Colour cast and white balance Part 1

There were two parts to this exercise .For part one, I focused on outdoor lighting conditions  i.e. sunlight ; cloudy ; open shade on a sunny day.

Sunlight

P514 : F8 @ 1/640  ISO 200  18mm AWB

P515: F8 @ 1/640  ISO 200  18mm sunlight

P516: F8 @ 1/640  ISO 200  18mm cloudy

P517: F8 @ 1/640  ISO 200  18mm  open shade

 
Looking at the images above, the difference between the pictures are interesting. I feel that the fourth image ( open shade ) is the nearest to what I actually saw and i.e. quite close to the AWB image. The blue of the sky is slightly darker as is the yellow of the boat. In the image taken with the sunlight setting there is a yellow cast and the blue of the sky is more faded. the cloudy setting produces a darker colour for the green seaweed  and yellow hull.

Cloudy

P518: F18 @ 1/15  ISO 200  22mm  AWB

P519: F8 @ 1/20  ISO  200 22mm sunlight








 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P520: F18 @ 1/20 @ 1/20  ISO200 21mm cloudy



P521 :F18 @ 1/20  ISO200  21mm open shade



Here in the above images, the one with the cloudy setting has slightly bleached colours affecting the lanterns and the bark of the tree. The picture taken with AWB is nearer to the one with the sunlight setting both sunlight and cloudy settings producing richer colours. That said, the image with the open shade setting (P521)  is nearer to the actual colours of the blue and orange lanterns with the tree bark and leaves being a little darker.

Open shade on a sunny day

P523: F8 @ 1/40  ISO 200 28mm  AWB

P524: F8 @ 1/40  ISO 200  28mm  sunlight



 

 

 

P525: F8 @ 1/40  ISO 200  27mm  cloudy

 

 

 

 

P526: F8 @ 1/40  ISO 200  27mm open shade

 

 

 

Looking at these last images, the third one ( cloudy setting ) is nearer the reality of the actual scene. The AWB setting seems slightly overexposed and sunlight has a slight yellow feel to it. The last  image presents a bluer feel.

Your camera's dynamic range

This exercise proved harder to do than I imagined due to two factors - firstly finding a scene that would deliver the brightly reflecting surface and the deep shadow and secondly following the instructions relating to calculating the dynamic range re the calculation, I eventually went to the OCA student website to see if any other students had experienced problems and in fact did come across some postings that indicated at least one person had. That said, the postings did not offer any solution as to how to resolve the question of calculating the dynamic range ( course notes implied you did this using software), so I worked round this in my own way to achieve a result.

This is the scene that I chose for the exercise :

P522 : F3.5 @1/1600  ISO 100 exp.-2step 2mm

As part of the exercise, I turned off the noise reduction in my camera and set the exposure so that there was just no highlight clipping of the white canvas. ISO sensitivity was set at its lowest.

After taking the image, I then set the metering mode to 'Spot' mode to measure the brightness of the white canvas, the dark shadow inside the garage, dark areas on the door and the Labour poster. Interestingly the white came out at f20 and the remaining colours all at f5.6 whether black or red. This would give a dynamic range of 11 stops. I checked the searched on the internet to see if an independent source had checked my camera's dynamic range. A test report on the Shutterstock website  ( http://bit.ly/qWul4v  indicated 11stops.

Looking at the view - Tate Britain exhibtion 29 May 2013

This exhibition was an interesting use of pairing items from the Tate collection that allows us to look at the 'view' from a different selection of vantage points e.g. inside a room looking out, taking in a view outside from a hill , across a landscape or seascape. What drew me particularly was the juxtaposition of painting and photograph in some instances and the positioning of paintings from different centuries alongside each other allowing an opportunity to see how subjects were treated across the centuries. The works included were also an interesting selection coming from such as Tracey Emin, Paul Graham, J.M.W. Turner, Lucien Freud, Gilbert & George, Spencer Gore, Tacita  Dean...

What struck me was the similarity of patterns of looking at and composing an image that stretched across the centuries:

Tacita Dean Disappearance at Sea 1996 (film still)

The exhibition showed Tacita Dean's 16mm colour anamorphic film 'Disappearance at sea' which was taken inside Berwick lighthouse. She was inspired by the story of Donald Crowhurst who realising that he was not up to taking part in a single-handed non-stop round -the-world yacht race eventually jumped overboard. The sense and feel of the immenseness of the sea comes over in the film and gives some idea of what Crowhurst must have experienced.
Placed close by I found John Brett's painting  which explores the effects of light and colour but to my mind also gives a similar sense of the vastness of the ocean. Both images using a similar composition referencing light within the image. Both works struck a real chord with me.




