Assignment 5 : The photobook - did it work?

Was the photobook the right presentation 'vehicle' for my project ? I think so. However, this was the first time I had created a photobook; it was a learning curve and the end product was not as successful as I had hoped. Both I and my tutor agree on this point.

So I shall redo the photobook now with a number of changes. 

Firstly, neither I or my tutor liked the highly glossy finish. I usually print my images on smooth pearl photographic paper and need to replicate this finish in the photobook. 

Secondly, the book needs an introduction to give the viewers  as my tutor says ' a bit of a clue ' My original instinct to write a short introduction to the photo book, setting the scene so to speak, which I originally considered and discarded, was right with hindsight. I followed advice to keep captions simple trying where practicable to hint at what the image represented to me. With hindsight, I think the need that I felt to explain images suggests a lack of success in what I was trying to achieve' 

Adding an introduction will provide set the scene for viewers whereby the images they view will trigger the experience, the idea or emotion that Roland Barthes describes as the 'punctum' - the 'element which rises from the scene, shoots out of it like an arrow, and pierces one' 
( Barthes, 2000, p.26 ).

Assignment 5 - achieving a constant look

I think it fair to say that the final selection of images did not present a 'constant look' to the photobook. Why was this? Some of those  images had some considerable post production treatment to generate a certain feel,for example,  'warm sunshine',the passing of time or an attempt to place the image back in time by representing it as an image taken many years ago that had faded with time.My tutor feels that this colour rendering and use of grain 'detracts from the quality of the image ( both technically and emotionally )'. 
This post production treatment experimenting with techniques learnt during the course approaches did introduce a degree of inconsistency across the book. How to get round this? how to achieve a constant 'look' ?  

  
 The images that I want to use do not easily lend themselves to creating the look of old photos right across the board; and given that I want the images I've taken today to trigger memories of yesterday, this suggests that I would be better sticking to printing images that I have taken in the here and now and leave them to jog memories of the past. This would work for me in  terms of my memories. For others it is less simple, but perhaps the images are not so specific that they do not trigger thoughts and memories even if these are not that personal to the viewer.  
                       

A:  Lightroom colour preset

P700: Daylight WB

                            

        Same image but different treatments to try and achieve the  sense of hot sunshine within a glass greenhouse.....

              

P701 :: Cloudy WB

P702:original image AWB

              However, if I were to opt for the idea that the images were taken a while ago and have changed over time, for example, started to fade  or some colours fading, how would this be achieved, how would it look and could it or should it be applied across all images to provide the consistency that I feel is needed?    Looking at the images above I think Image C comes closest to what I was trying to conjure up..This was achieved by  using the cloudy white balance setting ( P701).

        I also experimented with some differing approaches to 'aging' photos  to see whether there was any approach that would work across. 

 P703 : Photochrome  version

        I have come  to the conclusion however, that this project is better served by using the original images to achieve a consistency of look  rather than processing them to 'look' like old photos.

    

       



Tutor report (2) - Assignment 5 Challenging the interpretation concept ....

P682

The image above is a recapture of a photograph of my Dad working in a greengrocer's taken by a passing professional photographer sometime before decimalisation. The original was placed against a black background to bring out the lovely customer friendly quality that Dad had, so expertly captured in the original image. The image below (P681) is an attempt to recreate the original photograph  by a modern version which conjuring up the same sense of my Dad...

My 'model' here was a very patient and obliging Portsmouth market stallholder happy to help try to create the same pose...

P681

Tutor : The problem is will the reader realise it is a more or less random stall holder? Does this matter?  A very helpful and insightful comment. Looking back again at these two images I think it matters only in that the sequence of reading the images is perhaps the wrong way round which suggests a stronger link between the two men that was intended. Reversing the images would underline the idea of the modern image conjuring up the 'memory' i.e. the eye travelling left to right from the modern  to the 1950s picture and be more consistent with the rest of the work. Another reason for reworking the images into a new version and reviewing the captions.

P686

 'Amateur artist on honeymoon...'

