Comments on my tutor's feedback for assignment 3

This feedback on my monochrome assignment was really helpful. particularly the reworked examples that my tutor provided....also found the suggestions for my fourth assignment both helpful and thought provoking...will include these in a later post. My responses here are in red italics..

 

Peter's comments as follows:

 

Overall Comments

The format of the submission works very well.  The narrative that accompanies the images of the assignment is full and ranges into the realms of inspiration and motivation.  I would encourage you to continue this and even expand on this as having the background research alongside the assignment images etc. makes the whole thing very clear.  I am pleased to see that you are expanding on this on your blog.

 

Feedback on assignment

I think that your images are all well thought out particularly in terms of the monochrome conversion; the versions I have offered are more suggestions as to alternatives than as examples of ‘better’ versions.  I had a preference for printing dark and contrasty black and whites when I was using film but this is a personal thing.  What I was doing with your images was looking for a way of getting maximum ‘punch’ without losing detail or the feeling I think you were after. 

Most of what I want to say about the individual images is in the form of annotations to your notes document.

The main question that you should answer, even if it is only to yourself, is are these images better in monochrome or colour?  The assignment forces you to think about monochrome conversion in the era of digital imaging, and there are many questions that this raises.  The main one being, what is the status and purpose of monochrome in photography today?  Everyone is likely to have a different answer to that question but I fear that too few people working in monochrome have really asked it!  You seem to have got the idea that to be successful with a monochrome final image, you should be thinking in monochrome from the start and I think that the most successful of your images are the ones that simply talk of form, shape, contrast and so on and indeed there are only two that I think allow for discussion on this point and  they are the first two (589 and 590) and neither of these make a bad monochrome image, just perhaps not needing the mono conversion.( Discuss!!)

While I agree that images P589 and P590 are the least successful of all the images in terms of the final monochrome version, I think with further reflection that P590 would have worked better in colour. That said, the intention in P589 was to capture a sense of 'period' - the golden summer remembered so to speak - and monochrome was a more obvious choice. However, maybe a slightly different treatment would have produced a better effect.. possibly slightly lighter. I have however, opted to try the image in a 'colour' version attempting again to capture the sense of period :

 

P589 - Lightroom 'Aged photo preset'

The seats image (595) suggested an American diner to me and my feeling is that a slightly lighter version referenced American 50s monochrome marginally better than your version but then you weren’t making an image of a diner! 









P595 ..my version 

P595 ..Peter's version

Yes, the lighter version does conjure up the 1950s feel better..

I have suggested a couple of different and tighter crops.  Again not intended as anything more than a different person’s viewpoint, perhaps saying something slightly different from your intention.  What do you think?

P591

 

Peter's cropped version

I actually like both versions of P591...I'm trying to differentiate  between what both say to me and I think for me the cropped version emphasises the contrast between the 'fairground' world and that of the 'businessman' in amore direct 'hardnosed' way. The fuller version does this to some extent and I find it more visually attractive ( probably due to the greater impact of the ribbed roof)..

P590

Peter's cropped version 

My version of 593 has two different curves adjustments added, they are to be looked at one at a time as it were not together.  Having said all this, it occurs to me that you are using Lightroom and I don’t know if you have any version of Photoshop that will let you look at the layers!  Oh well if not I have included separate versions  and you can see the results if not the way I got there! (593_peter_1 and_2)

 

P593....my version

Peter's version 1

 

 

Peter's version 2

 

Looking at the three images above, on reflection I think that I prefer Peter's second version as it brings out the detail a little better than mine  and capturing the detail details was the real purpose of this composition and processing.
A successful assignment I think, that you gave a good amount of thought to and that thought was in the right direction.  I like to see that a student is thinking about what it is that they are trying to say in their image before they start to work out how they are going to take the shot.  Content and intention should dictate the technique and even when an assignment is prompted by a technical method or process it is good to see that you are starting from the point of view that the technique is only a tool to aid expression.

 

Learning Logs/Critical essays

Where I have asked questions in this report or in my notes and annotations to your notes document, I do not want a direct answer but you should discuss them in your log.

Your blog is shaping up well.  You might like to think about ways in which you can make navigation even easier.  The tags you apply to posts make it possible to have some sort of index somewhere on the right hand side so that readers can look at, say, your reflections on exhibitions or books read.  I am by no means a Blogger expert but if you search I am sure you will find out how to do this. Funny, I was also thinking that the navigation left something to be desire and differed from by first learning blog. Have had a go at making it a little easier to navigate..

 

Suggested reading/viewing

Jeff Wall:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wall-study-for-a-sudden-gust-of-wind-after-hokusai-t07235

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2007/jeffwall/

Three books that might be of interest during this section:

Linfield, Susie (2010). The Cruel Radience: Photography and Political Violence, Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Richin, Fred (2009) After Photography, New York: W.W. Norton & Co

Lipkin, Jonathan (2005) Photography Reborn: Image Making in the Digital Era, New York: Abrams

Ingledew, J., (2013) Photography, Second ed., London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd.