John Brett The British Channel seen from the Dorsetshire Cliffs 1871

When I first looked at Paul Graham's photograph below, I wondered what it was that made it stand out from the crowd so to speak. At first glance it looks almost pedestrian but a closer examination of the composition made me realise how much it lent a dynamism to the subject matter and a depth of meaning coming from the juxtaposition of affluent housing and elements of urban disruption i.e. the broken edge of the roundabout and the damaged lamp post; the man calmly crossing the road apparently oblivious of the running soldier. Normality set against a disruption of everyday life. It was paired with a painting by Tristam Hillier which portrays a similar sense of calmness rural life and the everyday ( man walking with dog along the road ) disrupted by progress of modernity ( the march of pylons etc. across the landscape and ruined buildings in the distance). Interestingly the composition in both images shows similar focal points.. i.e. the curve of the road and the lampposts/ pylons reaching to the sky ( the future?).




Paul Graham Roundabout, Andersonstown, Belfast 1984. From Troubled Land. 





Tristam Hillier La Route des Alpes 1937 

These last two images below are linked over two centuries through composition and subject matter:

Joseph wright's painting of Sir Brooke Boothby shows the subject  alone and deep in a wood holding a book inscribed with Rousseau's name. It seems that Rousseau had given his manuscript ' Dialogues' to Boothby for safekeeping during a visit to Paris in 1776 and Boothby has subsequently published the work. Exhibition notes suggest the scene here is very much in accordance with Rousseau's ideas i.e. shunning 'the 'civilised' world for contemplation alone in nature'.

Joseph Wright of Derby Sir Brooke Boothby 1781

And almost two centuries later...



Tracey Emin Monument Valley(Grand Scale (1995-7)

Tracey Emin is captured here holding her book 'Exploration of the Soul' in an amazing location. Interesting that overhead cables intrude at the top right hand ?


NOTE: All of the images above are scanned from postcards purchased at Tate Britain.

Project Space: Ruins in Reverse - Tate Modern exhibition 29 May 2013

Ra di Martino No more Stars ( Star Wars ) 2010
33deg 50'N 7deg46'E Chot El-Gharsa, Tunisia copyright courtesy of the artist and Monitor, Rome
(Cover to exhibition notes)

In going to view this exhibition at Tate Modern, I wanted to see the photographic work of Ra di Martino specifically. The exhibition brought together six artists to consider the divide between historical monuments and disregarded urban ruins. The remains of the Star Wars sets in the North African desert were the focus of Di Martino's series of photographs 'No More Stars ( Star Wars ) and so, fitted well with the exhibition's theme. What we see in the images are the detritus of the film industry left behind - structural monuments left behind and consequently expressing archaeological evidence of the industry's activity.

Over a period of time the structures have in a sense gone back to the desert in that they blend into the landscape much as ancient Roman/ Greek ruins can do. I felt that some images worked better than others in this respect and this left me looking at the series from two angles; one the technical composition viewpoint and secondly the creative / interpretative aspect. One image still stands out which I cannot reference here visually but it showed a particular structural arrangement with the imprint of some disturbed footprints leading up to the crest of the structure. This to my mind conveyed more an impression of abandonment and in a contrary fashion the feeling of visit to an archaeological site than many of the other photographs.

John Riddy exhibition - Sicilian cityscapes

In London last week I took the opportunity to view John Riddy's series of cityscapes at the Frith Street Gallery. We see the Sicilian capital through his eyes as a stage empty of players or inhabitants.as Morgan Meaker says on 24 April  in Time Out  ' Absence and ruin linger here, hinting at our own mortality in the face of an enduring urban landscape'. 

Certainly the  cityscapes show a range of dereliction laid out in dark narrow streets. Using greyscale the images capture a certain quality of light and shadow that does also allow a degree of  romanticism to creep into the composition. To my mind, some scenes worked well and took you beyond the surface of the image asking questions as to how you felt looking at the dark urban decay and what the future might hold in such an environment .. a sort of post capitalist life on and in the street. ...was this due to the emotional feel coming from the use of greyscale in this kind of landscape? It needed no characters such as Chris Killip found in the north of England in the 1970s and 1980s to convey urban neglect.