An unexpected side of my Dad was an artistic streak that stretched way back to before the war. P686 below shows the earliest example that I have - one of two pen and ink drawings that he made on honeymoon.
I used a heavy grain to give an impression of a painting. Tutor : Do you think this is necessary? Has it worked?

 Here's the original  image without the heavy grain ...

                           

         I prefer the heavy grain version - it works for me as I think  it refers back to the 'artist' in that it looks more like a painting. However, the question being asked suggests that it might not work for  other observers. Should I then make a change here? My instinct is to stay with my original choice but I will revisit this when I review the concept of achieving a 'constant' look to the photobook. 

I 

Revisiting 'Traces of my Dad' reflecting on the key issues..

Re reading my own reflection of this piece of work together with my tutor's feedback, I can see a number of issues that I want to address over the next few weeks before I prepare  my coursework for assessment:

Punctum v stadium - looking again at the final images

Can a 'constant'look be achieved? 
Can a more  constant look be achieved and would this be more desirable?


Did the Photobook work as a vehicle for the concept underpinning this project?
What worked in terms of design and quality of production - what could be improved? Do I want to have another 'go' at creating a photobook? 

Tutor report (1) on Assignment 5 - my initial response

Here's my tutor's feedback with my initial response in red...

 
Feedback on assignment 5

Most of what I want to say in general is in the annotations/notes that I have added to the documents you sent in and these are good, they really do help to understand what you were setting out to do, how you went about it and what you think of the result.

You have done some very thorough research which is evidenced by the good reading list you have included for this assignment.  You seem to have all the key texts and it is good to see a student engaging well with the theoretical side of the subject.  This practice should stand you in good stead for the rest of your degree.

I mentioned that I am not a fan of gloss for books (in fact I am not a great fan of high gloss at all!); in general I like to see some sheen on images, perhaps semi gloss, lustre or semi matt, as I think it tends to give the tonal range the best chance.  Gloss has a tendency to have reflections and I find matt rather lacking in tonal range but sometimes it is important to give the images a textural feel (and look of course)  I also think that glossy books just look cheap!

I'm not surprised here as my own view after getting the photo book back from the printer was that I should have opted for a more matt finish ( see my reflective account posted on 29 April).

I think that you need to think about a constant ‘look’ for the images in the book.  If you are trying to create an old photos look then you need to think about what old colour photos look like and whether you want your images to look as though they have been on a frame on the piano for years (faded some of the colours disappearing and so on) or whether you are trying to make them look as though they have just been taken but at some time in the past.  The other approach is to clearly separate the old (and ‘old) images from the new ones that are portraying a memory.

Fair comment...my initial attempts to try one kind of 'look' for every subject suggested that this would not work across all subjects but hindsight is a marvellous  thing..and I need to revisit this again
.

For me some of the treatment you have applied post production, colour rendering, grain and so on, detract from the quality of the image (both technically and emotionally) both in the book and the separate image that you have included.

Definitely worth revisiting my approach here ..

Also you should look at the different ways of cutting out a subject from its background.  In my experience different subjects work better using different techniques, but which ever you use try to make the edges as un-obvious as possible by feathering or whatever.

Interesting  as I did try some feathering but  a new technique for me and I need to go back and try this approach again.

You might want to think about making a new set of prints or at least preparing a new set of digital images (depending on how you are planning on submitting you work for assessment) that address these points.

I have decided to revisit my approach here and produce a new set of digital images. I did not like the glossy photo book and think my concept worth a second attempt using a semi matt finish.

You have Camera Lucida in you reading so you should think about what Barth says about punctum vs stadium in the image and how this relates to your images. I think; if only because of the way Barthes has written about it, his context for the explanation; the sort of subject that you project is dealing with makes these things particularly pertinent.  For example how do these concepts show in the Nearing Retirement image?

Hmmm...I need to go back to Barthes'  'Camera Lucida' ..

