assignment 1 - tutor comments

These are the comments on my first assignment on the course the art of photography the following comments are a  literal copy of the email i received from my tutor mr Russel Murray. I just added the photos from the original assignment for a better reference.

Open College of the Arts


Jorge Horacio Abreu

Art of Photography:  Photography 1

Assignment 1:  Contrasts.

This is a good start to the course, with a set of strong images and clear accompanying notes.  The image quality is good enough in this combined format for me to be able to assess the technical and creative elements of your work, although if you’re going to submit your work for assessment, you might want to look at alternative methods of presentation – PDF files etc.  I would be happy to receive the images and text in separate files.

You chose, for this assignment, to concentrate on studio-based images, which gives you a great deal of control, but does somewhat limit your subject matter. It would be worth considering for future assignments, varying the subject matter so that you have the opportunity to explore different approaches to photography.

Black and White

A strong contrasting pair, and both quite tricky to get right.  Shooting black and white subjects requires a good exposure balance to ensure detail across the dynamic range, and you achieve for the most part here.  Black works a bit better than white, where the exposure of the saucer to the left is beginning to be disappear into the background.  Perhaps a little more depth of field to define the subject would improve the shot.  With the Soya bottle, you capture the subtle details on the cap, the writing on the base, and the seam.  Perhaps both, as subjects, would benefit from some narrative context?

Hard and Soft

Again, close, soft lit images, which offer the opportunity to study detail, particularly texture and form.  For me, hard works better than soft, the form of nuts, pestle, and mortar are clearly defined with a good range of texture.  With soft, there is a focus issue, with the just a small part of the subject sharp, and the larger part of the image, the negative space, soft.  Maybe the dreamy feel could be produced with a selective blur? Perhaps it’s a matter of taste, but here, I would want a greater depth of field, and perhaps an adjustment to nudge down the exposure.  There is a nice contrast between the hard shape of the spoon and the jelly.

Large and Small

Not a bad pair of images, but I wonder if there is enough contrast here?  This can be one of the difficulties working with a limited range of subjects.  I get the idea, but the images are really very similar.  This is also because essentially you are limited for compositional variation – with tabletop subjects, unless you have a cyc’, almost everything is shot from just above the subject. The details are interesting, with the variation of nuts and cherries, which are both nicely captured with a good range of detail and true colour.  I think including the bottle, or a third element would have been a good opportunity to explore the variation in composition – but of a challenge.

Liquid and Solid

With liquid, you worked hard to get the right background, and it works very well, the softness, the colour all combine to enhance the nicely lit image of glass and water.  The detail is good, the focus range spot on.  One thing you might experiment with here, is cropping – try a composition without the bottle, just the stream of water coming from the top left.  With Hard, we enter surreal territory, and I like this image for that reason.  Maybe here, the ice would be better realized against a darker plate allowing you to capture more of the textural variation.  Look at the difficulty of trying to get a balanced exposure range in a shot like this.  Also, if the tablecloth was flatter, and maybe a few additional details of a set table, there would be a stronger narrative?

Many and Few

With Many, while the detail of the subject is strong, the soft white background below feels ‘blown out’ which is a distraction.  The colour and texture in both images is well captured, but with Few, I think it’s important with such a close shot, to get a better, depth of field.  If you look at the image, the eye is constantly drawn to the front of the subject – the strawberry that is out of focus, and the tips of the fingers.

Sharp and Blunt

This is an interesting contrasting pair, with the points of the knives meeting in sharp focus.  Here, in contrast to the strawberry shot, the soft focus diagonals to the corners of the image draw the eye to the focal point in the centre.  Similarly, with Blunt, the strong composition with the pencil across the diagonal, and the focus to the bottom left, draws the eye to the focal point.  There’s also a sense of lateral movement here through the blurring, and the simplicity of the colours all combines to make a strong image.

