#unit 57

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Unit Evaluation and Research Undertaken

The primary research undertaken throughout this unit was mainly the practice shooting. We got a lot of opportunities to experiment with DSLR cameras and take shots. Because of this, I was able to translate what I’d learned about DSLR settings to a film camera and use it to my advantage.

In terms of secondary research, I’ve read three books about photography over the past two months. One about the theory of war photography and photographing the suffering of others, Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others (New York: Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), a war photographer’s autobiography, Tim Page, Page after Page (Glasgow, 1989), and a library of contact sheets with stories from the people who took them, Jonas Bendiksen, Magnum Contact Sheets (London: Thames & Hudson, 2000).

These three books pretty much gave me everything I needed to know, as well as having the tutors’ guidance along the way.

In evaluation, I’ve learned an awful lot from this unit about photography in general and how important the different components of a camera are to its exposures, how framing and composition can make or break a photograph, how delicate and intricate film is when it comes to developing and scanning, and the impact of lighting on a photograph and how to compensate.

The various tools I’ve learned are going to stay with me throughout the course and hopefully after that and I’m going to make an effort to continue practicing them in my spare time.

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Planning for Final Photographic Project

To cover a large part of the photography unit criteria, I aim to undertake a kind of social documentary/street photography project that will explore drug addiction and abuse in Laindon, Basildon, and Pitsea. I’ll be shooting as if the shots were for an indie magazine or something of the sort, imagining I was on assignment for an article about drug culture and taking photos to accompany an article. Because of this, it’ll be mostly portrait images and few landscapes unless the landscape holds some cultural significance to the subject at hand such as pick up spots, known shooting galleries, dens, and traps. 

I’ll be using black and white film and shooting exclusively in harsh, fluorescent light or dark/night time situations. Contrast is key for me and I want the shots to look violent, harsh, gritty. Achieving this shouldn’t be too hard, and if I have to, I can edit the best shots in post production (I might play with contrast, noise, and sharpening if necessary). 

Because it’s winter and I insist on shooting film for this project, I’m going to have to really play with things like lighting, aperture, ASA, and shutter speed. I want the shots to be as natural as possible, the less gadgets and gear I use, the better.

I’ll be using a 400 ASA Kodak Tri-X B&W film due to how dark it is all the time and how short the days are - 400 ASA is a versatile film speed that will allow me to get some fairly good shots at night time without much noise/film grain in the photo. This is opposed to using a lower film speed, that isn’t as sensitive to light. I have considered pushing the ASA to 800, but don’t fully understand how pushing film works, so I’ve decided to work with what I’ve got.

The camera I’m using (Olympus OM-10 fitted with a manual adapter for shutter speed control) has a built-in light meter. It works by displaying different shutter speeds in the viewfinder, displaying a red light next to the ideal shutter speed for your shot. Because of this built-in sensor, I’ll be able to determine which shutter speed is ideal for the shot, but I still have the freedom to choose a different shutter speed and fix any mistakes in post production if necessary.

Because I expect most of my shots to be at night time or in harsh light, I should really be opting for a low shutter speed so let as much light into the lens as possible - the problem with this is that I’m going to be photographing people. People move, and this’ll cause a lot of blur, and I shake a lot anyway so it isn’t ideal. I’ll be using a shutter speed of about 1/125 for the most part. Obviously I can and will adapt the shutter speed to the situation at hand.

My choice of aperture is probably going to be quite limited, again, because of lighting. Unless I can find a source of natural light nearby to shoot by (as I’ll be doing this on the streets), I’ll be sticking to apertures below f/3.5, as lower apertures let in a lot more light than a high aperture would.

I don’t want to use any equipment for this project, as carrying around anything more than a camera is going to limit my ability to get good shots. Tripods are too big, flashes will ruin the effect that I’m going for, and using light boxes/reflectors are out of the question because I’m not in a studio and there’s not going to be any light to reflect anyway. 

