Exercise 12 - Close and Involved (Wide Angle Lens)

What: The main brief of this exercise was to get close and involved with the subject by the use of a wide angled lens

Where: Edinburgh, Outdoors

When: Afternoon on a mild overcast day.

How: I had a found already to my cost that using a small point and shoot camera would be of no use, as even thought the images were coming back as having a focal depth of 17mm or 18mm when in  fact the find image was nothing of the sort.

Example of the point and shoot at apparently 17mm

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Kodak Easyshare, Exposure Mode Auto, focal length 17mm (35mm equivalent 96mm), aperture f5.2, speed 1/250 second, ISO 250,Auto white balance, Matrix metering, Hand held camera.

 

Possessing the widest angle lens for my DSLR that I had, I decided that this may be of better use as it was a 11 mm-16 mm meaning that I would have to get close.

I had already tested the suitability of close up photography with a visit to Jupiter Art Land where I took a number of closeup shots of statues in the woods using the 11-16mm wide angle lens and I knew that I was going to get within three feet of people to obtain a close image.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 13mm (35mm equivalent 19mm), aperture f16, speed 1/6 second, ISO 800,Shade white balance, Matrix metering, Hand held camera, 11-16mm lens,

 

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 11mm (35mm equivalent 16mm), aperture f16, speed 1/30 second, ISO 800,Shade white balance, Center Weight metering, Hand held camera, 11-16mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 11mm (35mm equivalent 16mm), aperture f16, speed 1/45 second, ISO 800,Shade white balance, Center Weight metering, Hand held camera, 11-16mm lens,

These images are from a visit to Jupiter Art Land, I found myself always within about 3 feet from the statues when I photographed them as it allowed the full statue to be contained within the frame.

I visited a community gathering in Edinburgh where I hoped that there would be a number of events and enough people where I could use the lens without attracting attention when trying to photograph someone within a few feet away.

I was again at the disadvantage of my disability so I knew that I to balance the twin objects of obtaining the photographs without being knocked to the ground by accident.

My first attempt to find a number of locations to shoot from did not work as I could not get close enough to anyone quickly and take the shot as they passed as the lens is very slow to focus. I managed to obtain a number of close-ups of subjects but they were all blurred.

 The second attempt was a bit more successful; I hung the camera around my neck and with one hand to control my balance on my walking stick I placed my left hand around the camera so that the tips of my fingers just touched to the top of the shutter release. This allowed me to move in and out of the people and first the shutter when I thought that I might capture and interesting image.

In the main I was pretty unsuccessful, most of the images were incorrectly framed, blurred or at a completely odd angle. I could get close enough to people but the lens being slow to focus meant that I mainly photographed them as they passed or they adjusted angle of approach at the last minute and I ended up getting a close up of their jacket.

The requirement to have little distance to the subject did not allow for clear and concise framing, by hanging the camera a lower position meant that the frame could be interfered with by practically anything from passers-by and the simple fact  that I had to shoot and trust the I had captured what I wanted.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 14mm (35mm equivalent 21mm), aperture f9.5, speed 1/60 second, ISO 400, Auto white balance, Matrix metering, Hand held camera, 11-16mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 14mm (35mm equivalent 21mm), aperture f9.5, speed 1/180 second, ISO 400, Auto white balance, Matrix metering, Hand held camera, 11-16mm lens,

I noticed here another flaw with using the wide angle lens and that was that some movement caused distortion, here the subjects hand has “jellied” and distended.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 14mm (35mm equivalent 21mm), aperture f9.5, speed 1/250 second, ISO 400, Auto white balance, Matrix metering, Hand held camera, 11-16mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 14mm (35mm equivalent 21mm), aperture f9.5, speed 1/45 second, ISO 400, Daylight white balance, Matrix metering, Hand held camera, 11-16mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 14mm (35mm equivalent 21mm), aperture f9.5, speed 1/250 second, ISO 400, Auto white balance, Matrix metering, Hand held camera, 11-16mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 13mm (35mm equivalent 19mm), aperture f9.5, speed 1/60 second, ISO 400, Auto white balance, Matrix metering, Hand held camera, 11-16mm lens,

Re examining the images I see that from the way I had decided to step up the camera and then use a kind of surveillance technique of photographing meant that I could not adjust the settings of the camera; once I had picked an f-stop and what kind of white balance and metering I wanted I could not really adjust anything while moving. Even the focal length was pretty much fixed unless the camera was bumped slightly knocking the lens back from 11mm towards 16mm.

The exercise was quite a challenge not only physically but also mentally as I had to trust my instincts and just hope that I had captured what I wanted.