Rough and Smooth

One of the ways to deal with depth of field issues, rather than making the technical adjustment, and maintaining a narrow the focal plain, might be to explore the shape and cropping of the image.  The problem is the amount of negative space – that which is used to balance the composition. For example, with Rough, I would narrow the image and crop out two thirds of the out of focus area.  With Smooth, the eye is drawn away from the subject towards the right of frame and the edge of the plate.  As the photographer, you have to keep asking yourself not just ‘what do I want the viewer to look at’, but ‘how do I want then to look at it’?  Again the rendition, texture, colour and form are well captured in both images.

Sweet and Sour

A good contrasting pair, literal, but does the job.  Here, I have the same issues about the focus, and the focal plain.  The large area of soft focus cake to the back of the image, a distraction, and with the lemons, the soft focus to the left, which makes me feel as though something is obscuring my vision.  Perhaps both images would benefit in terms of composition and narrative, if they were being eaten – context is worth exploring.

Black and White (combined)

Back to the coffee cup and the Soya sauce bottle.  Bit of a random composition and pairing, although it gives you the opportunity to explore the dynamic range, and to see if you can capture the details in the light and dark areas, which I think you achieve through the reflective surfaces of both objects.  Back to the tabletop angle, just above the subject, which in this situation makes the possibilities of composition that much more problematic.

So, a good set of images, and unusually, an exercise in close, still life photography, which presents its own particular set of problems, both technical and creative.  I think you’ve done some good work here and demonstrated a good technical ability in this situation.  From a creative point of view, two points to close with.  I think, even in the exercises and images for the assignments, it’s important to take each shot as if it’s an image that you would submit for exhibition – an image that speaks for itself.  Also, if you are interested in this kind of photography, much used in product advertising, I’d study the images you see and look at their composition and the context, what, in addition to the main subject, contributes to the overall picture.

assignment 1 . the submitted work

this is a copy of the work i've submitted as the first assignment of the course the art of photography on the 2nd of july 2010 :

Hi

My name is Jorge Horacio Abreu my  student number is 495902 this is my first assignment for the art of photography course, i'm sending the pictures with this file as I couldn't find a way of directly attaching my notes to the photos as I wanted. I suspect there must be a way of doing it but I simply can't find how. I will try next assignment. I introduced all picture notes in one single file describing the settings and my intentions with the name of the picture preceding it. 

The contrast pairs I have chosen were: black and white; hard and soft; large and small; liquid and solid; many and few; sharp and blunt; smooth and rough; sweet and sour. The subject chosen to demonstrate contrast in one picture was black and white. the photographs were taken in my living room with a pair of bowens studio lights the spirit gemini GM500, complete with a medium sized softbox a white reflective umbrella and a set of radio triggers. my camera is a nikon d200 and the lens used was a nikkor 105mm 2.8 vr. i also used a set of background cloths I got at hobbycraft a long time ago, a few bits and pieces from debenhams and some pots bowls and table mats i found in the house. the light sensitivity settings were set at iso 100 for maximum quality throughout the assignment. as I intended to shoot day or night with the help of speedlights. I tried on the first day of the assignment to shoot with natural light but disaster not even at iso as high as 800 if I could get sharp pictures as the speeds were dropping to as low as 1/13s this was also not helping if I used slow zoom lens. Because of the short focusing distances the apertures were automatically getting smaller and smaller. I also shoot some pictures with my phone at the local scrapyard for the stopped and moving contrast but I later decide not to select them as the cars were as too close to my liking  but the quality of the image was good under bright sunshine. I shot in camera raw for maximum flexibility and later on did some minor adjustments on photoshop. most of the time I adjust levels, contrast and then a frame,  but I am not a fan of overly processed images, The metering settings on my camera are set to pattern which gives me an average of various points in the frame.

The subjects:

- Black / white:

-The black picture is a photo of a soya sauce bottle on a light background taken at 1/250s with aperture at f/11 to make sure the subject was in focus. manual settings were used.

