One of the few!

I often frequent DP Reviews forums, just to see some of the shots people are taking and also to keep up to date with what’s going on with my systems, just in case I’m missing a trick or problem that needs dealing with or working around.

The one forum I like for pictures is the Leica forum – the people there seem to just take nice pictures. Maybe it’s the range-finder approach. This week I spotted this series and the first one really struck me, as well as a couple of the others.

The second and third lose it for me but get back on track after that. That first one, entitled ‘Moving’, intrigues me – I like the subject and the direct, low angled light and the high contrast. I’d have liked it framed with the subject closer to the right, that way more of the shadow would be shown. ‘Mobile Phone’ is framed much better; I like the use of perspective on that shot and the follow-up ‘Elvis’ has excellent composition and conveys the mood of the scene beautifully – the lonesome cyclist with the couples in the background.

The three shots mentioned all remind me of some of the work I’ve been reviewing in the required reading ‘The Photograph’.

All-in-all, nice work!

 

Finding the Time is Tough

It’s not been a good few weeks – spent the bank-holiday weekend in bed with food poisoning and my last attempt at one of the exercises went wrong. Hence the bird posts.

Work has been busy too, but on the up-side I’ve got some holiday time coming up. Hopefully it will give me a chance to catch-up.

Studio Gear Try Out

With a cat!

Had to be done really. It wasn’t about the lights, I’ve had them for a while, this time I wanted to try out my black low-key background.

Today’s bad weather presented a perfect opportunity to stay in and play, and after yesterday’s outing with the birds it was a bit of a bonus!

I chose one light, above the subject, so it didn’t directly light the background. Using a 50mm I was able to shoot at f11, giving plenty depth of field to keep things sharp.

I’m really pleased with the background, I thought I’d get a little reflection from it but it stayed very black. I got my reflector out and ready but didn’t need it in the end. All good fun – can’t wait to use it in an OCA exercise.

Getting results like this is actually very easy with the right gear – but don’t tell anyone I said that!

Thought I’d throw in one more just for fun. 🙂

Failure Can Be Fun

So today I went to a local raptor centre thinking it would be a great place to shoot a sequence. Wrong!

Couldn’t get close, couldn’t move around, the subject was disjointed… I could go on. On reflection I could have ignored the birds but I took the wrong lens for that.

I took a long lens, which is useless for the exercise I now realise but it was actually (and obviously) good for the birds. On the positive side, I did get a few nice shots like the one above. In a small(ish) space like the Falconry Centre the birds move too quickly and too close to pan properly, I confess I didn’t try pre-focusing today.

As I took them, I may as well post a couple more… The picture to the left isn’t particularly sharp but it’s a great action shot; the falconer’s hair disturbed by the Harris Hawk’s wings as he flapped away.

The birds did some funky things, and it was really nice to see them fly.

On top of the the general fun of shooting the birds I got try stretch the legs of my new 70-200 f2.8 lens. I recently swapped a 70-300 F4.5-5.6 for it, so I’ve traded some reach for a much wider (and constant) maximum aperture and I have to say I’m smitten. Is there another aperture other than f2.8? Only joking! Though I must say, it is stunning and fun to use wide open. RAW straight from the camera is amazingly sharp and contrasty – these shots have no sharpening applied!

Most of the shots taken were at f4 as I thought this would provide some compromise between movement/DoF and pleasing background blur.

I like the shot above and had I not been quite so focused on the bird I’d have got the girls in the frame a little better – I think they are quite surprised to see the chicken foot hanging from the Hawk’s mouth!

As you can see, I did move around a bit but it really didn’t meet the brief. At least I’ll know better next time.

Noticing the Frame

Since the exercise on framing I’ve been looking at pictures trying to work out why shots have been framed as they are, and also trying to image what might be just outside the picture.

The thing that prompted this post wasn’t a photograph, but a movie. I just watched The King’s Speech and was fascinated by the choice of framing for many of the shots taken in Lionel Logue’s  studio. The characters were framed very off-centre, kept to almost a quarter of the frame which is something you don’t often see in movie. This left the plain but (very) run-down textured background very much centre stage and instead being distracting it focused you even more on what the actors were saying.

