Assignment 5 - Applying The Techniques Of Illustration And Narrative 2

Photograph Analysis


Chosen Photographs

Rather than discuss the individual shots, as individuals, I'd rather discuss them within the context of the page layout for which they were taken.

Bearing the purpose of the images in mind during post production. I have made a lot of them quite high contrast so that they stand out on the page.

Cover Page

I wanted the cover shot to be something that was attention grabbing and a shot that would sell the magazine off a busy shelf of competitors.
The photo on the front cover needed to have the iconic Android logo combined with the human element, me! I used a telephoto lens and a using a data projector, I projected a life size android logo onto a White wall. I then put the camera on a timer and spent a while running between the wall and the camera posing and resetting the timer.

I chose this photo because the eye-line is such a strong element. When viewing a photo, the first thing we look at is the eyes of a person or animal. This image works well as a narrative because I am looking at the Android but my eyeliner also leads the viewer up to the title of the magazine. A few other elements work well here too, I chose a black shirt because I thought that I would end up placing text over it, and the green text overlay enhances the contrast between the human in the photo and the character.
The image is playful and it plays with perspective as well because the android projection seems to be both behind and in front of the developer, making him (me, it's weird writing about myself) seem meshed within the world of Android.

I cropped this image for use on the cover, quite heavily actually. Simon cautioned me in assignment 1 about cropping as I composed the image, but in this case I think cropping afterwards for layout purposes is allowable, I'm not going to claim that every layout element was planned pre-shoot because I don't have that much magazine layout experience.

A final element of the image which works well, is the visible pixelation caused by the projector, being an older projector the resolution is quite low, but this leads to a connection between the digital nature of the product and the content of the article.

Pages 2 and 3

I looked through a lot of different magazines when preparing for this assignment and one if the things that I noticed was that where a cover story has a particularly striking image on the cover, the same image, or a visually connected image, is used within the magazine on the first page of the article itself.

So I knew when I was taking the projection images that I would be using more than one. with this in mind, I ensured that I created a variety of poses, most of which made me cringe afterwards! 

The second of them that I chose was one where my eye was roughly lined up with one of the androids eyes suggesting a link between the two of us, and also allowing the viewer to see the android as well as the human. This photo is composed exactly as it was taken, no cropping took place. I wanted to leave some space to the left of the frame to allow for the text of the article. I also processed this image a bit more than the cover story so hat is was a bit less detailed than the cover photo. I wanted this affect in order to allow the photo to be appraised by the viewer quickly so that they could then move on to reading the story. I increased the contrast and saturation of the image and adjusted the curves to make it as high contrast as it could be, without making it look too affected.

My pose makes me seem quite open and almost accepting of the influence that this process has had on me and gives the impression that I am a part of the android universe.

Pages 4 and 5

This spread marks the first of the pages where two images are used as part of a double spread, a pattern that I have used for the rest of the sheets.
After establishing the main protagonist in the article (me) I then wanted to show the amateur working environment and the simple equipment used to make an app at home. This is where elements of narrative start to come in. The main shot on the left, the computer desk is, believe it or not, quite a careful staged still life. I raided a box of backup hard drives, borrowed a couple of phones, placed a few bits and bobs around and finally took a trip to costa coffee just to get the final piece of the puzzle.
Having constructed the image I decided to used a fish eye lens to give it a dynamic feeling and I shot 6 different exposures and merged them together as a HDR. I can take HDR or leave it, some love it so hate it, but I don't mind. The reason why I decided to use it here was because lighting experiments failed to liven up a flat image and I wanted to add a sense of drama to it, without adding anything artificial.

 The image on the right is also shot with the fish eye but simply to allow me to fill the frame with one simple object. Whilst the computer desk is cluttered and rife with action, I wanted the mouse image to be a simple shot, almost a stock image of a mouse to show how such a common place object is so important in the process of development.
To make the mouse stand out I wanted to use a high key image with a lightbox as the background. As I don't have a lightbox I used a studio light with a softbox and turned it facing directly up. This created a nice effect where I exposed for the mouse, but the background is bright white and the edges of the mouse become much softer as the light from the softbox spills onto it.
This effect creates a nice high contrast, the focus is solely on the mouse and the shape of it. It almost becomes an object of beauty until the viewer remembers that it is a mouse.

Pages 6 and 7

Having taken the focus away from the developer I wanted to bring it back for the next double page spread. I also wanted this spread to be where I combined staged model shots with street photography. 
The first of the three photos used is a staged shot where I have projected binary code against myself and pulled a pose that should suggest frustration. The idea is that a solo developer working by themselves into the night can be very frustrating. I used the data projector again and a wide angle lens to get a dramatic image of frustration.
I think this image works well. I would have preferred not to have the rest of the projection spill over onto the wall behind me but I haven't got access to any rooms long enough to avoid this issue. I tried changing the angles of the frame and tried filling the frame but I wanted the 'tearing hair out' out pose and this was the only way to get it, because the projector projects light I couldn't even increase the shutter speed because the exposure for my face needed to be the correct exposure for the projected image. I still think it works.


