Unit 57 - Photography - Louise Reed

http://mmjphotovs.blogspot.co.uk/


What is the paparazzi? -  a group/individual aiming to capture the private lives of famous people
What is the role of paparazzi? to capture exclusive images that are of high public interest
brief history of paparazzi - in the 50's the celebrities were controlled by studio photographers and the press were limited as to which images they were able to access. this changed when an italian in rome went around on a vespa, capturing pictures of a famous swedish actress with her husband.this caught the publics interest and in the 60's the royal family was protected by them as they were only aloud to have a maximum of 6 photos taken of them. the attitude has changed to the whole idea of paparazzi as the press have had an increase on the amount of many available to them and the higher demand has led to an increase in the amount of pictures wanted.
Pressures on modern paparazzi photographers - the modern paparazzi have a pressure to deliver the extremely high demand of the public interest. If they do not get exclusive pictures that will cause a reaction, they will not get paid as much as if they did.
A study case - there was the case of Brando and Galella, where Brando got angry at Galella for taking so many pictures of him, so much so that he fined Galella for £40,000.
Should the paparazzi exist? - yes, I think they should exist as there was already a definitive split between celebrity culture and society.

  Subjective Photography

Describe what you saw in the first image - 

A picture of a black lady Breastfeeding a little child.

Now describe it again -
The baby's head is half shaved but due to the colour difference between the two humans, it represents equality. , whilst holding the baby sideways against her body. The women is wearing a red, long sleeved shirt that is unbuttoned, and is cradling the baby. The women is holding the baby as if she is the mother. However, due to the visual difference in ethnicity, this does not morally seem viable. The slogan 'united colors of Benetton' is clearly presented in the image as it is two humans of different colours, engaging in the natural process of breastfeeding.

What do you think when Richard Doisneau said “We must always remember that a picture is also
made up of the person who looks at it”? -
I believe that he meant an image does not have a meaning without a person to manipulate and interpret it. the only way an image can have a meaning is for the mind of a person to think and interpret many different things about it.

How does knowing the context change the understanding or appreciation of an image? -
It changes the understanding as we all make interpretation within milliseconds of seeing an image. and when the context is known all of our interpretations are rubbished, and the image becomes a lot more factual and true than it was when we first saw it. It could also make us value the image a lot more than we initially did, as the context immediately puts a lot more information and labels on the things within the image.

What is happening within this image and why is it a powerful one? - this image includes various people running away from what appears to be an explosion, the people include distressed looks on their faces. The image is powerful because it shows the children reacting in a much greater manor to the soldiers, this could suggest that the explosion is affecting the children in a greater way, but could also demonstrate the soldiers courage to be able to stand firm in such a devastating event.

What does this photo mean to you?
This suggests to me that there is a much closer connection between man and nature than what we first thought, the ability the man has to allow the creatures on to his body shows us that it is very easy to connect with nature. However, the pale colour of the image suggests that it could be bad for us to be close with nature, and that despite the mans ease, he is secretly suffering from the effects of nature. the man appears to be innocent and the effects of nature has stripped him t his bare skin, this could be because nature is trying to shame man, and this could be some form of punishment.

•     Look at this photo, what do you think it is trying to tell us?

I think this image is trying to show that all of the religions in the Britain are against I.S. It is also trying to say that 'we're not racist' and is using a british hijab to get this point across as it is saying evry religion belongs in Britain

•       How powerful is this image? Give reasons for your answer.

This is powerful as it uses the religion that a large group of British society cast as outsiders, and are saying that they are representing Britain. It also is saying that Britain is mainly that religion, which in itself is very powerful.

•       How different is this image to usual ones we see in newspapers?

This is different to many other images we see, as this one is highly subjective, and is clearly aiming at impacting on the readers opinion and is mainly propaganda, where as other images in the newspapers are objective and aim to show a straight to the point summary of the article it is based on.

•     Now read the article to put the image into context, does the image back up the text in the article? 

