Assignment 3: Feedback

I have received my feedback for Assignment 3, monochrome. It is mostly fairly positive, though with room for improvement, as usual!

"This is a good attempt at a documentary project. Additional research and analysis of a range of suitable techniques and approaches, and more practice, will undoubtedly provide you with greater confidence when working in this genre."

So once again my tutor reminds me that more research is required (it seems there cannot be too much research - something I plan to engage even more in when I move onto Level 2 courses).

"In terms of developing a documentary narrative through a collection of images, it is often highly beneficial to visit the location and capture activities on more than one occasion."

I reflect in hindsight that I was a little rushed when capturing this project (hard with a small baby around and limited time out), and definitely should have captured images on a second or third occasion. I did return once but just didn't really find the same scenes in action and was unable to make another visit. This is something that I hope to change in the future - to be able to set aside times for photography and commit to it.

"It appears from the contact sheets on your blog, you would have benefited from a wider range of shot types, exploring the subject from;  wide angle (how large is the overall space, how many workers?), and close-ups (fingers tending plants) etc.."

I also should have used different equipment (lenses) to capture this wider range in scale and interest. I should know this from my previous studies even within this course. I think I need to take more time with composition and care with my images. Another learning point.

Regarding my intent:

"A collection of images which maintains such anonymity may be viewed as a document of suspicious activity. If you feel this may be the case, how can you counteract this?"

This is an interesting point. I had not thought about this in advance, it just happened on the day - that I thought about anonymity for this project. I didn't follow through completely with it (lack of conviction?) What might it mean for the project - am I protecting the people? Or wanting to send a message? I am aware that the people I photographed, whilst they gave their permission, may not want to be known as being 'on the dole', though I think it's great that programs such as this (re-skilling) exist.

So once again I am pleased with the detailed explanations and considerations my tutor has provided me. I can see that there are some areas I need to work on to further improve my photography skills.

Assignment 3: Monochrome

This assignment is all about the monochrome image. I struggled to find a topic that I thought was suitable, interesting and executable. I decided in the end to follow the documentary tradition (with it’s long history of using monochrome). I live near a local community farm, which grows organic produce and also is involved in educating people about permaculture. Both paid staff and volunteers are integral for the running of the farm, and I wanted to document how they go about their daily tasks.

I chose to photograph on a day when I knew there would be people working hard at the farm. I started in the nursery (where the plants start their lives!), capturing volunteers and staff hard at work potting plants and moving them around. I then followed the ‘work for the dole’ coordinator (dole is unemployment benefits) out to the planting area where she was working with a small team. I decided to avoid capturing full-frontal portraits in order to maintain some degree of anonymity for the people, although they were all OK with me photographing them. I was more interested in their tasks than them per se.

I tried to create images that I thought would work in monochrome – strong lines, texture and variety of shapes and shades were the main interests. My camera was set on monochrome so I could view the results on the LCD if necessary. I try to limit this looking and just get in amongst the scene. I only shot with one lens, my 24-70mm which gives a nice wide angle shot and can get fairly close in if necessary too. With ample daylight around I could leave my ISO on 100 for most of the shots and generally used manual mode, trying to ‘expose-to-the-right’ as much as possible, pulling back highlights when necessary in post-processing.

I was keen to capture the ‘sense’ of the place, and since the garden/farm is awash with colour (particularly when combined with the blue sky!), I felt like monochrome would allow me to focus more on the workers and their tasks at hand. I searched for interesting angles, getting low to the ground, climbing higher on mounds of dirt and using a range of camera angles in order to maintain variety. I feel like the set of images represents well some of the activities of the farm, but it is by no means comprehensive.

I certainly feel like the set of images is much stronger in monochrome than in colour. The colour tends to focus the eye on the wrong things, for example, in this image, the eye is drawn to the bright red crates, whereas in the monochrome version, it is much more subtle, and the eye searches out and finds the person hidden behind the tree, watering.

Colour version

Monochrome version

In terms of the processing, I first converted the images to monochrome, and made my selections (using the star process), giving me about 25 images I wanted to consider for my project.

