Cindy is one of the most significant artists of the Pictures Generation, who are artists set out to make art that analysed their relationship with popular culture and the mass media. Sherman grew up on Long Island, New York. In 1972 she enrolled at the State University of New York at Buffalo and majored in painting, later switching her major to photography. Cindy Sherman’s work is characterised by her use of self-portraiture to create fictional characters and explore themes such as identity, representation, and the construction of femininity. She challenges societal norms and expectations placed on women. Although Sherman believes her images are not of herself, I technically believe it is her self portraiture.
Mood Board of Cindy Sherman’s work
Image Analysis
Visual
Sherman has adopted the role of a housewife who is cooking for her family as she is wearing an apron and she has cooking supplies in the frame of the image. It looks like this image was taken on the kitchen counter, as some of her head is cut out of the frame to show the cramped environment that she feels. She is posed at the counter whilst holding her stomach and looking over her shoulder to represent her concern for whatever is going on behind the scenes. The fact that she is holding her stomach gives a vibe of protectiveness and nurturing for herself/ the possible child on the way. There is an essence of worry and concern paired with the small area she’s in as she is pushed to the wall to show she’s not alone, and she is to the right third of the image to show she’s less important in the image.
Technical
The shutter speed in this image is quite fast as the subject is in focus, with a well-balanced exposure although the image is monochrome. The angle is taken from a lower position to embrace the feeling that we are there with her in the image, or that we are viewing the situation in the image from an outsiders perspective, like a friend. This image is a half body shot, as it only shows her waist and above. This makes the shot more intimate as it feels like we are closer to her, as we are not seeing her full body like if we were far away. The aperture is small as most of the image is in focus, however the depth of field is shallow as the pan handle is blurred in the foreground.
Contextual
Historically, women have typically been portrayed in the media as housewives whose jobs are to depend on men and be a stay at home mother who cleans and cooks. They were also expected to be carers for the children, and were seen as objects to men, as they’d be expected to have makeup and hair done for their husbands whilst also doing all of the previous roles I mentioned. However, Sherman challenged this dominant ideology by dressing up as these stereotypical women to prove that everything portrayed in the media is not realistic and that it doesn’t define being a woman. Sherman’s ‘untitled film stills’ were intended to resemble the fact that it is all just stereotypes.
Conceptual
By knowing the context, it’s obvious that Cindy Sherman herself is the subject in every image. She uses herself to perform in these images to capture different stereotypes to criticise the film making industry as her images are part of the ‘untitled film stills’. She targets the film industry by using this title, to show they are the industry who represent women in this dominant gender ideology. By being the subject, she makes a mockery of the mass media and the stereotypical “woman”, as she shows that none of it is real when she uses fake noses and fake eyebrows to change her look and make it overdramatic. This could also link to the media today as many young girls see models online who dress as the stereotypical girly girl, which Sherman challenges in her images from her time.
Claude Cahun
Claude Cahun was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer. Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914. Cahun is best known as a writer and self-portraitist, who assumed a variety of performative personae.
Photographers use studio lighting to be able to have full control over the lighting used on the subjects face. This way, it is easier to direct the model or manipulate the lighting by changing the position of both to create the effect that Whereas, with natural lighting, it can be more unpredictable, so it makes it harder to get the shot. There is more consistency with studio lighting as the weather and time of day does not affect the lighting unlike the natural light so many photographers prefer to use it.
1 point lighting helps to illuminate the subject so they are visible in the camera lens, but with this lighting it also helps to define and dramatise their features as it enables a lot of shadows, creating a high contrast in the image as there is only one light source. This can create a minimalist look as it is the most basic type of lighting to do. This setup can create different looks depending on where you place the light. For example, putting the light directly in front of the subject gives even, flat lighting, while moving it to the side or above can create shadows and highlight texture. This simple lighting technique is used for portraits as it gives a dramatic or natural effect depending on how the light is positioned. It focuses the attention towards the subject and also helps to control the mood of the image.