This video on creating a composite might interest you for the next assignment

 

Reflection on Assignment three

'Processing the Image ' has been another steep learning curve for me; particularly the technical side. I feel that I have a much better understanding of processing images although I know that I need to work really hard at this to develop real confidence; I have begun to usefully work with RAW  and to find my around Lightroom. 

Looking back  after completing a section of this course and the assignment is always a salutary experience - what do I feel about the course and  last few months of work?
 The highlight was getting to grips with black and white photography - a new area for me and something I really enjoyed. I have always appreciated black and white images starting looking at early family photos to moving onto the work of famous photographers. in books and at exhibitions. Now I really know how hard it is to conceive and deliver a good black and white image. I can see and feel that composition is the key and being able to judge a potential image in terms of creative concerns of contrast, geometry, texture, volume etc...must inevitably be a question of trial and error to start with. 

Re the assignment -choosing the theme of seaside piers was I feel a good subject for monochrome.It allowed a good degree of creativity though my developing technical ability at this stage did not always deliver the sense of past summers that I was looking for. Partly due to how to handle light and shadow to suggest late summer warmth without over exposing the scene or bring in too much colour saturation into the black and white mix.  With hindsight I also feel perhaps I could have done more in terms of experimentation - something to bear in mind in the future!

I tried harder this time to develop and stick to a particular theme; this was partially successful but should  have been developed more in terms of people enjoying and using the seaside pier. The two images below were originally part of the assignment but dropped to keep within my subject brief. That said, I thought them worth processing and including them within my reflection; firstly, because I like them and secondly they represented an interesting processing challenge.






P597: f8 @ 1/100  ISO 200  22mm 
WB Daylight cropped

 



What drew my eye here was the brightly multi coloured building behind the motorbike and the patterned sunlight in front. How would this work in monochrome? I experimented by adjusting the colours in the black and white mix to increase the colour  differential so that the tones were more pronounced and then increased the contrast using the tone curve. I am happy with the result as I can see the difference in colour in the background..




P598: f5.6 @ 1/640  ISO 100  55mm  AWB

P598 is less successful as I was looking for a way to enhance the movement here by bringing out the contrast between the foaming waves and the surrounding sea. Her I increased the contrast and decreased the shadow; the increased the red/ blue and yellow colours in the b/w mix  to draw out the 'water bike' . The end result is disappointing and I'd welcome ideas as to how to improve the image.


Lastly, am I developing a 'personal voice' ? Still a long way to go...





Assignment three : Monochrome piers

Monochrome piers...

For this assignment I decided to take seaside piers as my theme. I thought this might work well given the idea with this assignment is to bring out the monochrome image qualities of form, tonal contrast and texture. 

I always associate piers with  summer childhood trips to the sea  and even now enjoy spending the odd hour wandering around piers.The architecture and presentation of funfair rides and stalls always seem to vie with each other for attention and offer glimpses of a history stretching back to early Victorian times.

I wanted to capture a sense of place straddling the past and the here and now, using images of people using and enjoying the pier and then pier itself. And I always associate piers with  summer childhood trips to the sea  and so wanted to give a sense of the weather and season ..in this case, late summer.

I carried out a few test shots on Worthing pier to check out whether the theme would work
and what areas might be interesting to experiment with. Interestingly, my memories of Worthing pier like many childhood memories fell a little short. It did provide some very useful material ,for example, art deco architecture but lacked the 'old-fashioned ' fairground feel that I also wanted to include. For this I went off to Brighton which has a more traditional pier; one less sedate than its cousin in Worthing.

 
So the final selection of images are drawn from time spent on both Brighton and Worthing piers, taken on  a number of days in varying weather.

Pier people



P589: f2.8 @ 1/1250  ISO 80  4mm  AWB Cropped

Unlike these people, I didn't get a chance that day to enjoy the view and lovely sunshine from a deckchair perspective. I chose this composition to convey the timelessness of seaside piers. The horizon might have changed over the decades but the sight of people comfortable in deckchairs could come form any time over the last century. Shooting in monochrome enhances this timelessness. I adjusted the black and white mix to achieve a slight darkening of the sky to lend more interest in what was very much a uniform blue. I also adjusted the tone curve to bring out the pattern on the decking through increased contrast. 



P590: f10 @ 1/320  ISO 100  18mm  WB Cloudy

While I have never seen anyone catch a fish from Worthing Pier, it does not seem to deter fishermen. I like this image for a number of reasons; the puzzle as to what the fisherman is looking at; the weather coming towards us with the clouds lowering over the distant shoreline .. Here I increased the exposure to lighten the image slightly and then applied the tone curve to darken parts of the sky to bring out more the drama of the sky set against the calmness and flatness of the sea and decking.



