Contrast, by Martin Gillman. August 2011
The object of this assignment is to produce 8 pairs of photographs with contrasting themes or elements as dictated by the assessor, I have produced 9. One final shot is to represent one pair, in one shot.
The contrasting themes I chose were:
• Pointed/Blunt
• Sweet/Sour
• Thick/Thin
• Few/Many
• Rough/Smooth
• Long/Short
• White/Black
• Strong/Weak
• Large/Small
My final combined image was, Straight/Curved
In this assignment I attempted to utilize elements of all camera work skills I have gained throughout this course so far. I have also relied, in parts, on skills I already had prior to this course. Where possible I have used variation in subject matter, in many I employ a degree of abstract thought. I deliberately tried to avoid influence in this first assignment in order to give my assessor an insight into my choices in photography. Some shots were also challenges to me, shifting outside of my comfort zones, still life and the vernacular for instances pushed me outside of my usual preferences for portrait and landscape.
Other references to my study and work:
1. My online learning blog - http://martingillman.blogspot.com/
2. My web site – www.martingillman.co.uk
3. My flickr pages - http://www.flickr.com/people/martingillman/
4. I have enclosed a folder containing tear sheets with comment, sample shots and a sketch/note book.
Long
Long
Clevedon Pier, near Bristol. I’ve been thinking about doing some long exposure for a while and decided to give it a go for this. This is another simple art type photograph, its for wall hanging really but the long pier was the intent initially and it turned into an opportunity for experimenting.
A few months ago I made a home made ND filter. It’s a welding mask screen glued to an adaptor ring so it can be fitted to a 77mm dia lens. Its very dark, Id guess 10 stops plus but it allows very long exposure with one draw back, the shots come out green so can only really be used if your going for a mono conversion. I set up, on a tripod of course at the waters edge at set the camera to ‘bulb’ and used a cable release. I had the aperture at f22 and ISO at 100 to retain detail as long exposures can get noisy. I tried several manual exposures in bulb and this, the best of them came in at 217 seconds. That’s a long time when your watching the tide beginning to lap your toes.
I like the smooth ghostly effect long exposure in sky and water give, here im not so happy with the ‘ghosting’ around the pier supports where they meet the water.
short
Short – Girl with tethered balloon
Now I broke a rule I had set myself here. Not to mix any of the pairings as mono and colour, but why not? This is afterall an assignment to produce a collection of contrasting images.
This picture was made during a fun shoot with two model friends and a fellow photographer. I wanted to shoot a meadow scene with some big out of place balloons. With my studies always in mind I intended to get at least one shot from the day for this assignment. So ‘Girl with tethered balloon’ was created. The short element here is the length of the balloon ribbon, deliberate for this shot as most of the others left them trailing high above her. Her however I opted for a single balloon held short and close.
85mm, f1.4, 1/8000s, ISO 100
This balloon is many things to her, her thoughts, her dreams, her personality, her games, her heart.
Sweet
Sweet
Ok, a little obvious? But we are back to my influences again, this is a clear attempt at a tribute to the still life ‘fruit’ painting.
I don’t photograph food, it’s an art of its own, but I gave it a go. A single shoot through brolly to spill a rough light across the frame was all I needed, nothing spectacular, that would not be true to my plan.
f4, 1/125s, ISO 100 at 50mm
It’s a little bare, it need more fruit, more content, more textures. But maybe it’s a poor mans version?
Sour
Sour
I roped in my son again, as a model. Sour here in the context of his mood when I took the picture which I think I have managed to capture. He was moaning at the lack of fishing action that day, that Dad had caught and he had not, sourpuss!
Portraits are ‘my thing’ so I expect myself to do a better job here and I did. The light is lovely and no reflectors are needed when the sea and shingle around you bounce the light almost evenly in all directions. I just waited for the right moment, and pulled the trigger.
f11, 1/1000s, ISO 800 at 70mm
One of my favorite shots of my son in fact
Thick
Thick ‘as a door step loaf’
Now using bread for thick, initially felt obvious. So, I wanted to make it a little different. I had hoped to get our on the day to be a little more creative but the weather forced me to attempt this contrast pairing at home with what I had, to hand. This began to get a bit tongue in cheek.
