Assignment 5

THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY ASSIGNMENT 5

These are the notes to accompany my photographs for the assignment 5. 

I decided to use a 10km race at Clumber Park for my assignment.  I race quite a lot myself so I am familiar with the set up and I had a pretty good idea about the photographs that I wanted to take.  I decided to use the timeline of arriving at the event to the leaving and my focus would be on the effort of the participants.  I took all the photographs with my telephoto lens as I found it the easiest lens to capture people and their expressions.

The cover photo is the one titled TRAILBLAZER, the name of the race.

1. The warm up

2. On your marks

3. Getting into a rhythm

4. It all went by a blur

5.  The face of concentration

6.  All support gratefully received

7.  The end is in sight

8.  It is all over

9.  Time to reflect

10.   Everyone is a winner!

11.  Home time

I have attempted the layout sequence on my blog.  I would lay the pictures out as follows:

1 and 2 on opposite pages.

3, 4, 5 and 6 two on a page on opposite pages.

7 and 8 on opposite pages.

9 and 10 on the same page with 11 on the opposite page.

TRAILBLAZER

 Page 1

The warm up

On your marks

 Page 2

Getting into a rhythm

The face of concentration

It all went in a blur

All support gratefully received

Page 3

It is all over

The end is in sight

Page 4

A time to reflect

Everyone is a winner!

Home time

Part 5 Exercise 5

For the final exercise in this part of the course I needed to take a photograph that would be appropriate for the cover of a magazine with the title 'Rain'

Once again I tried a few ideas, I found rain is very difficult to photograph effectively, I did not want to take a still life as I thought the umbrella/Wellington boots shot was a little predictable.  In order to get some interest into the shot I thought of using a human face and some emotion, these types of photographs are, in my opinion, always of interest.  I decided that I would take a photograph of my son stuck inside on a rainy day.  I sprayed the window with water and had him looking forlornly outside.   After several attempts I realised that the better shot would be from outside looking in.  I used my telephoto lens concentrated on the water and get my son to look outside quite close to the glass.  The affect is of the water being in sharp focus and a slightly miserable boy being just out of focus.  I then altered the photograph to black and white in lightroom to provide a moodier look.

This is the result:

1/60, F5.0, ISO 400

Part 5 Exercise 4

I found getting a idea for this exercise pretty tricky, before I settled on a concept I tried several different set-ups  I wasn't overly keen on trying the still life composition as I couldn't formulate a decent composition in my mind.  I settled on doing an outdoor shoot and I was inspired by watching my youngest son playing with his remote control truck.  I attempted to take a photograph that had the truck in the foreground appearing larger in scale against my son I the back ground holding the remote control.  I used a telephoto lens and zoomed in in order to foreshorten the shot.

1/60, F5.6, ISO 100

I was reasonably satisfied with the result although I would have preferred a sharper image of my son in the background.

Part 5 Exercise 3

For this exercise I did not need to take any photographs.  I needed to match symbols to concepts and how you might use them in a photograph.

1.  Growth- Early plant life, you could take a shot of a small plant breaking earth.  Another idea would be to use a person wearing clothes that were too small and torn.  Arrows pointing up, you could use anything in a photograph of an arrow or arrow shaped object.

2. Excess- Weighing scales, a photograph of a particular high reading on weighing scales.  Lots of banknotes, jammed into a wallet or jar.  Food, a photograph of a plate with a vast amount of food piled on to it.

3.  Crime- A gun, simply lying on a table.  Handcuffs, on a persons wrists. Broken window, shown with a hand stretching through it.

4.  Silence- A finger on the lips, a photograph of just the finger and lips would be sufficient.  A library, people reading in a library with the silence please sign on show.  Tape over a mouth.  A shot of just a mouth with tape over it.  A musical note with a line through it.

5.  Poverty-   A sad child, in almost a begging pose.  An out stretched hand, palm up.  Dirty feet.

Exercise 2

For this exercise I needed to take a photograph of demonstrating evidence of action.

For this shot I chose to use a wine bottle dripping wine onto a shiny surface.  I tried several shots and a lot of them were pretty uninteresting this on is the best of the bunch.  I tried to focus on the wine dripping from the rim and let the rest of the photograph drop out of focus.

1/60, F5.6, ISO 800

I then had to think of concepts in advertising that are regularly depicted but cannot be shown directly.

