My final choice of subject
was a dance school in Lincoln, who were performing their showcase at a local
theater. Challenges for this choice of subject were firstly the obvious one of
lighting with the spotlit stage along with selecting the right shutter speed to
capturing the movement of the dancing subjects but also letting enough light
into the camera so as not to produce an image that was too dark, the best ISO
setting for the situation was required. My decision making before commencing
the performance considered the dynamic
range, the possibility of highlight clipping, without the use of any additional
lighting such as a flash gun, which would be a distraction to the dancers and
particularly the younger members of the dance troupe, and the possibility noise
in the final image.
In preparation for the
assignment I have reviewed the work of several photographers, the first being Chris
Killip, a British photographer who, over two decades, shot images of the North
East of England in a documentary style shot in black and white. Killip has a
candid style of photography that captures the gritty and difficult times in
which the images were shot. Although I’m not shooting the same type of image, I
am capturing life events and want to capture some that are natural and interesting
to the viewer.
A photographer admired for his ‘decisive moment’ is the
french photographer Henry Cartier Bresson, who’ s ability to capturing an image,
whether it be one showing his love of geometry or one capturing a perfect
candid moment is revered the world over, his images show that patience and an
innate observation of the whats going on around us are what it takes.
I also looked at the work
of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, their style is a different in that many of
their images are of people who are not smiling, some looking straight on at the
camera and many with items of symbolism, such as an empty plate, sparse rooms
witout possessions suggesting poverty and coping with hardship, which were real
living situations. Other images show groups in their best clothes looking
proud, women hanging out the washing, men at work, basically real life.
Another photographer who has captured real life is
Richard Billington. In his book 'Ray's a laugh' Billington focuses on his
dysfunctional family, his alcoholic Father Ray and his Mother Lil. His family,
torn apart by alcoholism and poverty lived in squalid surroundings with violent
interactions. Billington's gritty candid style captures the living conditions,
emotions, aggression, and squalor with humbling honesty in this fascinating set
of images, which, like Chris Killip, capture real life in such a way that is
fascinating to the viewer, with Billington’s having that extra element of it
being connected to his own life.
Image 1 - Introduction
The lighting for this image was the fluorescent strip lighting of the corridor leading the the stage. A little vignetting directed the viewer to the middle of the image where the title of the programe served as an introduction the set of images.
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shot in RAW at 70mm, f/4.0, 1/15 seconds with an ISO of 200
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Tutor comment: The
abstraction of the programme makes a good starting image. The bright purple catches the eye. The vignette (particularly on the right hand
side) adds to the theatrical theme.
Image 2 – make up
The lighting for this image was the fluorescent strip lighting in the room. I focused on the lady having her make up put on as this is what the viewer looks at first, I wanted to capture the movement of the lady’s hand putting on the make up to show that action was being taken and also to add to the urgency and excitement of the image. I adjusted the exposure and contrast a little.
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shot in RAW at 31mm, f/3.5, 1/15 seconds with an ISO of 200
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Tutor comment: This image shows the make up in process. A second image could be the empty stage or a shot of the theatre waiting for the audience as I think you need to set the place of the story.
In this
image the make up artist is slightly blurred by moving.
Image 3 – monochrome glitter
The lighting for this image was the fluorescent strip lighting in the room. This image was taken in colour but was converted to black and white as the I wanted to focus to be on the make up pencils in the middle of the frame, the sparkly hat in the background was red so detracted too much from what I wanted, when changing to black and white the glittery wands of the make up became more visible. I took another image focusing on the red hat as a focal point but this image worked better.
shot in RAW at 70mm, f/4.0, 1/8 seconds with an ISO of 200
My comment: I wanted to include a close up of the preparations for the production and felt the make up would be a good starting point, and chose this image with the sparkly hat in the background. The image was taken in colour but after converting to black and white it became more noticeable that the make up sticks were also sparkly, this wasn't as evident in colour, I felt this blended the image together and left it in the collection.