Final chosen images

I then optimized the images in monochrome (exposure, black and white point adjustment) and applied some universal changes such as increasing the clarity. I initially tried increasing the contrast using the tone curve, to medium contrast. However when analysing the images I found them to be too harsh.

Medium contrast image

As a result, I decided to use a lower contrast method. I reversed the tone curve so that it was the opposite shape to the medium contrast curve (raise darks/shadows and lower lights/highlights), giving the images a low contrast appearance. I found this to be much more appropriate – the images were ‘softer’ looking, but still retained some of the gritty nature of hard shadows formed by the harsh midday Australian sun. I think this low contrast tone curve on the naturally hard images produces a good result. The more subtle grey scale is more appropriate and asthetically pleasing.

Lower contrast image

I then selected my final 12 images to be printed at the local printers (first at 6 by 4 size to check them out). Of these, I highlighted the best eight, shown below on a board. The two on the top right were rejected at this stage as I didn't feel they were strong enough for the final submission.

Printed proofs

I have some doubts about including only one portrait orientation image in a set of otherwise landscape images but I have decided that it is OK. After receiving these prints I made further updates to my images - lightening a couple, tweaking the levels of green/blue contributing to the final B&W and also adjusting the crop slightly. I then had them printed at 6 by 9 size and have mounted them on white card to send to my tutor. They look quite good in my opinion, but I admit I don't know a lot about printing technicalities and this is something I will need to do some research on soon.

Images:

The final selection of six images is discussed below:

Photo 1

Potting

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24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 5Dm3, f/2.8, 24mm, 1/60sec, ISO 100

Potting

A volunteer pots out young seedlings ready for sale in this image. I have chosen a wide angle of view in order to capture the seedlings in the foreground but focus on the worker in the midground. The shutter speed is just low enough for the hand moving to blur slightly, and the DOF shallow to keep focus on the worker. I have raised the green level to make the seedlings paler, and used the adjustment brush to slightly darken the far background which had some distracting highlights.

Photo 2

Greenhouse

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24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 5Dm3, f/4.5, 24mm, 1/125sec, ISO 100

Greenhouse

The manager of the nursery gets new stock out of the greenhouse for putting on sale in the nursery. The curved gridded roof of the nursery and rows of plants give some geometric interest to this image. I have raised the green levels slightly to make the leaves a bit paler of the plants. I also kept the exposure of the image high and just dodged the white t-shirt to make it a little darker (otherwise it was overexposed). This has resulted in an overall light bright image.

Photo 3

Plant Selection

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24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 5Dm3, f/11, 24mm, 1/90sec, ISO 100

Plant selection

The nursery manager discusses plant selection with the organiser for the Work for the Dole program. The signs all around pinpoint the location as the nursery and the summer heat is obvious from the attire and hats. Once again I have dodged the white t-shirt a little to prevent clipping and overexposure. I have raised the green level slightly to make the plants stand out in the foreground.

Photo 4

Ground preparation

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24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 5Dm3, f/8, 24mm, 1/180sec, ISO 100

Ground preparation

Working in small teams, the ground is prepared for planting by mulching and watering. This low-angle shot captures the three people working and by placing the people on the edge of the frame the viewer’s eye moves between them taking in the whole scene. I have decreased the blue level to darken the sky slightly.

Photo 5

Planting

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24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 5Dm3, f/5.6, 24mm, 1/350sec, ISO 100

Planting

I have captured another slightly different angle in this image – looking down onto the team putting the new seedlings in the soil. There is extra dynamism in this image created by cropping off the man on the left on a strong angle.

Photo 6

Watering

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24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 5Dm3, f/5.6, 40mm, 1/180sec, ISO 100

Watering

A man is hidden behind the tree watering the young seedlings, which are protected by upside down crates on the ground. I like the subtle and somewhat mysterious feel to this image, which I have created on purpose by choosing my location to photograph with the tree between me and the man. I wanted to keep him the as focus of the image by also keep him anonymous to some extent. I stood on a raised mound of dirt to raise my viewing angle slightly.