After my recent comment about Diane Arbus’ images ‘being like a movie’ it was nice to see a movie that that applied some stills photography techniques.

The Journey

Well, tonight I had somewhat of an epiphany. My wife was looking at our nephew’s Facebook page and leafing through his pictures and I was struck by the social commentary. I can’t speak for the quality at size but I looked at many of the shots on screen and considered how well they would hang in a gallery, nicely printed on canvas with a social narrative running through them.

I don’t have work quite like that.

Some were in B&W already; today that means someone already thought about what the image means and took the time to covert it. Colour can easily be labelled ‘no thought included’ when it comes to most photography these days. Having said that, B&W on some forums seems like the only way to say ‘I’m a serious photographer’ which is also tiresome. I guess I’d like to be someone that does B&W on its own merit.

Anyway, I’m moving away from the reason for the post. My point is that if a bunch of young students can produce images like they have, in such a ‘matter of fact way’, where does that leave me at my age?

I guess I have to develop my view of the world.

Things are changing for me. I got a copy of Digital SLR Photographer last week, a magazine I subscribed to for a couple of years and found it quite bland – yet the same publication used to inspire me. The pictures in there were just as good as ever, and also just as superlative ever. Mostly the right place, right time kind of shots (not saying that means it’s easy BTW) with a little creative inspiration here and there and a lot of gear and technique. All useful, of course, but I think I’ve moved on.

Wow, what a subject.

The Frame – 2nd Exercise

I’m lucky in that I have a modern DSLR with plenty of pixels, so I regularly crop images for a number of reasons. It’s either to increase impact, remove a distraction or change the focal point of an image. Sometime I’ll crop slightly to adjust composition to apply the rule of thirds when I think it will add something or if I got it slightly wrong at the point of shooting.

The example in the course manual showed an individual isolated in very uniform surroundings – a green paddy field. I was racking my brain to think of a subject showing similar isolation and I could think of lots of subjects that would deliver the same sort of impression, but not where I could find one! I was thinking of a lone window on building (interesting building or something in the window as bonus) or something on a skyline that had just two colours – the ground & sky. Nothing like that in my notebook of potential subjects.

The lack of subject got me thinking I should make my own subject, but what? After a shopping trip with my wife we got home and that’s when I saw her new shoes on the dining room floor – perfect!

Right Won

Shooting with a 50mm standard lens to keep distortion as low as possible I set up a single light to the right. A test shot showed the left side to be a little dark; I wanted to create nice even lighting for a uniform background so I used a white reflector to redirect some light back and with a few more test shots changing the angle of the reflector I got the right, even effect I was after.

Once I got the shot I was looking for I used the ‘create virtual copy’ command in Lightroom to make about 6 copies and then started cropping. For some I maintained the aspect of the original – centre framing helped there – and for others I used free hand dimensions. What surprised me was that there were so many options and I ended-up making more copies, all without rotating the image! Clearly rotation isn’t an option for many subjects but for this one I really could have.

Shoes represent a lot of things – travel, movement, exertion, independence, status and more. As a viewer, shoes can tell you about the person wearing them – their job, what they are doing, where they are going or indeed where they’ve been.

With that in mind the position of the shoe in the frame makes quite a difference to how the picture looks. The first crop, above, displays a natural gravity towards the bottom of the frame. While there is only one shoe showing, the other could be lurking near by, just out of shot and especially as it’s the right shoe on display in the bottom left corner. Pointing towards the further corner the shoe also suggests there is a journey to be made, the shoe is free to move on.

However, if we crop in the complete opposite way the shoe all of a sudden it looks lonely and the question begs ‘where is the other shoe?’ It certainly isn’t to the left, where it should be. In addition to the aspect of loss, it also looks boxed in, like it’s trying to escape but can’t and there’s a feeling of claustrophobia about the image.

The two images so far keep the aspect of the original, which of course there is no reason to do when the format is open and dictated by subject as it is here. I decided to try a tall aspect which would be something I wouldn’t normally consider for this type of subject given it’s size, angle and background.

It doesn’t look as out of place as I thought and being close to the edge again, it’s easy to imagine it part of pair once more which makes it less challenging to look at. With the shoe in the centre it suggests space and the horizontal lines in the wood stand out more than in other shots for some reason.

