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AO3 Record Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Homework, Unit 1 Abstract

Week 4 | Homework Task # 4

September 25, 2018 Jamie Cole Leave a comment

Homework 4 | Practical / photoshoot

Due in WEDNESDAY 3RD OCTOBER (Week 5)

Minimum Expected frames/ exposures = 150-200 images

Choose from a range of camera skills that you have learned in Week 3 and 4 to complete a new photo-shoot…

We want to see that you can explore and extend your handling of

exposure settings
focus control
depth of field

INSPIRATION >>> choose from the following to inspire your ideas.Look carefully at the examples and aim to produce similar images that work well as a group…together.

1. Ralph Eugene Meatyard:
‘No Focus’

Meatyard made his living as an optician. He was a member of the Lexington Camera Club and pursued his passion for photography outside the mainstream. He experimented with various strategies including multiple exposures, motion blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. Two of his series are particularly concerned with focus and depth of field, both stretching the expressive potential of photography, film and cameras when looking within the ordinary world.

‘Zen Twigs’

2. Saul Leiter

Leiter was foremost a painter who discovered the possibilities of colour photography. He created an extraordinary body of work, beginning in the 1940s. His images explore colour harmonies and often exploit unusual framing devices – shop signs, umbrellas, curtains, car doors, windows dripping with condensation – to create abstracted compositions of everyday street life in the city. Leiter was fond of using long lenses, partly so that he could remain unobserved, but also so that he could compress space, juxtaposing objects and people in unusual ways. Many of his images use negative space, with large out of focus areas, drawing our eye to a particular detail or splash of colour.

“When we do not know why the photographer has taken a picture and when we do not know why we are looking at it, all of a sudden we discover something that we start seeing. I like this confusion.”
— Saul Leiter

3. Uta Barth

Uta Barth describes herself as an artist who works primarily with photographs. She is interested in drawing attention to the viewer’s perception and separating the image from the thing depicted. Her images can appear quite abstract, partly through the use of deliberately blurred information. In this film she describes her interest in “light, perception and this visual acuity to the mundane, fleeting, ephemeral, everyday kind of information.”

Throughout the past two decades, Uta Barth has made visual perception the subject of her work. Regarded for her “empty” images that border on painterly abstraction, the artist carefully renders blurred backgrounds, cropped frames and the natural qualities of light to capture incidental and fleeting moments, those which exist almost exclusively within our periphery. With a deliberate disregard for both the conventional photographic subject and point-and-shoot role of the camera, Barth’s work delicately deconstructs conventions of visual representation by calling our attention to the limits of the human eye.
— Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

You must:

Research the work of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Saul Leiter and Uta Barth. How have they experimented with focus and depth of field in their work? Choose specific images to comment on in detail. You could also find other photographers who are interested in experimenting with focus effects.
Explore the effects of changing the aperture settings on your camera to alter depth of field. You could illustrate this with a series of photos of the same subject shot with different aperture settings.
Create a series of deliberately out of focus images. Consider the degree of abstraction in the final image. How out of focus are the subjects and are they still recognisable? Experiment with colour and black and white. REMEMBER TO USE MANUAL FOCUS AND THE INFINITY SETTING (MAKING THE IMAGE OUT OF FOCUS)
Create a series of images which explore dramatic depth of field (selective focus). Experiment with switching between foreground, middle ground and background focus. Remember, you will need to use a wide aperture (small number e.g. f2.8) and/or a longer lens for this. Remember to share all of the images you make (including those that you deem failures) in a gallery/contact sheet.
Curate your images into different groupings (see below). Experiment with editing the images in each set differently. Give each set a title and write a short evaluation explaining your editorial decisions.

Other inspirations

Examples of student work:

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Unit 1 Abstract

Albert Renger-Patzsch – Edits

September 25, 2018 Nathan H 1 Comment

For these edits I wanted to play on the distorted and dark realism effect that Patzsch used for ‘The World is Beautiful’ series. (New Objectivity). Due to the fact I was following this idea, I did not want to do any extreme edits as I believe it would portray realism in the way Patzsch did. The edits I produced where of the top photographs from the photo shoot which I conducted based on the research made about Patzsch. For most of them I adjusted the levels and curves and lowered the saturation enough for it to be deemed black and white but still show a hint of colour. For some other edits I decided to adjust the hue in order for more colours to stand out, based on the colours within the photograph, on the images I decided to leave in colour.

