Photography Cert. 2014 -

In class this week we are looking at the art of framing and composition.  Below are artist who use these photography elements to draw attention to their subjects. Bernd and Hilla Becher  A German couple who started photographing together in 1959.  Their body of work is well known for their grids of precise black and which photographs of industrial site known as typology.  The positioning of their images isolated forms whereby the subject was easily identified. They documented these architectural forms for over 40 years. The artistic couple were very particular in how they constructed their photos.  Every part of the process was considered down to the size and relationship between negative and positive space.  Their body of work is exact emanating precision and thoughtful painstaking attention to detail.  A feat in itself considering they used large format cameras, producing medium-contrast gelatin silver prints.  Each structure centered again...

Line and Patterns I've enjoyed looking at these elements.  I've been surprised at some of the photos that I've taken by using them.  It's really exciting and has giving me a lot of direction in the sense of how to compose my shots.  For some who loves clean lines and slick architecture i'm drawn to strong lines and patterns.   Leading Lines A leading line helps direct the eye through different elements of a photo.  Usually they start at the bottom of the frame and guide the eye upwards and inwards.  Usually a leading line will take you toward the main subject. What I'm finding to be difficult is defining what my subject is going to be.  When we do exercises, i understand the task, i just get so bogged down on how to do it right that i often end up doing the same task over and over again.  Time consuming i know, but in a way it gives me time to process what I'm doing.  The pressure i put on myself is to perform at the same rate as ...

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy A Hungarian painter, photographer and professor who is known for his explorations of light, shadow and reflections.  His works featured technology and machines which he was fascinated by.  He sought to improve printed photography by using various mechanisms. Below is a picture produced by a photogram.  These are images made with photographic materials, such as light-sensitive paper but without a camera.  It has examples of patterns and lines.  The light also produces lines forming a triangle on top of the object, keeping the focus on that area. I'm drawn in by the light which forms a triangle over the objects.  There are three strong lines which cross paths and form a mini triangle at the top.  Movement around this picture is possible by the many lines and also patterns of the objects however the eye is led back to the middle by the three main lines.  It's quite an interesting piece and the longer you look at it your eye ...

Photoshop - In class exercises Continuing on from our last class focusing on colour corrections, our exercises was to select some images and make changes in camera raw. Our first exercise was to use the basic panel to colour correct an image - below shows the before and after shot. f/22, 1/10, ISO 100 As you can see the colour changes hide some of the imperfections (btw i've just cleaned my sensors so the dust particles have been taken care of) as well as provide vibrant colours in the photo.  First of all i darken the exposure, this gave a darken the background give a deeper blue and green.  I then played around with the temperature and tint to give the photo a warmer look this also helped to match the background and subject.  Ex 2 - Convert an image to B&W using Camera Raw f3.5, 1/1250, ISO 100  Converting to B&W was pretty simple, when the image was converted it looked a bit bland.  I wanted to highlight the strong lines of the pol...

Wow i can't believe we're into week three.  We've learn't so much over these past weeks.  I'm starting to get my head around aperture and shutter speed.  I'm enjoying this journey and doing my best to keep practicing - thanks family for lending me your beautiful faces! Today its been a bit of a recap and organizing of folders - its quite amazing just how many photos that one can capture over a space of three days, let alone three weeks.  I've trashed many a image - which at this time hasn't resulted in any anxiety yaaay.  Moving right along.... Class work - today we were asked to correct the exposure to three images converting on of these images to B&W.  We also needed to re-size the images to 1200px and save them as a jpg.  Here are two of the images i worked on.  These pictures were taken at the MIT Rugby Game of the Week featuring Alfriston College v Rosehill College.  f/6.3, 1/320, ISO 400 No 14 was quite a treat to cap...

"For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression." - Henri Cartier-Bresson Henri Cartier-Bresson painter, photographer, artist, film maker He began as a painter early on focusing on surrealism.  In 1932 he began take photos which began his life-long passion for photography. He spent over three decades as a photojournalist working for Life and other journals.  He documented great upheavals of the 20th century such as - the Spanish civil war, the liberation of Paris in 1944, the 1968 studen rebellion in Paris, the fall of the Kuomintang in China to the communists, the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the Berlin Wall and the deserts of Egypt.  His most renowned photographs are of ordinary daily life such as Behind the Gare St. Lazare as pictured below. Behind the Gare St Laza...