CONTINUOUS LIGHTS – PHOTOGRAPH OBJECTS THREE DIMENSIONAL
The camera setting for the shoot when the lights had been turned off would be on manual mode, this is because if the lights are on there would have been reflections in the image. The ISO for this was on 100, the white balance is on daylight and aperture is on F/16 and the shutter speed is on 0.5 sec to 0.8 sec. (depending on the reflection of each objects)
Birds Eye View Lighting Setup:
This is the set up for the birds eye view images. The camera is placed on a tripod looking down at the table. To produce these images we had to place the object in the center of the white sheet of paper and put 2 flash lights either side of the table so the image has just the correct amount of lighting. The flash lights are normally used to photograph images, documents, books and newspapers. The camera setting for this particular shoot is manual mode, the ISO setting was on 100 and the white balance was on daylight, Apeture on F/16, the shutter speed was on 1/125- 1/200 depending on reflection of each object. Flash heads set to power output: 2.0.
Still life is a work of art, a drawing or painting of a group of objects. Objects do not move, hence the word ‘still.’ In the past the objects tended to be flowers,fruit and other kinds of food or dead animals- hence ‘life.’ The French for still life is ‘nature morte’ meaning ‘dead nature.’ Nowadays, though, still life can mean any objects small enough to be put infront of us, usually on a table. The Ancient Egyptian people have been painting collections of objects for a thousand of years. The ancients Egyptians painted stacks offering for thousands of years. The Egyptians painted objects typically to offer them to Gods in temples or tombs.
The earliest known still life painting was created by the Egytpians in the 15th Century BCE. They produced paintings of food, including crops, fish and meat some of this fabulous artwork has been discovered and retrieved out of ancient burial sites. Ancient Greeks and Romans also created similar deceptions of inanimate objects.
The goal of a still life composition is to direct the viewer’s eye through a painting and lead them toward what the artist thinks is important. Many beginning painters tend to devote their energy to drawing and painting objects accurately, and find it difficult to create a strong composition.
Mood Board for still life objects Cook maid with the still life vegetables by British painter Sir Nathaniel Bacon
The cook maid and market scenes, popular in the seventeenth century evolved in the low countries from a genre practiced by Pieter Aertsen ( c.1533 – c.1573) and his colleague Joachim Beucklaear, which combined contemporary kitchen scenes with a new testament episode beyond. Bacon could have been inspired by the work he had seen on his visit he made to the low countries in 1613.
Religiously, this image would have suited the era in which it was painted. Symbolically, the idea that their is a house wife in the kitchen would have suited the traditional values that would have had to be upheld during this time. A woman would always be the one that sat at home and cooks for her family .
What is an establishing shot? An establishing shot usually requires more than one individual in the shot. The photographer positions the individual in order to tell a story making this the main element to an establishing shot. Most photographers interpret this topic by either presenting it through an individual or the environment they’re in.
DIFFERENT ESTABLASHING SHOTS
Here is a selection of Alain Laboile, Sian Davey and Masahisa Fukase
Sian Davey
A photographer that particularly stood out when researching about the establishing shot was Sian Davey.
Sian Davey’s work mainly focuses on her family, community and self and is informed by her backgrounds. She has a famous series called ‘Looking for Alice’ which is portraits of her daughter who has down syndrome. Davey’s older daughter participated in the making of “looking for Alice” which then lead to her other famous series is from her other daughter ‘Martha.” This series Davey explores her older daughter and her teenage life and friends. In 2017 Davey published a new series of images which this time was called “We Are Family” for this series she travelled all across Britain and photographed 31 families in 21 days.
Martha series
The image above is the image I have chosen to focus on. It was one of my favourites from her “Martha” series.
Visually, within her shot she has captured a series of things making the image almost seem busy in a sense. It contains different focal points when first glancing at the image however her main focus in this being the 3 girls directly in the centre. The background of the image from I can see looks a Forrest or park of some sort where people go and hang out which also suggests why there’s a bench and table. She’s captured this image from a straight on As the focus is on the girls we can see that one of the girls is smoking whilst the others have an alcoholic drink in-front of them. Davey’s capturing the moments of her teenage transition which in this case is breaking laws as she was 16 when these images were taken, therefore she’s creating an establishing shot as her daughter is the subject and her narrative is rebelling against what she’s been told not to do. The image doesn’t looked staged as its captured in a realistic environment of people doing realistic actions which adds the narrative Daveys trying to convey.