I believe that my final outcomes of this research successful, as I have managed to ensure my editing matched the new objectivity idea, but still ensured that the photograph looks good. I managed to edit the photographs to allow their formal elements stand out more, making them more obvious to viewers. Moreover, I ensured the focal points of the images stood out clearly.

For my first edit I decided to adjust the levels and curves making the photograph darker than usual. I then lowered the saturation of the photograph, which has allowed different tonal regions to stand out. It has also allowed us to see where the natural source of lighting is coming from, which helps direct the viewers eyes around the frame of the photograph. This image also clearly represents the formal element of repetition and shape through the windows that are raised. Moreover, I used the technique leading lines to help guide the viewers eyes around the frame of the photograph. I really like how this edit has turned out as it matches the criteria of new objectivity.

This next edit I decided to level the photograph, allowing the sharpness be clear which has allowed the detail of the subject to be visible. I then lowered the saturation but still allowed a hint of colour to seek through, making it more stimulating for viewers to look at. This image was taken at a worms eye view which allows us to see the formal elements of shape and line which is presented through the lions.

My next edit I decided to keep simple, which has allowed the simplistic overall effect to be created. I decided to level the image to allow it to seem darker than usual which has allowed the black shadows to really stand out, as well as the colours of the shadows which are casted on the wall. The formal element of line and repetition is clearly presented in the photograph, through the rectangular shadows on the wall.

For this edit I decided to keep it simple like the previous one. I levelled the photograph to make it lighter than usual, which has allowed the cables through the tunnel to be visible. It has also added noise and vibrance to the photograph which has allowed a sense of texture to be presented as well. The cables are used to direct the viewers eyes around the frame of the photograph, leading lines, and created mystery as we wonder what is on the other side of the tunnel.

In this edit I started by adjusting the levels and the curves which has allowed the texture of inside the toaster to be presented. It has also helped to showcase the different tonal areas, making it more interesting for viewers to look at. I then turned down the saturation, but ensured the rusted metal rectangles where still in colour. Doing this has helped the context of the image to be presented, allowing viewers to have more of an understanding of where this image was taken. The formal element of line, shape and texture has been presented allowing this image to match the formal elements Patzsch’s work showed.

In my penultimat edit I decided to level the image, to make the foreground completely black only allowing the background to be visible. I attempted to use the technique of framing, which has allowed the subject of the image to be captured. I kept the image in colour as I felt it allowed the background to really stand out compared to the black frame work. The formal element of shape is presented through the frame which is capturing the semi-focused background.

In my final edit I wanted to showcase this empty area, with a simplistic edit to add to the empty effect. For this I adjusted the levels and curves allowing the photograph to be naturally darker, which has allowed the light to stand out. I then adjusted the hue to allow the yellow to stand out more. Moreover, I adjusted the vibrance to create a bit of noise within the photograph but not enough to change the effect of the image. The formal elements of space and shape are clearly presented in the image.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, Unit 1 Abstract

Contact Sheet Research and Experimentation

September 25, 2018 Emily C Leave a comment

A contact sheet was originally a piece of photographic paper, on which all negatives from a photo shoot would be contact-printed. This would give both the photographer and potential buyers of the photograph, a chance to see the photographs printed before they were published in full size and full resolution.

The above image is an example of a contact sheet, containing all of the negatives from a particular photo shoot. Contact sheets were once necessary to see the photograph before the image was printed properly, as it gave a less expensive, smaller sample, that the photographer could use to chose their best photos from the shoot.

The development of digital cameras led to contact sheets becoming less essential, as photos can now be viewed on the screen of a lot of cameras. However, contact sheets are still used in many instances where a photographer wants to be able to provide a potential buyer with a physical copy of the photographs, and can also be useful when a photographer is trying to build an idea of which photographs they do and do not want to use.

A contact sheet can be edited to make the photographers selections more obvious, and to shot their thought process when deciding on their best photos. The above image shows the selection process of the photographer, as they have clearly used different colour to indicate different selections and choices. Unfortunately a key hasn’t been provided, and so the different colours and shapes can’t be differentiated.

Some contact sheets can show multiple selections, as well as images that the photographer doesn’t want to work with (which are normally crossed out). More than one image can be processed into the editing phase, before a final selection is made.

Above is an example of a contact sheet I created for my Paper Project, in which I took images from the photo shoot I completed, and used the software Adobe Bridge to create a contact sheet in Photoshop. From there, I edited the images using different colours and shapes to show my thought process, and I clearly stated which photographs i would be most likely to use in my final selection.

