suecrook513802eyv
Level 1 course for BA Photography Degree
express your vision
open college of the arts
Create a series of between six and ten photographs from one of the following options, or a subject of your own choosing:
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Crowds
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Views
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Heads
Use the exercises from Part Two as a starting point to test out combinations of focal length, aperture and viewpoint for the set. Decide upon a single format, either vertical or horizontal. You should keep to the same combination throughout to lend coherence to the series.
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Crowds make a great subject for photography, not least because they are so contemporary. A city rush hour is a good place to start but events also offer great opportunities to photograph the crowd rather than the event. The foreshortened perspective of the telephoto lens will compress a crowd, fitting more bodies into the frame, but it can also be used to pick out an individual person. A wide-angle lens can capture dynamic shots from within the action.
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If you choose to make a collection of views you need to be prepared to do some walking so keep the weight of your equipment to a minimum – you’ll walk further and see more. A tripod will be important to allow you to select a combination of small aperture and slow shutter speed to ensure absolute sharpness throughout the frame. The weather and time of day will be crucial, whether for urban or landscape views. A wide-angle lens is the usual choice but Ansel Adams also used a medium telephoto to foreshorten the perspective, bringing the sky, distance and foreground closer together.
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Heads: Frame a ‘headshot’, cropping close around the head to avoid too much variety in the backgrounds. The light will be paramount and a reflector is a useful tool (you can ask the subject to hold it), throwing light up into the face, especially the eyes. The classic headshot is buoyant but neutral which is quite difficult to achieve, but try to achieve a natural rather than an artificially posed look.
ASSIGNMENT NOTES
Send your photographs to your tutor accompanied by assignment notes (500–1,000 words) containing the following:
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An introduction to your subject.
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A description of the combination of aperture, focal length and viewpoint you’ve used, and how they affect the images.
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An evaluation. You’ll want to evaluate the technical aspects of your assignment, but it’s also important to evaluate how well the series works as a whole. When writing your evaluation, use the following structure: what worked well, what didn’t work so well and how the series might be improved in the future.
Include a link (or scanned pages) to any exercises from Part Two in your learning log that you’d like your tutor to comment on.
REFLECTION
Check your work against the assessment criteria for this course before you send it to your tutor. Make some notes in your learning log about how well you believe your work meets each criterion.
Your tutor may take a while to get back to you so carry on with the course while you’re waiting.
Reworking your assignment
Following feedback from your tutor, you may wish to rework some of your assignment, especially if you plan to submit your work for formal assessment. If you do this, make sure you reflect on what you’ve done and why in your learning log.
My Final Idea – please see research page for other ideas I have dismissed for now, but could use at a later date.
Crowds – I would like to use this assignment as a different way of shooting crowds for eg taking images of feet and movement rather than head shots. I could do this by going to an event or shopping center, sitting on a seat with the camera on a small tripod or gorilla and shooting at foot level using a long exposure, or shooting from high above on a rainy day looking down at tops of umbrellas?
FINAL IDEA – Shooting crowds at RHS flower show in Cardiff.
After emailing my tutor, she suggested I look at the work of Hans Eijkelbooms for inspiration and this has helped me formulate a plan of action. It dawned on me while reading about the aboves work that there would be lots of people carrying plants around the show ground and this would be a great way of mimicking Hans work if this is the route my assignment was going to take.
Web search on images of Hans Eijkelbooms work – https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=hans+eijkelboom&espv=2&biw=1600&bih=799&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=VY42VcObDMfvavSDgaAD&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ
Mindmap of what I needed to cover on the day:-
April 17th and 19th at RHS Cardiff Flower Show
Weather was warm and sunny for both days. I took approx 200 photographs of crowds. Here are some of the better images on contact sheets:
The other thing I was looking for was intimate moments in the crowds eg a couple kissing, 2 kids playing with a fountain a shared moment between mum and daughter. This meant getting closer to my subject keeping the small zoom lens at a fixed distance, but it was so crowded and I got jostled a bit so did use the zoom in the end.
I have always enjoyed taking images of crowds and street photography, but never with such a chunky camera, by the end of the 2 days my wrist was really sore. When the opportunity presents itself I will use a smaller csc camera for this type of work, either that or I will need to take up weights and build my muscles up!
My final images –
Focal length 60mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO100. The queue outside the show. I like the leading lines of the people fading into the distance as they gradually decrease in size. The dappled light also gives the image texture. To improve this I could have knelt down and taken a shot from ground level upwards to give the image a bit more interest rather than concentrating on a direct approach.