This photo is simple but effective for the assignment. The good points are its effectiveness and the bad is its simplicity.

-The white picture is a little cup of fine china on a little white squared saucer with a light background cloth. taken again at speeds of 1/250s with the aperture set at f/11. manual settings were used as well as manual focus.

This image is again very simple as everything is white apart from the background, which is almost white. The saucer is not part of the set as it is not round but it does the job making it a bit more unconventional. 

I don't particularly like the picture as it doesn't have movement or objectiveness. Being a subject seen almost every day it needed something special to pull the attention. Maybe a few cups in a row or forming a geometrical form. But then the main impression would be different .

- Hard / soft:

-The hard photo is a frame of nuts in a cracking bowl with a wooden board as background. i used manual settings as i needed selective sharpness and the lights can only be used up to speeds of 1/250s for this photo i used 1/160s at f/3.2 to bring a bit more attention to the nuts.

My idea was strait forward as nuts are universally known to be hard. the circular board was used to help catch the eye.

I like the photo but maybe next time i use a smaller f stop, maybe f/8 to make the board sharper.

-The soft photo is composition of a green fruit gely on a white plate with a little pink spoon on top. again I used manual settings of 1/160s f/3.2 for selective sharpness as well as manual focusing. the gely was prepared by my girlfriend on the day before, so i was shooting and eating at the same time.

I like the shot and the reason I used a shallow dept of field was to blur the image a bit giving it a dreamy fell.

-Large / small:

-The large photo is a bit of silly one i have to admit it but it looks different so i had to select it. The composition is a circle of nuts around a large glass half full on a light background. Again manual settings were used at 1/250s f/8. I came to put the nuts around the glass because I wanted to represent the size of the glass, I also tried introducing a bottle on the composition but it made it messy and unbalanced so i went for the circle.

i like the photo because of the way the light falls on the objects.

-The small photo. again, witchcraft  territory, a small glass half of coke on a light background surrounded by cherries. The photo was taken using manual settings at 1/250s f/8 for some degree of sharpness not all of it but at this point i didn't wanted to deliberately hide any part of the frame as the composition was already unusual to say the least and I didn't want it to be even more confusing.

I kind of like the photo for its simplicity and colour but i understand that the composition is pushing a bit to far.

- Liquid / solid:

- The liquid photo is a pair of hands pouring water from a bottle into a glass with a blue sky background. this photo was taken at 1/250s f/5.6 against a window i used f/5.6 to control the light fighting the shadows against the sky. I asked betty to go on top of a table close to the window and pour water into the glass with a bucket under it, as there was a spaghetti of live cables a sockets bellow it. i needed to capture a pure image and only the sky would do. I live on a second floor apartment so I had to resort to some gimmicks  to overcome common problems.

I like the photo as it conveys a sense of purity, it makes me thirsty.

- The solid photo is basically a meal of ice cubes served on a plate complete with knife and fork on a brown background. It was taken with a different lens for this one I used the nikkor 24-70mm 2.8 lens set manually at 31mm with the aperture at f/5.6 and shutter speed of 1/250s.

To be honest i should have done better with this image. i don't like the fact that the upper edge is darker due to the distance as i shot diagonally at around a 90 degree angle, i should i shot it at 180 degree angle. I could have also paid more attention to the finger marks on the cutlery. But I only realised this at the time of writing now i'm gonna have to leave it for next time.

-Many / Few

- The many frame is a pair of hands holding a bunch of strawberries in front of a white background. this image was taken using manual settings at 1/250 as usual when working with speedlights unless I need to do some crazy stuff, which i haven't tried yet. the aperture was set at f/3.0. the frame is offering the fruit. I like the harmony in between the colours, and way the softness blends in the elements.

-The Few photo is again a pair of hands showing 3 strawberries in portrait mode on a white background. it was taken on manual mode at 1/250s f/3.0. I tried a different background but i just didn't give the overall celestial fell to the image so I opted for the white again. I like the photo as it somehow reminds me of an angel hands.