Why not take several slices of bread and bolt them together I thought, literally bolt them. You see thickness doesn’t have to be a solid thickness, it can be a laminate too, and why not laminate bread? A quick rummage in the shed found me too long coach bolts, probably off the back of the washing machine 7 slices of bread and I was ready. I guess it signifies greed in some ways, I added the oozing ketchup last minute as I wanted something to emphasize the squeeze or tightness of the bonded bread. The spanner finishes that thought off.
Technically this was simple, I used off camera flash softened help at 45 degrees above center. 50mm lens at f1.4 to drown out the worktop as it doesn’t add to the image. Shutter synched at 1/250s for flash work and ISO 100
Hindsight? I wanted this in colour, in fact I was going to adjust the colour to an older rich film effect but I cant mix colour and mono in the pair and the ‘thin’ shot always was going to be mono. As I think thin is a better photograph, it got the vote on the pair.
Thin
Thin ‘my son is thin’
Another shot I had planned in my head in some detail. The basic concept was a thin person, in baggy clothes in a setting which drew long and thin also like an alley way or corridor. Well, the home hallway had to do due to the rain and I roped my 13 year old son in as a model.
The scene is set quite carefully, the props hanging around are deliberate, to get you thinking. What is he doing? why are the hat and crucifix relevant? Is he shamed and is there a religious undertone? Is an adult involved? Aren’t those adult clothes he is wearing? Is he leaving? Being expelled? You decide. I like to do this, to put or even try to hide hints within a photograph but only when I have time and influence to do it.
I set the scene to use the bright light coming through the door and wanted that light to influence the length of the corridor. It of course left Jake silhouetted so I used a single strobe, with a snoot fitted to aim the light just to pop his back. I used a wide lens at 24mm tripod mounted with a shutter speed of 1/125s, ISO 100 and aperture f2.8
I’m not so happy with the shadow cast by the flash on the door and there isn’t enough light on his legs, in fact in PP I had to use a dodge and burn tool to lift them slightly. I do like how the natural light popped his feet though, nice.
Rough
Rough
I have to admit, here I brought the photo to the theme. Again In Cambridge I couldn’t resist this shot. The cracked, dry, rough path is the excuse but the reason is the depth of the lead through the composition.
We are waiting for an approaching cyclist, who will never arrive, so we sit and look, sit and look.
F8, 1/125s, ISO 200 at 70mm
Smooth
Smooth - ‘like a raindrop’
The thought here was to capture the raindrops settled on a surface of some kind. I had planned to use a lens with a good bokeh to add further ‘roundness’ off subject felt this would accentuate the theme throughout all the dimensions of the piece.
Considerations were to either construct this using a spray gun or to wait for a natural occurrence, fortunately on shoot day, it rained. The low light of the day offered a challenge to my thoughts for a bright exposure so I had to reach for a Speedlight which I softened with a mini soft box.
I settle for a Honeysuckle leaf as my surface as it was both at a convenient height for me and the leaf itself held good colour. The pale green and purple worked together and this plant seems to catch more drops than most anyway. I opted for a tri-pod and a macro lens which allowed me to get close and keep steady. The flash was set on a lead and hand held so I could hold it above center to lens to act as a false sun, it was quite a dull day. I shot with the flash in manual so I had complete control, the shutter to its max synch at 1/250s at ISO 200. The lens, a 60mm f2.8 macro was designed for this kind of thing and close focus was a breeze, I shot it at f3.5 which gave the best exposure whilst maintaining good de-focus for the background. Colour was lifted slightly in Post Processing as a boost.
Upon reflection, my cropping here isn’t right, I will still submit as is to indicate that this is something I didn’t decide on until post print. A tighter crop would have kept attention where it should be, there is too much wasted space to the right.
Strong
Strong – Tank
The weather was really beating me during this phase. I had planned this shot some weeks in advance but every time shoot time came up, the rain came down. I really wanted this shot back lit by the sun.