Focal length105mm, 1/100 sec, f/4, ISO 125. Buying plants, I quite like this image/vantage point of peeping through plants to take the photo of the crowd and the concentration on the womens faces. The guy on the left facing away from the image is a bit distracting, I could have waited for him to clear the shot, but then the image might not have been classed as ‘crowds’. It has lots of interest with the concentration on the ladies faces and the colour of the flowers. The image has lots of layers. The lighting was under a marquee so was quite muted so I had to increase the light in photoshop.
Focal length 80mm, 1/250 sec, f/8, ISO 100. Listening to a concert… I was going to crop the speaker out of the top left hand corner, but think it helps explain the scene, so left it in. I would have liked to have been behind the performers on the stage, looking down at the crowd and got some of each in the photograph, a better vantage point, but this was the best I could do on the day.
Focal length 80mm, 1/250 sec, f/8, ISO 100. So much to see, where shall we go next? The signs above the couples heads were yellow and a bit distracting so converting it to black and white solved this problem. If I had blurred the background in the image maybe the yellow wouldnt have been so prominant and the image could have been left in colour. Does it work to have a b+w image amongst colour ones? I don’t think it matters too much, as the image is strong on its own and the crowd behind the couple shows a dark contrast to their light coloured clothing.
Focal length 60mm, 1/250 sec, f/9, ISO 100. Group of people behind plants. My favourite image of the assignment. Think its more of a conversation piece. Had to crop this as it was quite distracting/messy on the left side of the image. the texture of the plants and the softness of the out of focus background also framed the image across the ‘rule of thirds’. I could have waited a bit longer to see if anymore people came into the shot, but time was an issue and I had to take the shot as is. You could also touch the plants and see that they have texture.
Focal length 70mm, 1/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100. Queue for coffee and cake. Again the decreasing size of the people fading into the distance lead you into the image. The red colour of the truck first grabs your attention. The negative space between the heads of the crowds and the lid of the truck and space at their feet works to create depth.
Focal length 73mm, 1/320 sec, f/9, ISO 100. Having a chat. Eg of Hans E’s style. The background is a bit cluttered. I could blur the background out in PS but will leave this as I dont want the background to vanish completely.
Focal length 65mm, 1/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100. Crowd through a bauble reflection. An attempt at something completely different but still covered under the brief. Reflections of the crowds in the ornaments, its not recogniseable as a crowd shot, but slightly abstract in shape, but symmetrical in balance and the geometrical shape. The repitition of the pattern of the spheres create a pleasing pattern.
Focal length 65mm, 1/200 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100. Mother and daughter sharing a tender moment. I particularly like this shot of the ladies looking and discussing the plant, its quite intimate and expressive in emotion as a shot. You almost want to peep over their shoulders to see what they are looking at. Does the white sign distract from the image? should I clone it out in PS?
Focal length 96mm, 1/200 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100. Having a snack and a rest. This image has a lot of depth, from the few sat around the tree to the people looking at the stalls in the distance. The curvy lines of the grass lead your eye around and into the image, which is negative space but pleasing to the eye, the negative space is just as important as the space used.
The majority of the shots were taken in landscape mode, but I did crop one or two as they didnt look right. Most of these shots have lots of depth by using two or three lines of crowds, at the back and in the foreground. Using plants in the crowd hopefully makes it into a series, apart from the ornament shot and the one with just 4 people in the background, but felt these were interesting enough to include as they were just a little bit different. Are the series of shots interesting enough?
Most of the shots seemed to be between a focal length of approx 60mm to 100mm. The equivalent for the eye versus a full frame sensor is approx 45mm, so I have used a slightly closer lens than my eye.
Things I need to improve on:
My photoshop skills – need to find out how to do contact sheets. To use the clone tool. General things such as layers.
– to not be afraid of taking photos of peoples faces – research street photography and look for tips on the net. Use a smaller camera as its less conspicuous and easier to handle.
Update my knowledge on standard photography rules (so I know enough about them to break them) – http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2012/04/12/10-rules-of-photo-composition-and-why-they-work/
I sometimes worry that my written work is not upto degree level, by keeping things simple and easy to read – but is this good enough? Does my imagery tell the story of the brief and do \i need a lot of written work with it to explain it.
Research:
Ideas for images:
People queuing for the train/people on train/people getting on-off train/crowds of feet/one person standing still while others move around/up and down steps/bags and flowers from low down. Last year they had concerts/displays/stalls/exhibition stalls/talks by famous gardeners/food tents.