2 point lighting uses 2 light sources where one acts as the main and key light source whereas the second is an accent light that can help to add interest to the image and also reduce shadows in comparison to 1 point lighting, but they are still noticeable. This is useful as it introduces depth as the second light source can enhance the contrast or soften it depending on what angle the light is at.
3 point lighting is the most commonly used type of lighting as it involves 3 varied lights to illuminate the face, which automatically makes a well-balanced, controlled image as the shadows are more soft. Typically, with 3 point lighting, there is a main light (the key light) which is used as a primary source of lighting the face up, followed by a fill light which is used to soften the shadows created by the main light to make the image less intense, and lastly, a back light (which is normally behind the subject) to separate the subject from the background and create a distinct divide between them. This is mostly used for high-end fashion, or beauty as the lighting focuses on the subject by illuminating them fully.
Fill lighting in photography refers to a technique where additional light is used to soften and reduce the harsh shadows created by the key light. Its primary purpose is to balance the overall exposure of the image, ensuring that the shadow areas are visible and not overly dark, while still maintaining the dramatic contrast created by the key light. This is usually a reflector that is placed on the other side of the light to balance the harsh shadows created with the key light.
For Rembrandt lighting, the aim is to light one side of the face while leaving the other side in the shadow, creating a highlighted and obvious triangle of light on the darker side of the cheek. This technique is perfect for producing a dramatic yet natural-looking portrait that accentuates the subject’s facial features, adding depth and dimension, whilst also being creative.
Butterfly lighting is a regularly-used, portrait lighting technique where the light is placed above and directly in front of the subject, creating a shadow under the nose that resembles a butterfly shape (which is where the name came from). This setup is often used to flatter the subject’s face, highlighting and exaggerating their cheekbones and jawline while creating soft shadows. It’s commonly used in beauty and fashion, as it provides a slightly dramatic look with a focus on the face. This technique is great for giving subjects a polished, elegant appearance.
Chiaroscuro lighting in photography refers to a technique that emphasises and exaggerates strong contrasts between light and dark areas to create a dramatic effect. The term is Italian, which translates to “light and dark,” and is inspired by the painting style of the same name. In photography, chiaroscuro lighting is achieved by using a single light source to cast shadows and intense highlights, often leaving parts of the subject in complete darkness while brightly lighting up other areas. This lighting style is very effective for creating a mood or depth in the image. This lighting technique is mostly used for portraits, and dramatic fashion photography. By carefully controlling the light and shadow, chiaroscuro can highlight the subject’s shape and form.
This is my contact sheet for all the images I took. As you can see, there is a wide variety of poses and angles to capture the lighting in each photo, as I used all three of the lighting techniques (Chiaroscuro, Butterfly and Rembrandt).
Below is my image selection, where I carefully highlighted the best photos in green. The images I placed in red were the ones that I thought weren’t to the best standard they could be, due to the positioning of the camera (off centre) or due to the model not being serious. The images I placed in yellow were the ones that I thought were average, but they didn’t stand out to me.
This is my example of Rembrandt lighting, where I outlined the triangle on the darker side of the face in red, to exaggerate the obvious difference in lighting. This happens as the nose casts a shadow onto the darker side of the face due to the position of the lighting, and therefore the light can only hit a certain amount of the face (creating the triangle).
This is my example of Chiaroscuro lighting, where the contrast between light and dark is key to this technique. This technique makes half of her face blend into the background, to highlight the light side and draw your attention.
Lastly, this is my example of Butterfly lighting, where the light casts a shadow beneath your nose by placing it above the camera position.
Environmental Portraits are images normally consisting of a singular subject in their usual environment (like work, or their hobbies). These images help to provide context to the person in the image, and give clues as to what they like to do/ do often. The reason I think photographers take images like this is to represent what the subject sees and what you don’t see in their lives. A lot of these photographers aim to tell a story to connect the people to the things they love most.
