Exploring locations

Name of School	Arts Humanities and Social Sciences
Course Title	FdA Photographic Media
Module Title	Places (15 Credits) IA10029
Tutor	Richard Peregrine
Assignment Title
Exploring Locations

Learning Outcomes Assessed in this assignment
1.Perform and implement experiments with cameras, light metering methods, exposure techniques and ISO selection relating to landscape photography 2. Discuss the implications of weather, time of day, time of year and qualities of light (shadow, colour, contrast and intensity) in places photography. 3. Select and justify appropriate equipment in relation to scheduled photographic excursions 4. Demonstrate appropriate image production and post production techniques for landscape photography
Weighting: 100%		You must achieve each of these outcomes to achieve a pass grade in this assignment. To see how your final grade has been determined please see the guidance on marking criteria
Word Count/Equivalent
Deadline for Submission	Week beginning 14th May 2013

There are four study areas within this unit. Each of these will represent an assignment in itself and is intended to provide the breadth of study discussed in the unit background. These are:

1 A familiar place that is significant or important to you

2 The City or the Urban Sprawl

3 Wilderness or Countryside

4 The ‘alien’ or ‘foreign’ environment

Portfolio Guidelines

A broad range of location environments are to be explored. For assessment, you are required to submit a portfolio of 8 images that represent a range of all four study areas plus capture and environment experimentation. Optional: for one of the four study areas you can submit a coherent set of images presented as a series / book of images.

You must include evidence of DSLR use; create and print a range of digital index sheets (that reflect the photographs you have made throughout the assignment). Also provide evidence of image editing processes such as choice selection, refinement of the final edit and tutor involvement. Apply basic image adjustments to the final photographs presented in your portfolio to improve their final quality – adjustments such as contrast, tonality and colour are acceptable at this stage in the course.

Capture information must be given for all portfolio images, please provide the following; exposure settings, focal length, ISO/Film Speed, Location, Date and Time of capture. Place this information within the assignment portfolio, making sure the assessor can easily recognise which information belongs to each photograph in the portfolio.

Optional: include evidence of medium format use; present at least 1 roll of hand-processed 120-format film in the form of a set of black and white negatives and accompanying contact sheet. Provide a small number of silver-based work prints that have been produced from the aforementioned negatives – one or more of these prints can be included in your final portfolio submission. Students will be expected to work independently in the dark room but support will be available at the usual times.

Research Advice

It is necessary for students to recognise the importance of research skills and research evaluation for each and every practical assignment in the FD programme – it should form the foundation of the entire project work produced. Consult your reading list for as a starting point but also listen carefully during lectures and tutorials for other areas of research that will increase your knowledge of the subject area. Research for this assignment can be broken down roughly into 3 sections:

Technical – such as camera, lens and media types

Contextual – photographers, artists, contemporary/historical themes

Assignment – accessible locations, genre studies, unit requirements etc.

Added to this are the notes you will make as a natural response to project work (lists, plans, intentions, evaluations etc.) – these can often play an invaluable role in describing your efforts to the assessor of the unit.

In addition you could research the work of some of the following photographers:

Ansel Adams, John Blakemore, Edward Weston, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Rene Burri, Fay Godwin, John Davies, Kevin Cummins, Sebastiao Salgado, Charlie Waite, Ian Beesley, Mark Power, Simon Norfolk, Robert Frank, Susan Lipper, Lewis Baltz, Robert Adams, William Eggleston, Lee Friedlander, Ian MacDonald, Willie Doherty, Martin Parr, Paul Graham, Dan Holdsworth, Michael Kenna.

Assessment Criteria

Range of ideas, experimentation and development of such ideas documented by use of a blog, sketchbook and / or supporting file.

Consideration and use of different systems and processes for image production.

Creative concept and its relationship to research.

Quality of finished prints (adherence to technical requirements).

Detail and accuracy of process descriptions and articulation in written form of rationales behind the concept of your images.

Items for Assessment

1 8-image portfolio of landscape or ‘places’ photography (print-based)

(or 6 images plus book / set of images)

2 Research and tear-sheet file or sketchbook. Include all research undertaken for the assignment, adhering to the advice and requirements listed in the brief.

3 Course file section or unit file containing all supportive material (only if it contains further study relevant to your project submission).

15/01/2013

Learning outcomes

Diversity of location

of lighting conditions

of weather conditions – fog, frost, sun, mist, rain, snow

Perform experiments with the camera, light metering methods

exposure techniques

ISO selection

Discuss the implications of weather, time of day, time of year and qualities of light

(shadow, colour, contrast and intensity) in places topographically

Select and justify appropriate equipment in relation to scheduled photographic excursions

Demonstrate appropriate image production and post production techniques for landscape photography

22/01/2013

Hi Folks,

This weeks picture project is simple.

'Winter weather, winter light'

Please go out with your camera and photograph

the present weather and lighting conditions before they break

this weekend....probably!

