Lighting: The Basics

Flash

The flashgun is a versatile light source for when taking pictures with poor lighting. Their light can be bounced or diffused and is balanced at daylight colour temperature. There are disadvantages of using flash, however. Exposure is only correct for a set distance which can produce dark backgrounds and overexposed foregrounds. Shiny surfaces can also produce bright reflections.

Guide Number and Exposure Calculation

This is given by the manufacturer. The number relates to lens aperture and distance to the subject for a particular film speed or ISO (usually ISO 100). It gives an indication to what effect the flashgun will have in standard conditions.

Guide number = aperture x distance

To work out the aperture, the distance to the subject needs to be measured by the lens scale. The guide number is then divided by the distance to get the f-number.

45(GN) to subject distance of 8m away: GN/FD 45/8 = F/5.6

To work out flash distance, the guide number is divided by the aperture to get the flash to subject distance.

FD = GN/f  45/11 = approx. 4 metres.

To check the guide number of an unknown flash unit, set the camera to manual and the flash meter for ISO100. Place the flash 1 metre distant a take a flash reading. The aperture will be the guide number.

Raising the ISO also make it possible to achieve optimal exposure. It allows for  subjects to photographed at a greater distance, without risk of the image being too dark.

Flash Synchronisation

Flash sync concerns the correct timing of the flash to illuminate the whole digital sensor. It's timing the brief burst of light (usually between 1/2000 and 1/10000th second) to appear between the opening and closing of the camera shutter. In flash modes, the flash fires as the shutter opens.

Rear-Curtain Sync

In this mode, the flash fires just before the shutter closes. This will ensure that light trails from moving light sources will appear to follow a moving object.

The 3-Point Lighting Technique

The technique compromises of three lights: key light, fill light and back light.

If you have one light it becomes the key light, if you have two the other is either the fill or the backlight.

The key light is the the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the scene. It is placed on one side of the camera and subject, so that this side is well lit and the other has some shadow.

The fill light is secondary and is placed on the opposite side of the key light. It is less bright than the key light and is used to fill the shadows created by the key light. this can be done by placing the fill light further away from the object. In some situations, a reflector can bu used as a fill light instead of a lamp. The will produce as softer effect.

The back light is placed behind the subject. The purpose of the back light is to provide definition and highlights around the outline of the object.

Final Images for Submission

In this image, I wanted to convey how our relationships are changing due to the emergence of new technologies and how social media has invaded the space of personal interaction. Two subjects sit in a social setting opposite each other. The lack of communication is shown from the subject on the right being preoccupied with his mobile phone, while the reaction of the subject on the left is hidden behind a profile picture; an image that represents her 'idealised self'. The viewer doesn't get to understand her attitude towards being ignored.

In this image, I wanted to convey how we use social media and picture sharing websites to create an 'idealised self' offline. The inspiration for this image was taken from a friend of mine who explained to me how she used Pinterest, an image sharing website, to look up examples of other people's make up to copy on herself - and then upload an image of herself back on to the internet. Here, I have used technology to literally reconstruct her face out of facial features I found on the website. This is a reflection on the notion that her identity is hidden by the 'idealised self'.

I have called this image Two Friends Shopping. The image conveys the superficial nature of friendships online, where we can only tell that these two individual's are friends from the presence of a blue tick on their profiles as confirmation. I wanted the two hands of the subjects to be touching, which is a nod towards the fact that friendships offline are complex and personal for the individuals; a Facebook profile would never be able to convey such complexity to someone looking on.

This image takes the Facebook 'Like' icon from the internet and places it in the real world. I chose only to show the hands of the subjects in this image, firstly, to demonstrate that online we never can see any further expression about what it is an individual likes about another's post and, secondly, to show how the symbol is an extension of our real hands that reach out to other's online in order to show satisfaction about something. The image intends to highlight that we now consider a quantity of 'Likes' online to base an opinion on whether our content is enjoyed by others, rather than the quality of actually seeing someone express their enjoyment for something in person.

