The aperture for a lens is the size of the gap allowing light in on the photograph. A lower aperture means a bigger shutter size giving the effect of an increased blur in the depth of field. A higher aperture is a small shutter size resulting in a more precised and detailed photograph in total.
In my experiment I adjusted the aperture from f5, f10, f15, f20, f25 and f30. I demonstrated how the depth of field is affected by the size of the shutter size resulting in a more leveled style of blurriness behind the person. By using this technique, we can create a more personnel and intimate style of photograph where we focus on the desired point easier.
The Brainstorms below show my initial thoughts and ideas about the Street Photography shoot. It contains things such as what type of people I will be trying to capture, old people,babies. It also contains different groups like Tourists or Buskers. All types of people that we are likely to see in Town.
The brainstorms also contain the different locations that I will be taking the photos in. This helps me to plan before hand so that I don’t waste time during the photo shoot. The different type of places includes the Market, or along the Main street. I’ve also noted some techniques that I could use. Such as, Using reflections and the different angles.
During my Shoot, I will also be taking influence, and using ideas from other Photographers. The main photographer that I will be using is Christophe Debon. Like him, I will be trying to capture a vast amount of Characters and interesting people. Christophe mainly uses old people in his images. All his photos are very dreamlike, and therefore I will be trying to copy his technique. As well as Christophe Debon, I will also be taking inspiration form Bruce Gilden and Trente Parke.
In today’s lesson, we looked into something called ‘an uncertain walk’. We listed some groups and some people that we may come across on our photoshoot tomorrow in the market in town. We also thought of whereabouts we are going to take our photographs and at what angles or what techniques we are going to use to capture our images. Finally, we named our inspirations and what photographers are going to influence how and why we take pictures. The page I’ve displayed above is essentially a plan of action to help us get the best out of the afternoon.
. . . a simple invitation to walk within a marked boundary . . . without any definite plans other than walking and immersing ourselves in this encounter and experience. (page 47)
Essentially, we would like you think about the walk to town before we go, so therefore we want you to make some planning posts before your trip. We also want you to make an evaluation post at the end of the week.
Planning
If you look at page 38 you can see how ‘groups nominate who, what and where they wanted to explore‘ and on page 39 the group came up with a number of themes for their exploration.
As such, we would like you to think about some themes that you could explore on your walk, think about the trip as a chance to capture people in the ‘wild’ in their natural habitat, therefore answer these questions:
what do people do in the ‘wild’?
what does this activity tell us about society, humanity and individuals?
As Sarah writes on page 51 “we’re starting to use the city and what people are doing in it as a probe to enable us to speculate”
Shoot
For the actual shoot we want you to take photos in the style of environmental portraiture or street photography. From your earlier research and analysis you should be able to identify some key characteristics, but we would definitely suggest that you
try to capture images and moments around your set theme (street photography)
try to talk to people before you take their image so that you can a good frame and a sense of intimacy (environmental portraiture)
you avoid ‘back of the head shot’, shots from too far away, shots that don’t have people in them, shots that don’t have permission or consent, shots that create a risk or are inappropriate (see policy above for guidance and advice)
Evaluation
When you have uploaded all of your images (in a contact sheets) please select 3-5 of your favourite images and provide some analysis that helps us to understand why you like them the best. We will be looking to print out and mount the best 2 (or 3) photos, so you will need to upload them to Mdrive>depts>photography>students>image transfer>PRINTING and we will arrange for them to be printed over 1/2 term.
We would also like you to provide a creative description of your walk, similar to Soile’s page43, Ann’s page 44 and David’s page 45, so have a look at them before you go.
Extension
As an extension you could look at the concept of :
Original ImageEdit – Black and White / Crop / Levels / Curves / Brightness and Contrast
Original ImageEdit – Crop / Brightness and Contrast / Vibrance / Curves / Saturation
Original ImageEdit – Crop / Black and White / Brightness and Contrast / Levels / Curves