Technically, the lighting used in the image above is natural daylight which is seen by the use of her outdoor environment that she’s placed her daughter in. The lighting has undertones of yellow indicating she’s placed it on a warmer setting in order to achieve the image above she’s corrected the white balance to suit her outdoor scene. Along with changing this she would correct the ISO to a low sensitivity as the image isn’t grainy. Her shutter speed for the image would’ve been quick as there is no blur in the image however she would have raised the aperture as slight depth of field is being shown focusing on the 3 girls with the other being slightly blurred.
Conceptually, the story she’s capturing through the image is her eldest daughter growing up around her teenage friends rebelling to rules she’s been told to comply with. Davey tries to convey this weirdness through her images, a quirky side to society that isn’t normally shown or is frowned upon. However she captures the reality and is spreading the idea that this does happen and all this is out there, its a part of growing up and will last forever.
A Candid portrait is one where the subject is unaware that a photo has been taken. The idea of a candid portrait is to capture people acting naturally. They should be unaware they are being photographed, as their behaviour often changes once they become aware of the camera.
Above is my photoshoot for candid photography.
The final images I have chosen are:
Out of all the images I decided that these were the best outcomes. These shoots didn’t work out the way I wanted due to the timing of day I chose to do it. Underestimating how dark it is now in the afternoon my images have a slightly darker tone to them than desired. Nevertheless I have used Lightroom and photoshop and edited the brightness and exposure of each image making it slightly lighter but keeping the contrast to a middle tone so the image wouldn’t look less focused and too dark in some areas.
If I was to do this shoot again I would definitely do it during the day and try and photograph outside rather than inside. The lighting being used in the first 3 pictures is normal daylight simply shining through my lounge windows. However in the last image of my younger baby brother I was indoors using artificial light which meant that already some of my images have turned out with these yellow undertones which is why I have decided to change my images too black and white.
The classical Photographer is a man called Francis Foot. He was born in 1885, the son of Francois Foot (1847-1918) and Louisa Hunt, (1843-1934). Francis was a china and glass dealer in Dumar.
Francis Foot was born in 1885, the son of Francois Foot (1847-1918) and Louisa Hunt (1843-1934). Francois was a china and Glass dealer in Dumaresq Street, at a time when the area was one of the more affluent in St Helier. His son started his working life as a gas fitter. However, he soon became fascinated by photography and the early phonographs and gramophone records and realised that he could earn a living from them.
So the family took on a second shop in Pitt Street, where Francis worked as a photographer, while his father and mother sold gramophones, records and other wares in Dumaresq Street. After his father’s death, Francis concentrated the business in Pitt Street.
Francis married Margaret Vernon shortly before the First World War and the couple had four children, George (1914- ), Stanley (1915- ), Dora (1917- ) and Reg (1920- ).
Due to the unintended blur in the images above analysing the technical aspects of his work is harder due to the camera quality he has used at this time. However, I like how the images are more out of focus and the sharpness of key elements is grainy because it makes the photos naturally seem like there from the olden days. The exposure of some of his images is high, this is because details like patterns in the little girls dress, hairs on the mans face from the mood board above are out of focus had this had been lower we might have been able to see smaller details Francois like Michelle Sank uses natural existing environments in their photographs
Previously mentioned Francis takes his pictures in a natural environment, thus taken outdoors which is is suggesting natural lighting as also being used to take this image. The image was taken in the 20th century, explaining the black and white.
Visual analysis- Visually we can see that there is one child in the photo, presented a little of the left of the picture and she is dressed in a white dress. The white could symbolise purity in the family giving an idea of upper class and wealth. The positing of the child could be planned as she is looking at the camera and has her hand on the baby stroller which could be seen as a posing position, therefore un naturalistic.
Conceptual analysis- I think that Francis wanted to show the wealth of the child in this image as the little girl can be seen in a clean white dress, a bow in her hair to represent purity, shiny black shoes, and is also captured next to a expensive looking baby stroller. This is showing that the children have a good life due to the financial situation of the parents, showing the contextual factor of how the class system had affected Jersey Channel Islands. This image is showing Francis is proud of his financial situation and what he can provide his children with, almost as if the took these images to brag.