Conclusions:

Choosing a project for this assignment was challenging. Deciding on documenting the farm and then having a successful shoot was very pleasing for me personally. By using monochrome I have focussed on the people at work, and there is no colour to distract the viewer’s eye. When I compare the colour images to the monochrome images they are definitely a stronger and more coherent set. I think the documentary genre is well suited to monochrome and I think this project has definitely been a success. It has also made me think more carefully about what would look good in monochrome, and determine some projects that would not look good in monochrome. This is all useful in developing my critical eye.

The whole project was certainly a success. The chosen images (and others that I have supplied to the farm and nursery staff) were very well received by the staff and requests for others were made also. I also feel like I have captured the ‘feel’ of the place, which is important in a mini-project such as this one.

References:

Freeman, M. (2009), The complete guide to black and white digital photography. East Sussex: Ilex

Freeman, M. (2009), Perfect Exposure. East Sussex: Ilex

Assignment 3: How to process an image

How do I process an image? There are endless tweaks and adjustments and sliders to choose from, and that's only using Lightroom. Once an image is brought into Photoshop, then anything can be done. But that's not my point here. I am considering the treatment of one of the images in my Assignment set. It is one of my favourites, a little Viviane Sassen, with the 'model' partly hidden behind the tree. Not really (I would like to think so!!), but perhaps a little so (I will write about her work soon - I see it as very modern fashion photography, and I don't really think I'm very interested in fashion, but I think her work is wonderful!)

Here is the image in monochrome as I have presented it previously on this blog:

It's not simply a mono conversion, it's low contrast, optimized a little and had some other minor tweaks, but it's nothing fancy. I really like how the eye is drawn from the crates on the ground (put there to protect the young seedlings from being eaten by turkeys or possums) through the small tree to the man watering behind. I have chosen a central placement on purpose because he is hidden and thus not clearly otherwise the focus of the image.

When I viewed the colour version, I was reminded of how RED the crates are, and how much they dominate the image. It really changes the _feel_ and takes some of the subtle hidden nature away. It's still effective, but perhaps a bit too strong on the colour (supporting my premise for processing in black and white for this project - the colour really distracts). However, there is that Sassen feel again with the bright green hose pulling the viewers eye in from the left.

So then I began to think, should I use the red pallets more in the mono image - make them darker perhaps? This is done using the sliders in Lightroom. This is the result:

It's hard for me to judge because I have looked at the images so much I find it difficult to be objective, but now it feels a bit 'bottom-heavy' to me. I am leaning back towards the original but I'm unsure. I think the man becomes less important in this image, and really since he is the point of the photograph I think I should choose the version that highlights him the most.

References:
Sassen, V, (2012). Viviane Sassen Website [Online], Available at: http://www.vivianesassen.com/ [Accessed 20/12/12]

Assignment 3: The final eight

I have got my prints back and selected the best eight images from them, however I think out of these there are two weaker images (shown top right below) and these will probably be removed from the set before sending them to my tutor. They are displayed below (sorry for the poor quality), laid out on a whiteboard.

I am slightly concerned about using one portrait image and 5 landscape images. This was partly why I included the second portrait orientation image in the set. I am unsure if it is wise to have only one photograph of different orientation in the set. Unfortunately, I really like this image and think it is quite strong and provides good context to the set. I will need to think about whether to include it in the final set or remove it.

After getting the photos back from the printer I realized a couple were too dark and needed lightening. Those with Peta in them (white t-shirt) needed to be held back on the white t-shirt and the rest of the image lightened. This has improved the image as a whole. The photo of the man watering also looked too dark and when I looked at the histogram I realized the whole image had been pulled back too far and needed lightening. This was easily done in Lightroom. I have made some other spot changes to all the images and come up with the final eight, displayed below:

I also had one image printed with a white 5mm border, and I think this worked really well - finishes off the image nicely. If I am not going to mount my images then I shall put the border on. So now I need to decide if I mount my images on white card or not. I think it does present better than just prints, but I'd like to know what others do, so might do some asking around online. I plan to get these final eight printed this week so that I can do any mounting etc over the Christmas break.