This image attempts to show how the 'emoji' is now becoming the main way we express our emotions with apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger growing in popularity. Here, two individual's are taking a 'selfie', but the viewer cannot see their true emotions. The image attempts to convey the absurdity that a selection of emoji's online, uniform to every user, are enough to express the complexity of an individual's emotion.

The above images convey how human interaction online is less personal and less meaningful than having a genuine conversation. Both of the images show how we express laughter online, even though the subjects are not actually laughing at all. This again references the 'idealised self', the ideal person we wish to portray online, not actually being a true reflection of the individual in the real world.

From Here On: Neo Appropriation Strategies in Contemporary Photography

“NOW, WE’RE A SPECIES OF EDITORS. WE ALL RECYCLE, CLIP AND CUT, REMIX AND UPLOAD. WE CAN MAKE IMAGES DO ANYTHING. ALL WE NEED IS AN EYE, A BRAIN, A CAMERA, A PHONE, A LAPTOP, A SCANNER, A POINT OF VIEW. AND WHEN WE’RE NOT EDITING, WE’RE MAKING. WE’RE MAKING MORE THAN EVER, BECAUSE OUR RESOURCES ARE LIMITLESS AND THE POSSIBILITIES ENDLESS. WE HAVE AN INTERNET FULL OF INSPIRATION: THE PROFOUND, THE BEAUTIFUL, THE DISTURBING, THE RIDICULOUS, THE TRIVIAL, THE VERNACULAR AND THE INTIMATE. WE HAVE NEXT-TO-NOTHING CAMERAS THAT RECORD THE LIGHTEST LIGHT, THE DARKEST DARK. THIS TECHNOLOGICAL POTENTIAL HAS CREATIVE CONSEQUENCES. IT CHANGES OUR SENSE OF WHAT IT MEANS TO MAKE. IT RESULTS IN WORK THAT FEELS LIKE PLAY. WORK THAT TURNS OLD INTO NEW, ELEVATES THE BANAL. WORK THAT HAS A PAST BUT FEELS ABSOLUTELY PRESENT. WE WANT TO GIVE THIS WORK A NEW STATUS. THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT FROM HERE ON…”

Clement Cheroux, Joan Fontcuberta, Eric Kessels, Martin Parr, and Joachim Schmid, Joint Manifesto for From Here On, Rencontres d’Arles Photography Festival, Arles, France, 2011

From Here On was an exhibition that consisted of the work of 36 artists who appropriate images from the internet using sources such as social media, search engines, archives and surveillance technologies. The exhibition was presented as manifesto that declared a change in our understanding of photography as a result of the digital revolution.

Example: Jens Sundheim

In his series of photographs, The Traveller, Sundehim put himself into the frames of surveillance cameras that can be accessed through online streams and used his collaborator, Bernhard Reuss, to take the picture from a remote computer screen. 

The images highlight the ubiquity of surveillance cameras that the wider public tends to largely ignore. By facing the camera head on, Sundheim is acknowledging the fact he is being watched and challenges the viewer to acknowledge this fact too. In each of the images that are taken in different places around the world, Sundheim wears the exact same clothes. As a subject, he presents himself as omnipresent which highlights the fact that these cameras are always recording and always watching him. As a viewer I was left feeling uncomfortable. We commonly regard these surveillance cameras to provide society with security, but Sundheim's work challenges this notion. The images raise questions of who set these cameras up and why? Who views these images and what purpose do they serve that person? 

***

Throughout this module I have developed an interested for appropriation art and found photography. My photo-essay attempts to challenge the notion of how emergent technology is changing the way we interact with each other, which I can parallel with the work of these artists. 

I plan in future projects to incorporate some of the methods of found photography that are used by these photographers, as I believe i'll be able to explore my chosen subject matter for this photo-essay further. 