Mood Board
This is a generalised version of a collection of images that photographers have taken to represent an overall view on what environmental portraits are. A lot of these images have the subject facing the camera and looking into the lens, which is a known feature for this topic.
Arnold Newman
Arnold Abner Newman was an American photographer (1918-2006), known for his “environmental portraits” of artists and politicians. In 2006, he was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum. He is extremely well-known within the photography community, for his eerie images like the Alfred Krupp photograph.
Alfred Krupp
Alfred Krupp was a German industrialist and the owner of the Krupp family steelworks, one of the largest and most influential enterprises of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was born in Essen, Germany. After becoming an infamous industrial inventor, he earned the nickname ‘The Cannon King’. Krupp’s employment and use of slave labour resulted in the ‘Krupp Trial’ which lasted from 1947-48, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison but only ended up serving 3 years and was released in 1951.
Alfred Krupp and Arnold Newman: Analysis
This portrait of Alfred Krupp was taken in 1963, with him as the central focus, taken by Arnold Newman (a Jewish photographer).
Visual
Alfred Krupp is the main focus point as he is placed in the centre of the image to draw all the attention to him. He is outlined by two concrete pillars either side of him to really get the point across that he is the focus of this image. As you can see, his facial expressions create a sinister feeling as he looks as if he is proud with his hands crossed to assert dominance and show that he is a confident man. To continue from this, Alfred is also more leaned forward and is slightly raised to give the impression that he is not scared. By making direct eye contact with the camera, he gives an demonic vibe to the image.
Technical
The lighting placed in the background/above Krupp’s head highlights a strong contrast on his face to make him look more serious and evil as it darkens his stare. In terms of the camera, Newman uses a medium aperture to create a clear and sharp foreground (to make the subject very visible) but a softer background where you can still identify the objects in the background, but they are less visible. Adding onto this, Arnold uses a faster shutter speed to capture this image as everything is in focus and has good lighting exposure in comparison to how a slow shutter speed would look. The viewers are directly in line with the subjects eye level to feel more connected with him.
Contextual
Alfred Krupp was a Nazi war industrialist who was infamous for allegedly using slave labor in his factories (which you can see closely in the background). Krupp contacted Newman for a portrait in 1963, and after finding out that Newman was a Jew, Alfred Krupp refused to let him make the photograph.Newman insisted to have Krupp look at his portfolio before making a final decision and after seeing Newman’s portfolio Krupp accepted. So on July 6, 1963, they both went into a factory in Essen which Krupp owned, where Newman decided to make Krupp look as evil as possible under the eerie lighting of the factory to represent the person he is known as.
Conceptual
I think that Newman took this image to highlight the true representation of Krupp, as there were speculations of his slave labour employment, and this image confirms the suspicions as the background is known to be involved with his accusations. I believe that Newman felt as though he should publish the image as it shows his intimidating nature and his look for superiority.
August Sander
August Sander (born in 1876 and died in 1964) is congratulated for his applaudable work that captures the diverse layout of the social groups in the early 20th century in Germany. His most significant project, “People of the 20th Century”, aimed to create a documentary of various German people, showcasing the different social classes, professions, and types that made up the society of his time. Many of his photos include different age groups to show their social status in Germany at that time.
Visual
This image is in monochrome colours as it was taken in the early 20th century therefore they didn’t have the technology we do now to have images in colour. The use of the fragile man’s walking canes helps to guide the viewers eyes in his direction by starting at the bottom of the image and making our way up towards his outline through leading lines. We can see that the subject is making direct eye contact with the camera lens, which creates a connection between us and him, and the confused and concerned look on his face tells us that he wasn’t expecting a photo.
Technical
Sander has managed to use rule of thirds to align the old man towards the right side of the image to showcase the houses in the background. In terms of the aperture, you can see that the background is a bit blurred, meaning that Sander used a medium aperture and a medium depth of field to ensure that the subject will still be in focus. The lighting is natural, as the photo is taken outside and the contrast isn’t predominant like it would be with a studio light. Lastly, the man doesn’t have any motion blur, meaning the image had a short exposure time and was likely either a fast shutter speed to a medium shutter speed.
