Objectivity in Photography

Objectivity in photography is a genre that features more of the reality of life and focuses on objects without a sense of expression or emotion. These images tend to show different plants and objects and even as they are found and un-manipulated.

Some people think that this genre of photography is a bland and uncreative art form; however, some believe it to be highly interesting by exploring the idea that even the simplest of images can fascinate the human mind.

Karl Blossfeldt

Blossfeldt was a German photographer famed for his monochrome images of dried plants. These sound and look boring but at the same time fitting into the idea of objectivity by simultaneously sparking a curiosity and interest within his audience.

Albert Renger-Patzsch

Renger-Patzsch was also a German photographer but well associated with the idea of New Objectivity; a concept that adds to the drabness of the original idea but monochrome images of more than just plants and small inanimate objects. His images consist of landscapes and buildings but among them some plants and small objects, reverting back to the original idea.

Formalism describes how the visual elements of a piece of art work is the most important aspect of that work, not the narrative content or relationship to the visual world.

The Formal Elements

The formal elements are the different aspects that are involved in a photographic image. These include:

• LIGHT – Which areas of the photograph are brightest? Are there any shadows? Does the photograph allow you to guess the time of day? Is the light natural or artificial? Harsh or soft? Reflected or direct? How does light fall across the objects in the photograph?
• LINE – Are there objects in the photograph that act as lines? Are they straight, curvy, thin, thick? Do the lines create direction in the photograph? Do they outline? Do the lines show movement or energy?
• REPETITION – Are there any objects, shapes or lines which repeat and create a rhythm or pattern? Do you see echoes or reflections within the image?
• SHAPE – Do you see geometric (straight edged) or organic (curvy) shapes? Which are they and how do they relate to each other?
• SPACE – Is there depth to the photograph or does it seem shallow? What creates this appearance? What is placed in the foreground, middle ground and background? Are there important negative (empty) spaces in addition to positive (solid) spaces? 
• TEXTURE – If you could touch the surface of the photograph how would it feel? How do the objects in the picture look like they would feel?
• TONE – Is there a range of tones from dark to light? Where is the darkest part of the image? Where is the lightest? Are the tones in the photograph balanced or does the image tend towards darkness or lightness overall. How does this affect the mood or atmosphere?
• COLOUR – What kind of colours can you see e.g. saturated, muted, complementary, primary? Is there a dominant colour? How would this image be different if it was in black and white? Does the use of colour help us understand the subject or does it work independently?
• COMPOSITION – How have the various elements in the picture been arranged? Does the image seem balanced or unbalanced? Is it possible to superimpose geometrical shapes on the image to better understand the composition? Has the photographer used the Rule of Thirds?

This monochrome image taken by Shomei Tomatsu in 1964 shows three people playing cards, hence its title “The Card Game”. You can see what seems to be natural light from the sun coming in from the left side of the image and by the brightness of the monochrome imaging I can infer that the photo was taken on a sunny day. “The Card Game” shows the organic shapes of the human body coupled with the straight geometric edges of the cards. Because of these organic shapes there isn’t really any repetition as the composition of the image seems to be very natural showing how each person is different. The image is quite shallow in the regards that all we can really see is one person’s face and the cards being dealt. The framing of the image also adds to this effect as the audience can only see the bottom half of the two subjects in the top of the photograph, outlining the cards as seeming to be the main focal point of this photographic image.

The objects that I decided to photograph each have a personal connection to my way of life. My primary interest and the career I want to pursue is in stage performance and tap is my favourite style of dance. These charleston style tap shoes also show my admiration of the past both recent and distant. The powder horn that in image 1 coincides with my passion for history and professional reenactments within the Georgian era. Finally the photo album maintains my connection with my grandfather and his time in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

These are the best images from my most recent photoshoots experimenting with aperture, depth of field, different lighting techniques and gels.

These images that I have taken of still life show the theme of nature due to their naturalistic shapes that are formed by the sea in its rough and calm states and how nothing is exactly the same.

Still Life is the term used to describe the capturing of a still image within a moment of life. These tend to have hidden stories or meanings within them; including connotations of death, nature and the passing of time.