By uploading the photos taken in the photo shoot to Adobe Bridge, I then went to the Tools option, and the Photoshop option. After I selected Contact Sheet 2, a contact sheet was automatically created in Photoshop, and I was then able to edit my selections. The above image is an example of another contact sheet I created for my Camera Lens Experimentation.

AO2 Explore Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 1 Abstract

Albert Renger- Patzsch

September 25, 2018 Niah D Leave a comment

Albert Renger- Patzsch

Image result for Albert Renger- Patzsch

Albert Renger- Patzch was a German photographer associated with the New Objectivity. Renger-Patzsch was born in Würzburg and began making photographs by age twelve. After military service in the First World War he studied chemistry at Dresden Technical College.

In its sharply focused and matter-of-fact style his work exemplifies the aesthetic of The New Objectivity that flourished in the arts in Germany during the Wiemar Republic. Like Edward Weston in the United States, Renger-Patzsch believed that the value of photography was in its ability to reproduce the texture of reality, and to represent the essence of an object.

I tried to capture the essence of his work and I think I got the best result I could get. I took the photos with my DLSR Canon Camera on the close up setting. Most of my photos were landscape but a few were portraits. Image result for Albert Renger- Patzsch

For my response to Albert’s photos I tried to take 100 photos, but only managed around 80 photos. Even though Albert’s photos were in black and white, I have a mixture of black and white and coloured photos edited photos.

Contact Sheets

Top Favourite Photos (Edited)

Edited all on Photoshop

I chose to edit this photo because I really liked how the table had the unique and colourful marble in it. I decided to make the marble pop by making the wood and chairs black and white. I really like how this photo turned out and I will try this style of editing again.

For this next photo I decided to make it more dull and dark as appose to it’s original bright photo. I played with the levels, contrast and saturation to achieve this photo. I’m really happy with how this turned out and I really like the difference of the original photo to the edited photo.

For this photo I decided to use levels, contrast, colour balance and photo filter to achieve this look. I really like how the light is almost shining into the room. I also like the contrast of the wooden windows and glass windows, it gives it a really nice look. I think I edited this photo very well.

This next photo I used the contrast and exposure setting a lot. My vision was to make the sky brighter than the stairs, and I really like how I achieved this look. I think I got the overall idea of what I wanted for this photo, and it translates very well in the edited final picture.

For this next photo I used exposure, contrast and levels to get this final picture. I really like how the light is centered onto the middle of the keyboard. I think I edited this picture well and will try to use this style of editing in future projects.

For this last photo I used photo filter, gradient, contrast and exposure. I’m really pleased with how this turned out. The way I edited it gives it a retro and vintage look to it which I personally really enjoy. I hope to also use the style of editing in future projects.

Evaluation

Overall I think a did a good job at recreating Albert Renger- Patzsch style of photography. I really enjoyed doing this project as it gave me inspiration and ideas for future photo shoots and projects. I hope to keep achieving photos that I like and to improve with my camera and photography skills. I would also like to explore more ideas with different photographers and look at work that isn’t my preferred style because I would like to expand my ideas and see other styles from my own.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 1 Abstract

Response to Albert Renger-Patzsch

September 25, 2018 Kristin F Leave a comment

My response to Albert Renger-Patzsch:

These are the best images I have taken after looking at how Albert Renger-Patzsch takes his images. I have taken images from weird angles and usually quite close up to make these images. I have then taken the best ones I took into photoshop and have made them black and white as Albert Renger-Patzsch always did his work in black and white. I have also cropped and adjusted the exposure settings on a few of these images to create contrast and to make the texture stand out.

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WEEK 3- ALBERT RENGER- PATZSCH

September 25, 2018 Jasmine L 1 Comment

Albert Renger- Patzsch

Albert Renger- Patzsch was born in June 1897 and was a German photographer who was well known for being involved in the “Neue Sachlichkeit” moment also known as the new objectivity. Albert started doing photography at the age of twelve and by the early 1920s he worked as a press photographer in Chicago. Albert was always very focused on photography which ended up him with him making his best known book ‘ The world is beautiful’. The book contains one hundred photos which are in natural forms which reveal beautiful patterns throughout each photograph. This book was so famous that it made Albert as one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century.

Albert also believed that the value of photography was in its ability to reproduce reality and to represent the spirit of the object.

