Camera Obscura & Pinhole photography

The ancient camera obscura is thought to have appeared as long ago as 4th century China and Greece. Throughout the ages it has been used for religious ceremonies, astrological observation, drawing aid, entertainment and more.

The camera obscura worked by having a small pinhole opening. The rays of light from an object would pass through this hole and appear inverted as they hit a surface on the other side. A biconvex glass lens was later added allowing for focusing and refracting the light which meant no more inverted images. The pinhole would be installed inside a large dark room or tent, later versions becoming small boxes with mirrors so you could angle the image.

Nicephore Niépce & Heliography

Heliography is an invention of 1827, 12 years before the invention of photography was announced in in both England and France. A decade of experimenting only to end up with fleeting pictures gave Niépce the discovery of the Heliograph.

Niépce’s method required dissolving light-sensitive bitumen (derived from crude oil used in asphault) in lavender oil and applying it over a polished pewter plate (metal alloy). Inserting the plate into a camera obscura and left exposed for several days to sunlight it would reveal an impression.

Louis Daguerre & Daguerreotype

Daguerre continued from the work off his deceased partner Nicéphore Niépce, inventor of one of the first photographic images (heliograph). He developed the process which became known as a daguerreotype. It went public at a convention on 7th January 1939 and described in not enough detail to be accurately recreated though the images were rightfully praised. The rights were acquired by the French government in exchange for life pensions for himself and Niépce’s son.

With the work on the physautotype that Daguerre did with Niépce, he managed to develop the daguerreotype.

The process of the daguerreotype involved polishing a silver plate till it became a mirror and clear of any blemishes, finally swabbed with nitric acid. In darkness it would be exposed to halogen fumes, originally iodide, to create a silver halide coating, originally silver iodide.

Henry Fox Talbot & Calotype

In 1834 Talbot connected his background in optical research with the camera obscura and through this developed the calotype. Coating paper in silver iodide created a non-light sensitive paper that could be stored. Brushing the paper with “gallo-nitrate of silver” solution would balance the chemicals and made the paper light sensitive. In a small lightproof box, nicknamed a mousetrap, the paper was inserted and exposed. By warming the paper and again brushing it with “gallo-nitrate of silver” silver bromide would form. It would be fixed in a hot solution of sodium thiophosphate and produce a translucent negative. The negative could be used to create infinite positives via contact printing. This calotype was groundbreaking but had limited contrasts and details. At Friday Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution on 25 January 1839, Talbot revealed several prints he made in 1935 and would give people an in-depth explanation on his process, unlike Daguerre who initially gave more of an overview.

Robert Cornelius & self-portraiture

Born in the United States, Robert Cornelius was schooled privately with a particular interest chemistry. In 1931 he began worked for his father in silver plating and metal polishing.

Cornelius’ family portraits didn’t get preserved but, a student at Cornelius’ studio, Marcus Aurelius Root, published it in a book about the roots of photography in the USA.

Julia Margeret Cameron & Pictorialism

Pictorialism, an approach to photography that emphasizes beauty of subject matter, tonality, and composition rather than the documentation of reality. | Britannica

Julia Cameron was born British, in west India, and known as a keystone photographer of the 19th century and for her soft portraits. Cameron’s portfolio consisted of famous Victorians and depictions of Christianity, mythology and literature.

On her 48th birthday in 1863 she was gifted a camera by her daughter. Theatre, tableux vivants, 15th century painters and italian contemporary artists inspired her first photos. She produced 900 photos over 12 years.

Cameron was very much a forward thinker and ambassador of her time of the romantic era. She captured the sublime elements of her subjects in a niche and artistic aesthetic.

I especially enjoy this romantic and early contemporary art thinking. Stereographs, panoramic and sublime point of views established photography as an art form, an experience, not so much purely science. It is clear Cameron had this very perspective.

Henry Mullins & Carte-de-Visit

Henry Mullins was by far the most prolific of the first generation of Jersey photographers in the mid-19th century. He produced thousands of portraits of islanders between 1848 and 1873 at his highly successful studio in the prime location of the Royal Square, St Helier. | Jersey Heritage

After working in London, Mullins moved to Jersey in 1848 and began making ‘Carte de Visite’ (visiting cards). For further context, Carte de Visites were traded among Victorians and could fit in your pocket.

Of groups… The photos would typically have contact sheets of 10s or 16s. Not to mention, they could vary in sizes.

The geometric nature of these post-war modernist buildings drew my eye to them as their repetition was mesmerising but also strikingly contrasting to the natural world’s arbitrary shapes.

The human obsession with uniformity I find very unsettling, especially when realising how dominating it is in built up and man-altered natural landscapes. I’ve tried to highlight the dominance of and cramped living spaces in the buildings by filling the frame, worms eye view and the black and white theme because it emphasises the grid-like lines and boxy arrangements.