The second image on the top right hand side is a shot taken whilst at the Gadget Show. I knew that going to the Gadget Show would be a great opportunity to take a lot of photos of the public using Android tablets and handsets. It was perfect because it meant that I didn't have to hover around in mobile phone shops and ask permission, I was able to use a longer lens (70-200) and shoot at will. The downside was that the lighting at the NEC was very poor and I had to compensate the white balance quite a lot. 
As I was shooting at 200mm I didn't use flash and the image that was chosen, out of quite a few, is nicely lit by the light box in front of the people using the phones and tablets. The image portrays the growth of the market and the interest that people have in this kind of technology, whilst it isn't obvious that this is the gadget show, it is clearly some kind of venue where people can have a go at new tech, and the concentration on their faces shows how interested they are.


The third image on the page is a pure street photography shot. I blogged about being terrible at street photography and this shot was brilliant timing. I had sat down looking for people walking past on their phones and noticed the two girls sitting opposite me using their handsets. The space between them speaks volumes and there is a great juxtaposition between them, sitting in complete isolation but on the same bench, because they are using smart phones. In a way, this is quite a damning photo, it decries the success of smartphones but it also demonstrates how popular they are, and why people like me spend hours at night making apps for them.

Pages 8 and 9

Pages 8 and 9 show two similar images where I have used juxtaposition and metaphors to continue the narrative on application development.

The photography on the right has been cropped for page layout purposes but the important elements of the image are still visible, those being the plastic Android toy in the middle of the street. I wanted to use the 'long road' metaphor to show how the development can be a long process. I used a wide angle lens to give the android some dramatic perspective and a wide aperture to decrease the detail of the road and cars behind the android.

The photo on the right shows the same toy in the grass providing the 'grass roots' metaphor. Android is an open source platform which is something I really like and I wanted an image to represent this. If I had to remove one image from the submission though, it would be this one, it's just a bit dull, and I think I may have overused the robot toy.

Pages 10 and 11

I really like this last double page spread. I got the idea for the location from a fellow OCA student who favours this car park roof in Manchester. I tried shooting the robot toy overlooking the countryside from the top of a hill that has Manchester in the distance but it didn't look right so I relocated to the city centre.

I must say upfront that I don't normally like spot colouring on photos but it works here. I didn't fully desaturate the city-scape, just enough to make the android toy really stand out in the bottom corner, even with the spot colouring the eye is not immediately drawn to it, so it feels like a nice surprise when it is spotted.

Rejected Photographs

The main self portrait shots where I stood in front of the projector had many rejects. I really, really, wish I had invested in a remote for the camera as running back to the camera between shots was a right pain! Anyway, this caused a lot of rejects as I was aiming to have my eye in-line with the Android's eye and this wasn't always successful. I tried a variety of poses but felt like a fool in a lot of them, and looked like a fool in most.

I also experimented with a wide angle lens to start with but settled for the telephoto to avoid any lens distortion on the wall.

The binary projection shot went through a few different experiments too, the shot where I am thinking looks to complacent, I preferred the manic shots. I tried to take s hot where the screen was reflected on my face but focusing this alone was a nightmare, and I felt that if I asked someone else to focus for me, then I was handing over some of the creativity of the shot. I abandoned this idea in the end, it felt a bit surplus to requirements anyway. I think you can tell by the article that I am the programmer without having to see me at the keyboard.

I took a few still life shots that I discarded. The keyboard shots were just a bit dull. The shots of the android phone just didn't work without having the screen blacked out. I realise now that all mobile phone advertising must have a screen shot overlayed onto the handsets, because colour balancing and exposing for both is completely impossible.

I took a few extra shots whilst at the gadget show to show people using smart phones and tablet handsets. The one that I chose is better framed and shows the people engaging in a much more understandable manner, I also like the colours and the amount of people in the shot. The rejects were ok, the one with the green light would have been ideal if it wasn't for the distracting background, but on the day when I rearranged myself, half the people walked off. I also include an alternative HDR of the pc on a wide angle lens. I rejected this because of the sunlight and the general composition being a bit lacklustre.

Assignment 5 - Applying The Techniques Of Illustration And Narrative 1

The last assignment for the module is here already. I'm quite surprised, it feels in some ways that I gotten to the end of TOAP very quickly, but also like I have taken ages getting to this submission.

The Brief

The brief for this assignment is to illustrate a story for a magazine with a cover and then a series of pages inside. I needed to choose a caption for each image but not a full story - thank goodness!

The cover needed to show techniques of illustration and then the inside pages will be a picture essay similar to what I have created before.  I needed to consider linked images, different aspects of the story and use of juxtaposition and narrative.

My Approach

The theme was a crucial decision. The brief allowed be to chose anything which is quite a daunting prospect, I found my mind racing from one idea to the next.  I wanted to choose something that I knew about. I was tempted initially to do a recipe as there is great joy to be had in food photography but this seemed like to obvious an idea.