P591: f2.8 @ 1/160  ISO 80  4mm  AWB Cropped

The intention here is to present the 'contrast' between the business man talking on his mobile phone and the 'timelessness' of the funfair decorations around him. The scene has a certain geometric feel coming from the angled roof lines and the patterned floor which I felt would come over well in monochrome. The challenge was achieving the right level of contrast. The image benefited from cropping and I decreased the exposure, decreased the shadows and highlights before adjusting the tone curve to achieve the final image above. I think it works well and delivers what I intended.




P592: f8 @ 1/400  ISO 100  55mm  -0.7exp.  WB Daylight. Cropped

I always find it difficult to take photographs of people going about their business ever since I was fiercely challenged in Portsmouth city centre when taking shots of a building (ironically) just as a man walk passed. So, given the number of folk out and about on the pier, I was perhaps rather wary of capturing people in any image, particularly children. OK, yet another 'back view' but following this elderly man down the pier gave me this  lucky shot of Frankenstein lurching towards an unwary passer-by. A contrast of the everyday image of the old man and his shopping basket and the fantasy creature. To improve the detail, I increased the blue and decreased the yellow in the black and white mix as well as adjusting the tone curve and cropped the resulting image. 

Around the funfair ...

I am always attracted by shape, pattern, architectural detail and abstract form. Brighton Pier had much to offer and what I found fascinating was the range of period style and fashion that could be found amongst the various funfair rides and sideshows.



P593: f5.6 @ 1/800  ISO 100  18mm  WB Daylight Cropped

This leaping figure in P593 reminded me of a Disney fairy tale character and was painted accordingly. What attracted me was not the colour of the figure and horse but the volume and line and how this might be enhanced in monochrome.

The figure stood guard at the entrance of a slot machine gallery; a strange juxtaposition of fantasy and fairy tale and gambling machines  - or maybe not, given gambling is often seen as a way of fulfilling dreams.

I took shots from different angles around the figure to see what might work best in bright sunlight and how I might use the shadows to best effect. Try as I might it was not possible to get a shot that conveyed this fairy tale /gambling juxtaposition. That said, I like the angle I eventually chose for P593.
Increasing the exposure, contrast and clarity helped to crisp up the detail to the level that I wanted. I darkened the sky slightly using the tone curve.




P594: f8 @ 1/250  ISO 100  33 mm -0.7exp.  WB Daylight  Cropped

I know from previous experience of photographing  carousel horses in colour how hard  it is to capture the traditional, excessive but attractive fairground decoration they carry. I thought it worth a second try in black and white though since I had good examples of volume, texture and geometry in front of me.
 It does work better in monochrome - helped by increasing the contrast significantly.




P595: f5 @ 1/160  ISO 100  38mm WB Daylight

One of the fairground stalls closed and part shuttered gave me a great abstract image with a real retro feel ( P595). I did wonder how the bright red seats would translate into black and white and decided to increase the red within the black and white mix and decrease the yellow to make the yellow stripe on the floor stand out more. I am pleased with the final image.



P596: f8 @ 1/250  ISO 100   21mm  WB Daylight 

  

I like the dramatic impact of this picture. The dramatic feel of the blue and yellow  'Turbo Ride' was heightened by darkening the sky and lightening the cloud within the circle of the ride.



Assignment three Monochrome - preparation

For this assignment I had to choose a theme or subject that I thought would be good for black and white images and able to enable me to bring out the monochrome image qualities of form, tonal contrast and texture.

As I worked through the preceding exercises, I spent some time thinking about what might work as a subject for the assignment and planned a few trial runs to different locations. I also looked at various sources of black and white photography to try to develop a sense of what compositions and treatments worked particularly well for black and white images. I came across the magazine 'Black+White Photography published by GMC Publications in the Photographers Gallery a while back and have since found the various monthy editions very interesting,stimulating and helpful here. Early on remembering and being, if I am honest, influenced by Chris Killip's submission for the  Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2013., wondered whether the Hollycombe Steam Museum would present  a number of good opportunities. It has a wide range of steam engines ranging from farm and railway to fairground rides all driven by steam.I was thinking along the lines of texture and form. Interestingly however, a photo visit did not produce exactly what I was looking for and it was then back to the drawing board.

Eventually I decided to base my assignment on seaside piers. Part of the reasoning here was to see if I could capture the beauty of local piers and engender both a nostalgic and current look at how they are used and enjoyed by people. Secondly, I knew two local piers well from childhood and adult visits. Both had interesting architecture and traditional pier entertainment and were still well used by people. There was also the attraction and advantage of open skies and water to build into the equation.