Exercise: Black and White

Exercise: Black and White

Aim: To produce an image in black and white, from conception to final processing.

Procedure: I chose a situation with late afternoon low angle lighting a short walk from our house, a possible project site for my (possible) project entitled ‘a selection of infinite views’. I like this location because there is so much variety in it. I tried to frame images with lots of lines and patterns and shadows. I used the bracket function on my camera so that I could concentrate on getting the scene right, and then used the ‘expose to the right’ procedure to choose the best image.

The colour version is displayed below, with some ‘optimization’:

Chosen image, displayed here in colour

I then processed the image in Lightroom to create quite a high contrast dramatic image with the full range of the histogram covered.

Black and White version

Conclusion: This was quite a simple exercise. I have been ‘thinking’ in black and white more recently and this project was good for going through the steps from planning, through image taking and to the final product which I think is a strong image.

Black and White

In preparation for this set of exercises focussing on Black and White photography, I have done some preliminary reading, specifically Michael Freeman’s ‘Complete Guide to Black and White Digital Photography’ (Freeman 2009) which provides a good history of the monochrome tradition (from both traditional art and photographic perspectives), discusses some of the contribution of photographic images to art (for example flare and perspective), and discusses the various ‘attributes’ of monochrome images and some possible avenues for development to the area (partially coloured images, split tone).

The second section looks at digital monochrome, and covers some specific issues relating to capturing a digital black and white image – that is that we have all the colour information present (in a RAW file), and then we have a multitude of ways of using this information to create a monochrome image (or variant of). There seem to be so many complexities to converting to black and white and I suspect the only way to come to grasp it is to actually perform the exercises on various images – for example the discussion around handling green vegetation seems to be very complex and can be addressed in a number of ways with a number of outcomes! It seems the capturing of the image in the first place is very much only the first step with black and white (this can probably be extended validly to  colour images too – there is just so much to learn in this field!). 

Section three discusses creative choices and mentions ‘thinking in monochrome’. To this end I have taken the advice of the book and set my camera to ‘monochrome’ so that I see that on my camera screen instead of colour. I hope this will assist me in starting to think about form, shape and texture a bit more. I have limited successful experience with creating black and white images, so I do need some help in this area.

The final section discusses an area that I really have no experience at all in: printing and display. I rarely print my images, and if I do I use a printing company, and because I have moved around so much in the last few years (UK, then Brisbane and who knows what next), I don’t have a regular place of printing, and thus they are a bit varied. I don’t own a printer at all (we did discuss getting one but decided to put it off until after our next move) and I’ve never done much printing at all. I also have no experience making photobooks, a medium I am quite interested in pursuing (if I ever have a project good enough!) and I only printed onto canvas (a gift for mum) for the first time a few weeks ago (and was very pleased with the results). As for printing, framing and hanging, I have no experience at all in this area. I feel that if I am to continue to Level 2 and beyond (that is my plan at this stage), then this is an area where I really need to develop. I think I will have to commit to purchasing a printer by the end of next year when we are hopefully all settled again) and start learning about printing, paper profiles, different papers etc etc. For this next assignment I note that I need to send prints to my tutor. I’m not sure when I’ll be getting around to that assignment but I’ll need to do some test prints through the best printing company around, which is fortunately located just a short drive away.

There were some artists mentioned in the book that I have done a little research on, though need to do some more:

Paul Strand: Strongly geometric (light and shadow for example this early abstract work), use of whole range of greyscale, soft, advocate of social and political causes, street photography (covert!)

Paul Strand, taken from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pstd/hd_pstd.htm for personal study purposes

Eikoh Hosoe: evocative portraits of body parts, light/dark strong use of contrast, using both ends of the spectrum, high key, contrast between male (black) and female (white), dramatic!