Below is a mood board for Michelle Sank:
Michelle Sank
Michelle sank was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She left there in 1978 and has been living in England since 1987. Her images reflect a preoccupation with the human condition and to this end can be viewed as social documentary. Her work encompasses issues around social and cultural diversity. Michelle Sank was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She left there in 1978 and has been living in England since 1987. Her images reflect a preoccupation with the human condition and to this end can be viewed as social documentary. Her work encompasses issues around social and cultural diversity.
Nature is a crucial element in her images as they take up the mojority of the photo. However the key focus of her images is the person standing directly in the centre weather they’re looking at the camera or not. I like the way she’s angled herself when taking these images as their not just all straight on. There are some where she has positioned herself higher or to the side and even below the model to obtain these images. She tends to use natural lighting but then seems to have them a little too the under exposed side as the colours don’t directly jump in the viewers faces in particular the top right photo of the shed on the hill, the lighting is dull and dark making the photo less exciting to look at whereas the top right image is exciting, quite out of the ordinary but more intresting to look at due to the contrast in colours between the orange and the blue sky.
After I had looked at the images I had taken I used Lightroom and photoshop to edit and select my best images.
This image I actually didn’t edit on photoshop I edited it into Lightroom. After having looked at this picture again a few days later I have decided I am going to change the brightness and contrast of the image as it looks quite grey all the way around. However, I don’t completely dislike the grey as it adds an element of previous times maybe when they didn’t have ranges of tones and different shades. I also think next time I edit this one which will be in the boxes below I am going to crop it and maybe compare it to one of my other images.
I decided to keep one of my final outcomes in colour as its focused quite well on certain features of her face, especially her eyes and the creases between her wrinkles. The picture has focused well on just her face but also kept the background good shade so that it doesn’t blend in with her hair. The darkening of the her dress even thought its not seen has added different shades to the image making it more appealing to look at as its not all the same tone and quite bland. For the image above I have edited the vibrance to make it more lively, the brightness which has added a glow to her skin and the exposure which has made the background divide into 2 colours which for me makes the photo look a lot more structured and makes it look more planned out.
For part of our project we had a visit from survivors that were alive during the Jersey occupation. Our group had the incredible chance to meet 89 year old, Joan Tapley. For the session she sat and spoke to us about her time in Jersey during the occupation. Joan was a child when Jersey became occupied she was 6 years old when this happened, she was a lone child which meant that she was very close with her parents and she even said so herself that they used to tell her everything. She used to live on the North Coast which meant she witnessed lots of bombing around the island which a the time meant that the germans wanted to invade. The British government became weaker by the day which meant that they pactiaclly resulted into giving Jersey away.
She went on to explaining that later on around June 1940 all the houses around the island put up white sheets which meant they had surrendered down to the germans. She watched 30 odd planes fly over the island as they began to mark their territory. Joan also told us that lots of innocent people were killed that day like farmers and other labour workers along the avenue, this was the moment that the islanders knew they were not in good hands.
The germans arrived and began making rules, like introducing curfews, not allowing people near cliffs nor on beaches and giving everyone a ration food book so people knew how much to eat and on what days they’d get more. The curfews for the summer was nobody allowed out past 10 o’clock and in winter it was 9 o’clock in the mornings nobody was allowed out till 6am in summer and and 7am in winter. This is when Joan and her family began to realise the restrictions and how this felt more like an imprisoment than anything else. Islanders were not allowed lights at night, they used dark paper to block out the lights Joan said so herself that the “only advantage was to see the stars” The rules became more stricter as they went on, farmers had to inform authorities about what they were planning on growing and how many off, they didn’t have tea so they had to ‘substitute”, which is what the germans wanted people to say, it with parsnips and ginger.
Later on that year germans changed the currency over here to pfennigs, which wasn’t exactly easy at the time as people began to worry about food shortages and people from town began to struggle. Joan told us a story about how families that began to run out of food they would all go to fields and collect corn without the germans knowing and had to hide it very well as the German officers would often go randomly and check peoples homes. Authorities would also ask people what was in their bags so around this time a lot more woman became ‘pregnant’ due to stuffing corn bags up their dresses. Joan’s family actually ended up having so much corn one time that her grandma made her a mattress filled with it so that when Joan went to sleep she felt some weird things on her mattress to later discover it was filled as it was probably the best hiding space.
As the session came to an end Joan spoke about Liberation day. On the 8th the day before it was announced that the war was over, her father had gone to work like normal and then came home early due to the news. The town was completely emptied and everyone went home and gathered back later. The 9th of May came and everyone got in their trucks, cars and vans and set off to meet in town. Joan said all these cars appeared out of nowhere which she assumed had all been hidden whilst Jersey had been occupied as they were not allowed to have cars either. There was cheer and smiles and happiness in the atmosphere which hadn’t been like that for a while now.
