Twilight - The non vampire kind

One thing I seem to be doing a lot recently is taking images at twilight. No, not that stupid movie full of sparkly vampires, when the sun is starting to set. It’s called twilight.

Taking pictures at twilight can give some very nice effects, mostly because the sky goes some lovely shades of blue, purple, pink and sometimes red too.

Example one, copyright to the photographer Chris Nichols.

Found on this website - Clicketh

One of the main things taken at twilight is the sun setting, although I like to focus on the lovely colours the sky goes. Lots of people call Twilight the ‘Magic hour’ due to how it changes lighting, brings out the colours in the sky and deepens shadows, just before night claims the country.

Unfortunately, sunset shots are all the same, there isn’t really anything that seperates them from one another. Sure, one might be taken in a pier in Erith and one might’ve been taken on a beach in Hawaii, but in the end, it’s the same thing.

So, next time you’re out, it’s getting dark and you want to take a picture, follow this sound advice on a website I have been on a few times.

‘Sooooo… What can you do to make your sunset shots stand out? What technique can you make use of that will make your sunset images stand out from all the gazillions of other beach shots, palm tree shots, observation deck pictures, and mountain top photos that are out there?

Simple… Don’t shoot the sunset.

Instead, take your pictures long after the sun has set.

Looooooooong after the sun has set.’

Source - Hewwo!

Multi Me - My Style[?]

Multi me. It’s not the real name for this style of photography, but thanks to the brief we had that involved us doing this tactic, it’s what I’ve learnt it to be.

Multi me in it’s basic form is when you create an image with a model in it numerous times. You take pictures of your model, then merge them all into one picture, so that it looks like there are multiple copies of them.

There are a few ways you can do this. You can put each picture on top of each other on different layers then change the type to multiple, you can layer mask the images through onto the background, or you can do it the way I know which is to down the transparency of the pictures then use the eraser tool to bring the picture from behind forward.

Here is an example of a ‘Multi-me’ that I created recently for my Self Portrait. Ignore the watermark, the image is off my Deviantart account, I had to watermark it to prevent theft.

This one was pretty simple seeing as the two pictures are pretty far apart, so lets get an example that I did with two subjects closer together.

Besides the obvious changes, not much was done to this image in regards to editing the models themselves.

Multi me is a style I love to use and I will continue to use it in as many ways as I can. I hope one day I can create a piece with more then three models in it, as that at the moment is the most I have ever done and that was my first attempt.

Once again, ignore the watermark. The picture is very squashed, there are problems with places not matching and I cut half my foot off, but I think I got better, hopefully I did.

Images were taken off my deviantart which can be found through this link – Clicky clicky!

My tool of the trade - S9600 tribute

Seeing as these free range blogs have to do with Photography, I thought I’d do one on my weapon of choice, my Fujifilm Finepix S9600.

I got this camera for free after I saved it from being thrown in the rubbish, my friends parents were throwing it out because they had no use for it and couldn’t be bothered to sell it on Ebay. They originally bought it for my friends cousin who at the time wanted to be a photographer, but by the time his birthday came around he’d moved onto his next fad an didn’t care about photography anymore. So, I got it instead after my friend told her parents that I was going to college to study National Diploma in Photography and, unlike her cousin, I was serious about it.

The camera isn’t what makes the photographer, it’s the images they produce. This is what I was told when I was in college by my favourite teacher. She told me that because I was upset due to I was the only one in the class without an expensive camera and tons of lenses, and it’s what I live by.

‘Featuring the 1/1.6-inch Super CCD HR sensor, the FinePix S9600 boasts a remarkable 9.0 effective megapixels; ultra-high-resolution images characterized by stunning detail and rich texture.

The Super CCD HR offers high sensitivity with unprecedented image quality. Thanks to effective noise suppression performed by the Fujifilm's innovative RP Processor, the S9600 produces beautiful photos without tripod or flash, retaining the natural light and atmosphere of the scene.

With a high-performance zoom lens equivalent to 28-300mm on a 35mm camera, the FinePix S9600 covers the full range photographic possibilities from wide-angle landscape or architectural shots to normal focal length snapshots and telephoto portraits or sports shooting. With no need to carry additional equipment and no photo opportunities missed because of changing lenses.

Because there's no need to change lenses, the sensor is protected from dust accumulation, a common problem that affects the quality of images captured with digital SLR cameras. With the dust-free, integrated lens construction of the FinePix S9600, you can always count on maximum image quality and never worry about sensor cleaning.

The FinePix S9600 sports a bright and easy-to-see 2.0-inch LCD monitor that swivels vertically to let you shoot from high and low angles with ease.’

That series of short paragraphs basically sums my baby up pretty well. It’s from Google Products, and although the reviews are a little old, they still sum the camera up in a heartbeat. The link below shows the reviews if you wish to see them.

