Exhibition - Biennale

Got a chance to fit in some of the Biennale in Venice. I love this festival. Always there is work I love and work that does nothing for me.
One body of work I saw was at the Palazzo Bembo - Personal Structures.
http://www.palazzobembo.org/index.php?page=28&lang=en

I also raced around the pavilion at Giardini.  The problem is when you see so much is all becomes a blur and often what stays with you is what you don't like or the work that makes you feel uncomfortable.

I did take in the work of a photographer from South Africa, David Goldblatt.  A body of work of ex offenders at the scene of their crime, he had their comments beside each image.  I was particularly interested in how he composed the pictures and used their words. I was especially interested because of a body of work I am trying to do at the moment with addicts in London. The combination of images with the subjects comments rather than an outsiders comments I felt made the work much stronger.

Assignment Four Preparation

I have not totally disappeared even though I have not updated my learning log for nearly three weeks. I have been away. However I have been working on the final images. I've taken some images trying to get my lighting correct. I've been having problems trying to get the lighting corect. Ideally I need more than one light for what I am trying to do however trying to work with what you have is something one has to learn also.

Shiny Surfaces

Well this exercise was one way to get the housework done. I had to polish the tarnished silver egg cup to get the sheen back. The first part of the exercise was to take a photo of a shiny object on black velvet. The image below was taken with daylight coming from windows either side.

I then attempted to make a cone with a sheet of gel. The result is below:

I repeated with a light at the side.

My cone was crumpling in the last shot so i have a bit of colour cast.  However the point of the exercise was to see how to deal with reflections. The ideal for photographing this eggcup would be to use a tent designed for just such a purpose. Lighting outside the tent to keep the cup shiny blocking unwanted reflections.
I'll try and rig up something that will do a better job than my crumpling cone. Although the images aren't ideal i have grasped the principal in how to deal with unwanted reflections.

Exhibition - Photo Quai

The 3rd biennale of photographers around the world organised by the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris.
  All the photographers must be non Western. The aim is to give a chance and to compare the points of view, maybe challenge conventional views of photography.  I found the work incredibly inspirational.  Very varied. The photos are huge, outdoors along Quai Branly and in the gardens of the musee. Something powerful happens to an image when it is that big. I was also surprised at how such varied work could all hang together.  Maybe it is because you have to walk around it over a huge space with everyday life going on around you. I don't know. It is a festival I will look out for in the future. 
http://www.photoquai.fr/en/2011/photographs.html

Contrast and Shadow Fill

Understanding contrast and shadow fill.  The images below were taken as follows:

• No diffuser
• with diffuser
• with a white reflector about 3ft away
• with a white reflector close
• with a gold reflector
• with crumpled foil as a reflector

The last three images are similar. With the light reflected back both sides of the hat are well lit. The first image without diffused light has the most contrast and the right hand side of the had has light shadows.  The pictures were all taken during the day so there is a lot of ambient light, so while the image shows contrast it is not as strong as if the light was darker plus the walls of the room are white. So while I attempted to control the light I still had a lot of light being bounced into the pictures.
I'll do this exercise again with a model when it is darker to demonstrate how much light can be controlled.

Technical problems

Grrrr Hours spent trying to get paper profiles form Epson. They are the most unhelpful help desk ever. I have to download new print driver but their site crashes. The US site hase the icc profile I want but that just crashes as well. I recall having problems with their site before.Despite asking several times they will not email me the profile I need. Why? Because they can download it at their end. Such a simple request. I have spent too long trying to resolve this issue. Have had to resort to solution used in the past with Epson. Get someone in another country to download the file, zip it and email to me. Why Epson can't you do this??? Why can't you zip the file in the first place?

Exhibition - Terry O'Neill

A visit to the Little Black Gallery to see Terry O'Neill's work was very inspirational. As I have been taking photos of smokers for around a year now I was particularly keen to see the most iconic smoking photo of all time. that of Bridget Bardot. Even more impressive is that Terry only had one shot left on his film when he took this shot. I break out in a sweat even thinking of the pressure to get something perfect in one attempt. I love the angle of this shot as well. Must try it out on the next person I accost on the street. Well maybe 2nd 3rd or 4th person. I must also study the images of the Marlborough Man.

More on the Lighting Angle

I tried a different set up to try and show texture with my lighting.  I used an ordinary tungsten desk lamp and placed a gel sheet in front of it to act as a diffuser.  I placed the light at 90 degrees and level with the weta. I chose AV 5.6 focusing on the eyes. This made the foreground and background soft. The position of the light cast shadows on the edges of the legs creating nice texture.
I want to experiment with adding a small amount of another colour into this type of shot if my idea for the assignment is going to work.

The Lighting Angle

Although I have been busy focusing on other projects in the past few weeks I had not totally abandoned the work required for this module. Lighting is one of the most important things to get right in photography. I've been reading several books on lighting. Researching on the web, Spending lots of time fondling lights at the lighting centre that are way too expensive for me at the moment. The book 'Light Science and Magic' has confused me more than helped. I've spent ages trying to get the family of angles into my head.  I understand the general principal but trying to set up the positions is not as easy as I thought. I've had a few attempts to try and meet the brief for this exercise while also trying to apply the techniques I have been researching.
The images below are from one of my sessions. (my model had enough by the last picture and ran off. Says she doesn't want a career as a model. Guess my next session will be an object.)
Take a picture with the light front on. Yet you shouldn't have the light next to your camera. Light from behind, but you don't want to take a picture of the light! The solutions weren't immediately obvious to me, but I did get there, well somewhere on the way there after a few trials. Back lighting - turn the light around and light the area behind the model.  Front lighting - put the light in front of the model but move your camera and have the model turn slightly so they are facing the camera.  I need to experiment a bit more with this if I am to achieve the ideas I have for the assignment.

Recent events

A frantic time recently. My laptop became such a problem that Lenovo agreed to replace it. Finally have new one up and running. Takes forever to get all the sofware reloaded.
Finally handed in my project for my diploma course.
I've had 2 photos selected for the L.I.P. annual exhibition.
Now I can concentrate on getting caught up on assignment 4