-Sharp / blunt :

- The sharp image is a photo of two diagonal sharp knives pointing face to face on a black and grey reflective surface. this image was taken with manual settings at 1/250s f/3.2. i tried  a lot of ideas for this theme but didn't like any, this was by far the most difficult pair of contrasts and the one i shot most useless frames i'm still not happy with the end result maybe I should have used some tomato ketchup and worked on a stabbing shot, i would need to go to the supermarket though, as we don't use tomato ketchup at home. or mayo for the record.

Honestly I think this frame is nothing exciting but it does the trick for now 

-The blunt image is a portrait  frame of a yellow pencil over a light background. the manual settings for this image were set at 1/250s with the aperture at f/3.3. This image was particularly hard to come by as i couldn't find a way of conveying the idea of blunt. it was so difficult that i didn't shot a sharp pencil as the contrast as it would be difficult to the spectator to get the meaning if not instructed. i even bought a little kids pink cutlery set. but it didn't work,  I kept the set though. the image is kind of ok but at close inspection looks a bit soft on the tip of the pencil.

- Smooth / rough :

- The rough frame is a portrait mode shot of a light brown door mat. To take this image I used a combination of manual focus and manual settings at 1/250s shutter and f/3.2 aperture. I also used a shallow dept of field here to create an image close to the abstract, drawing the attention to the detail of the fabric where the focus is set. The image is ok but I doubt i would hang an enlargement of it in my living room . Maybe in the corridor. Someone may even tell me to put it in the little room. But I wouldn't go that far, This to say that I don't know what to think of this image.

-The smooth photo is a frame of a red shiny cardboard plate as background with a row of four cherries on top . The image was taken on manual mode with the shutter set at 1/250s and the aperture at  f/3.0. the shot tries to emphasize the smoothness of the cherries and the plate. I like the image but probably the cloth under the plate should have been white to emphasize the rest of the elements and balance the frame.

-Sweet / sour :

-The sour image is a shot of a lemon cut in half on top of a white plate with a light green background. The image was taken using manual settings at shutter speeds of 1/125s and aperture at f/3.2. My idea was to give an impression of freshness and the acidity of the lemon, without giving excessive visual detail apart of the area of sharpness. Leaving the observer with no choice but to work is imagination. I like the shot but maybe the lemon halves are too big in the frame. i probably should have increased my distance a little. But in doing this the area in focus would increase as well.

- The sweet image is a frame of a brown ceramic bowl on a glossy red cardboard plate with a doughnut on top. the image as usual was shot in manual mode with the shutter speed set at 1/125s and the aperture set at f/3.2 as i couldn't get any lower at this focusing distance despite nikon claiming it to be a f/2.8 throughout. But that is not the issue here.

I like the image as the red plate complements with the brown bowl and the doughnut to give a really suggestive image. I find that food particularly bakery products benefit from using shallow dept of field to a great extent. I am pleased with the image but the manual focusing could have been better. the doughnut  is slightly soft on the edge where it supposed to be pin sharp. I'll try harder next time.

- The contrasting pair: black / white

- This image consists of a little black bottle and a white cup of coffee with a  saucer on a light cloth background.  the image was taken using manual mode with the aperture set at f/11 and the shutter at 1/250s. I used a medium aperture in order to have the white elements well lit and white without blowing the highlights beyond repair as the speedlights emit a lot of light ultimately resulting in a lot of reflections specially on white objects. 

My idea is as simple as possible. a black bottle on a white background with a white cup of coffee "et voila" black and white contrasting in a photo.

the photo is ok nothing extraordinary .

 The assignment itself is supposed to be easy, but i find that to make a good photo which contrasts with a separate one demands a lot more effort as often they don't make much sense on its own.

    Attentively 

 Jorge Horacio Abreu