This taller aspect also seems to draw out detail in the shoe, which itself now looks more open that in the other cropped pictures so far which could be down to its placement in the centre.

Taking the opposite approach to the last crop, the one below uses a more ‘panoramic’ view, again with gravity keeping the shoe near the bottom.Oddly (to me at least) the focus shifts from the shoe to the wooden floor even more than the un-cropped shot which clearly has the largest amount of wood. I suspect that this is because in the un-cropped picture the shoe takes centre stage and with it being moved away from dead centre the wood is left to ‘shine’. In the picture above the texture of the natural hard floor shows up much more than in some of the others.

The same can be said of the next image, here shown to the left. What also helps keep the floor present in the picture is the join that now stands out near the centre, again something that hasn’t really come to the fore until this particular crop. With the extra space the shoe now looks like something discarded or cast aside and lucky to be standing up.

I’m really glad I chose to keep the picture simple as it has really made me see (and feel) how changing the aspect of a photograph can significantly change what the viewer thinks about an image. In this case it also helped me focus on the symbolism of the subject which leads me to think that may be further enhanced if the set was B&W instead of colour, though I suspect that may lessen the impact of the floor and re-focus on the shoe in latter shots.

This exercise has taught me a number of lessons:

• Cropping images presents many more opportunities than I expected
• Changing the shape and position of the frame substantially alters the feel and potential meaning of an image
• I really need to get a polarizing filter for my prime lenses – that would have minimised the glare from the floor to the left of the image (and some glare on the shoe)
• The Virtual Copy function in Lightroom is excellent, a neat way to try out multiple ‘looks’!

All this even before I considered rotating the image, which in this case is option available to me that wouldn’t (conventionally) be applied to the example in the course manual!

Below are a few more shots cropped differently:

Phones and Travel Shots

While I love my SLR and the things it can do, I’m really enjoying a phone camera app called Hipstamatic. It ages your shots as you take them using different lens and film effects, so there’s no room for post processing. Just like the old cameras you have to live with what you get.

My Life on Trains

With my job I spend quite a lot of time on the train, which generally consists of coffee, music/podcasts and sore thumbs due to hitting the Blackberry to keep work happy.

Not much opportunity for photography eh? That’s where my iPhone and Hipstamatic comes in. While it doesn’t have the controls of a ‘proper’ camera there’s plenty of fun to be had playing with the different film and lenses, each producing a different effect that harks back to the days before digital. The ‘John S’ lens (partnered here with ‘Float’ film) produces nice contrasty result’s with slightly warm, if flat, aged colouring.

Long Day

The modernity of the shot to the left is given away somewhat by the copy of ‘Metro’ and the lighting in the carriage; the flat tones of the age effect suits the mood perfectly though. The expressions and body language allow the viewer to read all sorts of things into the image.

One benefit of having earphones and music on your phone is that you can’t really tell if someone is taking a picture. That’s great for capturing social narrative.

Of course, it’s one thing shooting during the journey it’s another taking shots when you get there. As a business travelling taking my SLR on business (every day) isn’t an option.

Ciao Cocker!

Again, the higher quality images from newer phones allow some room to manoeuvre. The shot to the left looks like Rome in the 60’s or 70’s when in reality it’s London (the Royal Exchange) in 2011. The early crop of good weather this year clearly enticing people outside for their lunch, eating and chatting on the steps.

It’s just a shame the ‘camera police’ stopped me taking any shots of the inside of the Royal Exchange, it really is very impressive. Especially if you’re a city banker with lots to spend! I got to use their loo for free at least.

1st Exercise – Fitting the Subject to the Frame

Boo!

Rather than choose a large object, for the first framing exercise I thought I’d use something smaller. I really like the texture of the knitted toy on the small sofa, and this first shot is how I would normally take it. As you can see, I’ve tried to incorporate some of the surroundings and include some interest in addition to the main subject by way of the second soft toy at the top. For me I guess there’s an element of comedy – the cute face looking down at the surprised knitted character, almost as if he’s jumped up there and shouted ‘boo!’. I arranged the knitted toy’s ears to look as if he just jumped, not completely surprised, and is looking at the camera as if to say ‘how tedious’.

