Different types of Lighting

–Natural Light: this is light from outdoors- the sunlight will determine how your photos will be lit up as it isn’t something you can control.

–Artificial Light: this is light from things that use electricity or halogen gas to glow. Light rooms are typically used in photograph as the lamps are easy to control.

–Continuous Lighting: this is light that is constantly on, such as a torch. The thing you are photographing is always illuminated by the light. Natural light is continuous however studio light can also be set up as continuous.

-Strobe Lighting: this is light that creates a very short burst of light just as the photo is taken, illuminating the thing you’re photographing for a very short time. Also known as monolights, strobes have a quick recycle time and a full power output of anywhere from 100 to 1,000 watts. The only natural light that is strobe lighting is lightening, as it is a quick flash in the sky. Camera flashes are strobe lighting.

Examples of different Lighting:

This picture was taken using natural lighting. The sun wasn’t really warm that day, causing the colours to appear as quite cool. This is also an example of continuous lighting as the shell was constantly illuminated by the sunlight.

This picture was taken using artificial lighting in the studio. I placed plastic coloured sheets in front of the light to cause the light to illuminate the objects in different colours. This is also an example of continuous lighting.

Definition of Photography:

Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film.

The word photography literally means ‘drawing with light’. The word was supposedly first created by the British scientist Sir John Herschel in 1839 from the Greek words phos, (genitive: phōtós) meaning “light”, and graphê meaning “drawing or writing”.

‘Photographs confuse as much as fascinate, conceal as much as reveal, distract as much as compel. They are unpredictable communicators.’

-David Campany

On-Photographs_D.Campany_2020 – Link to Campany’s introduction that I used to write my essay

Photos can also be easily manipulated to create a completely different image. Images can either be staged or documentary- staged photos twisting reality to suit the idea the artist wants to portray. The photo above was taken by Yves Klein in 1960, showing him jumping off a building, the photo not showing any indication of him being caught. This is an image that confuses and fascinates the viewer- proving David Campany’s quote to be accurate. Klein managed to create this image by merging to images together- seamlessly conjoining them to cause the image to look real and like ‘documentary’ photo instead of staged. In one photo, he jumped off the building while some of his friends held out a tarp to catch him. Another picture was taken of just the place, allowing Klein to use the bottom half of that photo instead of the original one with the tarp- creating this fascinating and quite dramatic image. This photograph shows how easy it is to twist the truth, even in the 1960s.

This also indicates that taken the photographer and their life into consideration is very important if you want to know the truth about a photo. To further prove to the public that he was capable of flight, Klein distributed a fake broadsheet at Parisian newsstands commemorating the event.

I photographed a range of different beach objects around the school. I took some pictures inside and some outside.

Still life can either be art or photography and it depicts inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural or man-made. They are arranged in a specific way and always tend to portray some sort of message or idea.

Still-life photography’s origins reside in the early 20th century.

Still life derives from the Dutch word stilleven, coined in the 17th century when paintings of objects enjoyed immense popularity throughout Europe.

Vanitas

A Vanitas is a piece that portrays a meaning. It often suggests the idea of ‘now’- how pointless and inefficient pleasure is and the certitude of death. It creates a contrast between wealth and satisfaction with death and the idea of impermanence.

The term originally comes from the opening lines of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible: ‘Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Vanitas are linked with memento mori still lifes (memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’) which portray the shortness of life and how fragile it is. The idea of death is commonly symbolised with the use of skulls, burning/ extinguished candles and other inanimate objects. They also include other objects such as flowers, books, alcohol and other things that are seen as pleasure. These portray how worthless the ideology of pleasure is, as it always comes to an end and never supplies us with anything worthwhile.

Still Life Artists

This photographer was inspired by the work of 17th century painters such as Giovanna Garzoni and Maria Sibylla Merian. Paulette Tavormina is a American photographer who creates still life pieces using many symbols of pleasure as well as the certainty of life, including things such as books and jewellery as well as extinguished candles. She uses dark backgrounds and bright lights to cause them to look as though they are surrounded in darkness while still bringing out the details of the objects.

This photograph seemingly looks like a desert photographed in a dark room. however, this photo is from a series called ‘Last Meal on Death Row’. Despite looking like intricately arranged foods photographed in a Still Life style, the true meaning portrays something much darker. The contrast between the luxurious meal and sinister backstory, causes this to be a very interesting still life piece. The symbolism of pleasure is engulfed in the disturbing fact that this is the last meal of an inmate about to be executed. Through the use of chiaroscuro (the contrast between the dark background and light colour of the ice cream enlightened by a dull spotlight), Mat Collishaw caused the image to look quite dramatic and eerie.

Commonly used Metaphors and Symbols in Still Life

– Flowers: innocence as well as impermanence/ life and growth. 

– Skulls: the certainty of death- commonly used to contrast with the other pleasures represented.

– Candles (mostly extinguished): the passing of time/ everything coming to an end.

– Books and Musical Instruments: warn of the futility of worldly pursuits (very expensive things at the time).

– Glass: life of luxury (very expensive at the time).

– Wine Glass: almost empty glass symbolises the brittleness of life.

What is Aperture and what does it do?