Further Shoots for Final Submission - Contact Sheets

These images were taken in Brighton City Centre. The weather changed from clear to cloudy quite often, and I found myself dealing with underexposed and overexposed photographs during these shoots. I found myself having to change the shutter speed, aperture and ISO frequently to overcome this. Some images turned out to be a lot darker than I had intended, but I think this is something I'll be able to edit in Photoshop.

Ubiquitous Photography and Web 3.0 (Flickr and the Culture of Connectivity - Jose van Dijck)

'Share your pictures, watch the world' - Flickr's motto.

The culture of connectivity can be found through various social media platforms such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook Twitter, and Flickr.  Platforms such as Flickr are firmly embedded in a culture of connectivity, a culture where the common practices of social networking sites are becoming part of our daily routine through sharing images and past stories.

Individually uploaded content is transformed to shared perspectives, experiences and memories. 

Web 3.0 -  the way in which internet is progressing as connective intelligence; connecting data, concepts, applications and ultimately people. 

The link with Web 3.0 to Ubiquitous Photography involves how modern technology, such as smart phones, has allowed for images to be captured and uploaded to the internet in mere seconds. In  this day and age, everyone can be considered a photographer as we all have easy access to a camera.

We can see why van Dijck argues for the existence of a 'culture of connectivity'. Through social media platforms where images are uploaded, seemingly infinitely, 'infinite connections' are created amongst users. These connections are also ubiquitous.

Joachim Schmid 

Schmid is a Berlin-based artist who works in 'found photography'. In the examples below, Schmid has found two images and placed them together to create a new image. He found these images by creating an 'institute' that offered to safely recycle or reuse dangerous film and photos. This was received worldwide attention and he was sent people's unwanted photographs. The images in his Photogenic Drafts (1991) were taken from an archive of a commercial portrait studio, but all the negatives has been cut in half, so he used two halves of different images to create a whole one.

In this example above, we can see the face of a young girl has been fused together with an older woman who was wearing glasses. This image raises questions around age and identity. By placing these images of compatible head shots together, it evokes thoughts of who the young girl will grow up to be in the future.

Penlope Umbrico 

Umbrico is known for appropriating (using pre-existing objects with little or no transformation in art) images that she's found through image sharing social networks and search engines.

In the example above, Suns from Flickr, she found 541795 images of sunsets, using the word 'sunset' to search through the social networking site Flickr. This search transpired to show the most photographed subject. I believe this work shows the culture of connectivity in action. We've all become photographers who happened to share the connection of taking an image of the sun. Umbrico has highlighted the ubiquity in this.

Unedited Photographs - Potentials for Final Submission

These are two unedited images that I have selected for potentially adding to the final submission. These were taken at a pub in Brighton called The Globe.

The first one I have called The Relationship Status and I staged my two models to be sat having a drink in a social setting. I asked the model on the right to be preoccupied with his phone and asked the model to the left to take an image of her side profile on an Ipad and hold this where her head would be in the image. I wanted this image to depict how the 'status' of this relationship isn't positive due to the presence of technology at this particular moment. There is obviously a lack of communication between the couple (ironically so, as we may assume they may be using technology to communicate with others) and I wanted the female models feelings and emotions to be hidden behind a 'profile picture' that represents the ideal version of herself she would like the online community to see and not her true self.

The second image I have named A Portrait of Pinterest. The model I have used here informed me of her use of the Social Media app, Pinterest, to gather information about make-up. She told me she would look up images of other people's make-up designs to copy on herself. When I asked what she would do once this process was complete, she explained to me she would take a picture of herself and sometimes would upload it to Pinterest herself. I found this discourse to inspire this image. I found images of different features of the face on Pinterest and used three phones to reconstruct the face of the model and then photograph her. I wanted this image to convey how we interact with each other's images online, using the models process as the example. She creates an identity for herself using a mixture of other people's images of themselves.

Data Bending

In today's class we focused on data bending. Usually employed in 'Glitch Art', data bending allows for the manipulation of the information within a media file. Just like how an effects pedal can manipulate the sound created through an amplifier when an electric guitar is played, there are a number of ways we can manipulate the way an image looks.