I would like to inlcude as much colour as possible as their will be new types of plants/flowers there. Maybe use one or two b+w shots of the crowds and emphasise one part of the image in colour to make it stand out?
Couple of photos of crowds from RHS Cardiff 2014
What I like about these 2 photos is the dramatic sky in the background. On the ground they have large temorary paths which on these 2 pics lead into the images. In the 2nd image there are a lot of people carrying bags, I particularly like the older lady in the middle looking towards me smiling. This is the type of character I would like to get images of. Last year they had a display where you could climb a tree on ropes, it would be goos if I could do this and take a picture of me looking down on the crowds like a swarm of bees.
There were loads of people pulling these little trucks around with plants in. I had thought of using this as a way of mimicking Hans Eijkelbooms work, included below images of people with trucks of plants and carrying plants in Hans E’s style.
Contact sheets of eg of crowds
One of the things I liked about photographing the crowd is that they were just as colourful as the flowers on show. Many of the women wore flowered clothes.
Assessment Criteria
Demonstration of Technical and Visual skills.
I’ve used reflections of crowds in objects, trying to look for alternative creative shots
Not sure about the next 2 images, if there is enough of a crowd them to include them. I have put a discussion thread on facebook to get some advice/opinions from my fellow students
https://www.facebook.com/groups/252645814938031/
the general thoughts seem to be if it fits into the series then go with it. But dont include them just because I like them!
used plants as part of the frame, blurring the crowd behind and concentrating on the flowers, but this still works as an image of the day. Wordsworth did a poem which had a line which said ‘a crowd of golden daffodils’ so think this ok to include as a ‘crowd’ of plants.
This is a group of ornaments and inside the reflections are crowds, I was looking for different ways to shoot crowds and saw several reflection opportunities on the day.
Are my images displayed in the correct order? do they flow?
Quality of Outcome
Tried to get each image to tell a story and the whole series to show a day at the event, as most of the people photographed have been carrying plant purchases or plants have been involved somewhere in the image. Used my angle finder but found it a bit complicated so just used my normal camera viewfinder in the end and also on the 2nd day didnt take all the equipment i took on the first day as it was easier to photograph people not loaded up. I found not looking at the people i photographed after photographing them easier and didnt get challenged at all, this was a tip on the net about street phtography – just take the image and move on. Two of my images were cropped in the end as they didnt quite fit the landscape mode that they were shot in.
Where the images exciting enough to include. Felt this one was a bit boring and didn’t work. The composition was untidy and the chap in the middle of the image didn’t work.
If the man had been standing on the red line, this would have worked much better as an image. (The lines are the ‘rule of thirds’).
Demonstration of Creativity
using photos through plants or reflections and picking out intimate moments of one or two people in a crowd. Looking for triangles in the images so that the image looks natural and flows.
From the back of the crowd to the person at the front is a triangle
Explaining how triangles work in photography http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/10/03/street-photography-composition-lesson-1-triangles/
This is how the triangle works in one of my images and how pleasing it is to the eye, its always something to consider in composition when taking a photograph.
Context – went to show on two seperate days, one to get standard images and the 2nd day to get more unusual shots. This was easier knowing the lay of the land and had been round the show once already. Do all my images work as a series?
Test shot of manipulated image:
This is a planet sphere image of one of my test shots, not using the standard landscape image. Experimentally I quite like this image of fairies dancing round in a circle.
Tutor Feedback
Overall Comments
This is a good submission with lots of evidence that you are beginning to develop your research skills and evidence gathering. I see real progression between each submission and look forward to seeing your next assignment.
Assessment potential
I understand your aim is to go for the Photography/Creative Arts* Degree and that you plan to submit your work for assessment at the end of this course. From the work you have shown in this assignment, and providing you commit yourself to the course, I suggest that you are likely to be successful in the assessment.
Sue Crooks - assignment 2 (crowds/view/heads)
SKYPE TUTORIAL (30 minutes) - 11th May 2015
The assignment criterion asks that you decide on a single format (landscape or portrait) and stick with this to add coherence to your selection. Try to Stick with this, as it really does help to pull series of images together into a more coherent whole.
