Exercise 42: A Narrative Picture Essay

In this exercise, I have to use between 5 to 15 photographs with short caption to form a narrative picture essay. 

I want to expand on the exercise on "Evidence of Action". I posted that drug/suicide shoot on OCA and get some feedback, and I want to use the reshoot as part of this series. 

To be very honest, I find it exercise very hard. Very often I have some images in my head (call it pre-visualization?), but I cannot re-construction the same atmosphere no matter what I do. I believe it is because I have in mind the subject matter, but I am not very clear about the background (surroundings). I wonder what is the good way to improve on this.

Anyway, here is the story. I only use five images because it is too exhausting to shoot more.

***

I was looking at those old photographs of us when we were still together. I wonder how long has it been. There is not a day passed that I didn't think of you.

I played those old voice message you left me again and again... I want to hear your voice. I can call you on the phone now, but I afraid you never want to hear from me again.

I don't know. I just don't want to think about it anymore. The past will never disappear and you will never be mine again. So what is the point? 

I can't sleep at night. I have that same dream over and over again.

From time to time I feel as if I don't exist in this world anymore. Then I saw those blood dripping down my wrist. It reminds me that I am still here. It feels so good. Maybe, finally my body marks what I feel inside all these time...

Exercise 45: Juxaposition

This is the shot of the exercise “juxtaposition”. The title is “study”.

I have trouble in arranging this screen because the colours are mainly white. I am not sure what element leads the eyes, but in my mind I want to have the pen, glasses, and the book cover to stand out. I wanted to include a calculator, but it is too little space. There is also so tossed paper, which is a common sight when you work on a Physics problem… However, I find it very difficult to make a clean line with so many items.

I change the lighting so that it more toward the red side. I want a warmer tone on the screen overall.

Idea wise, I came across a BBC 4 radio programs titled “Too Many Books” (www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01351q2). It takes about people collecting books, and find it very difficult to get rid of them. One of the interviewee said, it is like losing a friend.

Currently, my bookshelf is completely packed and have a pile of book that I need to read for this course. I made an effort to donate the books I don’t really enjoy or unlike to ever use again to the charity shop. However, there are many books I find it very hard to get rid of. One of the book, is Jackson’s “Classical Electrodynamics”. I bought that book in my last year of undergraduate study, contemplating I will take an Electrodynamics course in the following year in graduate school. It never happens, as I take course on quantum physics and group theory instead. I don’t think I have the capacity to do Physics in the future, if ever. This book becomes a memento to remind me of my past.

So, what do you need to study Physics? A good Physics text book, a lot of paper, pen/pencil, glasses, good light and a lot stamina (talent is desired but is not necessary).  

Exercise 46: Rain

In this exercise, I have to make a magazine cover on rain. To be honest, getting a photograph of rain is easy, but getting a great photograph of rain is very difficult. To turn the question the other way around: what is a good picture of rain? It shows rain drops?

I turn my focus elsewhere. In the last post on “Evidence of Action”, I posted the image on OCA forum for critique. One issue brought up was whether the photograph shown something “have happened” or “going to happen”. I have that in mind when I was doing this exercise. The reason is, it is easier to do it here. I can look at what happen before and after the rain. In the other case, it is much harder for me because I have little experience on what suicide is like for real.

There are before, during and after I want to look at, so what happened.
Before the rain:

1)     Sky gets darker

2)     Wind blow stronger

During the rain:

1)     Sky is still dark

2)     Wind still blow strongly

3)     Rain falls from the sky (what else can it be?)

4)     The street (floor, windows, plants, wall) getting wet

5)     People holding umbrellas

6)     Flooding may happen

7)     Leaks (from ceiling?) may happen

After the rain:

1)     Water droplets

2)     Floor still wet

3)     Sun may shine

Why listing them out? Because a random photograph of rain is easy, but I have no idea what I want to present to you (actually, I am still clueless after doing the shot). Before the rain is very difficult to shoot. I walk along on the street and wonder if this is just another typical (gloomy) day in England, or this is before the rain. There maybe signs of windy, but it leaves the subject wild open.