This shot has some downsides though. Firstly, not getting close enough loses the feeling of deep texture in the main subject and to some degree and the second toy does detract from the main subject.

I'm Serious.

For the tightly cropped shot I chose to move to the side slightly. I thought shooting square-on produced a flat looking image and the depth and shape of the toy became lost. I tried tilting the frame and some other angles but I couldn’t get any more of the toy in the shot. Using a tripod in this case would have helped as holding the camera still enough to crop tighter without losing some of the image was quite tricky.

The texture of the toy becomes much clearer by getting closer and there is a lot less distraction by losing the other toy and the background.

In addition to the clearer rendition of texture and shape, the exact same positioning of the toy now conveys a different ’emotion’ in the toy. Gone is the surprised come tedious look which has been replaced by a more serious expression, as if the character is about to impart some advice or give you the benefit of  experience. Perhaps it’s the more 3d look provided by the changed angle and deeper shadows; it could also be due to the slightly forward leaning pose that this angle has revealed.

Weight Watcher

For the crop shot I was in two minds, I could focus on the textures and shapes or keep the eyes in the picture to keep the character element alive. I thought the latter was probably more obvious, so I decided to focus on the texture and shape and include the button by way of contrast. It’s clearly some kind of knitted toy but exactly what is now lost; it has been reduced to sections that are vaguely identifiable.

I like the button in this shot, which I’ve made sure is off centre and roughly placed two thirds down and across. The colour is a different family to the rest of the toy and it’s smoothness provides a nice contrast to the knitting that otherwise would fill the frame.

The final picture of the series was taken from much further back and it encompasses the toy and much more of its surroundings than any of the other shots. I balanced the exposure so that the background gave an impression of depth and was more visible than some of the other shots.

Behind Who?

The limited space in the room and the position of the toy did limit my ability to get around it, so pictures from other angles wasn’t so much of an option in this case. I did move around and try of course, with the camera pinned to my face! Below are some of the cropped options I tried from this shot.

This exercise highlighted to me the almost infinite possibilities presented to photographers when you put a camera to your eye, even if only a very few are shown here. And that’s just framing, before you even consider what can be done with exposure, depth of field and other tools that have creative impact. Even with limited space and ability to get around the subject, there are still plenty of options. The surprise to me this time is the how the change of composition seems to change the personality of the toy, even though it hasn’t moved. The other thing I’ve noted, which may obvious, is that while cropping can also completely change how the image is portrayed you loose the choice of perspective and depth that you have when you’re still with the subject. There is no replacement for moving when you’re getting your original capture.

OCA – So How’s it Going?

'Hanibal' Finger

Above all I’m really enjoying it, it’s great to have a reason to shoot. I’m working through my course work – just the last ‘movement’ exercise to write up. Things aren’t going without their setbacks though…

The reading material is working out more difficult to fit in than I thought. I’m not a fast reader anyway, but having to make notes from what I do is slowing me up even more; I really need to sort out a better system. I did some reading during the extended bank holidays but now things are busy at work and it’s harder to fit in.

The other setback is the iPhone shot above – that’s my shutter finger!! One of those stupid accidents has left me with ‘mallet finger’ which is a torn ligament that means I can no-longer straighten my right index finger. I have to leave the support on for six weeks and I’m not allowed to bend my finger in that time at all. There’s a 75% chance it will repair, but I’m not convinced I’m going to be lucky at this stage. Fingers crossed. Well, not that one.

Weddings can present good opportunities

On the plus side (and a twitchy right middle finger) it’s the wedding season, one done, one more in June. It’s great to be a guest, you get the chance to take some nice ‘sniper’ shots. I’m pleased with this one (left), though the girls face is in the shade a little. For this wedding I popped on my 85mm f1.8 and shot away. I think I was the only one there with a prime lens…

One of the world’s top wedding photographers and snapper to the stars, Joe Buissink, attends weddings as a ‘snapper’ while someone else does the more formal stuff. I can see why – it presents such great opportunities.

This one has a little vignetting added, but other than that it’s straight from Lightroom.

I’m really pleased that today I started on the main course work, with the first framing exercise shot and ready to right-up. Having said that, I’ve the last movement exercise to finish writing up first. Better get on with it then!