Colour cast and white balance Part 2

I needed a mixed-lighting source scene for the second part of the exercise on colour cast and white balance. Following the course notes, I opted for an indoor/ outdoor scene at dusk. The idea was to shoot the same scene at the following white balance settings : sunlight ; tungsten; auto.  The results came in as :

Sunlight



P527: F14 @ 1sec  ISO 1600 -1 exp.  18mm

Tungsten

P528: F14 @ 1 sec  ISO 1600 -1exp.  18mm

 

 

Auto

 

 

P529: F14 @ 1 sec  ISO 1600 -1exp. 18mm

 



Looking at the three images above, there is a distinct difference between each one. The one with the sunlight setting not surprisingly gives a more warm yellow colour to the picture, while the tungsten setting casts a cooler look than the both sunlight and auto ( P529 ) which provides a colour cast that falls between P527 and P528.

 

If I had to choose one of the three images I would opt for P527 ( the sunlight setting ) as I feel the warm colour cast it provides is the most appropriate for the subject i.e. looking into a home at night - it makes the interior look welcoming and somehow comforting. The tungsten version looks more clinical, maybe more 'modern' looking.

Revisiting the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2013

I chose to join the OCA study visit to this exhibition on 15 June 2013 as I wanted to be able to enjoy and participate in discussion  and comment with fellow photography students and tutors at an exhibition which I had previously visited and which left me with some questions about what photography actually constituted. The visit was made more interesting by knowing the outcome of the judges decision re the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2013  ( a prize awarded to a living photographer, of any nationality, for a specific body of work in an exhibition or publication format, which has significantly contributed to photography in Europe between 1 October 2011 and 30 September 2012).
 
On my previous visit, I came to the view that I preferred Cristina Middel's offering  closely followed by Chris Killip's work to the work of Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin and that of Mishka Henner. Reflecting on this and spending more time looking at the various works, listening hard to the audio interviews and discussing the work with fellow students and tutors while standing in front of the work itself brought about a change in my thinking. This was reinforced afterwards when we retired to talk over as a small group what we had seen over coffee. Understandably, the four finalists polarized views significantly which made the discussion all the more enjoyable and interesting.

Many thought the work of Chris Killip a surprising entry given the photographs were taken some decades ago i.e. in the 1980s. I disagree as I feel they have a distinct value in expressing what is happening around us today in terms of a historical echo of the economic and social decline of  the 1980s. I have of course a real liking for street photography and black and white images which no doubt colours my view here. But I have a great admiration for the skill of subject selection and composition realising that it is very difficult to achieve this results without the subjects having a strong degree of trust in and acceptance of the photographer in their lives. Not something that happens overnight.


There will always be a need for  street photography in my view both from a documentary point of view but from a social and cultural perspective... social networking shows how much people want and like to capture the moment when out and about ...socially and politically..

All of which brought me to reflect again on what I thought of Mishka Henner's work, No Man's Land'. I still feel that the concept is not original and an uncomfortable feeling of overt voyeurism runs through it for me. His video commentary can be found at :  http://vimeo.com/64393166
Some folk feeling quite adamant that this was not photography and should not be there in the exhibition since its contribution to photography was not that significant. This triggered in my mind to check out the criteria for this award. There was an interesting discussion afterwards about using Google earth for photographic projects. One student having had experience of seeing his wife captured by Google looking out of the window of their house years after she had died.
 Cristina De Middel's project ' The Afronauts' , a self published book, had been my favourite of all the finalists previously but I was struck by one fellow student's adamant view that it was  racist and had no place in the exhibition for that reason. I did not see it that way. Yes, it is  tongue in cheek, a fantastical story but not racist.



On a second look I still enjoyed the creativity of the idea. She is a photo journalist but says in her exhibition video ( http://vimeo.com/64393165 ) that using a photograph doesn't  imply that it is true: that photos taken for  and appearing in newspapers are not always true. This links in directly to part four of this course ( Reality and intervention) and will be a subject worth revisiting then. 

Some of my fellow students felt that she went too far using settings outside Africa and finding or rather 'casting' people to play roles for the images. But I think this falls within her project remit. What she wanted to do with this project is the opposite of photo journalism and play with fact and fiction; to break down the direct digestion of images. I think she is successful in this.



However, to my surprise, my second consideration of Broomberg and Chanarin's War Primer 2 changed my view of this work. I don't think this was because it won the £30,000 prize since I had been disappointed on hearing who the prizewinners were that Cristina De Middel had not taken the prize. I took more time to look at this work and mull over what I was seeing.  

'War Primer 2 is a limited edition book that physically inhabits the pages of Bertold Brecht’s remarkable 1955 publication War Primer. Brecht’s photo-essay comprises 85 images, photographic fragments or collected newspaper clippings, that were placed next to a four-line poem, called ‘photo-epigrams’. Broomberg and Chanarin layered Google search results realting to the 'War on Terror'  for the poems over Brecht’s originals'.

 

Again it was useful and interesting to listen to their exhibition video ( http://vimeo.com/64393163 ).


Interestingly, this body of work did not trigger any detailed discusion afterwards in my n group... whether this was because people felt that the prize was well deserved or felt more quizzical about why the other finalists had been shortlisted.

Reading the exhibition catalogue, it seems that Broomberg and Chanarin want us to reflect on 'photo opportunities' i.e. the visual clichés that inform the self promotional activities of politicians. In this, I think they have achieved something. Certainly the image over a portrait of Goebbels overlaid with the image of nuclear missiles taking off struck a chord with me. I also read that this piece of work has re -opened debates regarding Brecht and radical photography in the 70s and 80s - debates that shared a hostility towards photographic naturalism...something to follow up I think.


All in all, I enjoyed the study trip which triggered a lot of thoughts afterwards. This was my first study visit and well worth joining in. I shall certainly look out for more trips in and around London over the coming year.

NB It is possible to Download the free War Primer 2 app via mappeditions.com

Highlight clipping

For this exercise I looked for an image that a wide range of brightness. The idea was to find an exposure setting at which the highlight clipping warning just appeared.




P503

P503: F8 @ 1/320  ISO200  84mm





P505: F7.1 @ 1/400 ISO 200  81mm     

P504: F9 @ 1/250  ISO 200  81mm



P506: F6.3 @ 1/500  ISO200  81mm

 

 



P507: F5.6 @ 1/1500  ISO 200  81mm





 

 

The next step was to compare the images side by side using Photoshop. For the exercise, I focused on the highlighted areas and to help the process of looking at the results, I magnified the areas.

 

Loss of visual information

 

This could be seen at the top of the head and shoulder of the statue in all images.

 

Visible break in the form of an edge between nearly white and total white.

 

There is a visible break  on the shoulder evident in images taken at P504( f9) - more than P503(f8), but less so in the image taken in P505 (f7.1), P506 (f6.3 )and no evidence in P 507 ( f5.6 ).

 

Colour cast along a fringe bordering the clipped white highlight.

 

There was a pink cast on the stone figure in images taken at f9 and f6.3. Also a bright green edge to the tree.

 

Colour saturation

 

Looking at the images, I could see increased saturation in P503 ( f8 ), P505 (F7.1 ) and P507 (f5.6).