During the rain is easier. I don’t have any leaks (luckily) at home and no access to flooding. So I want to show something wet.

As a hindsight, I wonder if compositional wise I should shoot from a lower angle and used a wide angle angle lens instead.

After the rain is more interesting, but I wonder if there is a little bit ambitious. The sun happens to be at a good angle to the rubbish bin, so I see rain drops and the sun ray.

To be honest, the composition is quite boring. I want to get closer to the rain drop, but there is a minimal focus distance.

The more typical image of shooting windows with raindrops. However, I wait until the rain is over to shoot this. So I get water droplet and blue sky. I wonder if it hints “after the rain” or it is too unclear (ie. can this be in a car wash or window wash)?
 

So what is the final verdict: the first shot is the easiest and the most clear one. I wonder, if we want to present an idea, why not just use something simple and effective? What is the issue of having cliche, when our goal is to communication the informaton? Is it too boring? Or this is just some what-so-called artist trying to show off their ingenity and end up in confusing the viewers?

Exercise 43: Evidence of Action

In this exercise, I have to produce one photograph in which it implies something has happened...


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Well, I don't know. 
There are a two year time limit on this course, but I really don't think I can make it. 
I feel so scared to tell my tutor that I can't meet the deadline for this assignment.
I really tried hard, but I... 
I don't know what to do now. I feel embarrassed to talk about this. I just ....

If there is any takers, the darker pill is Iron and the white one is Calcium. Both were bought from Boots long time ago. I don't like taking pills even it is just supplements, so they were sitting around here forever. I wish I have more colourful pills to play with in this exercise.  

I wonder if the message is obvious enough. Hmm, I wonder if I omit the words from the very beginning, it will be still be obvious what I intended to "do"...

I should put it on the critique section on the OCA forum to get some feedback. Louise spots hat the pills looks like vitamin pills. It makes me wonder what is the pills that kill will look like. Meander said that the shot looks like someone "will commit suicide", instead of "have committed suicide". This is a harder question, because 1) I have not really thought out if I want this photograph to show an intention or the past, and 2) if someone committed suicide, there will be much fewer pills left. But would fewer pills weaken the message that this is suicide by overdose? 

I will have a think of it and defer the answer to assignment 5. 

Exercise 44: Symbols

My tutor came back to me with the feedback of assignment 4 the day after I sent it. I have never experienced such a turnover speed, so I have to start working on the re-shoot. I guess it is a good thing because I have not forgotten what I have done and why I did that in the assignment yet, so I have better continuation between the original shoot and reshoot.

On top of tutor's report, the deadline of assignment 5 is going to be 15th December, 2012. I did ask for a generous deadline, but I supposed I should have said more clearly that I don't want to rush more deadline this year... In any case, if I finish assignment 5 in December, I will have one month to cough up an assessment package for the March assessment. I enrolled in OCA on the 1st August, 2012, so it puts my target finish date for the first module at a year and a half. To be honest, with the current four years per level limit, I am not sure if I can finish level one at all ... 

Anyway, instead of worrying, let's start rushing through the exercises so that I can concentrate on the assignments.

In this exercise, I have to list at least one symbol for the following subjects and add a shot note saying how I can use them in a photograph.

Growth: I think the most obviously symbol is a cliché already. I can represent growth with a picture of a young plant with two leaves. I will photograph it at 45 degree angle down and leave some space on the frame to show that it is still relatively small.  

The other symbol is a screenshot on Bloomberg equity price diagram. I will pick a stock that is going up in value. However, I think this idea is more graphics design instead of photography.

Excess: How about a middle age man sitting with all 76 (I think there are more now) Nikkor lens surround him arranged in an orderly manner? The man has two camera bodies strapping over his shoulder and holding another on with a long telephoto lens.

The other way is to have a lot of toys pile up in front of a child. The pile has to be bigger than the child.

Crime: How about a photograph with two hands holding firmly on the iron gate with bars? The rest of the details doesn't matter, but the two hands and the bars should symbolize someone is being jailed. Thus a crime has been committed.