It does back up the text in the article as in the article the writer is constantly stating that we should fight against extremists and uses language that reinforces the idea of propaganda, with a lot of direct address which the image uses. However, the image does not face straight forwards, this lessens the impact of the impact some what. 

•        Now read this article from the Guardian, has reading this article changed your views on the image? If so, why? 

It has changed my view on the article as I now see that it is specifically targeting Muslims, and is questioning the loyalty to the British identity. this has made it appear to me as now a very similar form of propaganda to the ones that screamed 'Your country needs you!', but this view is a lot more biased as it is stating about fighting against a specific opponent: I.S.

•    We see images in the papers every day, how powerful are they and why?

It really depends on what the type of story is, if it is something to do with advertising then they will need to be extremely powerful, as opposed to if is something for small article, in which then it will be a small image with not much power. Larger stories, however, include a very powerful image that will aim to either capture the subject of the article written or try to persuade you in to thinking in a certain way. This is so that the story is noticed a hell of a lot more than the smaller stories or the advertisements, allowing you to spread the publicity of the article and make more people aware of the 'issue'.

Ethics

1. Codes of practice taken from NPPA website for photojournalists - 

1. example of the breach of conduct-

During the Leveson enquiry, the editors and journalists of the tabloid 'The News of The World' were held solely responsible for the scandal to do with reporting the phone hacking to the public. This situation is completely against the code of conduct and extremely related to harassment, one case would be Sienna Miller who had changed her number 3 times to try and protect herself from being hacked. Unfortunately her email was hacked and she was forced to accuse one of her own family/friends about leaking a piece of personal information.

1. why do you think the truth is important in photojournalism? why do you think the rules are sometimes broken? 

I think the truth is important as it you will need to protect yourself from getting done for libel, as well as telling an honest story. The job of a photo journalist is to document a story through honest images and the code of conduct for photographers states that no image should be altered. However, some journalists break these conducts as they look to grab a photo that will have massive impact and cause a huge discussion amongst the public.

1. how does this differ from other forms of photography?

This form of photography is very objective, very 'what you see is what you get'

Rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is where you use a 3x3 grid to determine the focal point and arrange the subject in an image. It is a very basic and well known form of composition and has been used by photographers for a long long time. There is a new form of composition that is now seemed as being more aesthetically pleasing than the rule of thirds called the golden rule. This uses an algorithm to determine a certain spiral in which the subject is placed upon.

Not Rule of thirds

 Rule of Thirds

 Rule of Thirds

 Not Rule of Thirds

 Rule of Thirds

 Rule of Thirds

 Not Rule of Thirds

 Not Rule of Thirds

I chose these images because i thought they represented their respective subjects effectively and clearly showed the use of the rule of thirds technique when trying to compose my images. the reason is because it has the subjects in specific places in the frame so therefore they have the must emphasis. This allows the viewer to be easily identify the main point of the image. i set it up by using the rule of thirds grid that most digital cameras these days have.

Depth of field

Photography - Greek word for painting or drawing with light.

Ansel Adams - the most important thing of a camera is what's behind it.

Aperture - The circular hole of opening formed by the metal blades, called the iris diaghram inside the camera lense which light passes through to expose the film.
F steps - This is the measurement for Aperture and is rather confusing in how it is worked out. The general rule is, the higher the the higher the number, the less light being let in to the camera, and vice versa.
Aperture controls how much the picture is in focus, this is called depth of field.
Large depth of field - A lot of picture in focus.
Small depth of field - Only a small part is in focus.

These are examples of depth of field because the subject of the photo is clearly in more focus than the background. I achieved these shots by putting my camera on automatic and holding the shutter button half way down until the the subject was in as much focus as was necessary for the correct shot. This gives a very powerful feeling for the image and allows the importance of the subjects to be clearly shown.

Light

sources of light

• Moon
• sun
• street lamp
• light bulbs
• fire flies

4 considerations for light

• colour of light
• quantity of light
• quality of light
• direction of light

Hard light - lots of shadows, lots of texture

These are very good examples of soft light and hard light. the top right image shows a strong example      hard light due to the shadow in the background. this is achieved by having the subject exposed to harsh light without and shade to manipulate the light levels. The other two images are good examples of soft light due to the fact they don't have any shadows. admittedly the bottom image was meant to be an example of hard light but it wasn't until i looked at it afterwards, that i realised it wasn't due to the lack of shadow within the image.

