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

 

Colours into tones 2

I chose a colour portrait for this exercise.

P420

The aim was to lighten the complexion without significantly altering the rest of the image.





P586

In P586 I lightened the skin tone using the target adjustment tool in the Hue section of Lightroom; this prevented the bright colour of the subject's scarf and fleece from being lightened as well.





P587 : black and white default

Here in the default version (P587 ), the image has a lighter interpretation; the uniform approach delivering what seems to be a slight 'colour cast'  almost a yellow / orange feel.There does not seem to be a huge difference between the two pictures. Perhaps the default version works better against the black background but subjectively I prefer the first interpretation in terms of the actual face of the subject...

Colours into tones 1

My aim here was to produce two black and white versions of a colour image containing two strong contrasting colours using the channel sliders in my Lightroom software.  I chose an image taken last autumn - leaves collected  between the base of a car window screen and the car bonnet. - and began with making a default 'black and white' version.




P582: F5 @1/160  ISO 80  11mm  Canon IXUS 210

 

P583 :Default black and white version

 

 

P584 below is the result of darkening the grayscale of the yellow and lightening the contrasting blue.

 

P584

 

 

 

P585

 

The second version (P585) above is the result of lightening the yellow and darkening the grayscale of the blue.

 

Looking at the three black and white versions, a number of thoughts occurred to me. Would transforming the colour image into black and white result in losing the distinct nature of the image i.e. leaves though possessing significant visual interest through the line, shape and texture of each leave photographed for their distinctive autumnal colour. Again would the composition be sufficient to hold the interest without the colour ?  The version where I darkened the yellow tone while lightening the contrasting blue (P584)  resulted in significantly less leaf detail becoming more abstract with an interesting  play of light and shadow within the tones and a clear cut image of the car bonnet. Reversing the process brought out the leaf shapes more and a far more contrasty feel to the overall image - I felt that I could almost see the autumn sunshine playing across the leaves. The abstract nature of the composition is different with the curve of the bonnet less obvious.  Which version do I prefer? P585  I suspect due to the 'sunshine' lifting the image ..it feels less flat than the default black and white and nearer to the original colour image for this very reason.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Strength of interpretation

The idea behind this exercise was the demonstration that the removal of colour from an image allows for more interpretation of the tonal range. I chose two photographs where I could make the following adjustments:

• A strong increase of contrast that will include clipping in at least the shadow areas.

• Low or high key treatment, in which the entire brightness range is shifted down or up the scale.



 

P572 : Original image

 





 

P573: Strong increase In contrast 





P574:  High key treatment




P575: B/w  Strong increase in contrast 

P576: B/w High key treatment

Looking at the various versions above, I think the high key treatment gives more a sense of the wintry day; the black and white version being my preferred choice as the difference in tone works better. Both colour and black and white  images where the contrast was significantly increase lose a lot of detail .




P577: Original

 

P579: High key treatment

P578: Strong increase in contrast

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 








P580: B/w Strong increase in contrast

P581: B/w High key treatment

The above images are interesting.. The colour image reworked with a strong increase in colour gives a sense of the hot sun of the day through the bright orange / yellow tiles  which I expected though detail in the shadow is lost. The black and white version seems more extreme  and does not work as well in terms of representing the 'hot sun'. In the high key treatment version the detail remains but the ' bleached' appearance does not work as well I thought it might before completing the processing. Again the high key black and white version works better for me.

Black and white

This black and white exercise required choosing a subject, lighting condition or picture situation that would look better in black and white than colour. The starting point was a colour image; the black and white version being produced during processing. I found this exercise a tricky one as I came to it with pre conceived ideas as to what might make a good subject.
Thinking about the play of light on water and the textural element of trees/ vegetation etc. I spent some time at Swanbourne Lake in Arundel. My eye was drawn by a dilapidated boathouse which offered shape and texture with the peeling paint and graffiti adding some visual interest. The end result taken in colour was disappointing ..perhaps the play of  light was not as good as I had expected; certainly I could see that the image lacked sufficient volume to present a good subject for conversion into black and white. Processing the image confirmed my post capture thoughts.

I then decided to look for images that could offer more shape, texture and volume which led me to explore the possibilities of the steam collection at Hollycombe. This site has steam driven fairground rides, farm machinery and steam vehicles. I had in mind images of fairground 'horses' and maybe working machinery ( cogs, brass fittings, steam etc. ). I shot a series of images in colour bearing in mind my end  black and white image.

I ended up with two images that I liked in black and white.




P568: F5.6 @ 1/50 ISO 100   22mm AWB

Machinery can give volume, and shape but as I discovered can end up less interesting than expected. I realised early on that building in  a human element worked better both in providing volume but lifting the potential interest to a less specialist viewpoint and additionally adding in some movement. I cropped the colour version before processing it in black and white as I felt the need to enhance the composition.  



P569  

The black and white version has had the contrast, shadows and highlights adjusted. With hindsight I feel the composition is rather derivative and in part influenced by Chris Killip's image 'Threshing', Grenaby, Isle of Man, 1973 seen at the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2013 exhibition earlier this year. Looking at it again, I am less convinced that the black and white version works better than the coloured image


On balance I have opted for the second image below as my preferred version for the exercise.