I’ll be using contact sheets to show how I’ve chosen what shots to use, as I’m not going to get 36 effective exposures out of a roll. I’ll scan the annotated contact sheets when they’re finished.

Having touched on aperture, light metering, shutter speed, and ASA in this post, I’ll be annotating the next post for this unit to further explain my understanding of these components and going into composition, angles, viewpoints, and perspective.

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Equipment in Photography

An SLR or single-lens reflex camera is a camera that allows its user to see through the viewfinder so they know exactly what they composition of the shot they’re going to capture will look like – this is done because the camera has a mirror and a prism system (hence the name ‘reflex’). This is contrary to rangefinder cameras whose viewfinders will not show its user exactly the frame they’re capturing.

An SLR camera would be used for more precise framing whereas a rangefinder permits the person using it to measure the distance between them and the subject which means they can accurately pinpoint the focusing distance and other properties to create sharper shots.

However, since the 21st century digital SLRs have been growing in popularity with Nikon and Canon leading the way for the industry. A digital SLR has the benefits of electronic autofocus, metering, exposure, lighting, and is generally much easier on the user.

A tripod is a piece of equipment that somebody can mount a camera to in order to stabilise the image and support its weight and position. This is important especially when taking night time pictures as, in order to capture the light, the shutter speed needs to be dropped dramatically which leaves you vulnerable to shake and blur. A tripod eliminates this issue by keeping the camera completely still.

While a tripod has three legs, a monopod has only one. This makes it ideal for on the go photography when a photographer might need a smaller, less complex piece of equipment that does the same job as a tripod. Tripods are often heavy, and complex to set up, while a monopod is simple and lightweight.

Camera lenses come in all different shapes and sizes, and they all do different things and have their own uses. For example, a standard lens is one with a field of view that gives a frame similar to that of the naked human eye which gives the shots a more natural feeling.

A wide angle lens is pretty self explanatory. It is a lens whose focal length is far smaller than that of a normal camera. This enables the photographer to capture a lot more of the scene in their frames, and also to manipulate and emphasise the difference in size of certain objects in their shots.

A macro lens is a lens that is used for taking photographs of subjects that are extremely small, but still filling up the frame entirely, thus making the subject look regular sized. A macro lens is capable of using ratios of 1:1 to magnify the subject greatly while maintaining focus and sharpness.

A telephoto lens is a lens that is capable of taking pictures from extremely long ranges, because physically the lens is longer than the actual focal length. Telephoto lenses are typically used by members of the media and the paparazzi due to it allowing the photographer to capture a photograph in great detail from such a long way away.

A fisheye lens has an ultra-wide angle lens which creates a more panoramic type of shot by using special mapping rather than straight lines of perspective.

A light meter is a device that measures the amount of light available, which helps the photographer determine the right amount of exposure for a photograph. As well as this, most light meters have a computer in them which also helps the photographer determine the correct shutter speed and f number.

A reflector is an improvised reflective surface that allows a photographer to direct light however they like to help them light up their subject. You can also get portable reflectors which are small, collapsible, and easy to carry but still get the job done 

Flashes also come in different shapes, sizes, and types. Many modern DSLRs will have a flash attached to the camera which pops up when the camera determines it’s needed or on certain modes and settings. As well as built-in flashes, most cameras have a hot shoe above the lens for the photographer to insert an external flashgun.

Hammerhead flashes, which attach to the side of the camera via a bracket, offer the photography a lot more freedom in how they use the flash and aren’t as restrictive as flashguns that are fixed to the camera’s head. Hammerhead flashes can swivel, turn, and pan around to create all sorts of different lighting techniques.

[satxmusic]

7/26: Unit 57 @ Da Bunker Bar (Universal City)

CLASSIC ROCK/COVERS, MUSIC AT 9:30 P.M.

