Project Space and Light. Exercise 18 How Space Changes with Light.

What: The brief of this exercise was to visit one or two locations where I could return a number of times in different lighting and photograph on each occasion.

Where: Work

When: First thing in the morning as soon as the sun had risen and at the end of the day after the sun had set.

How: I had made note of these locations as viable locations as I was easily able to revisit these locations a number of times during the day and easily photograph the conditions.

The only slight problem I had with these locations are that I was unable to setup a tripod due to the space restrictions and the ability to transport a lot of equipment across the site to these places.

In the first location I really wanted to capture the difference in lighting conditions as although there was only a little difference in shadow there was a vast difference in the colouration of the light within the space.

During the day a lot of light comes in through the room which is then supplemented with the large lights around the roof of the workshop. When the sun sets the shapes in the roof supports are clearer and better defined but the shadows are coloured by the artificial lights giving them a yellow tint.

The floor also takes on the yellow tint making it more orange than in natural light.

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Nikon D50, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 18mm (35mm equivalent 27mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/30 second, ISO 1600, Auto white balance, Matrix metering, Hand held camera, 18-70mm lens,

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Nikon D50, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 18mm (35mm equivalent 27mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/15 second, ISO 1600, Auto white balance, Matrix metering, Hand held camera, 18-70mm lens,

I was surprised to find that I only had to half my shutter speed at the end of the day to capture the final image of the workshop. Even though I was in a slight different position, I can easily compare the light conditions and the shadows, the space looses height as it has lost the brightness from the skylights and I feel that the walls are slightly closer as they are not reflecting the light back into the workshop area.

I decided to revisit the link bridge to capture the differences in light even on a dull day. As the bridge runs east/west it captures a lot of light during the day and a lot of the shadows are completely lost in the brightness. Nearest the camera there is a small spot of shadow created by the building behind the bridge which blocks the sun coming in from the left hand side of the camera.

In the evening the bridge loses a lot of light as the darkness below and to the sides of the bridge creates a dark tunnel around the space and it spaces the space into a tunnel rather than a bridge. The inside of the bridge is light up by the small lights in the roof, as the main purpose of the bridge is to allow movement from A to B it is not covered in lots of light as a lot of light is not really needed, enough light is required to allow people to see where they are going and that is it.

There are small shadows created behind the supports of the bridge as they are thrown into relief by the roof lights.

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Nikon D50, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 18mm (35mm equivalent 27mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/1000 second, ISO 1600, Auto white balance, Matrix metering, Hand held camera, 18-70mm lens,

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Nikon D50, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 18mm (35mm equivalent 27mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/45 second, ISO 1600, Auto white balance, Matrix metering, Hand held camera, 18-70mm lens,

I was surprised to find out how much light was lost as the shutter speed dropped from 1000^th of a second down to a 45^th of a second. I had expected the lights in the roof to produce much more light that what they actually did.

When I was at the bridge in the morning I took a modified camera which allows me to capture a colour Infra Red photograph, as an experiment to see if I could capture a completely different point of view on the lighting conditions of the space.

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Modified Nikon D40, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 55mm (35mm equivalent 82mm), aperture f4, speed 1/400 second, ISO 800, Manual white balance, Matrix metering, Hand held camera, 55-200mm lens,

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In the image I was able to capture a lot of repeating shadows which did not show up on the colour images. It also cast the other end of the link bridge into complete darkness making it a much sinister image, partially due to the image compression as I used the smallest focal length on a telephoto lens.

I am pleased to see that I was able to meet the brief and show that these areas changed with the lighting conditions.

Exercise 17 - The Users Viewpoint

What: The main brief of this exercise was choose two locations or spaces which are designed for a particular activity and to capture an image that attempts to capture the users point of view, taking into account height, orientation of the image and the lens focal length. 
Where: At the museum and at work. 
When: Two differing points in the day; at the museum it was mid morning and at work it was in the early evening. 
How: After making a couple of notes and examining a few locations I decided upon the two locations as they are vast spaces who are solely dedicated to movement of people from one location to another and they are almost ignored by the users on a daily basis. 

Museum Stairs Attending the museum I had to move in a non linear fashion into the buildings due to my limited mobility, therefore I get a unique point of view of the establishment as I am mainly routed through less used locations.

