Assignment 2 - seeing like your camera

This assignment revolves around high contrast scenes. The sets of images demonstrate the ability to anticipate how the camera sensor will render a scene in order to produce higher quality images which will need less post processing.

Four situations for each set of 3 images were selected, the first being:

“Street scene in the middle of a clear, sunny day – narrow and high buildings which cast deep, long shadows”

The graph shows deep under exposure with the emphasis on the left hand side of the graph, the sliver of a peak on the far right of the chart shows the slight over exposure of the bright daylight seen through the buildings

 Glory hole steps - ISO 100, The image was shot at 18mm, with an aperture of f/18 and shutter speed of 1/13 seconds. I used exposure compensation bracketing +/- 1 stop but there was a little highlight clipping in the small areas of the sky.  I had previously walked around Lincoln to ascertain which buildings might be suitable for this set of images. These steps at the 'glory hole' are narrow enough to allow for the deep shadows required and waited for a bright sunny day to get high contrast image. There were several people using the steps both up and down, I waited around for someone to go down the steps to get nice silhouette. The original image was cropped slightly to remove a mobile phone advert as this helped draw the eye of the viewer to the figure with the green bag which also adds a little colour.

Tutor comments: a good example of a high contrast scene.  The glimpse of the street beyond leads the eye through the frame.

The graph demonstrates the under exposed area to the left of the chart where the shadows fall but otherwise the spread is fairly even



Straits view - ISO 100, shot at 33mm with an aperture of f/18 and a shutter speed of 1/50 seconds. I used exposure compensation to bracket the image by 2/3 of a stop. This image is  a very popular image, it is taken from 'the straits' looking in the direction of the cathedral with the bottom steep hill just around the corner. This image shows the deep shadows formed by the buildings on the right almost chopping the image in half on a diagonal which leads the eye in the direction of the hill. There is a sharp contrast between the dark shadow and the bright sunshine lighting up the other side of the street, the sky is clipped but I've not managed to remove highlight clipping where the sky is concerned for any image but have reduced the exposure to such a degree that the detail is maintained.

Tutor Comments: this is a classic street view do watch out if you use a focal length any wider as you could risk converging verticals.

The graph shows a small area of over exposure which is seen through the archway and demonstrated on the far left of the chart, the remainder of the chart is more or less evenly spread.

Bailgate arch - ISO100, shot at 18mm with an aperture of f/11 and shutter speed of 1/160. I used exposure compensation bracketing 2/3 of a stop as I thought the stone area at the fore of the image might clip and possibly the stone wall. I cropped very slightly on the left hand side to remove the part of the person showing on the left middle of the frame and throwing a slight shadow. The main contrast in this image is the archway contrasting with the surrounding brick and stone, I had hoped that someone might sit on the bench to add an interesting point to the image but while I was waiting I wondered if I could use the shadow of the horse, (the horse is a horse drawn tourist ride), there were many tourists petting the horse, I'd originally tried to get a shadow of just the horse but liked the one that included the girl as it adds more interest to the image.

Tutor comments:  in this image it is the shadows that make the scene.  There is potential here for some creative images by careful selection of the shadows as you suggest in your commentary.

The next 3 images were taken for the criteria: 'A scene with strong incident dappled light'

The exposure is more or less evenly spread with the lighter area of the hat seen on the left side of the histogram

Straw hat on ledge - ISO 100, shot at 48mm with an aperture of f/5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/640. I used exposure compensation for 2/3 stop which was really useful for this image at the difference in the detail of the shadow of the lace on the hat was very different between the stops in the way of clarity and sharpness, by going down by 1/3 of a stop the floral detail of the lace is seen clearly. I took this image at the museum of Lincolnshire life where there is a dressing up area where I found this hat and placed it on the window sill behind me where the bright sunlight was streaming through the lace curtain and cast a lovely light onto the hat, window sill and the side of the window frame. I tried other hats in order to make a set of images but they didn't reflect the light as well as this straw hat.

The histogram shows no over exposure to the right of the chart

Stained glass dappling - ISO 200, shot at 18mm with an aperture of f/3.5 and a shutter speed of 1/1000 seconds. I pondered over this image for a long time, the light streams through the huge stained glass window above casting this gorgeous light show onto the stone floor of the naïve of the cathedral. I took several images to include the window in the image even getting low on the floor. I decided though to simply shoot just the dappled light on the cathedral stone floor, I wanted the viewer to wonder what the image was, it looks like some sort of light show with the angle leading the eye from the fore to the rear of the image. Again I used exposure compensation bracketing which, when stopping down by a whole stop really made the colours stand out.