I am not truly happy with the results of the exercise as I found that the choice of lens was too extreme, at 11-16mm a lot of the subjects were further away from the lens than I had hoped. I may revisit the exercise using something more like a normal kit lens starting at 17mm where I can work between 17mm and 24mm to obtain better framing and composition.

Exercise 11 - Standing Back (Project Medium Telephoto)

What: The main brief of this exercise was to find a comfortable situation and concentrate on photographing people in “action” without attracting their attention

Where: Edinburgh, Outdoors

When: Morning and Afternoon on a bright sunny day.

How: I had a route planned that I wanted to travel so that I had enough time to locate a photograph subjects that I found interesting.

Having previously used a telephoto lens to photograph people unaware I was reasonably comfortable that I could obtain the objectives of the exercise.

This time around however I did not have the advantage of a slightly higher position to photograph from. This meant that I had to negotiate the foot traffic of passing people and hope that during the photograph that they did not travel though the frame blocking the view.

The extra distance did allow for framing however there were a number of immediate disadvantages, a lower position meant that the frame could be interfered with by items in the foreground as well as items in the background. I did find that I had to “hunt” positions where I could photograph from. Also being low to the ground meant that people did not always see me and occasionally they would walk into me or push me out of the way. When this happened I had to stop and martial my confidence again before bringing the camera back up to my eye.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/250 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

One of the first problems I encountered was that the foreground was not always as clear as I wanted it to be, as in this case I had a metal fence between myself and the subjects. I tried to use the circles and top bar of the fence to draw the eye into the frame, but I am not sure if I succeeded.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/250 second, ISO 100, Auto white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

I also found that I quickly lost the bright light, and that personally the weight of the camera and lens was too much when it was being hand held.

I found that this interfered slightly with composition and framing.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/350 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

It did however allow for the opportunity to locate and isolate subjects. In this case the subject was handing out leaflets to passing foot traffic and from his expression I could see that it was not fulfilling. I would have preferred to have a f-stop or two more to allow me to isolate him from his background but the long focal length is enough to enhance the focus onto the individual.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/750 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

Again the practical difficulty of maintaining a steady hand caused a few problems, on review of a number of images, I found that the camera when set on continuous focus sometimes suddenly adjusted the focus when someone moved into the bottom or side of the frame, this along with struggling to maintain focus on the original subject due to shaking hands and arms meant that I lost the choice of image that I wanted. Here while tracking the walking woman from left to right the camera wanted to refocus on the subjects who entered the frame from the bottom.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/250 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

I did find that passers-by and traffic sometimes either blocked the view or entered the frame just as I was setting off the shutter, therefore spoiling the image. In those cases I just had to start again.  Once or twice I found myself being knocked by a passer-by causing me to lose balance and lose the shot.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/500 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

The great advantage of course is that I could pick and choose my subjects without their knowledge allowing for natural un-posed images

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/500 second, ISO 200, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

Overall I enjoyed the exercise, as it allowed me to pick and isolate my subject matter without interfering in their actions. I found it allowed me to be more creative in selection of subject matter and in finding a good shooting position and work from it rather than having to get right into the subject and lose my own personal focus as I have to become more focused on ensuring that I am not knocked over.

Exercise 10 - Capturing the Moment

What: The main brief of this exercise was to attempt to capture the moment.

Where: Edinburgh, Outdoors

When: Afternoon on a bright sunny day.

How: Previously I had passed this location and noticed a lot of activity. Knowing that this exercise was coming up I noted the location and decided to return to see if it was still busy and whether or not it would be suitable for the exercise.

I used a combination of a 50mm prime lens and a 70-300mm telephoto lens.

Although in all of the images I picked out when I reviewed them, the telephoto lens images stood out, as I feel that each image captured the particular moment that I was looking for.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/1000 second, ISO 100, Auto white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

This gent was striding along the street; his hurried movements caught my eye as everyone else was strolling along. He was deep in thought and I wanted to capture his expression.

Moving along to my intended area, I found that it was not as busy as the previous visit, probably due to it being on a Sunday and the park entrances were taken over by a local newspaper promoting the golf competition which was happening locally.

I found a quiet location and watched people interact with the news sellers, as well as the interaction of the selling team itself.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 135mm (35mm equivalent 202mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/250 second, ISO 100, Auto white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 230mm (35mm equivalent 345mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/180 second, ISO 100, Manual white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 165mm (35mm equivalent 247mm), aperture f5.0, speed 1/500 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

I watched a number of people taking part in tutored golf lessons, while watching some of the people I decided I wanted to capture some of the movements of the golfers and the tutors as they worked together.