P570: f8 @1/8  ISO 100  18mm  AWB

P570 was taken in the tented hall of images after a few trial shots to get the composition right regarding what could be seen in the mirrors placed around the edge of the tent. At the time I thought it would work well in black and white due the reflected light and textured volume of the tent walls.  A secondary consideration was my image on the right hand side which I thought might be less distracting and more balanced if in black and white. I also cropped a little from the right side to balance the composition.





P571 : f8 @1/8  ISO 100  18mm  AWB

I am pleased with the black and white version, I think it does work better as the eye is not distracted by the pink vertical stripes and can rest better on the curious images framed in the vertical mirrors. There is an abstract feel to composition which I enjoy.

Interpretative processing

I thought that this exercise would be particularly interesting as it required the search for an image that would give a variety of opportunities for different creative interpretations and varied processing. The exercise required the production of three different versions of the same image.Before going ahead with the chosen image, I spent some time experimenting with the various pre sets in Lightroom which was great fun. The image that I eventually chose to use was one taken on holiday in San Francisco - the inside of one of the famous street cars.

P564: F2.7 @ 1/640  ISO 400  4.3mm  AWB Original image



P565:  Sepia

Given the age of the streetcar  and the timeless look of the people inside, I thought that I would see how a 'sepia' type look would turn out. It took a while to get the colour I was looking for working through the black and white panel. There was a great deal of light coming in from the right of the image producing an over exposed aspect which made it difficult to get a result that revealed the dog in the bag clearly. That said, I was reasonably happy with the resulting finished look in P565 as I felt that it did give a timeless quality to the image. 



P566: Picture Post

Next I tried a black and white version as I was reminded of the kind of images that I used to see in old Picture Post type publications. This image was the result of playing around with various colours to achieve the look I wanted. I feel it conjures up the1950s.

 

 

P567 : Sunny side up 

The day on which the image was taken was very hot ...clear blue skies and dark shadows. The original image suffered from the bright light coming in from the right which bleached out some of the interior colour. I decided to produce a warmer version which echoed the warm summer's day inside and felt this worked well. Aplus factor was the interior detail being enhanced as well.

 

 



Managing colour

The idea here is to correct significant colour casts in a number of JPEG images. It proved a very useful exercise.

P561:  F8 @ 1/40  ISO 100  22mm  WB Tungsten  - Original image

P561 was a classic example of not checking the white balance setting before taking an image. The tungsten setting resulted in a very blue cast on a very bright cloudy day.

P561a : Amended image 

P561a is the result of using the equivalent of a 'grey dropper' placed on the asphalt.It brings the colour back to nearer the actual colour on the day which I further enhanced by adjusting the colour saturation to bring out the colour of the costumes.

P562: F5.8 @ 1/8 ISO 1600  98mm AWB

The original image of our cat ( P562 ) was disappointing as it came out with a yellow cast that did not reflect the true markings of her fur.

P563a Amended image

Placing the 'grey dropper' on the dark grey of one of the stripes produces a more accurate image.Try as I might I could not adjust the image further to remove the slight pink tinge on the chin.

P563: f3.5 @ 1/3  ISO 400 18mm

P563 is one of a number of pictures taken to illustrate a meeting made all the more difficult to take because of the changing light in the pub room which ranged from darkening natural light through to an alarming red light effect coming from wall lights as the evening progressed. This image was taken half way through the light changes and came out with a strong yellow / orange cast. 

P563a : Amended image

With this image I focused on the patch of charcoal grey top right  of the picture again with the 'grey dropper' which produced an whiter image more easy to reproduce for a local leaflet.

Managing tone

For this exercise I chose an image taken with my Powershot SX40HS and in Lightroom performed a number of actions. These included assessing and adjusting if necessary the mid-tones, contrast and if necessary making corrections to localised areas.  






P560 : f2.8 @ 1/1000  ISO 160  4.3mm AWB  Original image

P560a : Adjusted using tone curve and localised correction on sky




Value of Raw

The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate the processing advantage of raw, but at the same time to put this advantages in perspective. I have taken three images in three different lighting situations using a combination of raw and the highest quality JPEG offered by my camera.

Daylight

P551: f8 @ 1/80  ISO 100  27mm AWB  JPEG

P551



P552: f8 @ 1/125  ISO 100  27mm AWB raw 

P552

P553: f8 @ 1/125  ISO 100  27mm AWB  raw amended

P553

In P553 I increased the contrast, highlights and shadows plus decreasing the black clipping. The result is lighter than the original raw and fractionally lighter than the JPEG version.

Artificial light

P554 : f4 @ 1/5  ISO 200  18mm JPEG AWB

P554

 

 

P555: f4 @ 1/5  ISO 200  18mm AWB

 

 

P555

 

P556 : f 4 @ 1/5  ISO 200 18mm AWB  RAW amended

 

For P556 I increased the highlights and increased the shadows to lighten the image. Looking at the original RAW and JPEG, I can see that the RAW image is darker.






P556



High dynamic range



P557: f9 @1/200 ISO 100 21 mm  WB Daylight

P557



P558:f 9 @1/200 ISO 100  21 mm  WB Daylight

 

P558

 

 

 

 

P559: f9 @1/200 ISO 100  21 mm  WB Daylight

 

P559

In P559 I amended the image by decreasing the white highlights and increasing the shadow which has increased the detail visible. 

Comparing the two versions for each scene, the colours seem darker in the Raw version ( less apparent in the high dynamic range model) and in the case of the image taken in daylight a little more saturated. Not a great deal of difference regarding dynamic range that I can see.