The histogram shows a sharp peak of underexposure to the left of the image where the shadow of the chair is placed with an even spread to the remainder of the image.

Wicker chair - ISO 200, shot at 55mm with an aperture of f/5.6 and shutter speed of 1/1000 seconds. I used exposure compensation bracketing which when selecting the image taken at 1 stop down showed the detail in the dappled light more satisfactorily than the lighter exposure, the detail of the three different pattern of wicker are transferred to the floor. I included parts of the chair in the image in order to give context to the image, without which would've been to obscure to identify.

Tutor feedback for the 3 dappled light images above: These three images show good understanding of dappled light.  The straw hat is a very strong image.  The soft colours add to the mood of the relaxed feel of the image.

For the stained glass image you could crop the floor line completely out so that the image images become very abstract.

floor line removed - not sure if this makes much difference as the lines in the upper left and right corners of the image suggest a floor??......will crop further

looks less like a floor now and more abstract, attention brought to the colors now

The next 3 images were taken for the criteria: 'Indoor space in which the only available light is strong natural window light'

The exposure is darker to the left of the chart with a small peak at the far right indicating a little over exposure from the light outside the window



This image was taken inside the doorway of a chocolate shop window with the permission of the shop owner, the light comes in from the window cascading light over the confectionary items in the window and in the direction of the pretty chocolate boxes with ribbons on the wall. The cobbled street outside was just clipping, I did consider a reduced exposure which seemed to take the colour out of the chocolate boxes which I didn't want. An ISO of 200 was selected, with a focal length of 21mm, aperture of f/3.5 and an auto shutter speed of 1/320 seconds.



The exposure is a little erratic with steep peaks representing the sunlit cobble street, the white pillar and bright reflective jewellery.

The image was taken in the doorway of a jewellery shop boutique with the permission of the shop owner. There is highlight clipping of the cobbled street outside, if using post production I would reduce the exposure a little which would highlight the young child just stepping into view. There was limited time when taking this image as I needed to close the shop door in order to gain enough room to take the image. ISO 200, focal length 18mm, aperture f/4.5 and an auto shutter speed of 1/320.

There is an slight under exposure seen to the left of the chart representing the lady sitting in the shadow, the rest of the chart is evenly spread with a peak of over exposure to the right of the chart representing the exposure on the wicker flower pot. 

This image falls more loosely into this category as it's neither indoor nor outdoor but the dynamic range I feel fits the requirement with the light coming in from 'outdoors'. I also like the diagonal line the eye is taken on, firstly by the flower pot in the foreground, the lady sitting in the shade behind and the spire in the background then the viewer will notice a child playing in the sunshine to the left of the image. I waited discretely until the lady took a drink in order to create interest and a slight silhouette. ISO 200, focal length 28mm, aperture f/11 and auto shutter speed 1/125.



The final 3 images are for the criteria: 'Indoor scenes illuminated by a single source of artificial light of high luminance'

This image is heavily underexposed which is demonstrated by the sharp grey spike on the left side

Since going through the assessment process I aim to add a deeper element to my images submitted. Thinking about this assignment and seeking inspiration I came across the work of Keith Arnatt, in particular an image entitled 'object from a rubbish tip', I like the action of re-cycling and would like to incorporate this in some way in my images. In 'object from a rubbish tip' a dolls feet are focused on with the body of the doll blurred into the background and facing away, this image is from a series of pictures of discarded objects called 'the tears of things', it has a deliberate echo of Michael Angelo's painting on the Sistine chapel ceiling of God turning away after creating the sun and the moon. The Italian's, who were the only ones to develop a phrase for the strategy called 'Arte Povera' - art contrived from despised materials.

The image of the doll retrieved from the rubbish bin inspired me to produce a set of images for this assignment which I have entitled 'discarded'.  I considered finding objects from a car boot sale or looking in charity shops but in the end obtained 3 items which were once loved by a child and were now much loved but chewed up toys of a colleagues dog. The phrase for these images I thought might be 'Arte Amora' - once loved and loved once more, based on the idea that just because someone has fallen out of love with an object and no longer has a need for it, another can love that object all over again.

In preparation for taking the images I've reviewed again the image by Keith Arnatt, the image of the discarded doll, focussing only on the soles of the feet with a dark background, placed on a plinth of wood. I don't have a plinth but have used a brown bean bag and a brown background. The level of blur I guess was obtained with a zoom lens. I set up my shoot with my background, beanbag, tripod, telephoto lens and laptop with live view and shot the 3 images. This first image was of a chewed up frog, I placed the item in such a position to make it look like it had given up, and entitled the image 'I surrender', the single source of light was obtained from a bedside lamp with a tungsten bulb, I wanted to create a chiaroscuro effect with the low lighting. I wanted the image to be dark and atmospheric. I chose an ISO of 400 as the light levels were very low, shot at 55mm with an aperture of f/5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/6 seconds. It took several attempts to get the position of the frog right, using live view made this pretty straight forward.