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&q=Fujifilm+Finepix+S9600&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=428917944559208589&sa=X&ei=vF7ZTdn-Osql8QP-9NWDBQ&ved=0CE4Q8wIwAA&biw=1280&bih=709#

                                                                                                       

Although there are a ton of good points about my camera, there are also some bad. Because it is only 9 megapixels, taking some images have proved to be difficult in the past, especially when it comes to taking shots at night. Sure I have managed it, but with a lot of tedious planning and a few hissy fits thrown throughout the process.

Still, I have managed to get some stunning work from this camera, it’s a shame that I’m selling it to my friend soon. She’s going to be starting her Photography course and needs a camera, I want her to start with what I had, just so I can see what her outcomes are.

Below are some images that I have taken with the camera, all of them unedited so you can see what I mean with the noise problem. I’ve picked the images to show the different qualities of my camera. The first being what images come out like on a normal, sunny day. Ignore the watermark by the way, I had to rip this image off my Deviantart, so it has a watermark on to make sure it’s not stolen by anyone.

Next is the chrome feature. The camera comes with a standard black and white option, a normal option and a chrome option, which really brings out colours nicely and gives pictures a warmer feel.

Moving onto the macro feature, the camera comes with two macro lens options, the normal and the super macro. The image below was taken on the normal macro setting.

Now a picture taken at twilight to show how the camera reacts to low light. It’s not the best image I’ve ever taken, but it serves it’s purpose to show how my little fuji handles it.

And finally a picture that shows the problem I was talking about. The cat in the picture was in the shade, but you can see the noise pixels on her very clearly. This problem can be avoided however if the subject is lit properly, I just used this to show.

Overall though, I love my camera. The only reason I’m replacing it is because I think it’s time for an upgrade, 9 megapixels isn’t going to last me forever. I’m upgrading to a finepix S200EXR. I am going to miss this little shutterbug though, but I hope my friend can continue to see it justice by taking some awesome shots with him.

Heck you never know, if I get successful in the future, I might just buy myself a new one for old times sake.

Nan Goldin - Not much of a fan

This blog is going to be all about Nan Goldin.

Nancy Goldin was born in Washington DC on the 12^th of September 1953. She is known for the work she did back when she was a bisexual drug addict that hung around with transsexual and gay people.

Her images aren’t what I call inspiring to me, call me closed minded all you want, but the way I see it, her pictures are just typical snapshots of someones everyday life living with a different crowd. She lived in New York at the time and went to a bar with her friends that was run by the mafia. Her life was surrounded by drugs and alcohol, the excuse ‘it makes us free’ being used as an excuse to using them.

Nans work mostly consisted of her friends and nude people, normally with water in them. She sees straight men difficult to work with emotion wise as they are more reluctant to open up when it comes to their feelings.

She used to have a boyfriend called Brian. He wasn’t a very nice guy, once he read her diary and beat her up because of what he read in it. She was a drug addict around this time and eventually went into rehab, where she took pictures of herself in the mirror.

One thing I do like about Nans images though, is the way she uses water and mirrors to reflect and question identity. Whilst in rehab, she went through some type of transformation, where she says that whilst there she ‘discovered daylight’. Her life before rehab consisted of going out at night, back in those days transsexual and gay people weren’t accepted by a lot of people, so they kept to themselves in the daytime and stayed indoors for most of it. She took photos of herself in rehab to help her ‘fit into her own skin’ again, it helped her realise who she was and overcome the addiction. She moved back to New York a year and a half later.

Nan never really sets up her images when it comes to taking them, they’re all spur of the moment pictures, taken at that precise moment to capture it in time. Yet, they all give out a strong message and show what the culture was like back then.

The picture below is an image Nan Goldin took of herself shortly after Brian beat her up. It shows how much of an asshole he was to her.

Some critics have accused her of making heroin-use appear glamorous, and of pioneering a grunge style that later became popularized by youth fashion magazines such as The Face and I-D.

However, in a 2002 interview with The Observer, Goldin replied to these comments by using the fashion magazines own advertisments against them.

“I never took pictures of people doing heroin to sell clothes. And I have a bit of a problem with it. Like this Dior campaign right now, where the girl is really dope-sick then she sprays Addiction perfume and suddenly she's high. I find that really reprehensible and evil.”


Information Source - http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2002/jan/06/features.magazine27

Bamboozlement through modernism and post modernism.

Ok, this blog might be a little off as I was ill for the lesson, so all my information is coming from what I found and what I know.

Modernism and Post Modernism is a pretty complicated subject to talk about because of it’s wide range and crossing of subjects.

From what I have gathered, the main difference is that Modernism is the rejection of romanticised stuff and quests for truth in all things. Things such as surrealism is an example of this, along with futurism, coupled with a belief and optimism in change mixed with hopes and possibilities of a new age, some people called this the ‘machine age’.