Contextual
Conceptual
Typologies
Like I briefly described before, the concept of typology in photography refers to the category of subjects based on shared characteristics or types. August Sander’s use of typologies in his photographic project ‘People of the 20th Century’ is a key and well known feature of his work. He aimed to create a visual idea of the German society by arranging his portraits into specific categories based on social roles, professions, and other attributes like age. These typologies provide insights into the structure of their 20th century society, highlighting both their own diversity and the larger social groups that show the typology.
Environmental Portraiture Photoshoot Ideas
Action plan:
For this photoshoot, I am planning to go out and use my friends as models to present their daily routines and their natural environments where they show their hobbies and what they like to do. I will go to town and go in clothing shops to show that my model likes to shop by picking out outfits. I will also go to my subjects house to highlight the routines she does like doing her makeup and playing with her dog.
Contact Sheet:
In total, I managed to take 165 photos for this photoshoot to present a wide variety of angles and poses to select the best images. I took multiple photos of the same action to capture the best photos by moving my position and directing my friends to increase the quality and to match the artist better by telling my friends to stay serious and to look into the camera lens.
Image Selection:
For this image selection, I ended up with a various amount of red images, yellow images and green, which help me to identify the better looking images from the bad ones. The reason why some of my images are red is due to using the wrong ISO, or shakiness causing the camera to not stay in focus. There were also a couple of photos where my models kept laughing and turning away from the camera, so I put them in red as it doesn’t match my artists work properly.
Rule of Thirds
For this image, I decided to crop it to ensure that the main focus and model (the girl in the middle) was directly centred in the image by cropping some of the right side of the photo. When doing this, I also ensured to keep all the models still included in the image, as cropping one of them out could cause it to look strange as there wouldn’t be an even amount of models on each side. When I cropped this, it improved my image as it now looks more finalised and centred than it did before as shown below:
Problems with ISO
Whilst taking photos, I began having issues with the ISO levels where the image would become dark in certain dim-lit lighting as I had it on the wrong settings, so I had to change the ISO to develop and improve these images. With the ISO at the wrong level, the images looked noisy and fuzzy which made the quality of the image look bad as it made it so that you couldn’t see the models face well.
Best photos
These images below are my best photos as they have various poses in group settings and individually.
I really liked the group setting photos as it makes the subject looking at the camera stand out in comparison to the others, as it feels as though they are looking straight at us whilst everyone else is busy talking. I also liked the image where my model is brushing her hair, as the mess in front on her counter makes the image look more natural and less staged. The lighting also works really well in that image, because the background is less visible, making you focus more on her.
Texture in photography refers to the quality of the surface of an image. It conveys depth and detail in each image you take. The textures can be emphasised through the lighting and focus which can enhance the surfaces to appear more smooth, rough, and hard.
This texture photoshoot includes different textures I could find in nature, including objects like bark, mushrooms, leaves, moss, twigs, rocks, and wood chips. I decided to take these images as I thought it was a creative way to present texture in objects around us.
Artist Research
Ernesto Ruiz
Ernesto was born and raised in Puerto Rico and moved to Minnesota to study and learn more about architecture, where he discovered his passion for photography. In his photos, there is a strong sense of natural light used to shine on mainly the centre of the images. This encourages the viewer to focus on the centre, where the most details are. The space surrounding the image is very compacted, which produces a busy focus for the viewer.The colours featured in these images are enhanced, but still the same shades of bark you would expect to see. Ruiz captures texture well by zooming into his images from straight ahead, which enables us to see the outlines of bark.