FREE SHOW, 21+, FACEBOOK EVENT

Unit 57 (La Vernia, TX): Facebook, YouTube

[michallis]

Evaluation Unit 57

Evaluation

What went well

I really enjoyed this project as I had my own input into taking the pictures and having full rights to the pictures meant I could experiment with them and work to getting the picture exactly how I wanted. If there was something I didn't like, perhaps the angle, which I could go back into the studio and take some more pictures with the camera to get the perfect angle and then import that into Photoshop and 

what didn't go well

I didn't like the size of the image, which was an error on my part but changing it would mean I would have to start again which unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to start over or even to make any more projects.

How I did it

I used a new method to create the poster, which was taking the photographs in a green screen room, that was our studio. I used a Canon 600D with a 18-55mm camera lens that used a wide angle to standard angle which gave me a variety of photograph options. To get the pictures a studio quality with perfect lighting and shadows, i first adjusted the camera to an 18mm lens with -1 exposure as the lighting was very strong. I then got help setting up the lights, which was a 3 point lighting set up that gave a lot of reflections off the camera and the aluminium equipment. 

Then I imported the images I took into Adobe Photoshop using a micro SD card and began to edit the green screen and add a background to the images. I created a collage of images that was linked with cable wires that I also took in the studio but unfortunately cannot find the files. Then I reflected the book on the water to give it a realistic look, reducing the opacity and enhancing the contrast and brightness of the book. I then changed the hue of the background image to make it purple and reduce the orange looking water and sky that was apparent. Finally I added the text to the top of the poster - 'The Knowledge'. I thought creating the images coming out of a book and connecting them together would be good as it symbolises The Knowledge, professional, and studio, which is what The Knowledge are all about.

I enjoyed the project a lot and I think that this is definitely what I want to do when I'm older, I'm thinking maybe I could go into posters for movies/television commercials.

what I would do better

The mistake that I made happened when I put in 100 pixels as the canvas size instead of mm's. This made the canvas a lot smaller than was required. I made this error even with years of Photoshop experience and didn't realise how small it was until I had finished the project. Additionally, I think now after looking at the image, it appears to be very amateur; as the lighting is very off with the background image when compared with the studio equipment images that I took in the studio. If I was to do it again, I would definitely pay more close attention to the lighting and add shadows and hue colours to the picture.

[michallis]

The Knowledge front cover taken with photographs using a Canon E500 to get the pictures of the equipment.

I enjoyed the project although the picture is a little small. The idea seemed better than it turned out to be.

[michallis]

Research Unit 57

Photography could be used everywhere in the business industry and even in personal use. 

It is most commonly seen in advertisements across the world. Photography is the forefront of advertisements and has been since the early 20th century when movies began showing to the public and advertisements were placed to alert people to watch them. However there are many sub section forms of advertisement, some include, promotional, fashion, portrait, press and studio.

Promotional advertising would be for businesses that are looking to promote a certain product within their business such as McDonalds promoting a new burger, or a new meal deal, such as McDonalds' Monopoly game, it advertises the business and brings in more customers for the time they are advertising.

The fashion industry rely heavily on photography to advertise and boast for the new season clothing. Photographers are a big part of that and are reliable for the advertisement of the clothing across blogs, newspapers, magazines and elsewhere on the internet.

A portrait is a method where you use a Macro camera to take pictures of someone close up, around 1-10 feet would be the range that a portrait would be taken with a Macro camera.

The press use photography to take pictures of celebrities participating in events such as the red carpet or the Golden Globe Awards where celebrities are the main focus for their work in the public eye such as movies and songs, even Eminem was awarded a Grammy for his film 8 Mile despite his rapping career being the main focus. He was the attention of every camera for that short time.

Finally is the studio quality photography. The camera would be a high quality camera that would be able to take pictures with a lot of detail and some cameras may even be 4k. These cameras would usually be a 50mm or higher camera that would be able to handle that distance for studio.

Finally landscape photography would be the wallpapers or background used in a bigger work, such as movie advertisements. The theme may be nature and the photographer would have