The final edits are moody and brutal which was the idea I thought fit the images best. Put in black and white and unsharpened, they give a murky impression. The colour would have almost glamorised these buildings when in actuality I find them all to be just eyesores that are perceived across much of town.

Formalism and Brutalism

Virtual Gallery

Evaluation

Overall I’m satisfied with my final set of images, the composition, ideas and editing achieved more than I expected they would. Though a small focus, I believe I have successfully delivered the message of Anthropocene in my work by displaying the towering and cramped feel of how we’ve designed our own living conditions and how we’ve transformed natural materials into these brutal and unnatural blocky buildings which shows the disconnected relationship between some of humanity and nature.

#1

These 2 pipes going into and from the incinerator at La Collette. I decided to emphasise the reflective and battered texture of the pipes by increasing the overall presence, shadows and whites of the image. This also helped the lens flare stand out on the left pipe.

The beautiful clouds in the background of the image gave nature a presence in an image of mostly manmade components. To reveal them I lowered the exposure of the sky using the LRC masking brush.

Just to add a bit more tone contrast I used a graduated filter to the bottom with -2 exposure.

Like Albert Renger-Patzsch, I’ve made the most of the subjects fundamental shapes and lines photographing the pipes at a warped perspective.

Renger-Patzsch wanted to capture objects as interestingly and objectively as he could. Compared to my image, the blending between tones is smoother and tonal range is lesser so the environment doesn’t effect the subject too much. Though I have included a lens flare and brightened the highlights, the environment doesn’t effect the subject too much and still gives an accurate representation of the pipes.

#2

To uniquely enhance the grate-like texture on this container of sorts I increased the highlights and blacks of the shadows of the image. Because this was quite harsh and unbalanced I added a brush mask around the ladder not only to draw your eye to it but to lower the exposure.

Additionally the spotlight was too dark so I made it sharper and brighter with a brush mask.

#3

#4

Looking back at the original composition of this image made me realise the negative space was important in effectively establishing the forms of the subjects in my image. The new coloured area proved to help the negative space give depth to the structures and divide the image into two sections. Additionally, the added warm colours narrates the direction of the light source some more.

The basic geometric shapes around La Collette’s flats intrigued me after seeing a variety of architecture photography on Instagram. My final images are going to be from this photoshoot.

This photoshoot was based around Havre Des Pas and La Collette with the photography duo Bernd and Hilla Becher in mind.

I was attempting to do some HDR photos with this photoshoot but it didn’t go to plan as the lighting, some of the composition and exposure settings weren’t at all very good.

I narrowed down my overall collection of images to these 6, but to by removing images one and two my final images could focus more on the geometry of the flats. This is because otherwise I find the other 2 less interesting and irrelevant when it comes to analysis.

In an attempt to get any work done in photography I have resorted to creatively destroying my work by creating the worst images possible.

This is a photo i captured at the new flats at Havre de Pas. In the beginning I turned tint and exposure fully up and decreased blacks and whites fully.

After messing around with the colour grading I brightened the highlights and gave it a hazy effect. I really enjoy the chaotic composition of the balconies.

It turned out like an optical illusion comprised of lines, stripped of any depth or colour it had in the original.

This image went over a similar process to the other photos with some additional grain.

This photo reminds me of what could’ve been old colourised photo from the 19th century because the vignette and overall image looks quite smudged. The vignette also almost adds a subtle fish eye effect.

I actually genuinely really liked the original photo as it obeyed the rule of quarters and has a lot of interesting textures but I find the colours to be quite cumbersome. But I thought, ‘time to ruin it’.

I won’t talk through any of the changes I have made already to other photos.

This original image was cropped and I made two edits of it. I thought it kind of looked like a western concept of cyberpunk skyscrapers because of the confirmative and geometric shapes. I leaned into this idea by darkening the shadows and adding a dirty-dusk colour scheme.

Exposure Bracketing

Exposure bracketing in photography is taking multiple same photos in different exposures.

Exposure bracketing can be done automatically on modern cameras.

These settings are meant to take a burst of 3 photos. It is important to note when doing exposure bracketing that only the ISO and shutter speed should be changed, the aperture must remain the same as it changes the image too much.

High Dynamic Range HDR

Dynamic range in photography is the difference between the darkest and lightest tones in photography.

This image has a small dynamic range as their is mainly mid tones and a small colour depth.

This image has a high dynamic range as there is a large colour depth and a vast array of highlights, mid tones and low tones.

High dynamic range images are achieved by merging the most detailed parts of these exposure bracketed images where everything is equally exposed.

Source:

Bracketing in Photography: The Ultimate Guide

About the artist

Claude Cahun (1894-1954) was a surrealist photographer (and much more) known for exploring themes of gender identity and sexuality with different characters in their self-portraits. Their androgynous appearance challenged gender roles during their time.

Analysis

Claude Cahun explores absurdity in their portraits. Each of their works comes together as a whole to symbolise a spectrum of ideas.