My picture essay earlier in this segment was based on one of my interests, running. I am preparing for the Great North Run and I started to think about the idea of doing a series of photographs and self portraits based around the preparation of someone who is new to running (less than 6 months) but who has signed up to do quite a strenuous race. 

I started to put more details into this plan. What I liked about it was the concept of combining self portraiture with some still life and some street photography. I am planning to the do People and Places unit next which will possibly mean I have to convince various friends and family to model for me, I don't seem to have surrounded myself with model wannabes and it always takes nagging or bribing them all. 

So I thought that to use myself would work well in this one, also, I'm picking something about me so I should man up and put myself in front of the camera, not something I like doing.

The other aspects I liked of my idea was a combination of photographic styles in order to establish a more coherent story. I wanted to use modelled self portraits, still life shots of objects that relate to the story and provide some context and juxtaposition and also some street photography. This last one was proving a sticking point. I like street photography but it is an area I need to practice at length. I wanted to put it in to stretch myself and I had an idea of capturing some joggers going past a cafe with people sat outside looking at them as they passed. I know you shouldn't try to be that specific when planning street photography, but hey, I wanted to be ambitious for this last assignment.

The Final Idea

As happy, and excited, I was about the types of photographs and the approach that I was going to take, the subject just wasn't doing it for me. I felt like I was repeating myself slightly. I had already done the narrative of a race and this did feel like repetition even though I had planned to make it more personal. So I decided to retain the method of execution, but reconsider the concepts.

I thought about things that I am doing at the moment, interests that I have, and one of the things that has been taking up a lot of my time at the moment has been developing an Android smartphone application.

Some background is needed here as that may seem a bit random. 

I used to be a java programmer before moving into education. I manage an IT teaching team at a college and as part of my job I still teach a few hours. This year, two of my more intrepid tutors started teaching the development of iPhone apps. As an iPhone user, I thought this was marvellous, looked into it, discovered that the Android platform, iPhone's biggest rival, uses Java and after a lot of scraping around in my brain to remember java, I started teaching very basic Android app development.

In order to teach myself so that I could teach the students, I have been making a Wedding Planner app which I'm going to release on the Android Market as a marketing tool for my wedding photography sideline. 

I started to wonder about how I would use this as an idea. One of the things that leapt at me straight away was one of Android's strengths, it's iconic logo. The Android logo, a little green robot, has started to crop up in all phone shops and in the media.

Using this as a starting point the initials concepts quickly began listing themselves:

• A magazine article about homebrew - the practice of developing software at home
• The theme will allow for modelled self portraits, still life and street photography
• The street photography element will capture the rise of smartphone usage
• The still lifes will show the shabby approach to home dev
• The self portraits will aim to capture ambition and isolation
• The android logo will be used

I was slightly concerned that my subject is a bit to niche, but then I decided that it didn't matter. The brief states any subject and even if my audience aren't the types to read smart phone app magazines (like me - app nerd!), the techniques of illustration and narrative should still shine through.

This is a first for me, I usually stick to an idea once I have started it through bloody determination (stubbornness). In past assignments this has let me down a bit and I feel like I've grown a bit in my art work that I am willing to abandon an idea after thinking it through.

Magazine Considerations

Another of the early decisions I made was that I wanted my submission to look like a magazine.  With this in mind, I have been using Adobe InDesign at work. This isn't a package I have used before but it is brilliant. Using InDesign, I really feel like I've made my photos look like I imagine their use in a layout. I've never studied page layout or attempted it much so I am pleased to have used an industry tool. 

The use of a proper layout is important because it made certain considerations when I was taking my shots. For instance, the space to the left of the frame in the shot used as a background for pages 2/3 was intentional for text. Another example is the image of the mouse, this photograph was taken to be a context shot, intended to be smaller and more discreet than some of the others.

Assignment 4 - Feedback

Recieved my feedback for assignment 4.


Overall Comments

You have done well with this assignment David; You have fulfilled the briefs well in that you have used a variety of lighting techniques to get the best out of the 4 themes of shape, form, texture and colour.

I have one or two issues with some of the submissions and will go into detail in my comments on the individual images, but generally they are well executed and show a lot of thought and consideration.

I'm pleased about this bit too:

I have commented in the past about including some information about the influences of other photographers work and it’s good to see you doing this on this occasion

Progress!

Frustrating comment:

Frustrating because I always get this mixed up!


Favourite comment:

Colour 2

I really like your use of the blue ice bunny to contrast the brass colour of the bunny – it shows good imagination and a useful influence of another photographer


Simon made a cropping suggestion which I will think about and also pointed out that my WB might have been a bit off on another. He suggested that I could have taken some shots of the back of the bunny, I did try one, seen here http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iGrtzCuphbs/TWemvwEJR0I/AAAAAAAAJF8/Xs46bhpxGY0/s1600/colour_rejects.jpg


but it lost something for me.


I'm going to continue with the exercises for part 5 and then after that is submitted, work through changes and fixes for all the assignments.