I thought of gun before. However, army uses gun and soldiers kill people. Is it considered to be a crime or not?

Silence: A close-up shot of someone face with a duct tape taped over his mouth. 

I was thinking of the usual silence symbol by putting a finger in front of your mouth, but I wonder if it is a little bit boring. The movie "Silence of the Lamb" used to have a poster with a woman with a butterfly over her mouth. However, I wonder if duct type is faster.

Poverty: This is hard! I am poor but I definitely doesn't look like it. 

I guess I will photography of a beggar sitting in the corner with can in front of him. I would prefer the framing to be a close up, focus on the can and the begging action. I supposed if you need to beg, because you don't have money. If you don't have money, you are poor.

I am sure I will come back to use of symbol in photography later in assignment 5. For now, let's call it a day.

Exercise 36: Outdoor at Night

This is the last exercise in this section. To be honest, I am rather exhausted because of all other things come up. Assignment 4 dues this Saturday. So, it will be a (very) rush job to get it done, or else I have a lot of explaination to do. I also have an exam this Saturday (not on photography).

Such as life...

In this exercise, I have to take some photographs of outdoor at night. In particular, I need to pay attention of these screens: flood-lit building, brightly lit store front, large interior with many people

 

Exercise 28. Measuring Exposure, part I

As I mentioned earlier in another post, this is probably the most difficult exercise in this section. This exercise requires me to take 5 photographs that are deliberately lighter or darker than the average. The most difficult part is what is “average” mean in terms of exposure?

Say, what metering scheme are you using in your camera? If for the same screen, spot metering is telling me that the exposure is in the middle (I avoid the word “correct”), but matrix metering says that I am over-exposed, which one is right? Do you judge your exposure with light meter or with the histogram?

I think this is one of those ill-posed questions in photography. I use spot metering, so I only (at least try) getting the exposure right for my subject, while the rest of the screen can go to hell. If I change my metering to centre-weighted or matrix, I think most of my shot will be consider under/over-expose. Strictly speaking I rarely try to over or under expose my subject. Here are some examples on what I think the exercise is asking for:

1. In a screen with a lot of contrast, I can decide to expose for the shadow or expose for the highlight. There is limited dynamic range in the CCD sensor to keep both of them. 

I wanted to keep the detail of the shadow, so this image over-exposed in matrix metering. The highlight is blown on the sky, but I don't care about the sky as much here.  

There are situation in which the sky is more interesting, and I will under-expose the image in matrix metering sense to get more details there. 

There are situation in which either exposure will be correct, depending what do you want to expose for. In this image, I prefer the highlight than the detail of the shadow.

2. In a screen that is mainly white, the camera tends to have it look grey-er than it is. Therefore, I try to overexpose the screen to keep it white. I notice that it doesn't have to be purely white, but a uniform cream colour will cause the camera to underexpose. 

   

Alternatively, we will have the same problem with black background. It doesn't have to be pitch black. Even if I take this with mainly dark colour, the camera default matrix meter tends to over-expose. I need to stop down to get the exposure matches what I saw. 

 

Finally note on this subject: “Exposing to the right” is not totally a myth, but sort of a safe bet in a data collection stand point. Question: If you preview your image on the back of the CCD to judge its exposure, are you sure that your camera CCD is correctly calibrated? I can adjust the brightness setting and the image will give me a different look. So which one is right? If by the end of the day, we are fixing the photographs up at post processing; using the histogram gives a better indication than the light meter. 

Exercise 34 Cloudy Weather and Rain

There are three section of this exercise.

1) Take 4-6 photographs of the same view in sunlight and under cloud

It is rare to have bright sunny day that is stable in England. So I will start with this one near Blackfaire station. F/4 at 1/1600s.

As soon as the cloud comes, the exposure time drops to 1/500s, also at f/4

The weather condition is not getting particularly better as the day progress. Now we are at 1/320s at f/4. 