Eikoh Hosoe, taken from http://www.designboom.com/portrait/hosoe.html for personal study purposes

Ansel Adams: powerful use of images for changing peoples mindsets (setting up of national parks in United States of America), but I've always thought a bit conventional. Perhaps I should revisit. I did see an exhibition when I was in Edinburgh and the prints were pretty impressive hanging on the wall. Dramatic use of the mid tones, similar to Paul Strand, though with very different style (landscape). He was a master printer (I have read some of his books about printing/exposing b&w film)

Ansel Adams, taken from http://www.anseladams.com/ for personal study purposes

Harry Callahan: striking portrait of his wife with arms above head - almost bleeds into the surrounding, high key

Harry Callahan, taken from http://archive.mocp.org/collections/permanent/callahan_harry.php for personal study purposes

References:

401 Projects. (2012), Eikoh Hosoe [online], Available from: http://www.401projects.com/index.php?mode=gallery&section_id=153 [Accessed 24/11/12]

Adams, A. (2012), Ansel Adams Gallery [online], Available from: http://www.anseladams.com/  [Accessed 24/11/12]

Designboom. (2003), Eikoh Hosoe [online], Available from: http://www.designboom.com/portrait/hosoe.html [Accessed 24/11/12]

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

Metropolitan Museum of Art. (2012), Paul Strand (1890 - 1976) [online], Available from: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pstd/hd_pstd.htm [Accessed 24/11/12]

Museum of Contemporary Photography. (2012), Harry Callahan (American, 1912-1999) [online], Available from: http://archive.mocp.org/collections/permanent/callahan_harry.php [Accessed 24/11/12]

Wikipedia. (2012), Ansel Adams [online], Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansel_Adams [Accessed 24/11/12]

Wikipedia. (2012), Eikoh Hosoe [online], Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eikoh_Hosoe [Accessed 24/11/12]

Wikipedia. (2012),  Harry Callahan  [online], Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Callahan_%28photographer%29 [Accessed 24/11/12]

Wikipedia. (2012), Paul Strand [online], Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Strand [Accessed 24/11/12]

Assignment 3: thoughts

I've been thinking about the next assignment for this module. My tutor said in a recent email that "soon you will have to start thinking carefully about what you photograph" (paraphrase). This has been playing on my mind a lot recently. We are also in the process of selling our home. Each week we spend a few hours tidying and depersonalizing our home to make it more appealing to potential buyers. This process has got me thinking about how we 'hide' behind the walls of our houses, and by opening our house up for strangers to walk through every week is a bit like opening up part of ourselves. I also wonder what people would make of us by what we have in our homes, and even simply by what our home presents like. At times of great change we often question ourselves,and I am also questioning what I am... We use many words to describe ourselves, but when out socially and someone asks me what I do I say I am a geophysicist. Why do I give my professional title? Why don't I say I'm a mum,  or a photographer, or a loving wife? We all have different labels for ourselves,and each label has a different perceived 'value' in society. Likewise, the car we drive (or don't), house we live in (or don't) all dictate how we are viewed by others. That is, we try to live up to expectations and ideals inhow we present ourselves to other, but does it really matter one iota? Is it because I'm not proud to be a mum or any of the other titles? No, because I think that it's the elements of my life outside by paid work that make me me, but I think that that is not what society thinks or expects. So we hide behind labels, like we hide our lives behind the walls of our houses. No one really knows what goes on behind closed doors in other peoples lives (fortunately I often think!), though this is being increasingly publicized as people live out their every minute online (something I'm guilty of too).

These above issues fascinate me so I've been thinking about how to formulate them into an effective photographic project. I came back to my 'house facade' project which I started recently. I thought that I don't know anything about the people in the houses, but that they probably share at least some of my personal values, attributes and descriptors that I would use about myself. So I'm going to title each image with a descriptor that I would use on myself, depending on how I feel about each house.

Exercise: Interpretative processing

In this exercise we are encouraged to ‘get creative’ with processing.

Aim:

To choose an image open for creative interpretation. Apply different processing techniques (experiment with lots of different options). Then make three different versions of the same image, a written description of what I was trying to achieve, and how well I think I succeeded.

Procedure:

I went to Mt Cootha Botanic Gardens last week and thought carefully about composing some shots of the various cacti and succulent plants which I thought would make good subjects for this exercise, and future desaturation exercises where texture and form are important. I have been doing some reading about ‘exposing to the right’, so for all shots I bracketed one stop either side, using aperture priority.

Back at home, after uploading my images, I carefully looked at the clipping on the brightest shots, and kept those that were not clipped, and deleted the ones with lower exposure. I don’t want to get in the habit of keeping three versions of an image with only the exposure different. My Hard Drives already fill up too quickly, particularly with this new camera!