For me, and I get the feeling for you too, the final book is not a successful as the research and preparation work might deserve.  I think you could fix this by thinking about the overall ‘look’ of the images as I discuss above and perhaps by including either a foreword or afterword that give at least some of the background to the project.  I don’t think that a viewer coming cold to the images would realise what is going on but given a bit of a clue the images could give rise to all sorts of ideas and emotions in them.  You should at least discuss all this in your log/blog as trying to fix things that don’t quite go as right as you thought they would is the way we learn and is central to the purpose of these modules.  Credit is given for critical assessment, proposed remedies, and suggested ways forward.

Learning Logs/Critical essays

I mentioned Harvard referencing.  It is not vital that you use it for informal log/blog entries but you must use it for formal essays and critical reviews.  I have given links to help you in this for the future.

I have now researched this referencing system and from now on will use it in my blog and also for any written work if providing references or a bibliography. As a trial run, I have revised my Reflective Account as best I could given that my approach to recording detail such as the chapter / page number was not as consistent as it should have been. Won't happen again!

I think that the content of your blog is fine and makes an interesting read.  You might want to give it the final once over to check that it is as easy as possible for the assessors to find what they will want to see.  The index should be clear and there should be the minimum of clicks to find anything.

Tutor's feedback on Assignment 4

Feedback on assignment

I like the thinking behind your book cover design and although I think it would possibly work in a commercial situation, I think that you would have done better had you done even more work on it to create that surreal image that you were aiming for.  In the end I think that you were wise to choose the CD cover as your preferred submission for this assignment.  You could do worse than give some more thought as to why this book cover is less than 100% successful. 

 

Combining a colour and a monochrome image takes a lot of thinking about to make it work.  Often a little de-saturation of the colours (not too much) is needed and perhaps in this case a slight over-sizing of the modern elements would help.  I am not sure about the blue colour and it is certainly better in the duller version seen on the word document than the rather brighter version in the jpeg but blue, pink and yellow is perhaps not the most sympathetic combination.  I don’t think I would have erased the creases but perhaps placed the image behind the Windolene and Marigolds as though it were in a frame (I wouldn’t have tried to simulate one in any way) on the table wioth them...or something like that.

 

 

For me the CD cover is much more successful.  I don’t think that there is any sort of ethical problem with manipulation in this which is a totally fictional and creative use of the imagery.  However there might be a different view if one were saying that the image was the actual truth...though I am not sure just how far I personally take this.  I do not assume that a photograph tell the actual and un-mediated fact, far less the truth.  Truth is almost always relative and mediated so as long as the image makes the point that the maker intends it to I have no problem with manipulations up to the point where the maker tells us one thing in the caption and shows us another in the image.  Given that an image is at best a copy and not the actuality it can never be real and in any case Post-modernist thinking questioned the nature of reality very effectively for me.  It is a tricky area but I do believe that many people, particularly those with a vested interest in Social Documentary photography, have unreal expectations of photography, its power to change things and its ability to capture actuality in a disinterested way.

I think that all you have done with this works well and the final result captures the atmosphere that you were aiming at.

I assume that the slight halo around the foreground figure is an artefact caused by the Magic Extractor, and I think that leaving it in has worked in your advantage.  If on the other hand you have added it (the halo that is) then I think it was very much the right thing to do as it adds another layer of unreality to an otherwise realistic image.  I think this is well done.

The reading I have suggested is all rather theoretical but I think the issues raised by this assignment and by your intentions for the next suggest that a good dose of theory will not be out of place!  Don’t worry if some of it (much of it?) seems rather obscure at first reading, just take from it what you can, things often don’t become clear till much later on, as you are making work at a later date and you may not always agree with the sentiments expressed on the readings either, the point is to expose you to ideas not to suggest that they are written in stone.

 

Learning Logs/Critical essays

I enjoy looking at your log and I am pleased to see that your trip to the antipodes has been a success.

I think that the navigation is better and the assessors will not have too much trouble finding what they are looking for.