You talk of possibly using a wider aperture to increase detail but wanted to keep the background blurred. I think that you mean you could have used a narrower aperture (smaller hole) ie something like f8 or f11. Widening the aperture say to f5.6 or even f2.8 will result in a narrower depth of field.

Assignment 4 - Setups and Rejects

Various shots were rejected for shape. I'm still a bit torn about the image that is top right above but I think the ones I selected are the best. The window shots didn't work amazingly well and the sunset shot I planned never happened as the sun needs to visit Manchester!

My other texture shots focus on the flaws in the metal. I really like these and they are successful images, so I'm prepared if Simon suggests that my smooth shot outside isn't following the brief. 

I tried a few different backdrops for the ice bunny and also a few different contrasts such as the reflector with a lot more light hitting it, and the coffee table. I'm pleased with the two I have selected as none of the above really show the colour any better. 

As can be seen above there were a few different attempts at the window sill shot. All were fine, but I liked having more context. I also tried a few different angles on the balcony shot. 

Here's the Mapplethorpe I have 'aped'

 

And here's the process of moulding the bunny

Finally here are two of the lighting set-ups I used.

Assignment 4 - Using Lighting Techniques

I'm so tired of taking photos of that bunny!
Although it has been great seeing all of the different ways in which four different qualities of the same object can be shown in very different images using a variety of lighting. I like lighting, both artificial and natural, and whilst some elements of this part have been difficult due to weather, I have really enjoyed the assignment.


For each of the qualities, I decided to focus on them in isolation. There are some images where more than one of the qualities can be seen in detail, but I just wanted to focus on the particular quality under scrutiny.


I chose the brass bunny because it has such a prominent shape but also discreet differences in texture and a nice colour. For all of these photos I used auto white balance, which never lets me down. On some of them I had tweaked it slightly using the manual white balance temperature slider in Lightroom.


Shape

F18
1/100 
I knew I wanted to do this shot as soon as I started thinking about the assignment. I saw this done with a wine glass in a photography magazine. It's a simple technique using a soft-box covered in black material in the middle with two thin strips of light coming through on either side. This leads to the object in questions being lit just from the edges showing it's shape perfectly.
I needed a decent aperture to capture enough of the barely lit object and a shutter speed that allowed me to shoot hand-held.
I am really pleased with this shot, it fits the brief perfectly and shows the great shape of the object.

F9
1/100
For the second shape shot, I wanted to use shadow and whilst there was another that I liked (see previous post) I wanted to capture two shapes at once. The shadow shows a different profile to the actual bunny which exemplifies the shape of the object.
The room was quite dark in order for the shadow to be strong. I used the small, hard flash without any diffusion to create as strong a shadow as possible. The flash was off camera.




Form

F2.5
1/125
Natural light was my choice for the both form shots. I wanted to use a large light source in order to show as many angles of the object as possible. I shot this image at F2.5 in order to throw out any distractions, but I wanted to keep some other objects in the frame such as the wooden shutter and the carved bowl in order to add a sense of depth to the shot, which in turn shows the depth of the object. This image was taken at lunchtime when the sun was at its highest, but it was quite an overcast day so I was confident that the light would be diffused in order to allow the shadows to be soft and all the object's dimensions to be shown.

F2.8
1/50
I decided to use natural light again for the second form image. I'm nervous about this image, not because I'm unhappy with it, but because I think that under scrutiny it could be considered that form is being shown not by the lighting, but by the fish eye lens that I used.
I stand by the image though, I really like this one, I converted it to mono and stressed for ages about whether or not to avoid the colour background. In the end I stuck with the colour because the grass and buildings behind the rabbit are darker and they show depth which gives context to the depth of the bunny. The light was fading when I took this so I had to use my widest aperture and a slower shutter speed than I would have liked (it could be sharper). There was a lot of cloud and the sun was far away so there is little shadow in the image and the curves and bumps of the rabbit can be clearly seen in a way that isn't as noticeable in any of the other photos.




Texture

F5.6
1/100
I took this shot following some of the colour photographs and adapted the lighting accordingly. I wanted the first texture shot to show the chinks in the brass (made by whacking it with a spoon - all in the name of art!). I used one of my studio lights to the front-right of the object and a large softbox behind to light the scene, but dialled down. The front light had no diffusion at all so that the texture was shown with hard shadow. I could have used a wider aperture to increase the detail, and thus show more texture, but I wanted to keep the backdrop blurred so it showed a good contrast.

F8
1/80
I used a portable flash for this shot which was aimed at the bunny's front. Having already captured a shot of the chinks and scratches, I decided to use lighting to make the texture seem smoother than it really is. I used F8 as the sun hadn't set completely and I wanted the background to be darker, but I still wanted some detail, some texture, to make the bunny seem smooth and metallic. The flash was on quite a low power but it was very close to the bunny which allowed all of the detail to be filled with light. The distance of the camera from the rabbit also helps create the impression that it is completely smooth.
This is the other image that I'm nervous about as I worry that I shouldn't be using light to smooth out texture, but enhance. My aim though, was to use a lighting technique to serve a purpose, and I think I have done that.