Cahun’s composition of themselves in the photo above is them looking away from the camera and like most of their photos an organic pose which decorates the image with the impression of pure human expression and identity – these ‘organic’ shapes are seen in other art forms like contemporary dance, which focuses on bodily awareness and mindfulness, fluidity and emotional expression – displaying that they don’t need to comply to others ideas of how people should present themselves.

I like this photo because of the unusual, curiosity evoking costumes worn by Cahun and Solange Roussot as if they are rebelling against the traditional religious connotations of Le Mystère d’Adam.

Cahun appears to use natural light and fleshes out backgrounds with often unusual impressionist or household objects with interesting textures and shapes such as curtains, towels or botanical objects, faux and real. For example, in Self-Portrait in Sailor Hat the silky, bumpy reflection of the corduroy trousers that pairs quite well with the scratchy and thin rectangular sheets in the background.

Often these cloths and curtains are used to create shade contrast in the contemporary black & white style – creating negative space and bringing forward the subjects to the viewers.

I also really admire how even though Cahun’s photos are quite unusual the repetitive patterns from tassels on towels or parallel straight lines on the skirting board add a sense of familiarity and relatability that let their photos speak more.

Another feature of Cahun’s work is their use of typical masculine objects like dumbbells and masculine clothes (see below) to illustrate the inner conflict with their identity during the period of their life where they took on the appearance of a man in order to have the ability to live out another aspect of their person without prosecution. The hysterical nature of it is protesting against and dismantling the defined cisnormative stereotypes Cahun feels trapped by. Their photographs are artfully tinted with absurdist and extremist appeal which are considered as foundation for modern feminism.

I spent time on 3 different days taking photos at the Arts Centre, a house in St. Peters and multiple locations in St. Lawrence and St. Helier.

During my photoshoot with Jaime I used a tripod with camera settings approximate to this for most photos:

Most other photos I stuck to a low aperture (4-6.3), 400-800 ISO and a shutter speed of about 1/60.

Most my photos were rejected because I was not happy with the exposure, focus or pose. Because I had medium-dim indoor static lighting I had trouble figuring out how to take clear photos without blurs.

Some photos were taken with a mix of natural light which contrasted heavily with the indoor lighting and also meant I had a hard time selecting white balance.

Photos that I deemed to have potential made it into the so-so rating as there wasn’t anything inherently great about them and they could have been improved by sharper focus or lighting, or a more intentional pose. Others in the yellow category had good composition but too harsh lighting.

Finally, the 32 photos I have approved are sharp, have balanced exposure and capture the formality of environmental portraits.

Most of the photos I have selected where taken after I had experimented with the cameras settings in the same shot to understand and intentionally capture what I wanted.

Best Photos (unedited):

Final Edits:

This photo was taken in the early morning (8:30ish) to have a soft lighting coming in from the right side and is taken outside of his work van where he carries all of his equipment and resources.

Using the van door frame I framed Jaime against the dark interior of his work van for some contrast. Additionally, the saturated power tools strike quite boldly against the monochrome background.

I think the photo is quite sharp, so I increased the saturation as much as I could to accentuate different objects, bone structure and shadows.

Also, to remove any distraction from the background above and beneath the vehicle I placed a light vignette which also softens of the sides of the image as a nice break from the strong colours and lines in the focal point.

For this photo I had a 2 point lighting setup with a honeycomb light lighting the foreground and a snoot light in the background.

I enjoyed the heavy contrast between the two saturated colours so in Lightroom Classic had the temperature decreased for the royal blue and increased the tint for the ruby red and copied the settings to a similar photo.

Finally in photoshop I imported both photos, opacified the second one and dragged the spot heal tool sporadically until I ended up with the eyes. To achieve the aquamarine highlight I simply increased the overall exposure.

This is a simple setup with one key light. I added a gaussian blur to the primary layer to smooth out the subject.

On the secondary layer I positioned a similar image in the same place with a motion blur then copied and cropped the eyes from the layer and added to it additional motion blur for this dreamlike look.

(This last photo had to be downsized to fit the upload limit)

Like the previous image I added a gaussian blur and spot healing to smooth out the subjects face in both images.

I tried to make the red highlight more subtle so opacified that layer. This works out quite well as the opaque layer is directly staring into the camera

Inspiration

Overall these edits take inspiration from the work I’ve seen from Jonti Wild.

The stark neon colours and use of blur gives his images a new type of depth I want to add into my own portfolio.

Headshots are photographs that put a clear focus on a subjects face and give the viewer

Headshot originated in 1839 with Robert Cornelius when he started taking selfies.

In 1854, André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri came up with a more affordable process of photographic portraiture by cutting up full-sized plates into 4 separate small portraits. The photos would later be known as Carte-de-visite, or visiting cards and are thought to be the first business cards.

In modern times, headshots are usually used for methods of identification and professions like acting or music for marketing purposes.

Most of the time headshots implement a lot of negative space like a white background to remove all other focus other than the subject.