 

 

 

 

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

 

Tutor's report : Feedback on Assignment 2

Overall Comments

Things are moving in the right direction.  I note that you are trying to find themes to link your image making for the assignments and I whole heartedly approve of this approach.  I would suggest that you think about the different ways you can do this, the possibilities of more conceptual themes some of which I indicate in the annotations but to reiterate, colour, mood, emotion, can be as much and sometimes more of a theme than location or absolute content.

A creative interpretation of the briefs, so long as the main aims are covered, is very much favoured by all us tutors and the assessors where possible and can sometimes help you to develop you own vision much more than taking a more literal approach to the briefs.

 

Feedback on assignment

In very many ways this has been a successful assignment.  The images you have come up with, particularly in part one, are all of a good standard in just about every way and although you have not produced a set of images on a single theme, as you intended at first, there are some themes emerging here and you might like to sort them in different ways to see what themes you can find.

I think that you have covered much of the intentions of the brief and the following remarks are intended to help you in the future rather than suggesting ways in which you might re-work the current set...though if you feel it useful to re-work any of them in light of these comments, re-shooting or whatever, do so and include the results and your thoughts on them with the assignment when going for assessment.  Re visiting and re-working assignments in light of tutorial input and future knowledge is always credited by the assessors and, rather more importantly, a valuable learning technique.  Of course you should always indicate what is re-worked and reflect on the results.

 

 







P540 amended 

P540 







 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P540 – you comment that you are not really satisfied with the way your image captures the intrigue of the Lanes.  I thought about the idea of a narrow and tall lane and cropped accordingly...what do you think?  Actually your image doesn’t miss by much if at all.

Like the amended version....the narrower  version does capture the feel of the Lanes  better.

I see a post on your blog concerned with shooting RAW vs jpeg.  I am not sure what conclusions you came to but equally I am not sure that you understand the difference so I hope this is not simply telling you things that you already know!

Raw images are simply the unprocessed information captured by the sensor, some information such as selected white balance is passed on but the image is ‘as is’.  All cameras, whatever the output, in fact capture a raw image but if jpeg of tiff or whatever (not the proprietary raw output though) output is chosen the camera applies post processing of a variety of sorts depending on the settings chosen by the photographer before compressing the image.  The original, unprocessed image cannot be obtained from the jpeg as the information and pixels are deleted.  Therefore it is generally considered more sensible for the photographer to shoot and output raw images and apply their own post processing rather than rely on some generic answers dreamed up by the camera designers.  This allows for a variety of different post processing solutions to be tried and at different times, leaving the options open.  Obviously this assumes that the photographer downloads and stores the raw images for posterity rather than deleting them after initial post processing, rather in the same way that film photographers will store the negatives for future reconsideration.  It is inevitable that the raw image looks different from and often much worse than, a jpeg of the exact same subject if looked at before processing in a program like Lightroom, Camera Raw or the raw conversion software that the camera manufacturer issues with the camera.

You should answer the questions I ask in my annotation, or in the tutor report in your learning blog.  They are put there to make you think about it and not so much for you to send me answers.  If I want a direct answer I will say something like “Let me know what you intend etc....”  I want to encourage you, and all students, to use their logs and blogs as a vehicle for this sort of thinking, musing and exploration.

