Feedback on First Assignment: Contrasts

Generally, I was pleased with the photos I submitted for the first assignment, and I was pleased with my tutor's feedback. In a nutshell, I would say about half of my pairings worked quite well. The other half didn't. The main reason they didn't work was that they didn't clearly communicate what I intended. Even though I received positive feedback on the overall quality of the photographs, the main point of the assignment was to clearly communicate something. Indeed, my tutor provided great feedback when he said, "Art is about communication."

This is what I struggled with as I put together my pairings. On the one hand I wanted to be creative but for the pairings that didn't work, while I may have been creative, I didn't communicate clearly enough.

For example, in this pairing, I chose to communicate translucent and opaque. The first photo is pretty clearly translucent, and needs no title or explanation. The second photo is supposed to be opaque, but it's difficult to tell what is opaque about it. The "opaque" in the photo is the lettering the signage that partially spells out what the building is. One must read the shadow, cast by the opaque lettering, in order to fully read the sign. I thought that by showing the relationship between the relationship between the sign and its shadow, the viewer would experience opaque.

I will say though, that the opaque photo is probably the very first photo where I actually felt like an artist. I noticed the relationship between the sign and its shadow out of the corner of my eye when I was driving down the street and it immediately struck me. So I parked my car, and fortunately had my Hasselblad with me. The composition came together very easily and the final product matches almost exactly the vision I was going for. So even though it didn't work for the assignment, it is an important photograph to me.

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I did have some pairings that worked well. An example of this is my "Straight/Curved." I like both of these photos because not only to the visually communicate what they're suppose to, they also express the feeling I was going for in each. Especially the curved guitar. With this one, I played around with the positioning, lighting, and exposure to get the sharp contrast along the curved lines as a way to draw attention to that area. I think it worked well, and I was pleased with the results.








The final example I'll share here is my photo that shows both contrasts in the same photograph. For this one, I chose "Still/Movement." This is a photo of a water feature at an office building. I exposed it for about 1 minute to capture the movement of the water. I positioned myself so I could place the highlight at the top of the waterflow so the eye would certainly be drawn there then follow the line down to the light area where the waterfall enters the pond. I think this clearly shows movement. The sculpture itself is still, but so too are the trees in the background, and the rock feature in the pond. Highlights in the trees near the pond form a shape that almost identically matches the shape of the rocks, which I feel helps pull the composition together. I was a little bit concerned the photo might be too dark, but I think it holds up well, and I'm not experienced enough yet in the darkroom (or with photoshop) to lighten it without raising up the highlights too much. And in the end, I think it works as is.



All in all, I was quite pleased with my photos and the very constructive feedback I received from my tutor. In future assignments, I will work to err on the side of communicating more clearly, even if it results in simpler compositions.

Putting together my shots for the contrast assignment

I've been working hard on the first assignment, contrasts. I think I have all the pairs of contrasts, but I'm not sure if I have the best shots for each one. One of my big takeaways from this assignment is how hard it is to pull it all together.

First, there's the concept, and there's the execution. I've had ideas that I thought would work, to show soft, or diagonal, or whatever, then when I take the photo, it doesn't really come across, even if the shot is well executed. I've discovered that sometimes the concept doesn't work because it's either a cliche, or on the end of the spectrum, comes across as too hokey, sophomoric, or silly. I would also say that I'm still getting used to the idea of creative shots, so I don't have much of a feel for how well the subtleties will come across. So there's this balance on the conceptual side between being creative and unique, but also communicating clearly without laying it on too thick. I guess a lot of the decisions along these lines begin to reflect my style. Perhaps as I get more experienced and develop and become aware of my style, I will gain more confidence.

Then there's the execution. It's amazing how often I got the concept right, but either the light wasn't quite right, or my camera wasn't quite level, or I got a kink in the film while I was loading it onto the spool. Or there's dust on the negative I just can't get rid of. Or the shot's not composed just right. So many factors, and each one of them is a place where it can go wrong. I've discovered that I'm a real perfectionist!

Then there's deciding which are the best examples of each shot. After looking at so many shots for so long, I think I'm beginning to lose perspective.

I would say that working on this assignment for the past month has literally made my eyes open wide. I started out having a hard time thinking of or seeing examples of many of the contrasts. But now, I can be driving down the street and see something out of the corner of my eye that looks like it might work for one of the topics. It's also amazing how you can find examples of these contrasts in a very limited geographical area. I could have done all of them at the nearby marina, if I wanted to. When I first started this project, I never would've believed that. And while I'm seeing what I'm looking for, I'm also just seeing much more. I notice the subtle changes in the light right away. I see small details on the sidewalk while I'm walking down the street. I see the relationship between an object and its shadow. Pretty cool.

Exercise: Vertical and horizontal Part 2

Went back to the marina and took a sequence of photos using a horizontal frame. Again, I used the digital and took many photos. I tried to get some of the same shots, but horizontally. For the most part I was able to get many of the same subjects, but a few boats were gone the second time.



Interesting how the boat doesn't feel as long taken horizontally.


I used a wide angle here, because without it really wide this would've been a really uninteresting photo.



This dinghy feels smaller and you don't get a good feel for the lines in the boat.






I think this would work better closer in. One of the more interesting elements is the buoy hanging down in the middle, but from this distance, it's lost.



I think this worked much better vertically. In this shot, there's too much extra space that detracts from the interesting part of the photo. I wasn't able to get the fish and the block above it, with some of the pier above and below, unless I pulled back and got all that distracting boat in the background.