Consider: Place, time of day, angle of the sun, contra jour, telephoto effect

over expose in snow +2 stops, frost, light characteristics, a hot thermos and gloves!

Post your edited image on the Flickr group by Sunday night,

so that I can put together my presentation for tuesday afternoon

session, where we will critique and discuss your images.

Please be prepared to discuss your metadata.

Enjoy!

Richard Peregrine

28/01/2013

Hi Folks,

This weeks picture project is

'Rainy day'

Andre Kertesz

Please use your camera to photograph rain.

You can photograph rain through a window or car window, using depth of field,

and blurring. By photographing rain into sun light, rain becomes visible.

Consider: Place, mood, contra jour, back lit subjects, reflection.

Does rain dictate mood? Can rain look uplifting? Martin Parr's 'Bad Weather' series.

Robert Doisneau

Post your edited image on the Flickr group by Sunday night,

so that I can put together my presentation for tuesday afternoon

session, where we will critique and discuss your images.

Please be prepared to discuss your metadata.

Thank You

Richard Peregrine

Robert Doisneau

Andre Kertesz

Martin Parr

29/01/13

Things to think about

Places:

• Camera
• Lenses – wide – tele-zoom- e.g. 18 – 55m can be effective
• Lens hood will increase clarity and contrast
• Tripod and cable/remote release
• Spare batteries
• Spare memory cards
• Compass iPhone, notebook
• Clothing for conditions
• Filters – filter system can be handy – polarize
• ND (neutral density) filters
• Use hyper focal distance to blur
• An orange or red filter to darken to get a dramatic sky
• A tripod can maximize depth of field, allow a slow shutter speed, needs a heavy plastic bag for maximum stability
• Small aperture/large F stop
• 35mm/full frame lens values
• -20mm ultra wide
• 28mm wide
• 50mm

Converted:

• 24mm – 38.4mm
• 28mm – 44.8mm
• 38mm – 56mm
• 50mm – 80mm
• 90mm – 144mm
• 18 – 55mm – 28.8 – 88mm
• 18 – 70mm
• A telephoto lens (200mm)
• Being alone is better for getting the feel of the place
• Take time varying angles
• Check weather orientation, access, danger and permissions
• Shoot lots of images with different settings and priorities
• Henri Cartier-Bresson
• Think of zoom as 3 in 1
• Robert Doisneau – good at engaging people
• Paul Waheld – look at website
• Cokin – Good
• 6x + holder – premier ink
• 2,4,8, orange and red
• Joseph Koudelka
• Good composition
• Jean Loup Sief
• Bill Brandt – pinhole camera, full depth of field
• Denis Thorpe – telephoto lens, 200 – 300mm
• Joel Meyerwitz – 10 – 8 camera
• Rebekka Gudliefsdottir
• Increasing ISO will give you a freezing time effect
• FLV filter - neutralize fluorescent
• F22 @ ¼ seconds @ 400 ISO
• F22 @ 5 seconds @ 400 ISO + ND4 stop – ideal for landscapes

01/02/2013

This was my initial response to the rain but i've done enough with my windowsill. I opened the window to allow some rain in, I wanted to concentrate on the splashes that landed on the windowsill and the candle itself. That was the reason I used the constant ring light as well as as the flame, I put this up on Facebook to get reviews and people said that there wasn't enough of the rain and to mush windowsill. I was inclined to agree so did not hand it in, that and i've done enough of my windowsill and I need to get out. 

02/02/2013
So looking at the pictures provided I had an idea of going up a multi story car park and try to do something similar to Andre Kertesz. For Robert Doisneau I unfortunately do not have a carousel near by but there is a little kids park down the road from me that could prove useful. To try Martin Parr's all i'd have to do is go out with the camera and find someone using something unusual as an umbrella, which could be quite fun.

I took my camera to the park to see if I could get a rain shot, it had rained for five minutes prior to my arrival and then stopped.

So I was resorted to this, feed back from Richard was that it wasn't as good as my usual stuff which I am inclined to agree.

 04/02/2013
This weeks picture project is either Space to sleep or Concrete Paradise, to give us inspiration Richard went on to Magnum website who was founded by Robert Capa, Henri Carter-Bresson, George Rodger and David "Chim" Seymour. We did a search for specific words, like just "sleep" or "concrete".
With the search we did in class it seemed ok to take a picture ok a cat and I have just acquired one after adopting one from the snow, so I have a new muse.

Ferdinando Scianna

This was used as an example for sleep and when you type in concrete the same picture comes up too.

I do want to do pictures like this as well, I don't know if I could find any homeless to photograph, unless I go to Manchester?

So this is what I've just come up with so far?



We looked at Charlie Waite's web site to get an idea of landscape photography.

We also watched this video and now it is a must buy.....