Photoshoot Plan
To do this photoshoot, I will need to go out to a park and take images of the natural surroundings, such as bark to replicate Ruiz’s work. I will also take photos of other natural objects I find, but my main priority is taking images of bark from the trees. In order to do this photoshoot, I need to make sure the lighting is bright and that I zoom in to get the effects of the bark like he does.
Contact Sheet
Best Photos
I imported all of my texture images onto Lightroom and individually highlighted each one to make it more clear. As you can see, there is a range of images that I selected that I would like to use (green). This colour coded method helps me to identify which images to use on photoshop more effectively as it takes less time since I don’t have to go through each one to select a good image.
After discovering my favourite images, I went into photoshop to edit the best photos I have and make edits of them to present as my final piece.
Reflection on the photoshoot:
A lot of these images I really like, as they represent texture in various ways. However, towards the end of the photoshoot, it began to rain, which meant that the camera lens had raindrops on it. This made a lot of my end images look blurry which made it difficult to get the accurate representation of the texture.
Editing
To improve my images, I concluded that I would upload the green selected ones from Lightroom into Photoshop so I was able to edit them. By doing this, it allows me to be able to present my work in the best form as they need to be edited in order for them to be presented. For my three edits, I marked the images I liked best and wanted to up level them by changing the hue and saturation, making a mirror image, and circles in my work as shown below.
Edit 1 – Hue/saturation
For this edit, I decided to enhance the colours to create a unique and attention-grabbing effect, by making the colours unusual to what they would actually be.
I did this by first cropping my images, then pressing ‘image’ then ‘adjustments’ then ‘hue/saturation’ to play around and change the colours so they still look somewhat natural.
Below is my final product of this edit, and as you can see they all fit nicely together. I decided to do three images in one piece as it gives you an idea of the edit I am creating, and the overall theme of it (which is the use of the different colours).
Edit 2 – Mirror Image
My second edit is the mirror image, where your image is reflected on the other side to make an intriguing pattern from your photograph. I began by opening my image and adding a background layer so I could flip the image both horizontally and vertically as you can see below.
After achieving this, I repeated these steps 2 more times to have the finished look. I cropped the image to ensure the background wasn’t in my edit. This image generates patterns that weren’t originally in the image, so it attracts the viewer as each edit you do of this will look completely unalike.
Edit 3 – Circles
For my last edit, I cropped each image to become a square shape, and engraved a large circle in each of the images. Once I achieved that, I rotated the circles so they were facing different directions to the original image, and then edited the circle to become a monochrome tone. This helps catch the viewers attention as the change of direction through the lines creates a saddened tone paired with the dark colours. Then, I edited the background to match the vibe and made it a darker tone. By doing this, I created a dark tone to the images overall.
Final Piece:
For my final piece, I decided to go with my third edit, as I feel as though it resinated with the artist the most in terms of him taking images of bark. It is also a creative design to present, as it has elements of line, texture and pattern which are all included in the formal elements.
Art Gallery
Lastly, I uploaded my final images to the art gallery which enables you to walk around and view your photography work like it is in a gallery. I spaced these images out to individualise them but still have the effect of them being united as similar pieces.
Evaluation
Overall, I believe my work somewhat connects to Ruiz’s work as he takes images of the bark from close up like I did. Unlike him, I shifted my work to monochrome colours to highlight the details scattered throughout the bark trees, whereas he kept the colours shown and did not edit it like mine. I also took other images of the natural textures, but mainly focused on the bark trees. To improve my work I would stick to his style and make the colours more warm toned without making it black and white, and zoom in more to really capture the small outlines in the bark like he does.
The formal elements – line, shape, space, colour, pattern and texture – are necessary for creating visually captivating images. Each one of these elements plays a particular role in photography to intrigue the viewer and make them fascinated with the image. This could be from any of the categories below:
Line
Line in photography is often used to guide the viewers eye throughout the image. There are various lines that could be shown in an image, for example, there are leading lines and curved lines to create structure and balance within an image. They also enhance depth to make some images have the 3D feel to them. Finally, they also frame certain parts of the image to highlight the main subject focused in the image.