All of Alberts pictures were taken of naturalistic objects which all were edited with a very dark black and white effect which added a lot of tone and texture to his pictures. He tended to take his pictures very up close to his focus and therefore did not contain much of the background which made him unique from other photographers in his time. Albert also liked to take pictures of plants and i noticed there was a clear repetition of plants in his work. However, he did also take pictures of everyday objects.

There were a number of similar photographers in Alberta time which made it quite competitive. These photographers being Karl Blossfeldt, Laszlo Moholy- Nagy, August Sander and Helmar Lerski. The photographers didn’t have any public rivalry throughout their careers but it is suspected.

After Alberts career there were a number of photographers who ended up producing work which was very similar to Albert’s. Some of these photographers being Martin Parr, William Eggleston, Keld Helmer Petersen and Peter Fraser.

Albert tended to take a lot of nature pictures, this image being one of them. This photograph is aimed specifically towards the flower which shows nature because of the flower included, however the black background does not as it makes the image seem artificial. The image has been taken from very close up which allows the audience to be able to see every detail of the image ie. the small black dots on the flower which are pollen, as well as the vertical lines on the flower.

This picture taken by Albert in his late career is a very detailed and textural photograph. I think that the organic photo has a lot of tone to it due to the lighting with the black and white edit. The snakes pattern skin is very pleasing to the eye as there is a lot of depth in the middle of the snakes scales which adds a lot of detail.

I think that the fact the photograph has been cropped or framed to just include the snakes head and part of the tail is a very good idea as it is very intriguing to look at and makes the picture unique.

Albert Renger- Patzsch Gallery pictures

Evaluating his work

After evaluating Alberts work i have a clear idea of his thoughts and have used this images to take inspiration when taking my own photos. I have noticed all Alberts pictures are very neat and aren’t over complicated, he tends to focus on one object in the picture. I also noticed his work contains a lot of reflections from glass which i think is very clever and is something i would like to try when taking my photographs.

Planning my shoot

In order for my images are successful, I am going to make my images very neat, and show lots of reflections in each image which has been inspired by Albert. Most my images will be taken with the depth of field on the subject of the image ( main focus).

Contact sheets

Editing my best images

The image was taken in Manual focus with no flash, this being because i wanted the reflection on the spoon to be viable. The image was also taken very zoomed in and the subject of the picture is in the Rule of Thirds. The image is slightly under exposed due to the fast shutter speed and the location which i took this picture having artificial lighting. There is also a depth of field in this image which we can tell from the blurred background and the spoon being fully focused.

I really like this final image as i think the lighting of the image is very complimentary due to it enhancing the reflections and the lighter points in the image. The black and white effect also adds tone and texture to the picture, as well as the image being taken in 3D. There was no cropping of this picture as i quite liked the fact that you could see a small part of a humans thumb as it is quite unique and realistic.

This image was taken in an artificial lighting area and with a manual focus setting, no flash. I took this image zoomed in as i wanted the water droplets on the knifes to be the focus of the image, however this wasn’t as successful as i had hoped. I like how i have edited this image as i found that the overall image appears to look like it has a lot more depth which helps to add tone and texture to the photograph. I also really like the arrangement of the knifes as they are all facing the same direction but are still appear to look very complicated.

This manual focus image was taken with no flash and under artificial lighting . This image is fully in focus in order to capture the whole display ( no depth of field). This image has come out slighting under exposed due to the artificial light it was taken under, as well as the shutter speed being very quick.

I really like the editing of this image as there is a lot of different tone in the image due to the lighting. I think this also adds depth to the image and make sit a lot more interesting to look at.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Component 2 ESA, Unit 1 Abstract

Albert Renger-Patzsch

September 25, 2018 Kristiana A Leave a comment

Albert Renger-Patzsch

Albert Renger-Patzsch, born on June 22, 1897 was a German photographer who was heavily associated with the New Objectivity. Renger-Patzsch was born in Würzburg, Germany, and began taking photographs by the age of twelve. After military service in the First World War he studied chemistry at Dresden Technical College. In the early 1920s he worked as a press photographer for the Chicago Tribune before becoming a freelancer. In 1925, publishing a book, the choir stalls of Cappenberg. He had his first museum exhibition in 1927.

A second book followed in 1928, Die Welt ist schön (The World is Beautiful). This, his best-known book, is a collection of one hundred of his photographs in which natural forms, industrial subjects and mass-produced objects are presented with the clarity of scientific illustrations, the intent being to create beautiful photographs out of everyday items. The book’s title was chosen by his publisher; Renger-Patzsch’s preferred title for the collection was Die Dinge.