Image 3 - hair styling
The lighting for this image was the florescent strip
lighting in the room. Again for this image I wanted to show the preparations
for the performance. The girl is looking at the camera but looks a little
anxious with her fingers holding onto the table, the adult is smiling
reassuringly whilst preparing the little girls hair. There is an unfortunate
clash of colours with the adults top and the box in the background, I
considered cropping the box out but that action would have excluded the
hairbrush which I considered essential to the image. I played around a little
with colour saturation with an aim to solving the orange box issue, but stayed
with the original colour saturation.
shot in RAW at 24mm, f/3.5, 1/8 seconds with an ISO of 200
Tutor comment: In this image the cluttered background could cause issues. However it is out of focus due to depth of field. If you cropped you would also cut the hairbrush in half! This image works well as the girls face is evenly lit. and it is clear on the activity.
Image 5 – final touch up
The lighting for this image was the fluorescent strip
lighting in the room. For this image I wanted to capture the shape and lines
created by the lady’s shoulder and arms. I considered converting to black and
white but felt the tones of the red hair complimented the skin tone and against
the muted background.
shot in RAW at 38mm, f/3.5, 1/15 seconds with an ISO of 200
Tutor comment: This has real potential at an image. The styling of the shot is great. However her arm in the air looks blurred. The highlights on the forearms are bright – you can use the sliders in Lightroom to see if you can pull down the highlights a little.
Corrected: Using the sliders in Lightroom I tried to reduce the highlights on the forearms, not sure if it looks much different...
Image 6 – toy story
This is where the challenge really began. The two main
challenges faced were the position I was allowed to take and the lighting. The
lighting was directional floodlighting from the ceiling in a darkened room and
black curtains in the background. My position was to the right of the stage
where I had placed my tripod. I had taken some test shots before the
performance began with the same lighting situation to establish the ISO level
changing the sensitivity with each image until I reached the setting I was happy
with, which was 3200, I would have preferred a lower setting ideally to reduce
the possiblity of noise and grain, this was outweighed though against capturing
the movement of the performers was an essential element of the images, for this
I selected shutter priority set at 1/125 seconds.
This image of the toy story girls was post processed to
use a diagonal slant as the girls were in a straight line, which can leave the
image a little flat, I altered the lights and highlights of the linear curve
and altered the saturation a little to enhance the red of the hats, adding to
the diagonal.
shot in RAW at 42mm, f/3.5, 1/125 seconds with an ISO of
3200
Tutor comment: Taken images on a stage is hard. The lighting forces you to use high ISO settings, which can comprise the quality of the image. The use of the diagonal is good and gives the image energy. I am not so sure on how it cuts through the girls on either edge of the frame.
Image 7 – hard knock life
The lighting was directional floodlighting from the
ceiling in a darkened room and black curtains in the background. My position
was to the right of the stage where I had placed my tripod. I had taken some
test shots before the performance began with the same lighting situation to
establish the ISO level changing the sensitivity with each image until I
reached the setting I was happy with, which was 3200, I would have preferred a
lower setting ideally to reduce the possibility of noise and grain, this was outweighed
though against capturing the movement of the performers was an essential
element of the images, for this I selected shutter priority set at 1/125
seconds.
I needed to beware of highlight clipping with this
image and didn't have time to check mid shoot so had to rely on my settings
selection, which turned out to be ok, but I took the whiteness down a little
and also the exposure just a touch. I cropped the image to focus the eye on the
girls singing to each other either side of the girl in the middle.
shot in RAW at 70mm, f/5.0, 1/125 seconds with an ISO of
3200
Tutor comment: This is strong image, and a well-spotted moment in the performance. The action and expressions are caught well. The only thing is the focus is sharp on the two girls on the left and the girl in the middle is a little soft.
Image 8 – cruella d’evile
The lighting was directional floodlighting from the ceiling in a darkened room and black curtains in the background. My position was to the right of the stage where I had placed my tripod. I cropped the speaker out of the bottom right corner, which was also where the performer feet were behind. I left the subject to the side of the image in order for the viewer to see the stage in the background making it obvious to the viewer that the young actress was performing rather than just dressing up. The image is a little in contrast of an image by Linda Brownlee's, a portrait of Zadie Smith (see link below) looking pensively towards a light-filled window has the emotional charge of someone deep in inner reflection, which is appropriate for a photograph of an author, whereas my image of the young actress (Cruela D'evile) is one of showmanship and is also appropriate for a photograph of an actress.
