples to illustrate the principles. This was a very helpful exercise in itself, and helped to consolidate my knowledge.

In the end, the talk went very smoothly and I received a lot of kind positive feedback afterwards, which was a real boost.

As an aside, whilst preparing the talk I discovered that Irving Penn uses triangles in a lot of his work, creating very dynamic portraiture. Here is some examples:

Light Science & Magic

I have had this book for a few months now and have dipped into it now and again. I intend to read it alongside the "Artificial Light" section of the course. It was recommended because it facilitates understanding of light, by explaining physics in ways that are easy to understand. Lighting effects come in and out of fashion, and new equipment is coming out all the time, but the laws of physics don't change. Therefore I figure that by studying this book in depth, I will save money over time on seductive lighting equipment (always looking to save money!).

Unbelievably, I got an A grade in A' level physics less than 20 years ago. I think I must have left my brain on a bench in Amsterdam because it's like starting from scratch.

The book contains experiments & projects, and I will upload some of the results onto this post.

Update 20 June 2010

Well I've ploughed through chapters 1-4 of this book, and it has been a challenging but stimulating learning process. I enjoy science, although I find the application into practical photography quite a big leap. The first 3 chapters are about principles and chapter 4 is the first practical application into surfaces. I thought it would be useful to summarise some of the key learning points gained so far.

There are 3 important principles of light which predict how it will behave:

1. The effective size of the light source is the single most important decision in lighting a photograph
2. Three types of reflection are possible from any surface. They determine why any surface looks the way it does and are diffuse reflection/ direction reflection and glare.
3. Some of those reflections occur only if light strikes the surface from within a limited family of angles.

There are 3 attributes when describing the light - brightness, colour & contrast. Colour is classified by the Kelvin temperature scale (and is what I have been looking at in projects 51 - 53). A high contrast light source is also known as a hard light and occurs when its rays all strike the subject from nearly the same angle. Shadows are sharp & clearly defined. Therefore a low contrast, soft light is when light strikes from many different angles i.e. diffused light. For a single light source, the size of that source is the primary factor influencing its contrast.

Photographic lighting is the interaction between the light itself, the subject & the viewer.

A subject can do 3 things to the light that strikes it:

1. Transmit it (e.g. glass). This can be direct transmission or diffuse transmission of translucent subjects.
   
2. Absorb it (e.g. black velvet). Most subjects only partially absorb & selective absorbtion determines colour.
   
3. Reflect it. This is the most relevant to photographers and can be diffuse reflection, direct reflection or glare (polarised reflection).

Diffuse reflections are the same brightness regardless of the angle from which they are viewed, and examples are white card, light blue tissue paper etc.

• NOT AFFECTED BY ANGLE OF LIGHT
• NOT AFFECTED BY CONTRAST OF LIGHT SOURCE
• ARE AFFECTED BY DISTANCE FROM THE LIGHT (inverse square law - see project 55)

Direct reflections are a mirror image of the light source that produces them.

• THE ANGLE OF INCIDENCE EQUALS THE ANGLE OF REFLECTION
• THE REFLECTION IS AS BRIGHT AS THE LIGHT SOURCE ITSELF, HOWEVER THE SIZE OF THE REFLECTION IS DETERMINED BY THE DISTANCE FROM THE LIGHT

Direct reflections are used to determine the family of angles for a surface, and this determines where we should place our lights. A light placed outside of the family of angles will not produce direct reflection.

Polarised reflections are similar to direct reflection in that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection but a polarised reflection is always substantially dimmer than a photograph of the light source itself. Glossy subjects produce a greater amount of polarised reflections, and they are more visible with black or transparent subjects because they produce weaker diffuse reflection so it's easier to see the direct reflections.

Some points as to whether a reflection is polarised or direct reflection;

• If a subject is made of a material that conducts electricity, its reflection is likely to be unpolarised;
• Therefore electrical insulators such as plastic, glass & ceramics are more likely to produce polarised reflection
• If the surface looks like a mirror, it is likely to be simple direct reflection.
• The conclusive test is the appearance of the subject through a polarising filter.

Placing a polarising filter over a light source and turn a direct reflection into a polarised reflection. As the open sky is a polarised light source, this can mean that sunlit metals etc. actually produce polarised reflections.

I found the section on polarised light & reflections the hardest bit of the book to get my head around, but it is pretty key. From now on, I will simply upload any of my results from any experiments that I do as I work my way through the book (e.g. photographing certain surfaces, texture etc.)

Project 61: Making the Best Use of Built-in Flash

The objective of this project was to practice using my flash against a wide variety of subjects, as well as indoors and outdoors. My key learning outcome from this was to work out how to vary the power output of the flash - it was one of those Eureka moments where you wish you had known earlier as it would have saved so many overexposed disasters. I attach here some of my results, as well as some success stories with flash from my archives. One of the many advantages of digital photography is the speeding up of the learning process - metadata allows you to look back at earlier photos and see exactly what you did (flash on/off etc.). My photo of the butterfly was simply taken with pop up flash on the camera - "professional" cameras don't even have pop up flash, and yet there are some occasions when it is handy just to have it there - the butterfly was a classic example. If I'd gone inside to retrieve my flashgun, the butterfly would have gone when I came back or moved into a lesser position. The flash was useful for lighting the butterfly and blowing out the detail on the background (a whitewashed wall).