We also looked at Joe Cornish,

Michael Kenna and

John Blakemore

We also looked at Hans Van Der Meer and his series of photos of football fields, animals and so on.
Also with series of photographs is Branislav kropilak with interesting collections of industrial places, we had a look though the lobby photos and discussing the fact that if it was just the one photo on it's own you would think nowt of it but as it is in a series it becomes beautiful. Richard also pointed out that I had done this sort of thing before for Media and the doors project, I hated the project as I was just going along with it, trying to find some meaning behind it but I did enjoy the experience of going out to take the photos.


11th Feb 2013
WPP (Weekly Picture Project)

Produce a series of four images that describe a place with intense atmosphere.
Your images need  to include a shot that describes the location from distance, a detail, an image that shows that you are considering light, and photograph where a word forms part of the image.

My ideas are, 

• My Grandma's Pen, where my Grandad used to keep Pigs and Chickens.
• St. Johns, the church around the corner from me. (I have a few night shots of it but I had no tripod and it was a second shutter speed). I can do better.

Thats as far as i've got for ideas? 

These are the ones that I took at a second shutter speed with no tripod. The same conditions never came round again, as it was severally foggy at the time. 

I could not get to my grandma's it's an unbelievably long journey to Rochdale and then to her house up Rooly moor rd.

12th Feb 2013

Places

We talked about HDR (High Dynamic Range) = Amount of tones between black and white

You can use Photoshop to merge HDR or a Free trial HDR software PhotoMatix.
Perspective control on you tube

Photographers to look up,

Ansel adams

John Blackmoor

Fay Godwin – Forbidden land + Land

Opposite

Stephen Shaw - uncommon places

Tim Parkin

William Eggleston

Come up with own landscape photographer ...............

Perspective Control

FdA Photographic Media Year 1

Why does this look like a model?

Shallow depth of field at distance is automatically interpreted as being false. This level of depth of field is only optically possible with close or macro subjects.

Look at how the perspective and dof (Depth of field) is on a miniature subject

There are a few ways to make this happen

• By using a perspective control lens
• Using a ‘Lens Baby’
• By ‘movements’ with a large format camera
• Some modern digital cameras have a’ tilt shift mode or miniature effect mode, Canon G1X
• By post production in Photoshop

A lens baby on a DSLR provides an effective tilt shift device at a good price.

This landscape of the Languedoc in France was taken with a Canon G1X in miniature effect mode

This is a miniature effect photograph made in Adobe Photoshop

Tilt shift lenses can also correct perspective, here the verticals have been ‘un-converged’

These were shot on the 45mm PC-E lens on a full frame sensor. This means a normal angle of view but with a full lateral shift (+). Aperture priority f2.8 at 1/500 second 400 ISO Focusing on the figure is critical at f2.8

We had a go on the same camera, and this is the shot I took

We had a look at two large format cameras and taught the benefits of them, one is that it produces completely parallel lines that do not converge anywhere. This is due the fact that you can drop the lens at the front rather than having to tip the camera. Architects will use this when they require a true image of a building so they know how much space they have to work with.

These were taken much later and not with a lens baby or anything but it looks to me like a miniature set build to me?

City/urban scape

I went out to take some pictures with Aneesa around Blackburn, I suggested that we travel up a car park to get a shot of the town. 

This is just a few pics taken that pretty much sum up the excursion. 

  An unlikely place to find an urban sprawl but I took a trip to the Halo up round the corner from me and took a shot that I am thinking of handing in as a print. 

At the other locations like Liverpool that I had been to I didn't really have a an urban sprawl image, mostly just a building or two so I did not want to use that. 

Landscape

This wasn't with Uni but last year Phil D, Tom, Keith and I went to the forrest of Bowlands, I could have used and I am thinking of using the one of the road _DSC0024. 

I went on a trip on the ELR and got some great landscape shot that you can only get 

from a train journey.

I was also thinking of using a tunnel shot for somewhere familiar, like one of those things that 

bring up feelings of nostalgia or an image that we have all seen before, 

like a light house?

Unfamiliar 

I do not know what to do for this one, my initial reaction would be to got out and 

photograph inside a club or pub as I do not feel at home in them at all. 

Yet as it turns out I went to Blackpool and visited the Sealife centre, 

I did not think of using the photos before hand but how alien is under the sea, to everyone. 

Familiar 

Richard had mentioned "if you are going to photograph your bedroom it better be something spectacular" or something like that.

I couldn't get to my Grandma's as it's back in Rochdale and then up Rooly Moor Rd, quite a trek, so I thought i'd photograph my living room. Not just my living room but my living room as it is a majority of the time, a tip.

In a previous lesson with Andy he asked us to turn up the contrast on a corporate shoot and I really liked the results so I thought i'd try the same to my living room. To be honest it could have been more of a tip but i'm in a habit of cleaning up after myself now.

The reason for the two tellies is my partners daughter, when she comes over she loves to play games and instead of having her in her bedroom for the whole visit, we brought all she needs in here so that we can spend some time with her.

With that, I couldn't think of anywhere else to spectacular to photograph, I did think of getting a close up of Wes, as if to say home is where the heart is but I decided against it.