The strength here speaks for itself, the angle I used was intended to give a feeling of being overwhelmed by the tank, as it bares down of the viewer.
F8, 1/250s, ISO 320 at 24mm
The disappointing part for me is the sky, its dull and featureless and this takes away from the shot for me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to move the vehicle to a better spot.
Weak
Weak
Not so obvious. I wanted to choose a subject that was indeed weak, but also fabulous. I have a peacock feather at home and it seemed to meet the criteria.
The framing here is quite deliberate of course. Its to suggest a human form, maybe a dancer or a posed model. Good punchy colour was a need as was a sharp image.
f8, 1/125s, ISO 100 at 50mm
I think I could have done more with the lines, made more use of the diagonals.
Large
Large – rear of Hotel
Pretty self explanatory, I chose this as the complexity and the shapes of the features like staircases and railing add real interest for this. It’s a multitude of angles, shapes and random arrangements.
I like the idea of not knowing what’s going on behind those walls and windows when photographing buildings, especially busy looking buildings like this. I find myself checking all the windows for clues or for unexpected appearances.
F5.6, 1/500s, ISO 400 at 50mm
I should have corrected the distortion here
Small
Small
One of the few shots that I decided to pair the its contrast partner, large. Pair as far as the subject matter anyway.
A very simple and uninspiring photograph but I like the questions it asks. Who lived here? When? Why? and what of the single seat to the right? It’s a concrete bench, that sits in perfect company with the stone building. Are they related? Or is one added later to compliment the other, or are they totally unrelated?
Tricky low light made getting the best here a challenge.
F8, 1/500s, ISO 3200 at 70mm
Black
Black ‘as coal’
Coal seems a more obvious subject for black but I already had this picture in my head and wanted to make it. Coal is a commodity, it has real value it was once like oil referred to as black gold and I wanted to make a picture which indicted both its blackness and its value and in particular these days, its rarity.
I opted to ‘cup’ the coal in my own hands to project the sense of value, in the same way one might hold water or jewels. It was also important to get the dust and dirt onto my clean hands, this for me shows that this commodity isn’t gained without graft, dirty hands are to me a signature of hard graft.
Shooting this was a challenge as I was both the photographer and the model. I wanted to use a large aperture as light was tricky and this presented a problem in itself, focusing. I need to have my focal points on the coal to keep my hands and coal in focus but I was using a self timer function on my camera. A cable release was no good as my hands were full, and filthy. I set the camera to a tripod and stood a bare light stand where I intended to put my hands. I focused and focus locked onto the head of the stand, then started the shutter timer. This meant, coal in hands I had to swiftly swap places with the stand, arrange my hands exactly where the head had been and pose in 10 seconds. Effectively I had to create the depth of field and get myself into it as quickly as I could, it isn’t easy doing this the wrong way around. I can assure you it took a few frames before I got the shot I wanted but it did teach me a lot about just how shallow the DOF is at f5.6 at 1 meter.
I shot in ambient light with a shutter speed of 1/1000s at ISO 800. Aperture was f5.6 with white balance in auto.
White
5. White – Lilly White
What else? Again im playing with my influences in painting here which you will get to see a lot in my work, its deliberately a little Monet and I make no apologies for that.
I had tried many shots for this, but none were quite right until this one. As the afternoon sun lowered it clipped the surrounding bushes and pierced through them giving me these lovely random shadows. Getting the correct exposure was a challenge, I had to spot meter the Lilly itself mainly because it is so white any ounce of over exposure led to it being blown out. To balance that and not have the rest of the shot too dark took some thinking about. Even now it’s a close call.
f4, 1/1000s, ISO 100 at 85mm
It’s a nice simple shot with care to the positioning of the main ‘point’ which I think works quite well.
Few
Few ‘this is a few’
Ah the cows, I was having a little fun here. The sky that day was a perfect mix of blue and white and I noticed how this was reflected by the hide of the Frisian cows...see it? So I’m playing here a little, it was tempting to colour change the blacks and browns on the cows to blue also for a little abstract but I decided to keep things as they were in the end. However the patterns are similar and so we still have some quirky connections here.
