Month: November 2017

This week in our seminar we were introduced to a piece of work by a author called Georges Perec. This work, titled An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris, details Perec’s time in Paris, Sulplice Square. In this sixty page book, Perec notes down his observations of the world around him. Here is an extract to demonstrate his work.

A green Mehari

A baby in a carriage lets out a brief squawking. It looks like a bird: blue eyes, fixed, profoundly interested by what they take in.

A meter man with a bad cough puts a parking ticket on a green Morris.

Page 20.

I think that his work is really quite interesting as while it can seem mundane, it’s actually a really useful work to demonstrate how there’s something notable about, well, everything. What Perec describes in his book, in some detail, a lot of it I can imagine as photographs. I don’t believe this was Perec’s intention when creating the book, however I feel that it’s really helpful resource for helping photographers realise they can make a story out of everything.

We were then tasked with going away from the class and doing a similar task to Perec, noting down things that we saw. I decided to sit at the top of the Minerva building. I won’t copy the entire transcript, but here is an extract.

A boy sneezes as he comes up the stairs in a feminine way.

Another boy passes, however he does not sneeze.

Outside the large glass window, a group of students record something with a large camera, what I can only assume is a media project.

A cleaner passes frowning, but then smiles.

I found the task really interesting, and it again reinforced that idea that there is an image to taken in everything, and therefore a story to be told. I personally feel the text has helped me realise that photography can truly be about anything, be it as simple as something a green Mehari.

There is no task this week. I have instead been working towards my finishing my Still Life work.

This week we were tasked with finding a stranger off campus and taking some portraits of them. I chose to wait on the bridge close to Spar on Rope Walk. I then asked a few strangers if they would be willing to have their portrait taken. After a few attempts, I finally got a volunteer. I took two to three images from three different perspectives.

I chose this location as from the front, you can see the city of Lincoln, and even the Cathedral. From the left however the backdrop is purely buildings, and brighter.  From the right it’s darker and has some trees in the backdrop too. I used a Canon 600D for the photographs, I bought a tripod but decided against using it, and also used a Manfrotto light. I think the images that use natural light look the best, so have decided to use those three. I did like using the Manfrotto light, but the models glasses caught the light.

I also put the images through Lightroom. I thought the original images look a little dull, so I tried to add a bit more colour to them, while also adjusting the clarity. I also added a graduated filter on both the right and left image, to try make the images tie together better.

In reflection I’m quite happy with these images. I’m not sure if I like the right image as much as others however. The left image has some interesting framing with the yellow and blue building, while the central image is crisp and full of colour. The image on the right feels a little too empty for my liking. If I was to do the project again, I would perhaps try have the right image from a different angle, perhaps trying to fit in the buildings just round the corner. Below are the image edited images in their full size.

This week again we focused on portraits, but this time we focused a bit more on the use of natural light. We had a short to utilise natural light to try capture some really nice portraits. The first two we got were the following.

The first photo is utilising one reflector, while the second photo we are using two reflectors. I think that the second photo is better because the light look a whole lot warmer and more golden. However the background is quite annoying to the eye because the poor painting draws you away from the actual focus. However a quick fix in photoshop could solve this issue. I did a quick job in photoshop and already it looks tenfold better.

Below is a portrait we got in the second half of the session, where we were told to think about framing a little bit more. I think this is the best portrait we took, as it uses the rule of thirds very well and lighting is well done. It could use with a slight tilt to level out the portrait however.

However we also spent a fair amount of time in the workshop going through our projects. I’m starting to reconsider my choice of globalisation. I really want to be able to work with colour, however I’m unsure how to move forward that idea. I’m going to try do some test shoots to try help me decide, and also speak to my mentor.

For this week’s seminar we got to work in the photography studio. We got to use more equipment, mainly revolving around lighting, and got to experiment with portraits. Below are portraits that were taken of me to show the importance of light.

The portraits I’ve chosen have shown the importance of how you light a photo. There is a clear difference between the first and last photo, all affected by the lighting. Not only do they look different, but they evoke different feelings too. One of the main lights we used, we were taught should almost act as like a sun, allowing us to control the lighting of the scene better.

Here are some portraits of other members in the class, with soft lighting and gels applied. Each gel, at a basic level, evokes a different emotion. But the great thing I find about gels is that you can use them however you wish, they just allow for more creativity in the studio.

I’ve also recently been granted a small bursary from the university of £500, which I am hoping I can use to get some better equipment for my camera, so I have more creative freedom when creating my project. I’m thinking about possibly getting a second lens for my camera, but I still need to have a more detailed look at my options.