Assignment 3: Presentation thoughts

I have been thinking about how to present Assignment 3. The notes specifically say that I need to present some prints to my tutor for this Assignment. I have sent off my photos to be printed at a local store (the second time - the first place is closing down... a sad time for the printing industry when everyone is happy getting cheap prints so the pro places are going out of business...). Once I've received them and if I am happy I shall then prepare to get prints done for the assignment.

There are a few things I need to consider:

• A border - in Photoshop - so there is some white around the image. The printing place can do a 5mm border - perhaps this is enough?
• Size of print: 6x8 $2.25 per print (for 6 to 20 prints), 8x12 $3.75 per print (for 6 to 20 prints)
• Number of prints per page - at the above prices I think I can probably afford to print one per page

I am now deciding on the final set of images and this will be assisted when I pick up my prints (Thursday). I now need to start writing down my report and in particular, answering the questions posed in the notes.

References:

http://www.allchromes.com.au/

Assignment 3: Processing Versions

Some alternative processing versions for two images in Assignment 3:

Original (low contrast black and white)

Version 1: Selenium Tone (low contrast)

Version 2: Sepia Tone (low contrast)

Version 3: higher contrast (medium contrast)

Original (low contrast black and white)

Version 1: Selenium Tone (low contrast)

Version 2: Sepia Tone (low contrast)

Version 3: higher contrast (medium contrast)

At this stage I still prefer the low contrast version, and although I like the selenium tone (I think the Sepia is too strong) I am still preferring the plain black and white version.

Assignment 3: Some examples

So I have a dozen photographs that I'm happy with that I took at the farm last week, documenting the volunteers and staff working. There are no full-frontal portraits as I wanted to maintain a degree of anonymity to the people working there - they were all OK with me photographing, but I didn't want to make it about _them_ per se. The images are arranged in a story - from preparing the plants, selecting them, preparing the soil (watering before planting) and then planting. A number of characters are involved, and they link through the images. I have gone for a low contrast, grey-scale look to the images - it was a hot sunny day and they started out very contrasty but I found that they looked very busy, and I wanted to focus on the subject matter and not get overtaken by busy back/foregrounds. I will make more comments on processing in a future post, this is just a starting point for the project.

Now I need to decide whether to shoot any more images, or just concentrate on these and further refine them and get into the printing side of things (necessary for this assignment). I am quite happy with the set above and think I will probably just make my selection from these once I have printed a few versions of them and further refined the post-processing. I need to choose between 5 and 10 images to submit.

Documentary Research: Assignment 3

So in preparation for my shoot at the farm, I have been doing some reading which I need to post here about. I decided to do a documentary style shoot at the local farm (for Assignment 3), capturing both the staff and volunteers at work. I have been looking online for ideas but came back to my book collection. I want to make a cohesive study of people at work. There have been many examples of this kind of work, so it is not an original idea, but then few ideas are original any more! In order to think about what to capture, I note down what I think happens at the farm:

• People work and volunteer in the plant nursery and in the farm proper
• It is a community farm so there are always people around
• There is a 'work for the dole' scheme (dole = unemployment benefits in Australia) active, and someone organised this and runs it day to day
• A community lunch is put on a few days a week for the workers
• There is often art and craft on (Bob Mud)
• A mothers group sometimes meets on a Friday
• There are education classes (on a Saturday), Farm Tours, and all the usual administration that occurs in a community organisation

The above is a big list, and too much to photograph for one project. On my first photographic outing for this project I captured people working in the nursery, and some people working in the garden on the 'work for the dole' scheme. I feel like I have a good narrative of images thus far, and I need to visit again to see if I can improve, and also whether I want to include any other images.