The aperture is a hole located in the camera’s lens that decides how much light is let into the picture, thus controlling the exposure of the outcome. Photographers can manually control the aperture by switching to ‘A’ or ‘AV’ mode and then changing the f/number using the dial on their camera. The lower the f-number, the bigger the hole, meaning it lets more light into the picture and it is a larger aperture. A very large aperture (such as f/2.8) can result in an overexposed image. On the other hand, the higher the f-number, the smaller the hole, meaning less light is let into the photo and the aperture is lower. A very low aperture (for example f/22) can result in an underexposed image.

Aperture also effects the Depth of Field (DoF). A lower aperture (for example f/16) would create a deeper DoF which causes the background to not be blurry. A larger aperture (such as f/4) would cause the DoF to be shallower and result in a blurry background.

Experimenting with Aperture

Throughout my photoshoot, I played around with the dial, trying out different apertures. This image was the result of a f/22 aperture, causing the image to be extremely underexposed. Barely any light was let into this picture, causing it to be very dark, despite having two lamps set up.

Furthermore, I also tried make the aperture larger and make it f/4, which isn’t the lowest f/number I could make it but still caused the image to be much brighter than the other ones I took as the hole is much bigger. I wouldn’t call this image overexposed however the exposure of it is quite high, causing it to look very white and bright.

This is a picture with an aperture of f/8, resulting in neither an overexposed nor underexposed image. The lens brought enough light in to clearly show the colours and the details of still life in the middle.

I decided this was a perfect aperture to work with as it captured the still life with the colourful lighting illuminated it the best, therefore that was the aperture for most of my images.

As aperture also effects the DoF, I used a larger aperture to take this image, causing the background to become very blurry and therefore only the object to be in focus as the DoF was shallower.

For this picture, I used a smaller aperture as I wanted everything to be in focus. The object is still slightly more in focus however the DoF is still clearly quite deep. I don’t think a deeper DoF was as effective for this photoshoot, as I prefer the look of a blurry background and sharp foreground/ midground.

I used a variety of different apertures for the section of the photoshoot that I took on the beach, experimenting with shallow and deep DoFs.

My Still Life Photoshoot(s)

Beach Photoshoot:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Studio Photoshoot:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

My Edits (Using Lightroom):

All of these images were edited in the ‘develop’ section in Lightroom. After I finished, I put them into the ‘before and after’ layout to clearly show the improvements I made.

Creating Collections and Filtering in Lightroom:

I started by importing all my pictures from a certain photoshoot into Lightroom, creating a collection set and then a collection to put them into.

I went through my photos and rejected some of them by clicking the letter ‘x’ on my keyboard. This helps me sort out my images as Lightroom now knows that these aren’t images I will be using.

I also pinned some of my images, the ones I thought were the best, as well as them filtering them by giving them a rating and colour. I used green for the ones I will definitely want to use for editing, yellow for the ones I might use and red for ones I most likely won’t use. I used the star rating to show how much I like the image (1 being the lowest rating and 5 the highest).

To make a collection, you go on the collections section and go on create collection. You would then label it with a suitable name and the collection will be created. this is used to create subfolders, placing photos that belong together in one place, making everything more organised.

What is the Shutter Speed?

The shutter speed or exposure time is the length of time that the film or digital sensor inside the camera is exposed to light when taking a photograph. The amount of light that reaches the film or image sensor is proportional to the exposure time. 1⁄500 of a second will let half as much light in as 1⁄250.

‘Boxing’ Photoshoot:

• 

‘Probably one of the worst things to happen to photography is that cameras have viewfinders‘

— John Baldessari

PowerPoint Link:

My answers to the Photography Introduction Quiz:

Introduction to A-level Photography Quiz

Q1: What is the etymology (origin & history) of the word photography?

Writing with light

Q2: What year was the first photograph made in camera?

1826 (Joseph Nicéphore Niépce)

Q3: When did the first photograph of a human appear?

1838 (Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre)

Q4: Who made the first ‘selfie’?

Robert Cornelius (1839)

Q5: When did the first colour photograph appear?

1861 (James Clerk Maxwell)

Q6: What do we mean by the word genre?

A style or category of art

Q7: What do we mean by the genre of still-life?

An image that shows inanimate objects from the natural or man-made world.

Q8: What was the main purpose of the Pictorialist movement?

To affirm photography as an art form

Q9: How do we describe the term documentary photography?

An interpretation of reality as witnessed by the photographer.

Q10: What is exposure in photography?

The amount of light that reaches your camera’s sensor.

Q11: What controls exposure on your camera?

Aperture, shutter speed, ISO.

Q12: What control on our camera records moving objects?

Shutter

Q13: How do we explain depth of field?

How much of your image is in focus.

Q14: What factors affect Depth of Field?

Lens aperture, distance from camera to subject, and lens focal length.

Q15: What is composition in photography?

The arrangement of visual elements within the frame.

Q16: What is your understanding of aesthetics in art?

It is subjective and in the eye of the beholder.

Q17: What are contextual studies in photography?

To provide historial, cultural and theoterical understanding of images.

Q18: How many images are captured on average every day worldwide?

4.7 billion

Q19: Which portrait is the most reproduced in the world?

The Queen (Elizabeth II)