The above images were manipulated by changing and editing the text information of the image in a computer app called Text Edit.

Original Image

***

Example of .txt file

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rQg≥åƒK BU!ø˘ï|E‚+_ Èüä¯lò•å ¥›,Åö6# 3fif˛&ËÉÂ^sè8¬Ì †≠ˇÅø˛Ñ‘·˜ ˚«˘T‘ìì:0xh—•¶ÆZ∂˜gg∂Ê;O Ÿ˘ß x‰ÅOmà ?ï} À”Øóº1ˇ#Fìˇ_±:˙å˝ÛıÆ™ Û˘Ã Æ•› 2 s“∞|cßi¯WQµ∆K¿¿ | ËçSøˇè)›5µœ ¯ï2Ñ©·Å ˝iŸ$b§‘?‰+{ˇ_ ˇ° àu°Ó ˘≥W = ToΩVÌ∫äH
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***

By changing and replacing a variety of numbers with something of a different numerical value, I was able to produce the three images above that was originally an image of president-elect Donald Trump. I completely changed the image to the point where you can't even make out who the original picture was taken of. I wanted to make a link to the lies that Donald Trump expressed in his election campaign to the images I produced. When viewing the images you feel as if you're missing a vital piece of information in order to sense of them, just like how many people felt about Donald Trump in his election campaign - when viewing the way he conducted his campaign, I felt as if he wasn't giving us all the information and he had to rely on lies, 'fake news' and rhetoric. It distorted the way I thought about American politics, just like how these images actually distort the way we see Trump. 

Manipulated Image

Original Image

Another example of Databending (or Datamoshing in this case) was achieved by turning the original image into a sound file and using the computer software Audacity to apply sound effects to the sound file. We then convert the manipulated sound file back into an image file and the results can be seen in the manipulated image. The effect used here was 'echo' and we can see how the colour of the image has been changed radically. Although I have not manipulated the image as much as the ones show before, it's interesting to see how something a little more subtle can make an existing image more interesting to look at.

Analog to Digital: The Indexical Function of Photographic Images - Corey Dzenko

Marshall McLuhan: "The medium is the message."

The 'medium'  is any extension of the human senses .

The 'message' explains how a new medium affects culture.

Digital photography accelerated and enlarged traditional photographic processes due to transforming photographs from objects into data. This change from analog to digital photography challenges changed whether photography remains a representation of reality.

A digital photograph means a lack of physical connection between the photographs subject and image. An analog photographic process contained a certain 'physicality' that the a creation of digital photographs do not possess.

In digital technology it's easier to edit tangible data to create images of subject that never existed in reality, which casts doubt on the connections made between photography and reality. However, digital images rely heavily on how we understand analog photography as we treat them in the same way. 

Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin use the term 'remediation' to describe how characteristics of older media are used to establish the cultural uses of newer media. They claim that when a medium has convinced viewers of its immediacy, then following media attempts to make use of this. For example, graphic icons used on computers are used again to identify a similar piece of software.

By maintaining the conventions in which we understand analog photography, a transition has been created from analog photographs to digital photographs. Online newspapers still follow the same structure for their articles of printed newspapers for example.

Kerry Skarbakka - Stairs (2002)

This image was posted to the website FailBlog.org by the photographer. Viewers of the website responded to the image as if the subject was actually falling down the stairs and failed to realise this image has actually been constructed by the photographer through editing techniques. The viewers read this photograph as if it was reality and not a manipulated image. This is an example of how we still understand digital photographs as if they were analog photographs. Dzenko argues that these images impact viewers' reception of images more than theories of digital photography's lack of indexicality. 

Circulation and Authorship of the Photo Image

Authorship refers to the person who has legal ownership of an image which may have been shared, on social media for example.

Circulation is the way in which we go about sharing these images. Dictionary definition is 'the public availability or knowledge of something'.