Colour

F4.5
1/100
The first colour shot was taken with my portable reflector which has a number of different colours and textured surfaces. I decided to use the gold surface to try and increase the bronze colour of the bunny. After some experimentation, I sat the bunny on the reflector as it was flat on the floor, and I used two studio lights, both diffused (soft-box and brolly) to decrease the shadow and show the colour.
I used F4.5 because there was a lot of light flare coming off the reflector and I wanted to minimize it, and I shot at 1/100 as it was hand-held, and I didn't want to lose the light in the background.
I like this image a lot, rather than showing colour by contrast, it shows it through similar shades and the whole image has a warm glow.

F13
1/80
This is the last image and the one that took the most preparation. I wanted to so direct influence from another photographer, and I wanted to show the rich brass colour of the rabbit through a stark contrast. I made the mould of the bunny and created an ice bunny to sit besides it in a nod to Robert Mapplethorpe.
I used a tripod for this image and wanted to get as much detail as I could. I used a large soft-box to light the two bunnys and a hard smaller light against the reflector background.


Overall I am pleased with the results of this assignment. I am sick of taking pictures of the bunny but I feel like I have stretched myself. I didn't use as many of the other inspirational photographs as I originally planned to, but I don't think that this is detrimental to the photographs as they fit the brief better.

Assignment 4 Rejects

Following feedback on my previous assignment, I decided for the lighting assignment that I would take direct inspiration from famous photographs.

One of the ideas I decided to use as inspiration, was Richard Avedon's signature style of the black and white shot with the high key background and sort of, 3/4 framing.

 

As you can see from the shot above, I've now done this with my chosen object for the assignment but I've decided to reject it. It would work well for 'shape' but not 'form'. It just doesn't represent the 3D aspects of the shape as it's face on and despite trying a few different lighting types, it just doesn't work.
So I thought I'd at least post it here to show it as a rejected idea, but still a success in some respects!

This is another reject. I've got a load of spares from this assignment, but this is one that I really struggled with. I really like this shot, it fits the 'shape' brief but ultimately I decided to reject it and choose another because the shot that I have chosen meets the 'shape' criteria on two counts - as will be seen in the submission!

Assignment Inspiration

http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/images/BB/ken_robg.jpg

This Mapplethorpe image could be parodied with my brass bunny!

Sent from my iPhone

Next assignment thoughts

I've already written out this post once but lost due to making the mistake of doing a google image search for Robert Mapplethorpe at work and quickly closing firefox!
I've chosen a brass bunny which has a good size and texture as well as an interesting shape.

This will be gobble-de-gook to most, but will make sense to me:

• sunset silhouette
• macro texture
• lights either side of object like wine bottle example from magazine
• Bailey-esque face filling frame or Avedon b/w model to right of frame white backdrop
• Side profile of bunny to show form, lit from left with black fall off
• Mapplethorpe inspired ice bunny and brass bunny - this one will involve making a latex mould - highly uneccesary but fun!

more notes regarding inspirations from other photogs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Atget - I like the idea of doing a sepia, shop window style image, will need to give this some thought

http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/port/images/avedon1.jpg - I could do a black and white face or head and torso shot like Avedon and Bailey favoured

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Photograph_of_Alberto_Giacometti_by_Cartier_Bresson.jpg - I like the idea of creating an image inspired by this but with a cat walking past

Assignment 3 Feedback

Just received my feedback from my tutor, there overall comments are:


Overall Comments
You have done well with this assignment David; You have fulfilled the briefs well in that you have used a variety of controlled and uncontrolled situations. You have avoided, as suggested in the manual, too much photographing paint as suggested in the manual. Your use of themes including models shows imagination, initiative and commitment. Although you have used of dyes and make up you have at least used the make up in interesting and novel ways. However I do think that on some occasions you have set up the situation and “chosen” the colours but they aren’t always as clear and precise illustrations of the necessary colour as they should be in a chosen situation - I’ll explain more in the specific examples. Although I have one or two issues with some of the submissions but generally they are well executed and show a lot of thought and consideration.


I'm pleased that I have fulfilled the brief and am reflecting on Simons comments that my set up shots didn't always use the right colours. I must admit that the image of the woman with the green straw and orange liquid, did look a bit more yellow than orange to me! Simon picked up on this and I should have known better.


Simon suggested a crop for the gravestone image which is a really good idea and I think that when I submit this batch of images I will take the advice on board.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Assignment 3 - Colours

This has been a very challenging assignment which has pushed my creativity more than the previous two. I have been avidly looking around at different coloured scenes for ages now and don't think I will ever really ignore colours in photography again.

Whilst I was happy to work within the guidelines of the course book regarding balance and traditional ratios of colours, I was also happy to take the books advice to break these rules where the subject allowed it and also to make some interesting results.

I spent a lot of time planning the shoots for this assignment and I am pleased with how the arrangements came out. I would have preferred to have a wider selection of found situations, but weather, time of year and work commitments made it difficult to travel very far and acquire the kinds of colour images that I like.