Shape
The use of unique shapes in photography helps to define subjects and can lead to interesting compositions within the image. Shape can help to define an image portrayed by using lines and boundaries to outline them. Shape also has the possibility to contrast the shape from the surrounding image, making the viewer intrigued.
Space
There are two main types of space used in photography; positive and negative space. These types of space can impact the viewers focal point of the image. In negative space, the space around the object can cause the viewer to look more towards the void which also highlights the importance of the subject being shown.
Colour
Colour influences the viewer’s emotions from which selection they use. The colour theory is useful to determine which colours would work best in an image, and which would instead give bad contrasting colours. By choosing a good selection, this can enhance the visual appeal towards the image.
Pattern
Pattern is a significant and important element that can enhance visual interest in the image. The use of pattern can produce an overall satisfying look, especially if the pattern is repeated many times throughout the image. This element forces your eyes to scan the image as a whole, and see it all together unlike the other formal elements.
Texture
Lastly, texture is used to emphasise the quality of the surfaces, making the image feel more tactile and versatile to other textures. Images of texture add more depth and detail, to engage the viewers and allows them to quickly analyse every aspect of the texture being presented. It also creates a contrasted look, as it draws attention to various areas.
For this paper photoshoot, I tried multiple techniques to add dimension and dark contrasts by using a torch, a bright light, and multiple different coloured lights like blue and red. This all helped to link my work to my artist research as their photos also have that contrast to make the light brighter.
Artist Research
Francis Brugiére
Francis was an American photographer, born in 1879, and died on the 8th of may 1945. He was born in San Francisco, and became a photographer along side also being a painter and a musician. Later in life, Brugiére moved to London to start a new film. His work can be summarised as a plain piece of paper folded and cut to create a unique pattern of interesting shapes and forms. With the use of light, his work is seen to have a contrast of both light and dark pieces featured. The colour is edited to be a monochrome tone, to make the main focus on the contrast and to take away any of the other distractions. The use of line is highlighted in his images as the paper creates various lines heading in all sorts of directions, which creates a detailed effect. Lastly, Francis uses a zoomed in camera technique to capture the curves of the paper without including the background of the images. By not including this, it helps present the work as a sole focus on the paper design and no other distractions.
Photoshoot plan
In order to do this, I will use a dim-lit room where I will be able to take images using a bright torch to show the contrast of light. I will also need to cut up some paper to create the same effect Brugiére does as his paper is full of various shapes and patterns to create a unique look. I will also make sure to have a backdrop so nothing in the background will be seen when taking these images.
Contact Sheet
My Best Photos
For my best photos, I uploaded my images onto Lightroom and colour coded the ones I thought were the best (green), the ones that were okay (yellow) and the ones I wouldn’t use (red). As you can see, there ended up being a wide variety of images with different colour codes. This makes it easier to figure out which ones I like, and which ones I don’t so I can edit the good ones on photoshop.
Reflection on the photoshoots:
Overall, I think these photoshoots were a great way to experiment and discover which lightings were the best, and which images accurately matched the artist research’s work. Although, I took multiple photoshoots as some of the images turned out blurry the first time since the camera movement was shaky, making the image also look shaky. The use of the different coloured lighting made the vibe of the image completely different, as the bright white light made the images look neat, whereas the red lighting made the images look dark.
Editing
I demonstrated 3 different ways to edit these images, as there are various ways to upgrade your images to enable them to look the best they can be. My first edit is black and white, my second edit is different ways of cropping, and my third way is slicing the image.
Edit 1 – Black and white
The first technique I decided to try was making all the images monochrome, to match the artist research. Like the artist, I ensured the white areas were bright when I adjusted the levels of the image, and I made sure the dark areas were pitch black. I like this editing style as it showcases the contrast very well, and it creates a neat overall look to the three images.