Linda Brownlee's portrait of author Zadie Smith
shot in RAW at 70mm, f/4.0, 1/125 seconds with an ISO of
3200
Tutor comment: An interesting comparison with the image of Zadie Smith. I would crop this tighter and remove the wooden
stage. This makes the image much more
dramatic. I have gone for a square crop
– it would be better if she was a little more into the frame and the elbow was
not clipped at the edge
Image 9 – can can
Image 9 – can can
The lighting was directional floodlighting from the
ceiling in a darkened room and black curtains in the background. My position
was to the right of the stage where I had placed my tripod. I had taken some
test shots before the performance began with the same lighting situation to
establish the ISO level changing the sensitivity with each image until I
reached the setting I was happy with, which was 3200, I would have preferred a
lower setting ideally to reduce the possibility of noise and grain, this was outweighed
though against capturing the movement of the performers was an essential
element of the images, for this I selected shutter priority set at 1/125
seconds.
There is some movement seen in the legs indicates the
kicking action. I cropped the image down to exclude a speaker in the left
corner of the image and angled the image until I was happy with the line
created by the legs. I adjusted the linear curve a little to darken the lights
a touch (skin tones).
shot in RAW at 34mm, f/3.5, 1/125 seconds with an ISO of
3200
Tutor comment: This
image is somewhat similar to image 6 with the use of the diagonal framing. Think how else you could photograph either of
these two to give variety between the two shots.
Image 10 – men in black with alien
The lighting was directional floodlighting from the
ceiling in a darkened room and black curtains in the background. My position
was to the right of the stage where I had placed my tripod. I had taken some
test shots before the performance began with the same lighting situation to
establish the ISO level changing the sensitivity with each image until I
reached the setting I was happy with, which was 3200, I would have preferred a
lower setting ideally to reduce the possibility of noise and grain, this was outweighed
though against capturing the movement of the performers was an essential
element of the images, for this I selected shutter priority set at 1/125
seconds.
This image was cropped and angled place the ‘men in
black’ on an diagonal and the little girl ‘alien’ in the centre of the frame, I
adjusted the highlights, shadows and the colour saturation to increase the
yellow of her leotard.
shot in RAW at 50mm, f/4.0, 1/125 seconds with an ISO of
3200
Tutor comment: A
striking image with the yellow acting as a strong focal point. Her legs are cut off a bit awkwardly at the
bottom of the frame. However the action
is well captured on the stage and the image portrays a sense of the
performance.
The lighting was directional floodlighting from the
ceiling in a darkened room and black curtains in the background. I had planned
to move from my position when everyone came out onto the stage, I quickly moved
around part of the audience, ducking past the video camera and up the stairs in
order to turn around and get everyone in the frame, had I not moved, this would
not have been possible. I reduced the ISO to 800 as I wasn't taking pictures
from the side of the stage, and there was a little less movement to capture so
I selected shutter priority set at 1/60 seconds.
For this image of the cast, I
cropped the image a little but decided to include the principal to the right of
the image as her body language directs the viewer to the cast on the stage, I
also purposefully included the silhouettes of the people in the foreground so as
to make it clear that there was a stage and a performance drawing to a close.
As the audience are clapping, there was a single hand in the middle of the
foreground which I removed using the spot removal. 
shot in RAW at 50mm, f/4.0, 1/60 seconds with an ISO of 800
Tutor comment: With
this image – I would have reduced the ISO so much and would have selected a
faster shutter speed. This would prevent
some of the blurred movement from those on the stage (particularly the woman
crouched down on the right hand side).
The
highlights are still showing some clipping on those in the centre so a little
selective darkening may be required (you can do this in Lightroom).
The image
brings the story to a nice close. For a
more artistic shot you could shoot through a silhouette of clapping hands.
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