23. Selective processing and prominence

The ability of modern image processing software to enable selective dodging and burning in a photograph continues to impress me and in particular the inclusion of these capabilities within my chosen workflow tool, Lightroom, has added significant creative options to how I process photographs.  For this exercise I have limited the processing to use of the adjustment brush in Lightroom, in fact I almost never use Photoshop now for anything other than printing.

The image I have selected was one taken during the development of Assignment 3, an image of a platform in a dark subway station

The target individual is the man in the center standing in the middle of the platform.  I created a virtual copy of this image and then painted a mask onto the figure using a hard edges brush.  I then created two further virtual copies and raised the exposure of the first mask by half a stop and lowered the second by the same amount to create the following two images

I found that going much more than half a stop created an artificial look to the image.  The white T-shirt on the man in the right of the frame was rather distracting, so a second application of the brush and a much greater decrease in exposure brought me to the final version, where the man in center frame is brought forward and the man in the background pushed back

So that was my final exercise.  When I first received the materials for this course, I was struck by the relative lack of content in comparison to TAOP, however, having now completed the exercises I do realize that this has allowed me to bring much more focus onto the assignments, but provided enough learning points to continue to build my skill set.  Well balanced!!!!

22. Adjusting the balance between person and space

First task for this exercise was to find a definable space that would fill and empty with people.  I have selected an underpass that connects multiple streets with a subway station.  The first image in the sequence shows the space almost empty of people, just a few figures in the background:

Once people enter the frame the balance of attention moves from the background to the foreground as we attempt to follow the flow of people through the image.  This was hand held and so the framing alters a little with each shot

With the final shot the space nearly empties again, in fact it never became completely empty while I was there

This was an odd exercise, not quite sure what the learning was, I instinctively follow people into and out of the viewfinder shooting at different times to manage where people reside in the frame.  How a space fills with people is very important, but perhaps something we should already understand after doing assignment 3.  Sorry, for the grump, too much blogging today, time to stop and go take more photographs.

21. Making figure anonymous

Anonymity simply calls for a figure to be unrecognizable as an individual, a photograph the back of someones head would render them completely anonymous (well in most cases).  This exercise, however, is looking for people to support the structure of the photograph without dominating.  Ideally the people in the frame should help to tell the story.  

My first image is a story telling image.  A woman in a seventies wedding dress speaks to a man in a badly fitting tuxedo, both standing opposite a traditional looking southern German church.  The lack of their faces in the frame keeps attention on the church and the tableau in the image.  Assumption is that they are taking a break from a service or waiting to go in, why are they here.  Reality is that they are actors in a drama that is using the church and they are enjoying a cigarette break.  The actress hid her face when I raised the camera deliberately rendering herself anonymous and unintentionally helping my scheme.

My second image is a road bridge over the the river Isar.  The composition is dominated by the ongoing sequence of lines running across the frame, tram lines, road markings, bridge structure, and the overhead electrical cables for the trams.  I could have taken better care to align the shot to keep things more square to the frame.  However the point of the image is the inclusion of the two cyclists crossing the bridge, adding interest and some movement into what would otherwise be a very static frame:

Image 3 contains two different ways of hiding identity, the person on the left is walking away from the camera and is slightly blurred, whereas the people in center frame are silhouetted and far away, adding human presence and scale to the building:

My fourth and the last image requested by the text asks uses motion blur to imply human activity without properly resolving it. Not all figures in the frame are blurred by the 1/8s shutter speed, but are otherwise made anonymous by the low light of this early evening scene - part of the work up for Assignment 4.

Whilst appreciating that the brief asked for 2-4 images, I want to add these as an addendum.  Another way to make a figure anonymous is to heavily over expose them.  This rarely works but is an interesting technique.  The critical element is to show enough detail in the foreground or background to contain a degree of placement.  These two images are taken from within a large underground passage looking out into the light.  I have exposed for the light reflecting from the floor in the foreground and then raised the camera to shoot people entering and leaving the passageway:

20. Busy Traffic

The primary environment in which I have been working recently within in which I could observe the surge of crowds of people are underground railway stations.