So, books. I chose Magnum Magnum (2009) as my starting point. My thinking was that for most of the history of Magnum, its members shot in Black and White. This would help me with getting 'thinking' in Black and White. And the stories are all 'documentary' style, which is perfect for my project. Some notes below after re-reading the book:

• Get close
• Fill the frame
• Tell a story - what are you trying to say?
• Don't worry about cropping (heads off!!) - it doesn't matter if the story is there
• Shadows / Silhouettes / Blur / Out of Focus
• Think about what is in the background
• There is a photo to be made every where and in every situation. Look for the angle.
• Windows are powerful - use the frame
• Get low / Look high / look down / turn around - detail shots contribute to the series
• Find out what is going on - religious event / demonstration - all are opportunities to tell a story
• On the street - get closer, wide angle, discreet camera

In some ways this is all obvious, but it was quite powerful for me to read this book again and take my time over the pictures  I have also started another book by the group; Magnum Contact Sheets (2011), and it is proving to be another fascinating read, though more for getting 'in the head' of another photographer and seeing his/her thought process as they approach the scene.

What is documentary photography? I started a search online... Wikipedia of course came to the rescue. One question that is worth asking - why am I taking these photos? For this project I am interested in documenting the hard work that goes on at the farm, a place I know has it's ups and downs like any community organisation. I am interested in capturing a story and simply the process of what goes on there. Perhaps that is a bit simplistic, but I feel like I need to do some 'simple' documentary photography before diving into the heavy stuff (for example the politics underneath!!) I'm not ready to change the world just yet... I guess I'm also showing what goes on so that perhaps others will want to join in - perhaps a piece in a local newspaper advocating the volunteer organisation at the farm?

I also did some reading about 'New Documentary', and found an article by A. D. Coleman here, and some writings by Sean O'Hagan of The Guardian here. Winogrand, Arbus and Friedlander all worked in black and white with small hand-held cameras - perfect for documentary photography. But differently to 'news' photography  they were photographing everyday life in all it's wonder and diversity. Coleman (2000) mentions that their work was 'increasingly asymmetrical, unbalanced, fragmented, even messy'. This loose, quick style of documentary photography, not 'news' photography is what interests me - capturing people, living their lives, in their surroundings as I find them - not posing them, but just observing quietly and capturing a story. They photographed in the 'social landscape' (Coleman 2000). As Szarkowski says in his introduction to the 'New Documents' exhibition: 'Their aim has been not to reform life, but to know it... the imperfections and frailties of society'. Interestingly, Coleman's (2000) article discusses the way each of these photographers almost refused to consider the social commentary that their pictures presented. They leave the photos to stand on their own, without comment. This is quite a dry, deadpan style of approach to documentary photography, not really making a stand. In some ways this is quite an easy position to hold - it can be hard to state your case and stick with it.

What is the difference between photojournalism and documentary photography? I like this statment from Wikipedia: 'Documentary photography generally relates to longer term projects with a more complex story line, while photojournalism concerns more breaking news stories. The two approaches often overlap.' (Wikipedia 2012). That sums it up quite nicely.

There is an infinite number of people working in this field so I can't possibly do reading on everyone! I will keep reading my books and doing some online searching and will update this blog post as I do so.

References:

Coleman, A. (2000), MoCA Catalogue Essay: Arbus, Friedlander, Winogrand. [Online]. Available at http://www.nearbycafe.com/artandphoto/cspeed/essays/Coleman_MoCA.pdf [Accessed 12/12/12]

Lardinois, B (Ed). (2009), Magnum Magnum. London: Thames & Hudson

Lubben, K (Ed). (2011), Magnum Contact Sheets. London: Thames & Hudson

The Museum of Modern Art. (1967), New Documents. [Online]. Available at http://www.moma.org/docs/press_archives/3860/releases/MOMA_1967_Jan-June_0034_21.pdf?2010 [Accessed 12/12/12]

Northey St City Farm (2012), Website. [Online] Available at: http://www.nscf.org.au/. [Accessed 11/12/12]

O'Hagan, S. (2010), Sean O'Hagan On photography, The Guardian. [Online]. Available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/jul/20/john-szarkowski-photography-moma [Accessed 12/12/12]

Wikipedia (2012), Documentary Photography [Online]. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_photography [Accessed 12/12/12]