In its sharply focused on the newly emerging style of the time, The New Objectivity that flourished in the arts in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Like Edward Weston in the United States, Renger-Patzsch believed that the value of photography was in being able to capture the world in a way which displays all the textures and feelings that come along with it, and to represent the essence of an object. He wrote: “The secret of a good photograph—which, like a work of art, can have aesthetic qualities—is its realism … Let us therefore leave art to artists and endeavour to create, with the means peculiar to photography and without borrowing from art, photographs which will last because of their photographic qualities.”

Patzsch preferred to photograph items over people, focusing mainly on very ordinary everyday items but captured in a way which makes them extraordinary. A lot of his work also focuses on pattern and rhythm. The plants he photographs are often geometric and contain a lot regular pattern.

Among his works of the 1920s are Echeoeria (1922) and Viper’s Head. During the 1930s Renger-Patzsch made photographs for industry and advertising. His archives were destroyed during the Second World War. In 1944 he moved to Wamel, Möhnesee, where he lived the rest of his life.

ANALYSIS OF HIS WORK:

I have chosen and compare and analyse these two photos from Albert Renger-Patzsch’s work. Both of these photos include the presence of organic items, plants in this instance. Both have very clear and geometric shapes, with repeating patterns of forms. The focal point of the dandelion flower is the round and even tip of the stem, from which a repeating pattern of seeds come from. On the other hand, the image on the right lacks any noticeable focal point. Both images are very dramatic in nature, with deep and dark shadows being cast from the shapes of the two plants. The image on the right is very exposed, and the highlights are very strong, whereas the image on the left has more subtle highlights having an overall dark tone all-round. The image on the left has a deeper field of view through the use of the dark backdrop, whereas the image of the right lacks this as the light and over exposed backdrop shirks the depth of view. The overall undertone of the image on the left is warm and yellow, and the image on the right is a lot cooler with blue based undertones. Both images have been captured in portrait, unusual yet different and effective for this type of imagery.

MY FAVORITE IMAGES:

This is a collection of my favorite Albert RengerPatzsch work.

RESPONSE AND CONTACT SHEETS OF MY OWN WORK:

This is my response of Patzsch’s work in the form of contact sheets. like Patzsch, I focused on capturing very simple, everyday objects in a way that is beautiful and impressive. I experimented with light, changing the ISO settings on my camera and shutter speed, in order to capture images that are interesting and detailed. I found myself to often be using the macro setting on my camera when capturing up close photographs of plants, this allowed me to have clear and crisp photos that illustrated the detailed line work in the plants.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas

Final Albert Renger-Patzch Images

September 25, 2018 Eleanor G Leave a comment

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas

Albert Renger-Patzsch

September 25, 2018 Francesca S Leave a comment

Albert Renger-Patzsch was born June 22, 1897 in Würzburg, Germany, he began making photos from the age of 12, then began working as a press photographer and freelancer. He was associated with the ‘New Objectivity’ . He photographed things that engaged with the world as clearly as possible, such as the natural world and the industrial which presented the world in a distinct modern way. Albert Renger-Patzsch was one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century. He died September 27, 1966.

The new objectivity is a movement in 1920’s by the Germans in reaction to go against expressionism. Artist removed themselves from the romantic idealism in photographs and even called on the public to back them up. The new objectivity changed photography as it allowed people to develop ideas and broaden the photography industry by photographing the world, instead of set up scenes.

In my first shoot I focused on the industrial photos he took. I chose to do this because I like the way how he focuses in on the different directions of lines and the repeat of shapes in the photo, his photos are almost an abstract as he homes in on shapes. In most his photos the whole setting is in focus also his photos are never from forward on angle, most of the time he takes them at an angle, either looking up or down, this adds an interesting factor to the images as it doesn’t look like a normal simple image. His photos introduced a sense of real life to the photography industry, he wanted his photos to have no meaning, but by making this apparent it shows people that his motive was to have meaningless photos, which then makes the viewer question why he has done that. He used natural lighting in his photos and a use of different tones, which were created by the objects in his photos.

First Shoot;

These four images are from my first shoot where I have presented the style of Albert Renger-Patzsch. I mainly focused on industrial images for this shoot as his industrial images were some of my favorites. I liked the way he photographed such simple things but they created such a photo, in a way of shapes being repeated or shapes contrasting each other, also the light and dark tones throughout his industrial images. His industrial images showed the world in a new way, instead of having photos with one specific meaning, he photographed photos that could have multiple meanings and moods.