The arrangements fell into the following shoots:

• Fashion shoot where a model applied a variety of make-up selected to meet the different colour combinations and evoke different feelings
• Posed drinks shots where friends sat with different coloured drinks and straws
• Coloured water shots where the colour relationships were tested in a low detail context in order to really analyse the dynamics
• A series of visual puns involving crushed pastel coloured sweets in a drug abuse context
• Blooming Tea shots involving a selection of different 'blooming' green teas which consist of dried flowers sewn into green tea leaves in a way that lets them open and bloom when immersed in hot water

The found shots fell into the following shoots:

• Snow covered grave stones where the bright colours of the flowers left are the only indication that the people are not forgotten
• Landscape shots from Chatsworth House and Blithfield Reservoir

Colour Harmony: Complimentary Colours

These are the colours that face each other across the colour wheel, colours that balance each other and have a naturally harmonious relationship.

Image 1:

Idea - The green nails and red lipstick were chosen as complimentary colours and matched in ratio so that there was an equal balance between the two. The model was asked to repeatedly brush her lips with her fingers whilst looking away in order to create the feeling of movement but also the idea that the photo has captured a moment where a significant thought has occurred to her.

Settings - F8 aperture and 1/125 shutter speed. Hand held

How the colour works - The main purpose of the colour in the image is to draw attention to the model's finger tips and lips. 

As make-up it does its usual job of glamorising the wearer and it draws the focus of the image onto the mouth and fingers. I used such a close, asymmetric crop because I wanted to focus on the colour but without losing some eye-line and some hair. Facial features without any hair or neck can often feel disconcerting.

Balance and movement - The movement of the image is subtle but still present in the direction of the eye and the fingers. I have annotated one of the reject shots to the right which shows the whole head, the movement is the same, but the focus of the colour was lost as the model's eyes dictated all focus. The ratio of the red to green is as it should be for complimentary colours, 50-50. This gives equal prominence to the fingers which may have been lost otherwise as human nature is to focus on the mouth after the eyes when looking at a face.

Image 2:

Idea - Using a jar of clear water, a high key backdrop and food colouring, I wanted to see if I could capture the moment where the relationship between the orange and blue became the ideal 3:2. One of the rejected images, below right, is shown with this ratio but I have chosen this image as I feel that it's almost 1:1 balance, whilst at odds with colour theory, makes the image work.

Settings - 1/100 shutter speed F8 aperture. Needed to be quick on this one.

How the colour works - The orange dye becomes very dark in places and ranges from bright orange to dark brown. But for me the interest lies in the tendrils of colour that can be seen on closer examination. They are almost like sugar strands. The strength and detail of the strands is balanced by the creamy blue dye which looks out of focus at some points.

Balance and movement - as mentioned above, the image to the right is one of the rejects which works well with the colour theory and shows a lot more movement than the chosen picture. But those detailed tendrils provide their own movement that spirals around the image and really puts the viewer in mind of liquid movement.

Image 3:

Idea - I wanted to capture graves in the snow so that the colours would stand out. This image has been desaturated in areas so that the red and green are prominent against a grey background.

Settings - F4 and 1/320th second. This threw out the background detail and allowed be to capture the shot whilst crouching and wobbling.

How the colour works - Interestingly, it is only the dead grasses next to the flower that has been desaturated, the rest of the image is displaying the colours as they were on that day. The green and red seem defiant at the bottom of the image despite being coated in snow they are still vibrant, and the ratio of the red and green as equals seems to represent the couple who are buried below them.

Balance and movement - I anticipate that it may be suggested that this is an accent image or that the text is the focal point as the flowers are so small, but I really wanted the eye to fall to the bottom of the image, consider the flower and then look back up to the grave. As a found image I am pleased with it. It's composition could have been better were it not for my reluctance to keep a respectful distance and not stray from the path.

Image 4:

Idea - I'm not a big fan of giving titles to photographs but I think either "Addicted to Love (hearts)" or "Sugar High" would work well with the photos that I took.

I wanted to use colour in a way that was unusual and surprising so I started thinking about situations without colour where it could be added for the element of surprise. Placing the crushed love hearts in a drug abuse contexts works well.

Settings - 1/60 second and F4.5. Lighting was difficult here hence the slower shutter speed.

How the colour works - The green and red balance here show the two lines clearly which help explain the image to anyone who doesn't immediately get it. Lines of powder on a toilet cistern will immediately link to any images of cocaine abuse that have been shown in the media.

Balance and movement - The balance is slightly in favour of the red colour only due to the love hearts that have been left in the background to give the image some additional explanation. I didn't want to leave them out as it may have looked like I'd coloured the power in in post production. There is plenty of movement in the image due to the lines of colour being placed in opposition to the lines of the tile and the cistern.

Rejected Images:

I rejected a few images for this section. As shown above there were alternative images available from the model shoot and from the food dye shots. I also had some back-up shots from the love heart shoot and there was some flowering tea with red and green present but the saturation was too weak and the ratio was completely wrong.

Colour Harmony: Similar Colours

These colours are similar in warmth or in proximity around the colour wheel.