Edit 2 – Cropping
For my second edit, I decided to make a collection of different ways of cropping my images to present the most interesting section of them. I like this edit as it presents different forms of the images I took, to capture the different textures of the paper. The element of leading lines is strongly shown in these images as they guide your eyes from one side of the image to the other side.
Edit 3 – Slice
My last edit is slicing the image. I like these two examples of this technique, as they add a distraction to the image and they make the focal point based around the slices. Additionally, it adds an element of negative space as the focus is on the black lines, making the other sides of the image more toned down and muted.
Final Images
My final image is the first edit I created, as I feel as though it aligned with Brugiére’s work the best. On top of this, I also chose it as I feel like simple is better, as it doesn’t look crowded and chaotic.
Art Gallery
I uploaded my images into the art gallery where I was able to include these three images in a neat order. I like these three images as they represent contrast between light and dark very well, as you can the areas where the light was shining and where it was not. I also like the texture it shows as they have unique shapes in each image, but they still overall give the same vibe of contrast and texture.
Evaluation
Overall, I think I implemented Brugiére’s work into my own quite well, as typically his work is made from cut up pieces of paper – like mine. His work is more intricate, whereas mine isn’t as much as his is more cut up and set. However, the difference between mine and his work is that my work is more cool toned unlike his where his has more warm tones so to. improve my work, I would edit the colours to be more warm toned.
ISO is used to determine how much light is let into your camera, and is useful when trying to make your images look neat. A high ISO is typically used for low lighting, as it can make your image look more clean, but can also make your image look noisy if you aren’t on the correct ISO needed for the image. Whereas, a low ISO is usually used for a light lit image, so it doesn’t look noisy. An image can end up looking noisy if you are using a high ISO when it’s not needed (like if your image doesn’t have low lighting).
In the image above, you can see that the high ISO makes the image look grainy and noisy, which isn’t ideal when you want a clean look for your image. To prevent this, you need to ensure the lighting is good and that you are using the right ISO.
My Contact Sheet
These are the images I took to show the contrast in lighting and the ISO difference by increasing and decreasing the ISO number.
I put the two images above to present a change in ISO and the lighting, so you can see each stage of the process.
I also decided to include this image above as I feel as though it represents the noisy ISO that we are usually trying to avoid in our images. As you can see, the lighting isn’t the best in this image, and the ISO number is on the lower side making the image not look the best it can.
I began by transferring my shutter speed images into Lightroom, as you can see below, where I pressed ‘import’ at the very bottom and picked which images to upload into Lightroom.
After moving my images, I learnt how to flag the photos I wanted to keep, and leave the others blank that I decided I wasn’t going to use. I also discovered how to rate my images by using stars (1 being the worst and 5 being g the best) to show which ones I liked the most.
Here’s an overall view of both the flags and ratings:
Then I discovered how to colour code my images to make them more noticble and easier to detect when I edit my images in photoshop so I know which ones to edit.
I started off with an image then right clicked it as you can see below, then I clicked on ‘code rating’ so I have the option to colour them ‘red’ ‘yellow’ or ‘green’, they also have blue and purple as an option, but I decided to stick to these three as it is easier to organise.
Once I did a few, I decided to show what it looks like and as you can see below, it is easier to see which ones are good and which aren’t.
I also wanted to experiment and see what I could do, so here’s a before and after of this image where I cropped it, and adjusted the ‘temp’ and ‘tint’ to brighten and exaggerate my image to make the slow shutter speed more noticable.
You can find the ‘temp’ and ‘tint’ by looking on the far right ride of the screen when you are on the image, and you should see this image below:
Auto focus is for general use, so you can use it for a large variety of things as it is the basic use for a camera. It automatically focuses the image. Whereas, manual focus is for specific photos you want to take, like close ups and detailed images, so it enables you to control the focus of the image.
Auto focus is typically used to track a subject when it’s moving around the frame, as it’s easier to get a clear image since auto focus will capture the subject without making it blurry.