For health products people are often used showing fitness and well being (smiling laughing etc).
Adverts for alcoholic drinks often show people having a good time in a public place.
Fitness products concentrate on outdoor shots often in sunshine. 
Postal services advertising efficiency by showing a parcel dropping through a door.
Anything that needs to demonstrate speed will use a fast object such Usain Bolt advertising fast broadband.

Objects that are used in advertising insurance:

Bulldog
Strong buildings/Pillars
Jigsaw pieces
Three little piggies

Part 5. Exercise 1

For this Exercise I chose to provide a narrative of an afternoon in the park.  The photographs were taken on a chilly but bright day in a local park.  I tried to capture a time shot of the arrival activity and departure.

A view of Lincoln in the park 

Setting out

Raring to go

Let's play

Heading for the goal

Where has that ball gone?

Found it!

Tired of football

Time to go

All is quiet in the park

Part 5

In preparation for part 5 of the course I studied the recommended websites.  In particular I found magnum very useful and it contain several great narratives.  I also studied several magazines to compare the way in which they used photographs to tell a story.

Assignment 4

These are the photographs that I put forward for assignment 4.

Colour 1

Colour 2

Colour 3

Form 1

Form 2

Shape 1

Shape 2

Texture 1

Texture 2

THE ART OF PHOTGRAPHY ASSIGNMENT 4

These are the notes to accompany my 8 photographs for the assignment 4. 

I decided to use an ‘interesting’ house plant for my subject however after several shoots I decided that the plant was too complex and decided to isolate the shoot to a leaf structure that had come across well in my test shoots.  I utilised both my telephoto lens and my 35mm prime lens.  The lighting I choose was a mixture of the types that I had tried during the exercises and I particularly utilised the ones that I found the most effective for the various scenarios.  In particular early morning sunlight and diffused light in a dark room.  I used ISO 100 throughout in order to get as much detail into each shot as possible.

Shape 1.  F5.3, 1/20, ISO 100.  For the first photograph with shape I used the dark room with a single diffused light behind the subject matter.  The effect is a shadow outline of the leaf.  There is a small amount of light on the front of leaf which gives some definition to the shape.

Shape 2.  F6.3, 1.6 sec, ISO 100.  This second ‘shape’ photograph was taken in the same situation as the mirror shot emphasising colour (Colour 2).  This time a black card was used behind the mirror and I then also shone a light from directly in front of the setup but under the camera.  In post processing I desaturated the shot to help emphasis the shape.

Form 1.  F5.3, 1/30, ISO 100.  This shot was taken in a dark room with a diffused light behind the subject.   I then had a further semi-diffused light from in front of the subject but slightly left.  I believe that the effect of the large shadows and soft edges give the leaf form and a 3D effect.

Form 2.  F5.6, 1/500, ISO 100.  For the second form shot I have tried to use the natural sunlight, it is fairly early and the sun is low and from behind.  I think that the strong sharp shadows that are formed on the leaf emphasise form.

Texture 1.  F6.3, 1/160, ISO 100.  Because of the nature of the leaf I found the shots bringing out texture were some of the most difficult to capture.  For this shot I used the dark room with black card behind the subject I then used the flash on the camera with a tube around it to focus the light on the leaf.  I had to take quite a few shots until I managed to get one where the leaf was adequately lit.

Texture 2.  F6.3, 1/60, ISO 100.  The second texture shot was taken outside with a low sun.  I put the subject matter in a corner of a building and let the sunlight come from behind. The planned effect is for the sunlight with the hard shadows to reflect the various aspects of detail in the leaf. 

Colour 1.   F1.8, 1/200, ISO 100. This photograph was taken in early morning sunlight from below against the contrast of blue sky.  I had the sunlight behind me and slightly to the left.  I thought that the light on the leaf against the blue sky brought out the various colours of the leaf.

Colour 2.  F6.3, 0.5 sec, ISO 100.  The second photograph was taken with the telephoto lens on a tripod at 112mm.  It was taken in a dark room with the leaf on a mirror and a white card behind the mirror, I then used a diffused light source from the side.  I shot a slow exposure to bring in as much light as possible.  I think that the shot brings out all the colour variations in the leaf and the mirror helps to emphasis the contrasts.

Colour 3.  F6.3, 1/60, ISO 100.  This shot was another one taken in the dark room with the funnelled flash.  This time only the bottom of the leaf is fully lit and therefore a different range of colours are brought out.