Image 1:

Idea - I like the idea that similar colours work well together and as such during the model shoot decided that I wanted to show both eyes and have the model looking upwards to enhance the lashes and also give the photograph a fixed direction. The model was asked to apply neutral foundation so that her skin's pink tones would work well with the violet eye shadow and still with the brighter lashes.

Settings - 1/125 and F8. Tripod and studio kit allowed for detail and a quick capture.

How the colour works - Despite the pink lashes being almost neon, the combination with the more subdued, less saturated violet works really well. The colour enhances the eyes and draws attention to their size which is a natural cause of attractiveness.

Balance and movement - Ignoring the eye line, which is admittedly difficult, there is clear movement around the eye because of the use of similar colours. As demonstrated in the image to the right the eye follows around the longer lashes and meets the violet in the corner and then continues around again. The balance between the colours, 3:2, is inconsequential really as they are similar colours, but it was interesting to note as, at a glance, they seem to be quite evenly balanced.

Image 2:

Idea - This image was composed after a series of photographs were taken of two women chatting and drinking brightly coloured drinks with brightly coloured straws. The colours weren't taking precedence in the image so I decided to focus on the drinks being held but leave in the hands of the women so that some of the context can be seen. It almost makes it seem that the drinks are having a discussion of their own beneath the notice of their animated holders.

Settings - 1/100 and F2.5. I was using a flash ere but I wanted to keep the depth of field shallow to ensure the glasses were prominent.

How the colour works - The straws hue is more in the pink-violet range than the red-pink range which may lead the assessor to comment that they're not similar enough, but both colours have such an artificial intensity that, to me, they look similar.

Balance and movement - The orange is much more dominant than the pink but the lines of the straws command more movement and attention than the curves of the glass, especially as the top transparent section of the glass adds some ambiguity as to the path the eye should take.

Image 3:

Idea - As soon as I saw an advert online for these teas I knew that I wanted to use them in my colours assignment. The yellow flower and green leaves provide a really great photo. I am very pleased with this image. The high key back drop and simple stand on which the tea pot s placed, leave all of the focus on the leaves and the bloom.

Settings - 1/80 second and F22. The tripod allowed for a narrow aperture as I needed to capture as much detail as possible.

How the colour works - The colours are similar to begin with, but what makes the image work for me is that the water in the pot has started to turn yellowy-green due to the green tea leaves that form the bulk of the bloom.

Balance and movement - There is a fine balance between the yellow and green tones in this image. The grey/brown ceramic underneath adds to the natural feeling and the fact that none of the colours are too bright or saturated makes it seem like something that could have occurred on its own. The movement in the image comes from the curve of the pot accentuated but the greeny-water and the yellow bloom seems to point upwards like a flower pointing at the sun. 

Image 4:

Idea - This is another of the "Sugar High" series that plays on the idea of crushed love hearts being snorted like cocaine. To move the image forward I wanted to introduce the mirror and razor blade elements that are connected to cocaine abuse in order to enhance the pun.

Settings - F9 and 1/20. a tripod again allowed for more detail in the shot.

How the colour works - The yellow and orange in the image are very similar in hue with the orange falling firmly on the yellow side of the colour wheel. The colours are less saturated than the previous love heart image and they seem to be more natural and somehow more menacing as they could now be actual drugs. That may be an indication of my inexperience in the area though!

Balance and movement - Again the colour balance is equal and draws attention to the lines of powder. The reflected colour in the mirror plays a part in the balance too as it is slightly darker than the colour on top. The lines seem to move downwards due to the shape and the direction of the razor blade in addition to this.

Rejected Images:

The nature of the images in this section, similar colours, meant that the colour balance was somehow less important than the other areas. As a result the rejected images were not chosen either because the arrangements were too similar to arrangements selected for other areas. The images chosen were picked for their compositional strength.

    

Colour Contrast

These colours are quite different from each other, they are all separated on the colour wheel by a similar colour, but when this is taken away we are left with a strong, almost clashing contrast. These pictures use colour in a way that is more eye catching than harmonious.

Image 1:

Idea - This was the second type of blooming tea that I photographed and the idea was to showcase the beauty of the product with a high key background and some pleasing forms in the teapot and shape of the pedestal (which is actually a cookie jar).

Settings - F9 and 1/60. Allowing for detail.

How the colour works - The colours in this image are very subdued and I wanted to use lighting that made the focal point almost a silhouette that made distinct by the colour. As a result the colours dont appear to be a contrast until you really analyse them. The violet and green work together even though they are very different colours and because the subject is a natural product it seems to excuse the colour clash.

Balance and movement - The green is very dominant in the image but the purple holds its own, mainly due to the contrast.

Image 2:

Idea - This image was part of the series of friends holding coloured drinks with alternating straws. The aim of this image was to make the drink and straw the forefront of an stong visual through its eye catching colours. The model was lit to the right by a softbox and on the left by ambient lighting.

Settings - 1/160 and F6.3. 