The image is heavily under exposed with the sharp spike to the left of the histogram

I called this image 'sad dog',  as it's nose had been chewed off. I placed it in this position in order to give the impression of it looking into the light as if searching for answers & generally looking quite sad. I wanted the image to be partly lit with the tail barely visible, hoping to create a chiaroscuro effect. I used ISO 400, focal length of 55mm, a aperture of f/5.6 and shutter speed of 1/6 seconds. Again it took several attempts to position the dog in the position to created the feel of the image I was looking for but and using 'live view' was helpful in doing this.

Not quite as sharply spiked as the previous 2 images but still under exposed sharply to the left.

This image of a flattened ferret toy I called 'road kill'. I was hoping to get a similar angle to Keith Arnett with the doll and tried several ways of propping it up but it was just too floppy, so I went for a draped, dead sort of look with the head in a downwards position. I again used an ISO of 400, focal length of 55mm, aperture of f/5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/6 seconds

PART 2: For this part of the assignment I needed to select one of the situations photographed in part 1 and to think about what the lighting conditions should be in order to reduce the contrast of the scenes. Consideration was to be applied to the different variables, weather, composition and light sources. Decide which conditions would result in low contrast scenes and re-shoot the selected 3 images and include a reflective summary.

“Indoor scenes illuminated by a single source of artificial light of high luminance”                   The images I shot for this criteria were created using light from a bedside lamp, the contrast was not particularly high in these images and the outcome produced low contrast scenes, although the luminance was not high, the creative process of producing the images was so enjoyable I wanted to include them in the assignment, had the light been of high luminance I could of perhaps used a light diffuser to soften the brightness or place the light further away from the subject in order to reduce the contrast.

“Indoor space in which the only available light is strong natural window light"                   When taking these images there was a balancing act of the high contrast from the window and loosing contrast and detail inside the room. There was a little highlight clipping which was acceptable in order to maintain the contrast in the remainder of the image. If I were to use a flash gun, I would have reduced the contrast and thus the highlight clippings from the street outside but not sacrificing the detail of the indoor areas.

“Scenes with strong incident dappled light”                                                                                   These images required the high contrast in order to created the dappled effect, I wouldn’t have gained the effect with a lower contrast and considered the available light to be perfect for this type of image.

“Street scene in the middle of a clear, sunny day  – narrow and high buildings which cast deep, long shadows”                                                                                                                          These images each demonstrated high contrast created by the shadows from the buildings and the bright sunshine. These I felt were the only criteria of images that could be re-shot. The variables for consideration would be the weather, without the brightness of the day the shadows would be at a minimum, also the time of day would also affect the image, an early morning shot would have prevented the sharp diagonal shadow on the ‘straits view’ but not the ‘glory hole steps’, with the shadow of the horse and girl being lost altogether, although this being an opportunistic image.



I returned to shoot this image on a cloudy day in the evening, I bracketed the exposure by 1 stop, chose an aperture of f/6.3, white balance of cloudy, ISO 200, auto shutter speed of 1/30. On the histogram the exposure is more even, with a strip of over exposure of the shadow under the archway. The lower light makes the detail of the stones stand out and with less brightness in the image the detail is more apparent through the archway making the person on the bench more noticeable.



This re-shoot was again done on a cloudy day in the evening. The image was bracketed by a whole f stop, the image I chose was the +1 stop. A white balance of cloudy was selected, ISO 200, aperture f/4.0, auto shutter speed of 1/80 and centre metered. The histogram is more evenly spread, very different to the first image taken with a deep under exposure, this re-shot image is much less under exposed with only a very small area of highlight clipping where the sky is seen. The image has much less shadow revealing more detail on the walls of both sides of the steps.




This re-shot image of the 'Straits' looks quite different to the first image, in the first image is almost sliced in half by the shadow created by the buildings on the left. Although the re-shot image has a cloudy sky the detail of the image is more noticeable. The image was again shot on a cloudy day in the evening. It was shot using an aperture of f/4.5, auto shutter speed of 1/250, ISO of 200.

Tutor comments: In this part of the assignment you have evaluated each of the different scenes to make your choice.

The three revised street scenes show that you have a clear understanding of dynamic range.  The use of a cloudy day has allowed you to even out the exposure.  This is most clearly shown in the ‘glory hole’ image.