This movement from the golfer as she is about to start on her backswing a hit the ball into the net was the one movement I was trying to capture from her.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 230mm (35mm equivalent 345mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/250 second, ISO 100, Auto white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

Watching the tutors I spotted that they spent a lot of time demonstrating their interpretations of the movements of the golfers. This tutor spent a couple of minutes demonstrating foot positions. His movements were like a little dance and I wanted to capture his twist as he moved his feet.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 270mm (35mm equivalent 405mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/750 second, ISO 200, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

This tutor was showing the golfer the right position to hold the club during the swing, this was the best of the images I captured as I wanted both of them to be focused on the end of the club.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 155mm (35mm equivalent 232mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/1000 second, ISO 200, Auto white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

While the golfers were being tutored people continued to walk through the park. I captured this couple in discussion as they passed through the park ignoring the golfers around them.

 I was surprised to find that I had chosen exclusively images captured using the telephoto lens. I feel that it made it easier to monitor and predict the movements of the subjects as well as allowing me time to monitor and compose the image that I wanted. 

Exercise 9 Revisited

What: The main brief of this exercise was to take a number of photographs of people gathered together in an outdoor situation

Where: Edinburgh, Outdoors

When: Morning and Afternoon on a bright sunny day.

How: I had a route planned that I wanted to travel so that I had enough time to locate a photograph subjects that I found interesting.

Having taken a break for several months due to the ongoing progression of my ill health, I decided that I should revisit this exercise and start where I left off.

This time around my confidence was a lot lower; I am uncomfortable directly approaching people and talking them into allowing me to take a photograph. I felt however that I really needed to start rebuilding my confidence again, so I did a mixture of people unaware and people that I approached and spoke to.

As we travelled the route I spoke to people as well as photographed them using a combination of a 50mm prime lens and a 70-300mm telephoto lens. I tried not to use the telephoto lens where I could, but occasionally I had to be out of the main thoroughfare to avoid being knocked over.

It was quite a challenge using the 50mm lens and not to attract the attention of the people being photographed. However as the day progressed my confidence rose as I worked through the exercise as I felt happier talking the photos.

To begin with I found a sitting position where I had 360 degrees of view; I could see quite a distance and because I was sitting away from the main thoroughfare I was comfortable enough to sit with the camera and watch people as they went about their day.

As people passed, I was able to see them come into view and I was able to frame them in the cameras view finder and wait until they became well composed within the view finder. The longer that I sat there the more people started to ignore me and allow me to point the camera in their direction.

When using the 50mm lens, I did not want too great a depth of field but at the same time I did not want it to be razor thin. I decided on an aperture of f/2.8 as I knew that I could obtain the depth of field that I wanted without isolating the subject from their surroundings.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/4000 second, ISO 160, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/4000 second, ISO 160, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

I was surprised by how close I could be to the subjects without them knowing that I was choosing them for the image.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/4000 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/4000 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

I noticed a large number of people who were either concentrating on their mobile phone or talking on their mobile phone and was at this point that I realised that a lot of people were very involved in their own “thing” and had were not really paying attention to what was going on around them.

I decided that for a couple of shots I would focus on the people in my immediate surroundings

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/1500 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

I was surprised to find that I could photograph people who were in fact quite close to me, and who had been sitting close by for a while and who were no ignoring the fact that I was photographing individuals and were giving their implicit trust and permission.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/750 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

Having become very comfortable with the concept of photographing people again, I moved on down the street into a local market full of German produce.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/3000 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/60 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

I could see that some of the stall owners were initially watching me as I lifted the camera to my eye, but then just went back about their business. Everyone appeared to be quite happy that I was not intruding and did not notice that I was picking out who I wanted to photograph.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/750 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

After that I moved onto the main street and continued to photograph.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/2000 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f2.8, speed 1/750 second, ISO 100, Daylight white balance, Centre Weight metering, Hand held camera, 50mm lens,

To begin with I did feel uncomfortable and mostly photographed people side on as they passed as I did not want to attract too much attention, but as I carried on I found myself standing in front of people attempting to catch their expressions. As I gained a little confidence I was happy to see that most people were not too bothered that they were being photographed and some were oblivious at being photographed.

I tried to capture some gestures but did not manage much as lot of people were either on their own or too busy with their own thoughts.

Building your Confidence - People Unaware

What: The main brief of this exercise was to take a number of photographs of people gathered together in an outdoor situation

Where: North Berwick, Outdoors

When: In the afternoon, just after about 1 pm. when the sun was high enough in the sky to provide adequate light

How: Upon arriving I decided to start shooting when we came across a likely situation.