I am not convinced that the module notes have entirely explained to you the way that a light meter works so I will try to give a brief outline of what I think are the important considerations.  The problem that a meter is trying to solve is, of course, what exposure we should give the sensor, film or whatever.  Given that all subjects are different some sort of baseline needs to be establishes and in the days of monochrome photography the solution was based on tonality and this seems to work just as well in colour and digital as well as analogue.  So what to do? Measuring the absolute amount of light reflected from a particular subject is fine but complex and difficult to interpret so it was decided to pick a reference colour and tone and this was (to be a bit over technical) 18% reflectance neutral grey, usually referred to as ‘mid-grey’ because although it only reflects 18% of the light falling on it it looks about halfway between black and white to our eye (Logarithms and things enter here!)  So all light meters assume that they are looking at mid-grey and suggest an exposure that will render the subject as such.  This means that if you take a spot reading off a white surface the exposure will be too little to render it as white in other words it will under expose it.  As it happens (well, this was a part of the decision to use mid-grey and the particular sensitivity range of light sensitive materials in reality), an average, naturally lit scene (the sort of thing that is most often photographed in fact) averages to mid-grey (a tonal range of about 127:1 and so on) so pointing a light meter in the general direction of the scene and taking in as much as possible (and average reading) we tend to get an acceptable result.  However, we want to be able to do more than get just an acceptable result and so all sorts of systems of exposure estimation have been devised over the years and the one that has been most often adopted and abused to be honest, is the Zone System of Ansel Adams.  This can be extremely comprehensive and complex and the three volume series of book he wrote on the subject of exposure (The Camera, The Negative and The Print) have become something of a holy text for some photographers and go well beyond the current discussion.  However there are a few gems to be extracted that can help in explaining how to judge exposure in every day situations.  His splitting of the scene into up to ten tone ‘zones’ from pure white with no detail (pretty much the point of highlight clipping in our day) to pure black with no detail (the point of shadow clipping) is not a bad way of thinking about a subject.  So if you look back on the way you took your readings in the light of this information you might be able to be more specific in understanding how you got the results that you did.  And what you might have done to either make your life easier or simply been more predictive of the results.  It might help to make sense of some of my comments and questions.  I have included a link to one of the many sites that discusses the Zone System in a supposedly simply way, take a look and see what you make of it. 

Explain in you blog why you chose the particular points you did to measure and In the light of the above, whether they were the best to achieve the results you were after.

You have used the lighting to draw the eye to the elements in the image that you want the viewer to concentrate on, the main point of interest, what Barthes (see suggested reading) might have termed the punctum in many ways. This has been successful and is a very worthwhile technique to use but you should also consider using it in conjunction with, or on occasions to substitute it with differential focus.  By this I mean focusing specifically on your main point of interest often throwing the other elements more or less out of focus.  With modern small sensor cameras the depth of field is generally quite large so that the point of absolute sharp focus may well not be that different from the rest of the image but it can be enough to work almost subliminally and pull the eye in.  The depth of field is dependent on focal length (the longer it is the shallower is the depth of field); the aperture (the wider the aperture the shallower the depth of field) and the point of focus (the nearer it is the shallower the depth of field) so even with a crop factor of 1.5 or whatever we still have some control over it.  Look at your images and discuss in your blog if and how you could have used differential focus and/or depth of field control to make your images even better.

I am pleased to see that you seem to be using the histogram and so on to evaluate the success or otherwise of the exposure but it can be all too easy to simply concentrate on the info regarding clipping and ignore the rest of the placement of tones.  Quite often we are better to let one or even both ends of the tonal range to block up in order to arrange the important tones where we want them and it is important to get used to looking at different colours in terms of tones, the spot meter setting can help here.  A yellow can look lighter than a blue of the same tone!

 

Learning Logs/Critical essays

Your blog is coming along reasonably well. I an glad to see that you are recording your visits and so on not just the exercises.  However I would like to see you using the blog more like a free ranging journal, recording you thoughts, reflections, questions and so on about all sorts of issues that inping on your study and photography. 

Perhaps if you think of it as having a sort of conversation with yourself about your engagement with photography and the arts and life in general (it doesn’t have to be Proust length!) you won’t go far wrong.

Happy to give this a go now that I have a feel for what is needed here..

Suggested reading/viewing

Have decided to set up a different part of the log to keep all suggestions received together with any comments that I want to make about what I've read etc..

Barthes introduces us to some interesting ideas about the way our attention is affected by photographs (amongst much else) in:

Barthes, R., 1993. Camera Lucida: Refections on Photography. London: Vintage Classics.
Take a look at this site

http://photo.tutsplus.com/tutorials/shooting/understanding-using-ansel-adams-zone-system/

for more information on applying the Zone System to digital photography, it might be more information than you think you need but information is never wasted.