‘They were breaking away from the constraints that society put on photograpers, that photography is only a medium to document, only avail to upper class and only successful in art if they had the same rules in the picture as in a painting.’ – Kahra Okeefe

Post Modernism is somewhat the opposite, but not quite. Here is a quote from a forum site which I think describes it the best seeing as I couldn’t really put into words what I think.

‘Post Modernism photography use, appropriation and borrowing, social/political comment, and humour - parody, irony and playfulness. In general it is also using eclecticism (combining genres and styles from remote source), banality, bad taste, recontexualisation (placing images into new contexts), intertexuality (ref to art and cultural texts rather than reality), reflexivity (self reference) and deconstruction (exposing self-contradiction or the arbitrary or the constructed origin of 'truth')’

Source - http://photo.net/philosophy-of-photography-forum/00CTVK Thomas Gardner seems to clear it all up, although he does use a lot of big ass words that confused the living hell out of me.

To put it into a few words;

Modernism – Realism / Surrealism

Post Modernism – Self reflection and irony.

That is what I make of it anyway, I could be completely wrong, I don’t know.

Robert Frank - A Depressionist

‘Black and white is the vision of hope and despair. This is what I want in my photographs.’ – Robert Frank

Robert Frank is the kind of Photographer that I nickname a ‘depressionist’, because he records things in history that are somewhat depressing, such as the devastation left after the holocaust.

Robert Frank was half German and half Jewish. He is a documentary photographer who wanted to document the remains left after the holocaust. He lived in Paris for a while, before moving to New York.

His main claim to fame was a book titled ‘The Americans’. He shot over 20,000 photos in America alone, the images taken during the time when black people were made to sit at the back of the bus whilst white people sat at the front. The image below is the books cover, where you can see the different classes separated on the passing bus.

Some of Robert Franks interests in Photography are racism, patriotism, African Americans and Americans. He shows in his work how America is not like it is in the movies. People think of America as ‘the land of the free’ and a place of hope and prosperity, when it actually isn’t.

He also did some film work for a while, an example of his work is Cocksucker Blues with The Rolling Stones.

Robert Frank is one of those photographers that I have mixed feelings on if I like their work or not. I’m not a fan of depressionists personally, because their work leaves me feeling empty and cold, but at the same time I like how they are actually able to portray this feeling. I admire his images and work, but I hate them at the same time.

Sources used - http://www.britannica.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/robert-frank.jpg

http://www.professionalphotographer.co.uk/Legends/Profiles/Robert-Frank-Profile

The Big Debate - Have your say

Alright, so the last lesson of Discourse was last week and it consisted of a debate. The debate was over the question ‘Have computers made life worse [photography wise]?’

Now I won’t lie, I missed the beginning of this debate due to the fact I was tired and fell asleep. But according to my friend who was awake, the start of the debate wasn’t very interesting anyway.

There were lots of points thrown back and forth, for this blog I will title the teams ‘For Computer’ and ‘Anti Computer’ just to make it easier to understand.

Team For Computer were expressing their views in a very shy manner, but they had strong points. Some of their main points that computers had made life better were the following;

> Editing images is now easier

> More resources mean more abstract work can be created

> Thanks to the web, photographers can be seen better around the world and it is easier to get information.

> Online blogs help others see into the mind of the Photographer, which helps bring out the creative side of others.

> Thanks to the evolution of technology, we have more ways to distribute art around the world and into peoples homes, through the internet, television, printing the images off using high tech printing services to give outstanding results etc.

Team Anti-Computer were the complete opposite of the first group, then again they did have one of the best speakers in the class on their team. They made their points clear, here are a few of them;

> Computers have made people lazy. Why work on creating a practical portfolio when you can just edit whatever images you have on Photoshop and make an online one?

> Anyone can say they’re a photographer now thanks to editing programmes. There is no hard work in it anymore. Before computers, people who have to take the images on film, you would get one shot at the picture, you couldn’t see the outcome until it was developed. You would then have to work on carefully developing the film and the pictures. These days people just buy a camera, point and shoot, and say they’re photographers.

> It’s even harder to get your name out there now. Thanks to computers, anyone can share their work online, the good work gets drowned under the bad. Instead of going through around 12 people to get a job, you have to go through hundreds.

> Overall, it has made Photography too easy. You don’t need to go out into the world and find jobs anymore, you can just look online and apply via email, sending a virtual portfolio instead of spending time carefully developing images for a physical one.

Personally, I like how the internet has influenced Photography. Yes, it has made it easier and has made old methods almost obsolete, but it hasn’t completely deleted it from the world altogether. Film is still used to this day, sure it isn’t as popular but it isn’t as convenient as digital. You can only get a certain style with film photography, which is why people still use it, to get that old and grainy feel that you can’t replicate with Photoshop no matter how good your skills are.

Basically, the bottom line is; Humanity is evolving. Either evolve with it or get left behind.  

Have an opinion on the subject? Feel free to throw in a comment on your views.