We arrived when there was a break in a sailing competition; this gave me quite a range of subjects as there were a number of spectators as well as competitors.

I was quite comfortable shooting people as a previous part on the Art of Photography course required photographing people at an outdoor event.

I walked along the location and when I spotted something that I thought might make a well composed photograph I took a couple of frames. Since the boats were being brought back onto dry land there was a bit of commotion and several of the racers were under a bit of strain to pull their boats back up the stretch of beach and up the ramp.

I used a longer focal length as I did not want to get in the way of the boats being moved, although I was able to pull back to the minimum focal length of the lens as I moved down and around the competitors.

 We continued on along the beach and I photographed people sitting around the harbour area;

As I was quite comfortable and I was enjoying the sun, I think that this may have helped me try and capture the expressions of people enjoying their day.

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 240.0mm (35mm equivalent 360mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/1000 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Auto, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/4000 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, monopod mounted camera, 70-300mm lens,

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Auto, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/500 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, monopod mounted camera, 70-300mm lens,

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Nikon D80, Exposure Mode Auto, focal length 280mm (35mm equivalent 420mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/750 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Auto, focal length 145mm (35mm equivalent 217mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/750 second, ISO 250, Manual white balance, Spot metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/2000 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/2000 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/3000 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 300mm (35mm equivalent 450mm), aperture f5.6, speed 1/350 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, Hand held camera, 70-300mm lens,

It was a good start, although I did find that using a telephoto lens did make taking photos easier as I could get a bit of distance between myself and the subject.
Using telephoto certainly allowed me to pan around the area and compose quite tightly on the subjects without compromising my own comfort.

The Scot who Shot the Civil War.

The BBC showed a 1 hour documentary on Alexander Gardner, a Scot from Paisley, who moved to New York and worked as a camera operator. Gardner’s technical skill was so good that he was tasked with photographing the Union Army during the Civil War. Gardner first spent an amount of time in his studio taking portraits of young men in uniform going off to fight what they thought was going to be a short war. Gardner’s portraits were hand tinted and the gold braiding on the uniforms was painstakingly hand-painted in. Gardner followed the men into war and his first images of the civil war were post battlefield images of bodies lying where they fell. Gardner followed the war both on the battlefield and off, taking four portraits of the new president of the Union Abraham Lincoln. The four images are startling as they mark the time between Lincoln’s first rise to presidency, through the bloody civil war to the final portrait which was taken practically on the day the civil war ended. Gardner’s technique in portraiture is outstanding in that you can see in the last portrait what the weariness and struggle of war and trying to unite the nation had done to Lincoln.

The programme proposed that Gardner was the first War Photojournalist – photographers whose images of the dead on the battlefield and the damage that it did to the cities were unique in style. The programme, however, skirted over the work of Roger Fenton who five years before the start of the civil war had been photographing the Crimean war. Fenton had taken one of the first, if not the first, post battlefield image from the valley of the Charge of the Light Brigade. Fenton also photographed landmarks and images of fortifications mainly for propaganda images. Fenton’s work is also closely matched by the work of Gustav Le Gray who was photographing French troops during the Crimean war.

While not the first War journalist in the civil war, Forbes Weekly had commissioned the artist William “Alfred” Waud and Winslow Homer to draw and paint images from the front line which were then filled in and etched onto publishing plates for the printer. Gardner was in the unique position of having support from the Generals for the use of his roving darkroom to replicate maps during the war. Gardner’s printing skills came into use again after the assassination of President Lincoln where he was able to print images for handbills calling for the capture of the perpetrators.

Upon their capture Gardner was given access to the prisoners and he photographed their portraits both straight on and to the side, possible making these the first “mug shots” of prisoners. Gardner was given almost free access to the prisoners and his images are clear and well defined, considering that they were taken aboardship during the period of time when the prisoners were held. Gardner’s single access also took him to the prison here he and an assistant were the first people to photograph an execution. Gardner’s skill is shown in the image where he caught the figures dropping after the trapdoors were sprung for their hanging.

Most of Gardner’s images were never published in newspapers during the war but his images were displayed during and after the war and a selection was published in a book.

Certainly Gardner was in the right place at the right time; his knowledge and skills are shown in his images and his portraiture still stands today as wonderful images showing the soul of his subjects. He was almost certainly the first photographer to embed himself into a military unit and to share his images not only with the military but with the public as well.

Assignment 1

What: The main brief of this assignment was to take a number of portrait photographs where the portraits differed in style.

Where: At home, Outdoors and Indoors

When: Various times of the day.
How: Before I started I cast a wide net for ideas including; photography magazines, a number of books on film, National Geographic and some calendar shots.