Question: so does the cloudy shot looks more "blue" as the assignment suggested? Only slightly, and somehow it is hard to make a good judgement with naked eye. One can argue that the building in the photo in the middle does look slightly cooler than the first one, and the third one is cooler than the second one. But only slightly.

To make my point clearer. Here is St Paul shot across the river. The first one was shot in the morning, and the second one is shot at the evening. If I only use naked eye to judge, somehow the second one looks warmer. Why? The angle of the sun shinning through the building lights up both the Millennium bridge and five a less dark grey colour. I think this exercise doesn't work as well, unless all other external condition is fixed.  

Anyway, move on. The exercise suggests that we find two images in our library that is taken in cloudy day and it won't be better if it is taken on a sunny day. 

Well, this is difficult, given that I am a manic who like to shoot in the bright sunny day. To make it worse, I shoot into the sun. There are exception. I think no one will recommend doing a portraiture under harsh sunlight (well, well, we saw it in Saatchi gallery in the last study day). For example this:

I have never done food photography properly. This is not cloudy day, but indoor shot. I think sometime people use sun to create some atmosphere. But for this shot, I prefer not to have some sort of bright sunlight because my main subject is food, not atmosphere. 

I need to cook more often. Eating out too often just make me fat.

Now to the second part of the exercise.


2) Take three photographs outdoor on an overcast day. Look for the type of subject with strong colour and another one with strong detail.

How about that "every little helps" store? Very strong colour that you can see a mile off.

Actually, I prefer colour under bright day light, but with this type of orange, it doesn't look as dull in an overcast day.

Here is some structure with more details.

And do we count rain drop as part of the details?

3) Take two photographs in the rain

I don't think this is exactly an inspiration. When I miss my train, I usually wonder around the station and take photographs. Guess what, I shoot in the rain often due to total boredom. 

Yeah. I am almost done with the exercise in part 4. Maybe I should start worrying about the assignment now. 

Exercise 28: Measuring Exposure. Part II

There are two parts to this exercise. The first part requires me to take 4-6 photographs which are deliberately under or over-exposed, and analyze why it is a good choice. The second part requires me to select 5-6 subjects, and mark 5 exposures (light and darker) at each one, and select one that I prefer.

Believe it or not, the first part is actually more difficult than any other exercise in this section. I am not too sure about what is "underexposed" or "overexposed" means technically. If the question is whether or not I use the built-in light meter inside my camera, and anything that light meter indicates as "underexposed" means underexposed, then I will get different answer on the same setting with different metering type. Personally I use spot metering most of the time, and most of the images I took is not "correctly" exposed based on the light meter, given that the mid point is usually not at the centre.

Anyway, I did the second part first.

First screen, the subway. If I care about the detail on the stairs, I prefer the fourth one. Otherwise, the second one has better atmosphere(ie no one pays to keep the subway so well-lit).

Second screen, the river bank. I prefer the second one.

The third screen, sunset. I prefer the last one. However, one can argue that the third one gives a better balance on sun and the cloud.

Fourth screen, still sunset, but I changed location. The first one and the second one works for me. Somehow the sun is the main subject here. In the later shot when the exposure is higher, it lost the details of the sun, but not providing enough details on the pier.

Fifth screen, the street lamp. I prefer the third one. However, I have to admit that the difference between all of them are not that big (ie there is no lost of details on the subject). It is really depends on the atmosphere you want to get.

So after 25 boring images, what is the conclusion? I have to admit that I like slightly underexposed images. However, I don't think by differing by 2/3 of stop will be the end of the world. The resulting image will be different, but not horrible. I have to say that this is at odd with the concept of "exposing to the right" in digitals, and "exposure the shadow and the highlight will take care of itself" in film. Sometime I feel totally technical advise ignores the effect one might want to create. Of course, that goes the same with the whitebalance. Has anybody thought of setting an "incorrect" whitebalace just to make the screen look more yellow (tungsten)? Would that give sort of an old age atmosphere? If we are manage to pre-visualize what will come out at the end, does it matter if we have the "correct" exposure and whitebalance. 

Just a thought, I am sure someone will beat me up for that one day.