“Memento Mori” coming from the latin for ‘Remember that you must die’ ultimately describes the third image shown. The skull symbolises this reminder and subconsciously makes people braver to thought of death. This image also shows other symbols of still life including the passing of time. The flower pictured could show the beauty that life can bring, the candle almost entirely burnt up could show the ending of life’s light before the darkness and the compass could be used to describe the inevitable direction that humanity must follow to find everlasting peace.

Themes and symbols used in Still Life could be as follows:

• Death (eg. a skull or burnt out candle)
• Passing of time (eg. a watch or sand timer)
• Nature (eg. plants or animals)

Still Life Artists

Paul Cézanne was a French artist that shaped the ideas of still life imagery and impressionism as it changed from the 19th to 20th century. His artwork consists of paintings depicting these typical themes of still life. (shown below)

This style of art has evolved through history from sketches, to oil paintings and now in the modern era within photography. Jonathan Knowles is a modern photographer specialising in still life photography. He uses a unique lighting technique and style to create images similar to what is shown below. Despite the clear differences in clarity and style of art, both Cézanne and Knowles return to the typical symbols of still life (nature and death)

Types of Light

Flash Heads

These tend to have a very harsh light and thererfore tend to be used with a soft-box (as shown below) in order to diffuse and soften the light’s intensity.

Continuous Lighting

Rembrandt Lighting

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch painter born in 1606. The style of lighting used in modern photography named after uses shadows to create a small triangle under the eye of the subject. This is shown in his portraits – most significantly his self-portraits (one is shown below)

In modern photography this style of lighting is commonly used and creates a sense of drama and intensity within the image.

Butterfly Lighting

Named as such because of how the shadow falls, butterfly lighting is widely used in fashion photography and shows a butterfly shaped shadow under the nose and sometimes across the cheeks of a persons face.

The light points directly on the subjects face from a high vantage point as to create the desired shadow. The diagram below shows this:

Like I said before, this technique is predominantly used in fashion photography mainly because it is very difficult to do out of the studio with light most likely hitting the subject from all directions and removing most shadows.

Chiaroscuro Lighting

This is an Italian term meaning ‘light-dark’ and that is simply what it is. Images using this type of lighting simply show an obvious relationship between light and dark parts of the face.

It was widely used in monochromatic cinema to create drama within silent films and is still widely used today with colour.

Before the creation of photography however, it was used in paintings and drawings to the same effect.

Back Lighting

This technique creates a silhouetted image of the subject for the camera. The light is positioned behind the subject with a ‘snoot’ connected to it. This controls the beam of light and ensures there is no glare in the final image by keeping the beam of light from completely engulfing the subject.

Experiments

Exposure Bracketing is a technique where you take 3 or more photographs of the same thing, all at different exposures; the ideals being: one correctly exposed, one under-exposed, and one over-exposed.

When taking photographs, you have to balance the dynamic ranfge of your camera, what settings you are using, and how you camera is metering the scene. Therefore, exposure bracketing become the simpler option to get a correct exposure for your image.

How to take Bracketed Exposures

You can manually take the bracketed exposures by setting up your camera normally. Then after taking your first shot, adjust the shutter speed, aperture or ISO to one stop above and take a second shot. After that, adjust your settings to one stop below the original and take a third. You now have three identical images, each with different exposures that you can later combine when editing.

The images below show the different exposure stops.

Experiments

The final stage of presenting your photographs is by mounting them in a stylistic way. You can either mount them on foam board where the images sit on a piece of foam and actively pop out towards you; or create a window mount where the images have a clear and defined border.

Foam Board

To mount on foam board, you must spray your image with glue so it is able to stick to the board. From there you can cut the foam board down to the size of your image to create a crisp, sharp edge.

Window Mount

To create this effect; you must measure the size of your image and take 0.5cm form each measurement to allow the image to be seen but not fall through the mount. Draw the outline of your image using your final measurements then use a bevel cutter to remove the centre of the mountboard. This creates the final window for your image to be seen through.

Photomontage is the combing of two or more images to create something completely new and unique. The two ways to do this are through analogue or digital techniques.

Analogue Photomontage

Analogue techniques are used to combine images by hand using a knife/scissors, your hands and glue etc. For example, you could tear up an image and stick parts of it onto another to create a rough and damaged effect. You can then take a photo of your final outcome and re-print it to create a perfect undamaged image.

Digital Photomontage

Digital techniques combine images using software like Adobe Photoshop. These images can look similar to analogue photomontages but they eliminate the mess and retaking of the image when finished.