The Focal Length
Focal length is the optical distance (usually measured in mm) from the centre of its lens and its focus. This helps to determine how much you can see from the camera.
For example, in this image below, you can recognise that the picture taken on the far left has been from up close, whereas the image on the far right is using a high focal length and a shallow depth of field as the background’s blurry. By using the focal length, the man’s face is now more symmetrical, as it’s taken from afar but zoomed in to make him look more proportionally accurate.
Depth of Field and Aperture
depth of field is the range of distance in an image that is sharp and in focus. A shallow depth of field means that only a small area is in focus, whereas a deep depth of field means a large portion of the image is in focus.
Aperture controls the amount of light let into the camera by adjusting the lens. The higher the f/stop number, for example, f/22, the smaller the lens hole will mean there will be a small aperture. This enables the entire image to be in focus, with all the details being clearly visible. Whereas, with a lower f/stop number, like f/2.8, only the subject will be visible with the rest being more blurry. You can look at other examples on this chart below:
My examples from the Canon Camera Simulator:
Shutter Speed: 1/3
Aperture: 22
ISO Setting: 400
At this aperture, you can notice that everything is in focus, as the higher the aperture, the clearer the image will be. This is useful when you take photos where you want everything to be in focus, like if you were to take a photo of landscapes as all the minuscule details are captured.
Shutter Speed: 1/60
Aperture: 8
ISO Setting: 1600
As you can see, in this image the plane is still in focus, however around the edges the objects are slightly blurred. This is because the aperture number is in the middle between out of focus and clear.
Shutter Speed: 1/180
Aperture: 2.8
ISO Setting: 400
In this image, it is recognised that only the subject (the plane) is in focus whilst everything else is blurred and out of focus. This is due to the low aperture number, but this is good for taking images where you only want one subject to be the main focus.
Artist Research
Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Ralph was born in 1925 and passed in 1976, but in his lifetime Meatyard pursued his passion for photography in various ways, like his most famous work ‘Zen Twigs’ and his no focus work. His ‘Zen Twigs’ are photos of zoomed in twigs (using large aperture and a small depth of field) to make the twigs the main subject and the rest blurred. His no focus images are made by putting the camera on manual focus and changing the lens to create a foggy effect.
Ralph specialised in changing the cameras focus and depth of field, as well as motion blur and a range of exposure to invent an interesting look, as your mind tries to assemble what some of the images actually are, like in the ones above where you can partially figure out what it is.
Shutter speed is the time taken for the shutter of the camera to close. There are such things as fast shutter speed – which is needed for fast moving objects like sports, or quick animals, or slow shutter speed – which is used to create a blurred or delayed effect, like a cars tail lights when it drives.
A slow shutter speed can increase the amount of light let in through the lens, whereas a fast shutter speed has a shorter amount of time to let light through the lens, meaning images can sometimes become ore dim-lit. A slow shutter speed’s exposure time is usually around 1/4, and an example of a fast shutter speeds exposure time is 1/500.
In-between these two, is a medium shutter speed like 1/30 seconds. A medium shutter speed is the in-between amount from a fast shutter and a slow shutter speed. To understand this concept, look at the image below:
Artist Research
Francesca Woodman
Francesca Stern Woodman was a talented photographer who was born in America (April 3rd, 1858 – January 19th, 1981). She is well-known for her long exposure images, which consist of herself and other female models making extravagant movements to achieve a continuous and blurred effect. Woodman’s work was in monochrome colours, to enhance and highlight the range of movement seen in her work. Her images were actually part of her portfolio, as she unfortunately passed at only 22 years old. Her work is loved by many still to this day, decades later.
Here are some examples of her work:
In my images, I implemented Francesca’s shutter speed photos into mine by spinning around to create a similar effect. But, I also had to be weary and ensure my images weren’t having exposure for too long, as that can cause the image to dim so the work isn’t visible.
As you can see, her images were in black and white, so I made sure my images also had the same effect by editing them in photoshop.