The images we upload to social media are accessible by anyone in the world. If they have this level accessibility, couldn't others use the photographs that we have chosen to share with the world and use them to create their own pieces of art? Who would the photographs belong to in this case?

Michael Wolf

"Real Fake Art" 

German artist and photographer can be used as an example. In this series of photographs, Wolf, takes pictures of his subject holding pieces of art that aren't his own. Wolf doesn't have authorship of the piece of artwork in the image, but he does have authorship of the photograph of someone holding the piece. 

Is Emoji Replacing Our Need for Human Interaction? Samir Goel

"As we spend less time together in person, emoji fills a hole in allowing us to convey our ever-shifting sense of identity to both those who matter most and strangers. Emoji’s are now being used to represent who we are and what we stand for."

In this short article, Goel argues that digital communication can never convey real human interaction. He explains how the 'Emoji' was created to bridge this gap between digital communication and face-to-face human interaction. He claims that the introduction of emoji's into digital communication is an attempt to reduce the need to connect in person.

However, people are are dissatisfied that emoji's on representative of themselves. Goel uses Rayouf Alhumedhi's campaign as an example of this. Alhumedhis campaigns for an emoji to be created showing the faces to be wearing a hijab to represent female, muslim social media users.

***

This article has given me inspiration for some of my images for my photo-essay. I intend to incorporate famous icons, emojis and WhatsApp text bubbles into my images to explore the points raised about face-to-face human interaction by Goel in this article.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/can-emoji-replace-human-interaction-samir-goel?trk=hp-feed-article-title-channel-add

JPEG & RAW - Examples from Landscape Photography Task

DSLRs have the ability to simply just take JPEG images and be processed from within the camera. While the photographer is in charge of setting the exposure, if a JPEG setting is being used, then the camera will process that image to add blacks, contrast, noise reduction, sharpening and then render the image to a compressed JPEG file format. This is a 'loss' file format, meaning that the file has been compressed.

It is important to understand 'dynamic range' before we talk about .RAW files. Dynamic Range is the amount of tonal range detail from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlight (see notes on histograms in photoshop post). Dynamic Range detail is significantly reduced as compared to RAW.

Edited RAW Image (converted to JPEG)

Unedited RAW Image (converted to JPEG)

RAW files are essentially uncompressed and unprocessed images that retain all of the detail that was available to the camera sensor. One obvious observation is the file sizes of RAW images are huge in comparison to JPEG files.

RAW files, when added to Photoshop, allow a window to edit the RAW image before it is then properly edited in the software. Above you can see examples of my experimentation with the graduated filter tool and the adjustment brush tool. The graduated filter tool allowed me to darken and and show details of the cloudy sky. The adjustment brush tool allowed me to make the trees, grass and buildings in the middle of the image appear more vivid.

RAW files are not always useful, especially if they are just for uploading to an internet blog for example. But for my project I will set my camera to take both a RAW file and a JPEG when shooting for images to be included in my final submission.

A Series of Photographs from the Street Photography Task

Editing on Photoshop

Unedited

The majority of the images I that I categorised on Adobe Bridge fell under the 'Maybe' or 'Maybe with Editing' categories. In our workshop we looked at a few ways we can edit images.

Firstly, we looked at what information the histogram feature on Photoshop can show us. A histogram has the ability to display an images tone range in graphical form. A histogram with gaps on the left of the graph indicated a photograph that is overexposed (image is too bright) and one with gaps on the right of the graph indicates an images that is underexposed (too dark). An image with a good tonal range and correctly exposed is one that will display pixels right across the graph. An interesting feature I would like to explore further is the 'All Channels View' which seems to show individual histograms for each colour channel.

I was demonstrated the Brightness/Contrast method of adjustment. This allows you to make simple adjustments to the tonal range of the images. From moving the Brightness slider to the right, it increases tonal values and expands image highlights. Moving the slider to the right decreases tonal values and expands the images shadows. A photograph that I took of an electrician in a doorway was one this feature definitely benefited from. It allowed his face to just come into view, but not so much that it didn't fit my subject criteria!