I wanted to capture these stairs specifically as they have been designed at an angle which you cannot see when you are using the stairs directly, it is only when you are about to descend the stairs that you notice the odd angle that the stairs have been built into.

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Nikon D80, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 29mm (35mm equivalent 43mm), aperture f9.5, speed 0.7 second, ISO 100, Fluorescent  white balance, Matrix  metering, Hand held camera, 18-70mm lens,

I chose this location and angle as it is at this point of time as I approach the stairs that the oblique angle of the stairs first defines itself to my eyes. I did not use a wide angle lens as this pulled in too much of the background and when orientated into portrait the wide angle lens still distorted the final image. I wanted the aperture to be wide enough to show that there was something at the bottom of the stairs but at the same time I did not want to blow out the whites of the tiles nor did I want to lose the grain of the wooden steps.

Link Bridge

I wanted to capture this space as it is a special space solely built to allow movement between buildings while still being a secure break between buildings to prevent fire moving between the buildings. Its design as a security feature as well as a transit space is ignored by most users.

I wanted to capture the amount of space dedicated to the “room” and I wanted to capture it in the dark as the sides are made of tough glass and during the day the amount of light coming into it can be blinding. At night however the space becomes a bright route between two dark spaces.

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Nikon D80, Exposure mode manual, focal length 11mm (35mm equivalent 16mm), aperture f9.5, speed 1/10 second, ISO 640, Fluorescent  white balance, Spot  metering, Hand Held camera, 11-16mm lens,

I really wanted to use the wide angle lens to capture not only the width of the bridge but the length. The bridge space spans off into the distance and the exit doors can be faintly made out in the glare of the lights as they repeat off into the distance. I also wanted to capture the Fibonacci like repetition of the light reflections on the floor.

 I am very happy with the final choice treatments of the spaces, I had a few attempts at spaces which in my mind made good choices and examples but when I visited the areas I could not capture the final image treatment that I wanted. I also had a few problems with low light in a few areas as I could not always get to the locations when the natural light was best.

Project Space and Function. Exercise 16 - Exploring Function

What: The main brief of this exercise was to examine a space and think about that it is intended to be used for, has the design of the space as it stands, been a successful design; does it fit the function of the space. Transfer this thought process into an image. 
Where: At Home, Indoors 
When: Just after sunrise. 
How: After making a lot of notes about the idea of the space of the bedroom, I think translated the thoughts into a single image. 

Locate a space: After thinking about different locations and spaces I decided to use the one space that I practically function from on a daily basis. The Bedroom 

Who uses the space: I do. 

Intention of the space: The dictionary definition of the bedroom is a room furnished for and used for sleeping and for the storage of clothes. How many aspects are there to the activity: Sleep hygiene tells us that the bedroom and the bed should only be used for sleeping and that you should not read, watch TV, or eat in bed/bedroom and that the bed and the bedroom have to be associated as the a relaxing location.

However many of us do not adhere tightly to these rules and that the bedroom has become a multi function area where rest and activity overlaps. People will watch TV, read, use computers until they become tired and at that moment the bedroom and the bed returns to the intended function which is a room where people sleep.

In reality in this point in time, the bedroom here in this image has had the function changed;

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Nikon D80, Aperture Mode Manual, focal length 14mm (35mm equivalent 21mm), aperture f13, speed 1/4 second, ISO 3200, Fluorescent  white balance, Matrix  metering, Tripod Mounted camera, 11-16mm lens,

It is a study spot, an office from where I work, a reading room, a cat space, a place to watch TV, read books, and eat and to listen to music. As well as the traditional function of a place to rest; especially when I am personally struggling to maintain a clear thought process due to chronic fatigue and pain. It can be clearly seen in the image that the area is cluttered with books, papers, magazines, laptops and cats and is clearly showing signs of occupation and a change of function from the definitive description and intended idea of what the space should be.

I decided upon a low light shot as I wanted to capture the room as intended, using the wide angle lens allowed to me to capture the space in a non architectural style, I wanted to converge the verticals and show that there was some form of human occupation of the space. I also wanted to capture the true day to day function of the space, I did not want to hide the fact that the space has had to become multifunction due to my condition.