The station I chose was Muenchner Freiheit, already featured as part of my submission for assignment 3.  A subway station is only crowded by interval.  Normally the station is quiet with a few people waiting for a train

But when a train arrives things begin to happen:

Although in the above case only a few people were waiting for this train, but there can be quite a crowd

I wanted a sequence that showed the formation and dynamic of a crowded station.  The following photographs show a train arriving and the people on the platform reacting to that moment.  To takes thee pictures I positioned myself on an escalator shooting down as the people came off the train and headed for the exit:

At other times the station was always busy and small groups would converge as and when trains appeared:

Within the subway station all of the images were taken using either 24 or 17mm focal lengths, an alternate (and much older) photographic effect is to use a 200mm telephoto, which places the photographer directly into the crowd:

I also experimented with crowds of people shopping, but this was more of a general drift of people, it lacked the dynamic surges that occurred within the subway station, but they have a charm as well:

Bored with shopping!

Hang on to Mummy!

German style stag do, the boys were the leather trousers and the groom to be gets the Dirndl.  It is traditional in Germany to sell small objects, drinks, chocolate to passers by to raise funds for the drinking.  It is all very good natured and quite fun:

Another approach to crowds is to hold the camera low and change the perspective:

19. A single figure small

After the long haul of shooting and pulling together assignment 3 it is quite refreshing to be working once more on the simple pleasure of an exercise.  To stop myself from going mad whilst hunting down suitable buildings/space I have been working in parallel on capturing images that would fit into the final series of exercises.  Every time I spot a lonely person I photograph them, or when confronted by a large crowd out comes the camera.

Before doing any new photography, the first thing I did was to look back at my previous work for the AoP course.  Prior to starting the course I would consciously avoid putting people into a picture wanting to capture the object and not the moment.  I realized about a year ago that people add scale, movement, and a sense of place to photographs and so nowadays almost all of my shots include people.  The following are 3 images created as part of Assignment 3 in AoP "Your Neighbourhood".  I did not use any of them, however, for each of these landscapes I very deliberately waited until there was a single figure in the frame.  The third photograph was taken at the same time as the photograph I have included in the header to this blog:

The first and third are pretty much the same vantage point, but taken about 3 months apart.  In both cases the figure in the frame adds scale and some movement.  It also leaves a feeling of emptiness in the landscape.  The second image uses the person as a point of colour in an otherwise very flat image.  He is not very sharp, but is still clearly a person.

More recently I have used the presence of a person to add either a point or a dimension to some of the images I worked on for assignment 3.  The first photograph is a little girl walking up the immense staircase in the Brandhorst Museum, the second is a man emerging from the Neue Pinakothek museum of 19th century art.

As with the man wearing a red coat in the second image, a jogger can add a small splash of colour into an image.  In this case the both people are running out of the frame, their faces hidden, they are anonymous.

Another way to bring attention to a person is if they are caught by the light in an otherwise shady area as this man is reading his paper and enjoying the first beer of the day.  Without the figure the photograph would have limited interest, although even with it I admit it is a poor image.

This gentleman was enjoying a spot in the sun, the brightness is too high for an effective photograph.

 This photograph works far better, the curve of the viewing gallery on the Olympic Tower guides the eye around the photograph to the lone woman looking out over the city

Another grab shot of a man heading home from work at the end of the day.  technically there are several people in this image but the eye is drawn to him as he occupies the point of perspective in the frame

The use of a single small figure in a frame can really add to an otherwise static composition.  However, finding that single person is not always so easy and this is where our friend "Mr Spot Removal" comes in handy, indeed here he is really "Mr Person Removal".  I rejected the following image for this exercise as it had two figures small in the foreground.  The child feeding the ducks is pleasant, but the woman closer to the camera is doing something odd and looks out of place.  I was shocked at how effective the spot removal was.  I applied a single use of the same tool that I would under normal circumstances apply to removing sensor dust spots from images.

In a similar vein I decided to experiment with this image of a young couple enjoying the sun.

As I only wanted one person, spot removal quickly solved that problem

However, she is not where I want her in the frame, so second more careful use of the spot removal tool.  It is possible in Lightroom to move the point from which the fill part of the spot is taken, all I did was remove a non-existent spot from the bottom left of the image and use the woman as the fill.

With the knowledge that I have done this, the changes can be seen, otherwise you would never know.  At full resolution and blown up to 100% it is possible to see artifacts of the copy, but you have to look very closely and even then it is not obvious.  The question of photographic truth has long since been answered, however, we are now entering a very different world in which quite sophisticated image manipulation become easy.  I am not surprised at the advent of use once memory cards that prevent any image manipulation after shutter release - use of photographs in evidence must otherwise be truly dangerous.