I also explored the vibrance adjustment tool for my images. I wanted to some more of the muted colours in my images to stand out a little more so increased the vibrance, I also slightly increased the saturation, which increases the intensity of all the colours in the image. I realised after experimenting with this tool not to over do it as it can make skin tones look unnatural.

Another obvious feature of my editing process was my use of cropping. The cropping tool allowed me to cut out sections of the whole image. As I like this image, but it doesn't fit my selection criteria, I used the cropping tool to remove the upper part of the face of one of the subjects in the image.

Edited

Inspiration for Project - Antoine Geiger "Sur-Fake"

I had initially struggled to find work of other photographers that dealt with my theme surrounding the human obsession of social media, photography on social media and how technology has affected our experience of the world.

I stumbled across the young, French photographer Antoine Geiger. In his exhibition "Sur-Fake" he is clearly making a point here of how our focus of reality is seen through a screen in modern times. Our attention is no longer drawn to what is actually happening around us in the real world and the way Geiger has manipulated the image to show how people are literally being 'sucked in' to their phones is a playful way of dealing with issue. I interpret this image by showing how technology has almost made us something inhuman; it changes us.

My favourite image is of the couple taking a 'selfie' in front of the Mona Lisa. It shows how people seem to be enjoying the process of taking an image of themselves rather than enjoying one of the most celebrated pieces of fine art in history. It hints at a certain level of narcissism of social media users and I find it strange how this couple would choose to focus on documenting the fact they have seen the Mona Lisa rather than actually seeing the Mona Lisa.

Selection Criteria

In this weeks workshop we looked through our street photography photographs and looked at what process to take when it comes to selecting photographs to potentially use as a final piece.

The street photography task was an interesting experiment, however, when taking lots of photographs on the move, it meant that there were many pictures that were not fit for purpose (see contact sheets for examples)

I used Adobe Bridge in order to view all of my photographs in succession.

In terms of quality, I looked out for images that had the right exposure, the subjects were in focus, there was no blurring and the images had good composition. 

I found the photographs that I had taken were very reflective of how I was feeling at the time of the shoot. I was quite shy about taken pictures of people without their permission, so I kept the camera held quite closely to my chest and took the pictures covertly. I was amused at some of the pictures that I had taken, where it appears I completely cut off the head of my subjects. With this in mind, I chose this as my subject criteria. They stood out to me visually and I found them humorous as they were indicative of the kind of photographer I am at the moment. I also chose photographs where this wasn't the case and the subjects were in full view - I may edit these using the cropping tool at a later date so they fit in with the overall theme that I'm going for.

In a series, I hope the repetition of this theme will cause a little bewilderment to viewers, but I hope they also see the humorous side to the photographs too.

Using Adobe Bridge, I selected the photographs you can see in the contact sheets and organised them into 5 categories under the following keywords:

1. Bin (for images I had no use for)
2. Definitely (for images that fitted all my criteria)
3. Maybe (for images that fitted my criteria but could use some minor editing)
4. Maybe with Edits (for images that generally fitted my criteria but required some major                                         editing)
5. Complete (this would remain empty until all editing is complete and I have a series of                                pictures ready for exhibition)

To begin with I was fairly overcritical and decided to bin a lot of my images. It wasn't until talking through my theme with my module leader that he pointed out that a lot of these images could be edited to fit my needs and to keep hold of ones that fitted the quality criteria and think more carefully about what could be done later in order for them to fit the rest of my criteria.

The contact sheet was beneficial in this task, allowing me to view images of the same subject next to each other for closer comparison. 

Street Photography Task - Contact Sheet

Creating a contact sheet is useful way to view a large selection of photographs in order to help pin point images of interest that we may want to consider to use in our final projects. By viewing them all across one page, we can compare with other images similar images we have taken and decide which ones stand out to us.