How the colour works - The contrast between the orange and green work really well here and it is the clash of colours that draws the eye away from the model and onto the drink. I'd hope due to the way that the image has been lit, that the glass and straw would be quite pronounced and I'm pleased with the way that this has worked. The view will consider what the model is drinking rather than what she is thinking but the photo as a whole remains quite melancholy in mood.

Balance and movement - On my annotation to the right I said that the ration was 5:1 and I wrote the wrong colour, I must have been thinking when I wrote it that the orange was on the yellow side rather than the red. Anyway, its probably more like 4:1.

Image 3:

Idea - This image was part of the series of food dye images that I took. I had an alternative, face on image of the jar with the food dye making shapes in the water, but whilst taking the photos I decided to try one with the mouth of the jar and the dyes being poured in. This has been cropped slightly to remove my fingers hilding the food colouring bottles.

Settings- F8 and 1/100

How the colour works - Yellow and blue are great colours to put together because even though they clash slightly they are so bright and vibrant that the image seems to be dynamic and vivid without much effort.

Balance and movement - The balance here is two fold because of the liquid streams of dye that can be seen above the jar and then the spreading pools of colour in the water.

Image 4:

Idea - This is Jeremy, my friend's oldest child at 18 months whom I was photographing for her at new year. When I was editing the images I thought that one of the images needed to be discarded as the flash was quite strong and his face had too much of a highlight. This brought my attention to his blue eyes and red mouth and I decided to try and edit the image so that it was reminiscient of Richard Avedon's Funny Face poster. I'm considering this one of the found subjects even though I have heavily edited it.

Settings - 1/100 and F6.3. This was a hand-held shot.

How the colour works - The colour is the real highlight here, it shapes the image and it reinforces what we are seeing. the last thing that the eye recongises here is the nose because it is colourless and represented by shadow.

Balance and movement - The blue in more prominent than the red which is appropriate for a child's face as their eyes are still quite large in their head at that at age.

Rejected Images:

The inclusion of Jeremy and the blooming tea in this set meant that I did not use any of the love heart images, the make-up model images or a graveyard image I had taken with contrasting colours.

Colour Accent

A single spot or splash of one colour set against another can have as much impact as an equal balance of complimentary colours. These images show a single colour in isolation against a plain or muted background.

Image 1:

Idea - When I was working with the make-up model for the colour accent part of the shoot, I knew that I wanted to use a blue or a green eye shadow but waited until I saw her eye colour until I made the decision. As she has hazel coloured eyes I decided to use the green eye shadow as an accent colour to a canvas of natural pinks, browns and shadows.

I decided on the composition by deciding first just to show one eye, to highlight the accent colour. The model has got a very good facial bone structure so she suited a face half-crop.

Settings - 1/125 and F8

How the colour works - The green works well as an accent colour, it is in contrast to her natural face tones and it lifts the eye making it the centre of the image.

Balance and movement - I asked the model to look to the side in order to generate some movement in the image and the eye line is the cost compelling movement. Secondary to that though is the movement that the green accent creates by making the viewer look around her eye. This is a similar effect to the pink and purple in the similar colours image.

Image 2:

Idea - This was a found subject, on the way home from Nottingham we stopped off at Chatsworth, a risk considering the weather and the roads but it paid off, the scenery was beautiful. I didn't have my SLR with me but after spotting these three people and briefly stalking them, I managed to get a photo that I was happy with using the powershot compact.

Settings - 1/100 and F8

How the colour works - The red accent here is the key and it draws the eyes to the three people. Without the red it may have taken a while to notice the three people but the red makes them the main focus.

Balance and movement - The movement is clear and set by the legs of the people. They are moving towards the right of the frame and the viewer naturally follows them.

Image 3: 

Idea - This is the last of the Sugar High photographs that I have chosen for the assignment submission. This image works well in the final few images as it introduces the last element of the pun, a credit card which always seems to be connected to snorting drugs. I think I may have made a technical error here as I'm not quite sure whether the credit card and razor blade do the same job! 

Settings - 1/60 and F4.5

How the colour works - The colour accent here works across the whole range of the photo and the red accent may even verge on dominating the drab background colours in the image.

Balance and movement- The red colour controls the movement around the image with the eye moving initially up and down the red line of powder and then moving around the sides of the curved sweets. In this image, with red as the accent, the sweets are present not just as contextual information, but as part of the accent colour.

Image 4:

Idea - This tree in the graveyard was the only real string colour that could be seen aside from a few grave flowers.
I wanted to capture the tree against the cold snow and grey tones. The trees in the distance seem to be similar colours to the grave stones making it all highlight the green.

Settings - 1/60 and F4

How the colour works - What I was really pleased about for this image is that the moss on the grave stones is included in the accent of the green. I increased the saturation of the green in Lightroom to make sure that this was as clear as it could be.

Balance and movement - The green is equally balanced with the white in the image but when the other muted colours are considered, the browns and greys, the green becomes a true accent colour.

Rejected Images:

The rejected accent colours were rejected on the basis of the strength of the accent and it's clarity.