White balance

here we used the white balance setting on the camera to change the colour of the image from the different settings on the camera. this is a way of getting the change of colour in an image without editing it on a computer software program. You can often find this option in the settings menu of camera and gives a variety of various forms of white balance for you to use. i was trying to show a warm and cold picture, and i felt i achieved this because the first image has a warm yellow tint to it, but the botoom one is a lot more plain and looks slightly colder than the above image.

leading lines 

leading lines are parts of a picture which draw the audience to the main focal point of the image, the are usually in the fore ground of the image and are the only things in focus.

these are good examples of leading lines as the lines are easily created and they lead to mostly focal points. the depth of field also helps direct the images focal point because it means the subject is in more focus the rest of the image. Leading lines are used in a lot of forms of photography and can be found anywhere. it gives a sense of intrigue within the image and leaves the viewer wandering whats on the other end of the 'Line'. I set the image up by finding any lines i could see and putting the camera at an angle that would create the leading lines effect.

Shutter speed

shutter setting controls how much light goes into the camera by controlling the length of time the shutter is open. Shutter speeds can go from small fractions of a second to several seconds long on most cameras, this will leave your camera too over exposed
Charlie Payne Photography

This will be with a fast shutter speed as it is not letting a lot of light in. this has the effect of making the image a lot darker and almost pitch black. this image for example was on 1/4000 of a second. this setting will only be used for when you are in a situation with a lot of light because that way the light won't have as much time to enter the shutter. this will be useful when doing a photoshoot as in this situation you use bright lights to illuminate the subject, all be it with hard goths covered by shades.

 Victor Slynn Photography

This image is completely white due to the over exposure of light for the len

se. This will happen even if the shutter speed is faster than 1/10 of a second. you have to make sure then that you only use this shutter speed when you are in very low light as the slow speed of the shutter means that a lot of light is let in, hence why on a bright day the image will simply turn out white like the above, because all of the surrounding light will be let into the camera and over load the camera with available light.


Direction of light 

the reason why i achieved this is because when the camera is faced with a massive source of light, the camera immediately shuts down and lets in an extremely limited amount of light. This therefore creates the silhouette effect whilst facing head on towards the strong light source. You might see this sort of photography in holiday brochures because it makes the landscape look very nice.


Photoshop

This is the original image of two stones purposefully placed together with an extremely small depth o field.

This photo is an example of an edited photoshopped image of the mushroom stone.

This demonstrates the use of the blur tool within the filter section of the application bar at the top of the window.

this is a technique that we learned today

Assignment 2

Freedom

I chose this title because not only could we show the freedom in being able to walk anywhere in the streets, but you have a lot of freedom in public transport. However, i can also show the restriction of freedom.

I plan to shoot the images within the streets of Carnaby St and other available places within the London trip.

I don't plan to have any set models, but i will ask the peoples permission within the photos for them to be used within a a college assignment.

Considerations

• Risk assessments 
• Weather 
• LIGHTING
• Camera settings
• Various perspectives
• Models - Model release form
• The places shown in the shot due to copyright and company promotion legalities
• Make sure your camera works and is charged

3 images for inspiration

the lighting shows very good detail on the bike's metal body, and provides an extra layer of depth to the image 

 as well as looking at transport freedom, there is also freedom in nature, and this photo shows the freedom birds have

Shutter speed light painting

what is shutter speed?
How fast the camera lense opens and closes whilst taking an image which affects the exposure.

Reasons for altering shutter speed?

• At night, you can capture better images with a slow shutter speed
• you can capture faster images with a faster shutter speed

Ingredients for painting with light?