One other learning tip I've heard, but not yet had a chance to try, is the use of an orange "gel" over the top of the flash when taking photos as sunset. I have used my flashgun in those situations and found that the mismatch between the daylight balance of the flash against the warm evening light looks false. I hope to put that into practice next week if we get some nice sunsets and will upload the results if successful. UPDATE - SUCCESS!! My final picture for assignment 4.


I am fortunate in that I rarely experience "red eye" in my photographs. I am always slightly surprised at how many people don't correct red eye for framed pictures/photobooks when it can even be corrected in default & free software nowadays. Perhaps they are so used to seeing it in snapshots that it doesn't occur to them that there is another way! Perhaps I am becoming a photographic snob - I quite often find myself mentally correcting other people's photographs.

Low ceilings vs high ceilings - why is that high ceilings are so sought after in all those property programmes and in magazines? Yes they might be a period feature but they make rooms so much harder to heat (I still shiver when I think of my cold damp Victorian student bedroom) and give a cold atmosphere rather than a cosy, homely low ceiling (think of a cosy timber beamed cottage). They are so much harder to paint and de-cobweb. But most of all, low ceilings prevent light fall off when used for bouncing flash indoors - allowing shots to be captured indoors where they might otherwise be missed or cursed with harsh direct flash. I'd have low ceilings any day, and would include them in my wish list for a property (if I was thinking of moving house, which I'm not, because I am blessed with aforementioned low ceilings).

The final thing I want to say about flash is that it remains my only photographic "light". After completing the "Artificial light" section of the course, I have been severely tempted to invest in x, y and z lighting equipment. It is frustrating when reading photography lighting books that they always seem to have another bit of photographic lighting equipment in the "menu". Examples include strip lights, massive softboxes, portable softboxes (still very expensive), diffusers with built in handles, plexiglass backgrounds etc. etc. Scott Kelby's book was particularly disappointing as his first volume seemed to say that you could do a lot just using a shower curtain against a window. His next 2 books then seem to have a new bit of equipment on every page. If you want to photograph a pineapple you need this bit of lighting equipment, if you want to photograph a bottle you need this, if you want to photograph a child you need that. Another expert then bangs on about a different bit of equipment for the same thing. It all gets so confusing that I feel like not bothering - apart from the expense I would also need to build an extension to store it all. I have also come to the conclusion that my continuous tungsten light is useless because it's too hot to do anything with. I can't afford a master speedlite for my Canon and can therefore only have 1 off camera flash. So my kit of photographic lighting consists simply of a flashgun, torch & reflector! I guess I need to master those 3 to get the best out of them.

Project 60: Shiny Surfaces

The object of this exercise was to practice photographing a shiny surface. I also read the chapter on photographing metal in "Light Science & Magic" alongside the course notes.

I understand the principle that the environment will be reflected in the surface, and therefore the key to photographing a shiny surface is to alter the environment that is reflected i.e. it is an exercise in reflection management. The most difficult part of this project was not the theory but the practical of getting the environment right - problems I encountered included greaseproof paper that was too narrow for the task, tissue paper that was too floppy, tripod legs getting in the way, trying to focus the lens with the tracing paper attached, trying to stop a shower curtain falling off my head etc. etc. It sounds so easy in the notes, but wasn't that always the case on Blue Peter as well? What also became apparent is that moving the camera was part of reflection management, not to mention composition management, but that wasn't easy once you'd attached a cone of tracing paper.

Anyway, here's 2 examples of how not to photograph a shiny surface (note the reflection of the 3 ceiling lights and my camera in the face of the 2nd watch):



























And here's some results using various backgrounds (light vs dark), set ups etc. My favourite was the shot of my watch (bought for myself exclusively with Tesco tokens) at the end, where the low key lighting works well. I found the live view function of my camera to be extremely useful when arranging the light for this shot, which was provided by a torch. I have found powerful torchlight to be a most useful artificial light, being so flexible and easy to move around, not to mention inexpensive. Used in conjunction with live view, it is an excellent way to learn lighting set ups.

Project 59: Concentrating Light

This is a technique I plan to make more use of, and will perhaps incorporate it in my assignment on artificial light.

As a first go, I used my flashgun and a long rolled up tube of black card to form a very long "snoot". I chose a slightly unimaginative subject of my son tucked up in bed, a sight very special to me but probably not to anyone else. The contrast was a bit strong for this image, but it created something a bit different to a snap of my son asleep. I would like to try this effect in daylight, where the extra focused beam draws attention to something without looking too much like a torch light.

Project 58: Contrast & Shadow Fill

This project was looking at contrast & shadow fill, using indoor lighting to manipulate the end result. This was a project I was keen to try, as I tend to pull the shutters down when photographers talk about using reflectors. I tend to use the "hit & miss" method of lighting, rather than actual planned manipulation. However, as with all the artificial light projects, I am keen to learn, and chose a subject where even a small difference in contrast would be apparent.

I found the difference between all the examples quite striking. The best shadow fill was achieved by the smooth shiny side of the foil, and the most pleasing shadow fill was achieved with the gold reflector as the extra warming of the light worked well with this subject. I realised after completing the project that an extra reflector to bounce some light onto the eye would have made the image much more satisfying.

The bare flash image also highlighted how this subject did not suit such stark contrast. However, a perusal though any photography book will demonstrate how strong contrast often creates the greatest drama. I have already commented in another post on how William Eggleston used strong contrast in a lot of his shots.

I have included a few of my images taken recently which I feel are stronger because of the strong contrast light. This is either through shape enhancement, shadow play or by making portraits more evocative.