Looking at your final selection, I think the viewer might struggle to identify the subject as 'the crowd'. There is a difference between the group and the crowd that is all about scale. Many students who have been tasked with picturing the crowd have felt that they needed to adopt certain strategies to get themselves at the right distance away to be able to portray 'the crowd'. In the past, students have often used other buildings (shooting from an adjacent bridge or raised walkway for example - to give them a good enough vantage point and overview to truly be able to capture a milling crowd. Sometimes, however, you don't need to get that far away at all. Look at British photographer Mark Neville's picture of a group of drinking office workers (see link below). Neville often photographs from within crowds and to do so, he often uses a simple stepladder to raise himself far enough above the crowd to be able to capture the action. Using flash and a wide lens, he is able to give personality to the often-faceless image of the crowd by picking out several figures using artificial lighting (see link below).
Also, you might be interested in this curators collection, which consisted of only images of crowds taken from historical photo archives). You shouldn't worry too much about this at this stage - as you move through the course you will begin to develop your analytical and interpretive skills that will allow you to successfully translate the briefs.
I felt that your contact sheet focusing in on the bright trolleys that all of the attendees used at the flower show was really successful (very much in the spirit of Eijkelboom!) It told an interesting truth about crowds and their behaviour (i.e. everybody does seem to conform to similar behaviour patterns) and this made it very interesting to look at. Generally, it is good to work to a specific concept. In this contact sheet, you have been very focused and this pays off, whilst there is perhaps too much disparity in your final selection, which doesn't make for as interesting viewing. That's not to say that some of the photographs aren't interesting, just that they don't necessarily work very well as a group.
Sometimes just staying in the same carefully selected spot and shooting over the period of a day can yield very interesting results. The fixed location allows the viewer to concentrate instead on the ever-changing crowd. You actually began to work in this way with your two shots taken on the white artificial path. I thought that these were interesting to look at together and thought that you could have extended this idea further? Perhaps think about this strategy for future exercises?
Feedback on assignment
Student feedback on SKYPE tutorial:
Tutor Feedback – Had a Skype chat with Wendy my tutor and felt it was a positive step in the right direction. There is room for improvement as I expected having not done any study for approx 20 years, but all in all I felt the chat was positive and know where I need to improve.
HYPERLINK "https://sue513802oca.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/new-mind-map_4a7e2aik.jpg"
It was suggested I do some book reports and essays on photographers I like, to get back into writing essays, using Mindmaps (see above as example) as a way of planning the essay, as I remember images easier than pages of writing. My first book will be ‘Photographers Sketchbook’ by Stephen McLaren and Bryan Formhals.
HYPERLINK "https://sue513802oca.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/sketchbook.jpg"
ISBN 978-0-500-54434-1 (stock photo)
I would like to replace some of the photos on the assignment, using Abergavenny market as a base for this as it has an upper floor and lower floor so I can get some different viewpoints of crowds. There are gardening/flower stalls at the market so these photos will not look out of place with the topic already chosen for the assignment.
It was suggested I could have done a timelapse for the assignment as there were temporary pathways put down on the ground of the show and I am wondering if I could do this with the steps at the market? Maybe take an image every 30 secs or minute, I might try this anyway and put it in the private work section at the end of my blog or use it as research.’
Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays
Links: Look at curator and collector W.M.Hunt’s collection of archival photographs of crowds: HYPERLINK "http://time.com/3810373/a-photographic-survey-of-american-groups/" http://time.com/3810373/a-photographic-survey-of-american-groups/
Mark Neville: HYPERLINK "http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/apr/24/thats-me-in-picture-patrick-sheehy-leadenhall-market-mark-neville" http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/apr/24/thats-me-in-picture-patrick-sheehy-leadenhall-market-mark-neville
Mark Neville: HYPERLINK "https://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/n/artist/mark-neville/object/port-glasgow-town-hall-christmas-party-pgp-420-1" https://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/n/artist/mark-neville/object/port-glasgow-town-hall-christmas-party-pgp-420-1
Suggested reading/viewing
Further Reading on Hans Eijkelboom: HYPERLINK "http://www.aperture.org/blog/erik-kessels-hans-eijkelboom/" http://www.aperture.org/blog/erik-kessels-hans-eijkelboom/
Action point: Write a blog post of between 500-1000 words on Hans Eijkelboom's work. Illustrate this and put it up on your LL in your research and reflection section.
Pointers for the next assignment
Continue to develop your research and to get to as many exhibitions/talks as possible. This will feed your own work and encourage you to experiment further!
Resubmitted Images and additional research to the above assignment
Using the photographer Hans Eijkelboom as my influence Ive taken his book Paris/New York/Shanghai and used a day out at RHS Cardiff to collect images of people using these small carts.
Please also read the review on Hans Eijkelboom under the heading reviews as this is part of the research for this assignment.