• Shutter priority 
• Very long shutter setting
• A tripod
• A light source
• A creative 

Street photography

1. Street photography aims to capture the natural street life
2. Decisive moment - Henri cartier Bresson. The decisive moment aims to capture a moment in which would not be able to get caught in a still situation. for example a race car crashing on the moment of impact would be a good example as you would not be able to stage such a shot. This is a good example because it captures a man mid air.
   
3. Juxtaposition - a contrast of subjects within a photo or possibly the colours. This is a great example of photography due to the fact that there warm orange colours on the left and cold blue colours on the right.
   
4. Ethical considerations - No children profile shots. Only take profile shots with permission from the subject. Make sure not to take controversial photos. Take into consideration homeless people.
5. A street photo that I like - what i like about this is that there are so many different photographic elements within the photo. There are; leading lines, juxtaposition, rule of thirds, lighting (Natural and artificial). It provides the image with a very comforting feel because the image is clearly taken in the warm part of the image, therefore making you feel safe and secure. I also am a huge fan in the difference in lighting. The colours are so completely difference yet somehow work so well with each other to define the different settings within the image.
   

Rubin R. Roche

• Liked photography all of his life
• Only started getting series with it in 2004 when he purchased his first DSLR, a Nikon D70.
• Self taught photographer
• in November 2006 he purchased a full frame Canon 5D and got into regular street photography.

copyright
Copy right protects your photo from being used for commercial use without your permission. One way this is achieved is by placing a water mark over the image to clearly state the copyright.

Contact sheet

2 Assignment Photos

Why are we printing our photos?

• Tests the Quality of the image
• On screen RGB
• when printed out its in CMYK

Need to aim for a printed resolution of 300DPI (Dots Per Inch). The smallest print size needed for the highest quality photo is either 7x5 or 10x8.

This is my what my photograph would look like when printed. In the image i placed my created logo so that the image has an identity to it. 

Photography evaluation

For my project I chose the theme of freedom, it gave me the opportunity to explore such a simple word and its many juxtapositions. It also allowed for a lot of different ideas when travelling up to London because there are other words that could be associated with the term ‘Freedom’. My images, especially the one of the shop ‘Liberty’ with the pigeon above the sign, represent strongly my theme of freedom given the meaning of Liberty is actually freedom. The pigeon above the sign is another example of freedom because of the way It has the freedom to fly and travel anywhere.

I have enjoyed the project immensely, especially at the beginning when we were experimenting with different ways of using the camera and various settings on the camera itself. It was fascinating to see how just changing the aperture or shutter setting can affect the final taken shot. Along with this we learned when it was the correct time to use them and how and when the different techniques would be most effective.

I would love to develop my knowledge of shutter speed and ISO settings because I have seen various images that I would wish to recreate in my own style. I would do this by taking my own camera out with me wherever I go and practicing with the various things I have learnt, or I could take some photographs at night, which would mean I could achieve some amazing long exposure shots of the night sky.

It was quite a difficult decision to decide which pictures I wished to have printed but in the end decided on two that I thought were very appropriate. One of these I have already discussed, the ‘Liberty & Pigeon’ image, but the other is a shot looking down towards the entrance to Carnaby street aiming to capture the real sense of freedom people experience whilst out shopping when they’re not worried about work or likewise.

The photographer I looked at and was influenced heavily by was Ruben R Roche. I particularly took interest in his street photography, which used symmetry and lighting to create certain contrasts and variations in colour; which I wish to do myself. Roche influenced me in the sense I focussed on trying to get symmetry in some images, but also trying to focus on lighting. Unfortunately in London there was not many opportunities to various places with light, so if I were to do this again I would change the shutter speed in order for me to achieve a different range of shots.

The problems with lighting certainly affected my final images, but with the use of Photoshop I decided to edit the image so it was in black and white instead of full colour for two reasons. One, because I felt it was appropriate in such an iconic setting to give the photograph an iconic feel as Carnaby Street was famous in the 60’s, where black and white was the main colour choice for the photos taken. Two, I really like the feel you get when looing at black and white images, it provides the image with so much depth and definition that it brings out such emotion that full colour would not be able to achieve.