I boosted the saturation in this one and I think that works and the framing of two animals looking my way is also deliberate. The actual scene spread along much further than this frame suggests so I picked a ‘set’ of cattle for the shot and picked the two looking up as my ‘book ends’.
f8, 1/160s, ISO 100 at 70mm
Many
Many
A stroll along the beautiful Dorset coast, at Chesil beach produced this shot. Near to sunset with gorgeous light I couldn’t resist picking these groups of flowers out pushing up through the salty shingle.
The framing is very deliberate to use the space well and add a point into the shot with the smaller separate bunch. To me its just a pretty subject and a break from a few of the deeper more abstract shots here already which is in itself a contrast. Its inviting the viewer to just sit or lay down right there and enjoy the warmth of that late sun and the fresh warmed breeze coming up off the shore. It’s sensory bath time!
The many is of course the flower heads but what about the shingle? It relates back to the shot ‘few’ so we have a slight connection here other than the obvious.
Natural light is wall that was needed here of course. Again my trusty 50mm lens at f2.8, shutter at 1/2000s and ISO 100. I had to sit down to get this perspective and a sense of space and a shallow DOF to bring the eye to the important point which is the lone bunch of flowers, the mavericks or pioneers of the next big spread.
If I did this again I would perhaps stop down the aperture further and bring more in, maybe it’s a little too shallow as is.
Pointed
Pointed ‘like a fish tail’
The thought was to arrange a line or curve of Mackerel tails. This fish is a speed machine in its natural habitat and the design of the fish is sleek and pointed to cut through the water allowing it to out run its slower prey.
Visually what is most interesting and therefore appropriate to the theme is that the rear of the fish is a collection of triangles. There is the obvious fork tail but look closer. The rear of the body in its entirety moves to a point, also there are the small ‘stabilisers’ which appear along the paper into the tail. To finish the fish are arranged to a softer point to give them direction, the head end is deliberately out of shot, are they swimming by? Are they dead? Alive? The fish are arranged on a black glass table top, the table put outside to reflect the overcast sky of the day. This gives a clean and pleasing background and the reflection of the grey cloud softens and lifts is out from what would have been a dull black area. I will go on to use this setting again later in this assignment.
As for the camera and settings. An FX DSLR was used with a 50mm f1.4 lens. The shutter speed was 1/8000s at ISO 400. The aperture was set to f1.4 as I wanted a pleasing effect that brought the eye to one of the fish which was deliberately picked in the upper third of the frame. The light is ambient, I feared any strobe would blow out the highlights which were already tough to contain due to the high luminance of the fish skin in places. Also flash would have ruined the reflective table effect I felt, perhaps creating a nasty grey/white area which would not effectively outline the subject.
My self critique here is my failure to prevent blow out on the fish flanks, the contrast within this photograph is high and to get the mid tones bright enough to keep the detail in the fins without blowing the highlight on the flanks was tough, and I didn’t quite get it right.
Blunt
Blunt – Punting Boats, Cambridge
I was lucky enough to have to visit Cambridge on business during the assignment. I arrived early and had an hour or so to spare before dinner so I grabbed the camera in the hope that I may find some inspiration for the shots I needed.
I walked the banks of the river Cam and instantly spotted these small craft being used by the public, the blunt bow of each boat quite distinct. I decided to grab a few shots of these tied together. So here we are, I concentrated on getting a nice general shot but with these boats as the main subject matter, it was important to get the city in too, my thoughts at the time were to mimic a painting I have of a row of venetian Gondolas moored up.
As for my critique. The lack of an interesting sky lets this down a bit but I’m pleased with the composition and the use of the whole frame here.
Shot at f8, 1/250s ISO 400 at 56mm
Straight/Curved
f1.4, 1/8000, ISO 100, 50mm
On a walk in the English Countryside I couldn't resist this shot, there were a number of these bent small trees which are sculpted by the continuous Northern wind coming off the sea. The straight lines of the farm gate sitting adjacent to the tree just summed up the theme for me, one natural, one man made but both from he same material. Shot with a large aperture to bring attention to subjects.
No comments:
Post a Comment