On the other hand the possibilities for an artist to use this technology creatively are immense!

18. How space changes with light

In an urban environment, such an exercise can be quite difficult to complete as there are few buildings tall enough to actually capture the way that light changes during the day.  Most accessible space is in shade from other buildings during much of the day.  This is compounded by the fact that frequently rooms are only illuminated from a single direction, corner rooms are rare and much prized.

For this activity I needed a building that was accessible at a variety of times of day and easily accessible.  I decided to go with two different locations, the Theatine Church and my home office/work area.  Neither presents an ideal choice, my room has a single East facing window, whilst the church is 30 minutes away by foot/subway.  First of all my office, here I had arbitrary access and could create the following sequence of images during the day.  I used my Canon G11 located in a fixed position on a bookcase facing my workstations. This sequence also reveals the fact that I am a technophile, the left hand monitor is attached to my office computer, whilst the right two constitute my digital darkroom and where I am sitting writing this document.

At the earliest time of day, 6:15am the light is soft and the room dimly but more evenly lit.  As the day goes on the room gets far brighter with quite a harsh white light.  I use blinds most of the time.  What is curious is that the intensity and strength does not drop very much as the sun crosses from East to West, the reason being that opposite my room, about 8m away is an apartment building painted bright white which reflects and maintains the intensity of the sun.  It is only after around 6pm that the light starts to soften and the camera struggles with the exposure.  By 9pm the light is almost gone outside and all that can be seen is the faint glow of various electronic devices.

The Theatine Church offered better potential, my first image shows the church situated on the West side of Odeons Platz and taken some months ago in Winter:

The church is illuminated by a gallery of windows high up towards the roof of the main chapel and  is orientated in an East-West line.  I was hoping that as the Sun moved around the sky the light inside the church would reflect this.  Each photograph is taken from the same vantage point and with as near as I can make it the same framing.  In each of the following images taken inside the church I have matrix metered and not enhanced the images in any way in post processing:

At 7am in the morning the Sun is directly behind me and the church is filled with light as the Sun is able to penetrate into the far distance.

By 9:40 the sun had climbed higher and the quality of light has changed with deeper shadows and all of the light being at the top of the church - the camera exposure is dominated by the bright light in the center

After lunchtime at 1:40pm the light is now towards the South and to the left of this image.  The height of the Sun is again limiting the amount of light entering the building

By early evening at 5:33pm the sun is falling and is now shining very distinctly from the West and thus the far end from me.  Once again the church is brighter and more evenly lit.  This is happening because all interior surfaces are painted white and when the Sun is low enough the Windows let in more light which is then diffusely reflected by the interior surfaces.  When the sun is higher less light penetrates and we get a small number of very bright spots.

The light changes are very subtle, because the light enters the building very high and so at ground level most light has been repeatedly reflected, however, it is clear that the best photographs will be taken early or late in the day, unless deep shadow is the goal.  I did return later, however, the church was locked after 6pm.

During my day taking photographs I also looked at how the light in the church affected other parts of the building.  First of all the windows in the dome at 7am show how the sun is coming through the windows and reflecting off the inner surfaces:

At around the same time the play of light on the walls of the church show how the light is entering through high windows

Later in the day and from a different angle the light is much more diffuse (5:30pm)

At the same time the opposite wall was enjoying good modeling light

Away from the center of the church the arched walkways at the sides needed artificial lighting all day long (1:30pm)

However, this might have been part of the design to ensure that the small chapels and monuments to the side could be candle lit

or be really dark enough for the votive candles to make an impression.  These photos taken at 1:30pm would have been washed out if this was not a dark area of the church

My final observation from this days shooting is completely at odds with the grandeur and solemnity of the church.  In 1914 the following photograph was made:

Adolf Hitler celebrates the beginning of World War 1, one of the first ever photographs of Hitler in Munich.  For comparison today

Not quite the same angle, but a very different scene, peaceful, quiet and without the horror.  My final photograph is something Adolf would never have approved of, a small fruit and vedge stand on Odeons Platz, taken from just in front of the church (it is the red colour in the above image):

Munich is a city of many contrasts with a history that plumbed the depths of evil and scaled the heights of humanity - today it is a beautiful cosmopolitan city, a great playground for a student photographer.