I then selected those images that I thought had lower dynamic range and were thus suitable for this exercise. I was quite pleased with my selection These images are shown below:

Selection of images appropriate for this exercise

I went on to choose my image to work with for this exercise, shown below without any post-processing:

I first ‘optimized’ this image, shown below:

In Lightroom I made a virtual copy of this image and started processing. I did lots of experimentation, tried tweaking all the sliders and using black and white and just generally getting a feel for what could be done in Lightroom, as I’ve mostly only used presets before. I did use the presets a bit, but also tried to understand what was being done in the presets so that I can use them in the future with more knowledge. Below is a selection of the different processing techniques and results.

Selection of processing techniques in Lightroom

I then chose my favourite four images (below):

before selecting the final three which I will discuss here (below):

First image:

Soft Black and White

In this image I was trying to achieve a soft looking black and white image, which was quite high-key and old-fashioned looking. To do this I first did a simple conversion to black and white, and then adjusted my exposure, black clipping point and highlight tones to make the image bright and light feeling. Then I went to the vignette slider (under ‘effects’) and added in a white soft vignette to the image. I also added in some grain to make it look lit it might have been shot on film. Finally I adjusted the shadows, clarity and contrast slightly.

I really like this image. It is soft and floaty, which contrasts nicely with the spiky points of the cactus. The vignette on the corners adds to the washed out feel and I think it suits the addition of slight grain. I have kept some of the blacks quite deep to retain some contrast in this image. Overall I feel it is a successful and quite different rendition of the original image.

Second image:

Contrasty Black and White

I was looking for quite a harsh, contrasty black and white image to provide a stark comparison to the previous soft image. So I chose the opposite route basically. I applied a heavy contrasty blue filter to the black and white starting image. This darkened down the image considerably, but I kept the highlights high and bright to really emphasise the tips of the plant and small spikes. There is a dark vignette applied to this image to bring back emphasis to the plant and heighten the drama.

I like the strength and surprise in this image. The plant looks so very spiky and dramatic.

Third image:

Cross-processed image

settings for producing 'cross-processed' image 

A bright, light, colourful ‘cross-processed’ image. I tried a few versions of bright, contasty, highly colourful images and decided I liked this one the best. I have not done ‘cross-processing’ at all before, but quite like the effect it has on this image. I also played a bit with the saturation and luminance of some colours to boost the effect. I like the high contrast, slightly otherworldly colours that have been brought out in this image.

Conclusion:

The notes ask me to consider ‘how well I have succeeded’. Well I had some feelings about light/dark/bright colour but not more than that really before I started. I chose my starting image quite carefully (shot with this project and other similar ones in mind), so I guess I’ve been successful in the sense that I have imaginatively edited this image into three more interesting, different images. This in some ways for me has opened up a whole new creative side to my photography, as I have not spent much time at all before ‘editing’ images in this way (mostly choosing to stick more closely to ‘reality’, whatever that means!). This exercise shows me that a little tweaking here and there can radically alter images (sometimes for the better, sometimes not so), and that there is great variety and scale of change that can take place in one single image.

Assignment 2 Feedback

I have received my feedback for Assignment 2 from my tutor. The comments on the assignment suggest that my technical skills are perfectly acceptable for this level of the course. The suggestions were to continue to learn more about the technical side of things but to concentrate more on the creative side. This is something I have been grappling with myself lately as I do more reading about the wider photographic community and various aspects of ‘art’ photography. How I view myself and my photography and the direction I wish to take my photography have all been quite central to my mind recently.

My tutor suggested reading a fellow student’s blog, which I have done, and found quite enlightening. He is a little further ahead than me on the course, but is following a similar path, having previously completed at least one course with the OCA, and seems to be quite similar in his direction of looking for more ‘art’ than just ‘function’. He has taken an approach for 2^nd and 3^rd assignments of choosing a ‘theme’ and following it through for the assignment. My tutor has some useful suggestions on using a self-directed project which I will closely consider for my future assignments.

It’s funny this transition from thinking of myself as a ‘photographer’ to an ‘artist’. It’s a subtle shift in some ways (semantics some would say), but for me personally it is quite important and significant. I love taking photos but want to do and achieve more than simply taking a ‘nice shot’… And a cohesive, interesting project is just waiting for me, I just need to be shoved in the right direction, take the plunge and do it. I have lots of ideas but it’s hard thinking of how to execute ideas and make them into successful _interesting_ photographic projects that don’t just look good but have some kind of meaning as well…

References:

http://xachovin.blogspot.nl