Last but not least Joan told us a story about her dad who encountered a starving German who was very ill. He had come to the house and begged her father for an egg, as food shortages was still happening on the island he refused to give him and egg and due to him being German there was some resraint the German then left. Her father dwelled on the situation as he’d told him that he hadn’t spoken to his family in 3 to 5 months so he chased the German as he was leaving and gave him the egg.
Our first trip for this term was to the archives and to the war tunnels.
ALL MY IMAGES FROM THE WAR TUNNELS VISIT
Below is a map of the Current Jersey War Tunnels. There is over 1000 meters of artefacts and history in every room its also dug 50 meters underground and more than 5000 slave labours worked on constructing this tunnel. This network of underground tunnels was designed to allow the German occupying infantry to withstand Allied air raids and bombardment in the event of an invasion. In 1943, it was converted into an emergency hospital.
Diagram of the inside of the war tunnels, whats been discovered
After I uploaded the images I decided to go through the selection process of flagging them and numbering them from 1 to 5 stars and then using 2 colours I condensed them down to 5-10 images using Lightroom .
The Jersey war Tunnels is product of five long years of occupation; they bore witness to the particular cruelty of the Nazi regime.
There are rooms that show us what clothes people wore, what the inside of peoples houses would have looked like, armed authority figures, dates and key facts, weapons, films, a sound effect room which shows us what the bombing would have sounded like from inside the bunkers and lots more. Having been to the war tunnels previously before I wasn’t shocked by what I saw but what still intrigued me is that parts of the war tunnels are still being dug up, tunnels that had previously been built by the Nazis are still undiscovered and will remain that way for quite a while.
On Monday we took a visit to the Jersey Archive which is the islands national repository holding archival material from public institutions as well as private businesses. The Jersey archive is used for information on multiple information sources for example, people often go to the Archive to find out about :
Family history is one of the most popular reasons people visit and go into the archive. The archive allows people to find and research into previous family members that they might not have met. It allows the public to go on a discovery through their past and find out about ancestors not only that but about their lives, their personalities and values. There is an extensive collection of books, family trees, letters to and from loved ones, indexes of baptism, marriages and deaths but also valuable ornaments and pictures that are all carefully and delicately looked after.
Jersey Heritage is delighted that the Channel Island history is collected and kept safely at the Jersey Archive. The Jersey archives have people working there with experience of over 30 years who are more than willing to help members of the public re-discover grey areas in their backgrounds. For people that may have not been living here for long it is a good place to start when trying to begin a family tree. The archive also holds a collection of occupation registration cards aswell. These cards are valuable as they contain invaluable information on your ancestors. The entire civilisation of Jersey had to have one of those cards unless they were foreign which meant they would be given another form of registration card called an Alien card which was often blue. The archive holds over 31,000 registration cards of people that lived on the island during the time Jersey had been occupied. Each card contained information like the persons address, name, date and place of birth, maiden name and their current occupation. The card also has a passport sized photo on it in black and white. The archive also has military records, criminal records, education records which tend to be the next most popular pieces of information people want to find out. Records such as the first world war roll of honour and rolls of service can give people more information into what they might be looking for. Some peoples anscetors might have appeared in court, sent to prison or even deported from the island, finding out details of their offences like that can sometimes piece someones knowledge of a certain individual. The archive also holds many police records, court documents and prison registers that can be used to find out if any of our ancestors are criminals. The online catalogue of the Jersey Heritage page holds over 200,000 document that are held as hard copies at the Jersey archives.
These are some images I took inside the archive and what the storage room actually looks like. Stuart told us that certain archives have to be kept at certain temperature due to bugs eating them and them just decaying as the years go on, however they have learnt how to deal with each document to prevent it from being destroyed.
Below is an example of a registration card:
Marie Françoise Genout registration card.
I selected her name at random due to me not having family over in Jersey during the time it was occupied. This is because I was born in Madeira so most of my family if not all of my family lived there apart from the odd one or two that moved to the UK. However, when I was at the archive I did search for people that had my surname and middle name, although not being successful with my second name Da silva I did find a couple of Abreu’s. I did confirm with my mum later on that evening that we didn’t have any family In Jersey during the occupation and during the war but not soon after it ended my family members began to move across.