The ideas we decided to try were:-

Sitting

• Face on, head and shoulders
• Reverse chair, dark background
• Against a wall with knees drawn up

Standing

• Face and fiddle
• In darkness, looking at a laptop

 

First Fiddle Shoot

For the first shoot I referred back to the basic lighting shots exercise, but this time switched off the room lights. I used a single, remotely-fired flash and moved in and out with the framing, adjusting the power of the flash accordingly so that it did not overexpose the image. I wanted to get a get an image of Lindsay with her fiddle. At first the images were too dark and I had to start all over again. This time I used a cloth backdrop to prevent the flash being reflected from the white cupboard doors in the background and kept the room lights on. I had to move the flash around a bit until I obtained the lighting and expression that I wanted.

Wrong Lighting on First Shoot – DSC_005

Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f4.5, speed 1/180 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 18-70mm lens.

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f4.5, speed 1/180 second, ISO 250, Shade white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 18-70mm lens,

 

Simple Face Portrait in Monochrome

After that I decided to try an outside shoot. I started by having Lindsay just sitting on a chair and after positioning the camera slightly higher than her head height, I used the natural light to capture the image. I turned the image to monochrome as it looked better.

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 105mm (35mm equivalent 157mm), aperture f/3.2, speed 1/90 second, ISO 320, Shade white balance, Multi Segment metering, tripod mounted camera, 105mm  lens,

 

 

We went back inside for two shoots, inspired by the painted portraits I had seen in the National Portrait Gallery. In this session I wanted to try several shots, with a 50’s, 60’s and 80’s spin. The lighting set up ‘worked’, so I used it for all of the following.

Red Glove

While working on this image I went from landscape to portrait and back to landscape. I wanted to be able to capture just part of Lindsay’s head and hand against the dark background. I used a dark grey muslin cloth to cover the background to prevent reflection, allowing me to position the camera as I wanted and have the flash fire from beside me pointing over her left shoulder. This prevented her face from being over exposed and bleaching the glove.

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f4, speed 1/180 second, ISO 100, Flash white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 50mm lens,

 

Black Hat

Lindsay and I had discussed this idea while working on the red glove portrait. Initially I wanted to produce a close-up of her face in the style of a ‘club’ banner. However during a discussion on the fabric of the gloves, we ended up getting sidetracked onto the idea of the hat and having her lean on her gloved hand. I used a lighter background, which was slightly reflective as I did not want to over-expose the back of the image and I wanted a slight reflection from the background to stand in for a back light.

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f4, speed 1/20 second, ISO 100, Flash white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 50mm lens,

 

Fiddle

In the last set of images; I incorporated one of Lindsay’s hobbies. She is quite a musical person, so I wanted to get at least one image of her with her fiddle. When I first shot this, the images were a complete disaster and I lost a bit of heart with the assignment.

Not wanting to be thwarted, however, I returned to the challenge, this time deciding to keep the image full of light rather than just using one flash. We worked in two sessions on this. The first session was beside a window where there was a lot of natural light. While she was sitting down, I raised the camera to quite a high height and shot down towards her face as she looked up into the lens. I was pleased with the final result as she was not too underexposed compared to the background.

 

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/30 second, ISO 320, Shade white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 50mm lens,

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 44mm (35mm equivalent 66mm), aperture f4.3, speed 1/8 second, ISO 1250, Auto white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 18-70mm lens,

 

For the second shoot, we returned to the room with the background and shot a few images there. Lindsay stood against the background, playing her fiddle while I positioned the camera directly in front of her and photographed her down the length of the instrument.

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f8, speed 1/8 second, ISO 3200, Shade white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 50mm lens,

 

Laptop

I wanted to produce one image with completely artificial light, but not using a flash or a torch. I hit upon the idea usually used in sci-fi or action films were the person’s face is lit up with the light from the screen. We waited until it was dark and then closed and sealed the curtains to keep out any light. I had Lindsay wear a dark wool jumper, sit on a low stool and open her netbook. I then had her look at a blue background screen and then a white word document to obtain differing colours of light. I took two images; one from a distance where her body is slightly defined by the light from the screen, the second image a close up of her face being lit by the white light from the screen.

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/20 second, ISO 1250, Flash white balance, Spot metering, hand held camera, 50mm lens,

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Nikon D80,Exposure Mode Manual, focal length 50mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/20 second, ISO 1250, Flash white balance, Spot metering, tripod mounted camera, 50mm lens.

I did find this assignment quite difficult as every time I hit a problem, I would lose a bit of momentum and hope; partially due to my ongoing illness. In the end however I believe I have managed to produce a number of good images that I am personally pleased with.