Exercise: Vertical then horizontal frames

First up are the vertical photos. For this project, I took a sequence of photos framed vertically at the marina, which is one of my favorite places to shoot. The exercise is designed to help me think more about composing vertically. The text says that we have a tendency to think first about framing horizontally, in part because that is a more natural way of looking at the world. So this project was designed to get us to think more about composing vertically.

At the marina I found no shortage of subjects that lent themselves to a vertical composition, all the piers and masts going up would naturally call for a vertical framing in many instances. So, I conciously decided to seek out other subjects to compose vertically. I used the digital camera and took literally hundreds of photos, but will only post 5 here.


This first one has a tall pole would naturally called out for a vertical composition.


This is a dinghy, that by shooting vertically seems to give it a longer feel to it.


Front of wooden sailboat.


Front of motorboat, with anchor. This vertical orientation makes the boat feel really long, it's actually much shorter than it appears here.



This is my favorite. I like the mix of shapes and textures, and also the contrast of the lighter fish shape on the darker pier. I think the vertical orientation helps give the right space for the shapes to work together in a balanced way.

Exercise: positioning the horizon and experimenting with cropping

For this project, I experiment with placing the horizon in the middle, top, and bottom of the frame. Then I added a subject on the left side and repeated the exercise.

The horizon in the middle is generally boring unless there is some compositional reason to place it there. When I was composing for this exercise, it was very hard for me to just put it in the middle without anything else in the photo, so I lined up the three boats. I found that with this composition, it made the horizon in the top the most boring.

Using my wide angle on the zoom (with the digital camera), I added the boat at the dock on the left. It's up close and adds some interest regardless of where the horizon is placed. With the compositional element in the foreground, the placement of the horizon works or doesn't work based on how it relates to that compositional element.









I added the boat to the left which brings some interest into the foreground. This is with the zoom set on 18mm. I like the wide angle used close up on a subject.



This probably my favorite shot of the sequence. I like the boat on the left, and the lineup of boats going across towards the top right of the photo. The clouds are interesting in the top portion of the photo. Even though there's nothing happening in the lower right portion of the photo, I think it's okay. It gives a feeling of space. Might be better with the bottom cropped some though, so the boat in the foreground touches the bottom edge of the picture.


This just seems odd. I like how the boats are lined up again, but I think we don't get enough of the boat in the foreground. And with this framing, it emphasizes the lineup of boats. I think it's because the decks of each boat feel lined up and the deck of the boat in the foreground is emphasized so that's where the eye starts. It makes the eye sort of skim from one boat to the next. Might have worked better if I crouched down to take the shot. I like the sky though, and the American flag is also interesting.


I cropped some off the bottom of the second horizon/top shot so that the boat touches the bottom edge of the photo. I like the feel of it. Also like how the angle of the bottom of the boat is now more emphasized and points towards the other boats. That line craws the eye as much, if not more than the line created by the deck. Either way, both lines point towards the series of three boats in the distance. But I do miss the curve on the bottom of the boat that is now missing. I might try to crop it so that is retained. And without the extra water, you get less feeling of open space. It feels less expansive. I guess that's one of the tradeoffs.




In this one I cropped of some of the bottom, but didn't bring the boat to the bottom edge of the photo. I like the other two versions better. I don't think this works because it's too low to get a feel for the curve off the bottom of the boat, but not low enough to bring in the new dimension that's created by having it extend beyond the bottom edge of the photo.

Getting a digital camera

Up to this point, I've been using my old Nikon and Hasselblad for this course. But I decided to acquire a good digital to help with this course. After a bunch of research, I decided on a used Nikon D200 in excellent condition with a 18-55 zoom.

I basically had two reasons for getting the digital. First it would allow me to take and process more photos. I figure the more photos I take and review, the more material I can learn from. I'll experiment more, which is something that's harder to do with film.

Secondly, I'll get more immediate feedback, which will help with the various exercises. Being able to look at the results right away on the screen will help me understand at the moment the various points of the exercises.

I've also been using is to help research the shots I'm planning to submit for the assignment.

My first impressions after taking a bunch of photos with the digital is that I really, really enjoy film! It makes me appreciate film even more than I did before. Even thought it's an excellent learning tool, for the purposes I described above, I just enjoy the feel of film more.

Exercise: focal lengths and different viewpoints

For this exercise, I changed lenses as I changed positions. First, I used my 105mm, then I moved in and took a shot with the same basic framing using my 28mm. This was a very interesting exercise and I was surprised with the results.



In this shot, I'm using my 105mm.



Then I walked in and shot the same basic scene, but I captured a lot more to the left side then before. I probably could've gone in even further, and I realized this at the time, so I did the exercise again from a different perspective. I was surprised at how wide it is.



Same basic location but from a different spot. First is the 105mm.



Then I walked in closer with the wide angle and got almost the identical edges on both the left and right, so I was happy with that. I am really struck at how much the wide angle changes the perspective (and with the distortion on the sides). My other big impression is how much more interesting the shot is with the wider angle. It's a lot more dynamic. In particular, there's a lot more energy around the rough lines, especially the lower one on the right side. With the 105, that roof line was entirely static. But with the 28, it has a lot of energy. And so does the lower roof line on the left.

I think I've underused my wide angle close up. I have a tendency to think of it as just for getting in the whole scene and really haven't thought much about how to use it creatively, especially closer-up.