Albert Watson

This photographer's name came up at the weekend.  I had to admit to not having heard of him and hung my head in shame.  There are simply too many photographers out there.  The reason his name was mentioned was because he was a master of using a single light as a source in the studio.  This gives great drama and high contrast.


The Wikipedia entry tells me that Albert Watson was born in 1942 in Scotland.  He is well known (except by me) for his fashion, celebrity and art photography.  In his fashion work he has shot over 200 covers of Vogue around the world and 40 covers of Rolling Stone magazine since the mid-70s.  Photo District News named Watson as one of the 20 most influential photographers of all time, along with Richard Avedon and Irving Penn.

The best way to introduce his work is through a video I found on YouTube, produced by Phaidon Press.  It is titled Albert Watson reflections, London 2010 on the occasion of his being awarded the RPS' Centenary Medal in September of that year.

Albert Watson reflections, London 2010

There is also an excellent website which is a showcase for his photographs and it can be found at:

Albert Watson website

Looking at his images I have selected a few to illustrate some aspects of his use of light.  Interestingly, he mentions this in his reflections in the video.

In the photograph of Steve Jobs below, looking just at the lighting on the subject, it appears to be a single light , say at 45 deg to the left and above the camera position.  This type of lighting gives both form and texture and is accepted by the viewer because it mimics the outdoor world, where there is a single light source called the sun!

Steve Jobs

This is a very clean, and 'standard' portrait, using quite a classical approach to lighting.

Moving on to another classical "look" portrait, is that of Uma Thurman.

Uma Thurman

This looks as though just a single light is used, with a snoot. perhaps, to concentrate the light, giving that spot on the face.  I think that the light on the hair and arms is likely, as well, to be from that source.

One of his favourite models, it seems, was Kate Moss and there are several images of her to be easily found in the sources I have used.

Kate Moss

This contrasty image probably used two lights either side of  and above the camera at 45 deg to the subject. I would not normally expect this effect using that setup, which would generally create a flat, shadowless look.  This contrast was possibly achieved  achieved with using oil on Kate Moss' face, creating high reflectance and therefore contrast.  It is certainly not a typical "fashion" shot.

Another Kate Moss image is

Kate Moss

Back to the single light, in this one, I think, to the right of and above the camera at about 45 deg to the subject.  Possibly a light on the backdrop to lighten it.

A photograph which has an interesting story behind it, as told by Watson in his reflections video linked in References, is that of Albert Hitchcock.  Its quite likely that this portrait boosted Watson's career.

Alfred Hitchcock

Again a single light on the subject, above and in line with the camera.  The background appears uniformly lit which suggests a light either side

To me, Albert Watson's work is like looking at a primer on lighting as well as creativity in setting up a portrait.  For my future studio work I shall certainly be taking inspiration from Watson's work.  In "Reflections" he says that he is always learning, trying to do something different each day, to be more creative.  This is something I will aspire to be doing myself.

References:

Facebook Page

Albert Watson website

Albert Watson reflections, London 2010

The World of Photographers

TAOP Part 4: Light

Time to make a start on this part as I have very little time in which to complete part 4.  The introduction to this section in the course manual covers light as "the raw material of photography" and then leads on to "The intensity of light".  Here there is a general discussion of measuring the brightness of light and easily translating it onto a scale which can be used practically to provide the appropriate exposure when taking a photograph.  There is also a brief discussion of sensor sensitivity which is measured in ISO numbers as well as histograms.  These latter two subjects I will expand on further later in this blog.

Measuring Brightness

At this point I reached out for my little-used camera manual to remind myself what metering patterns are available.  Being rather lazy, I generally use what Canon refer to as 'evaluative' metering and this does seem to work well in most circumstances, though when working with speedlights, whether in the home studio or out in the field, I use a hand held meter.  As I have been using hand held meters for some time, I thought that I'd cover those off first.

Hand held meters

First of all, on of the major advantages of using a hand held meter is that it becomes possible to take incident light readings.  Why is this important and when should an incident light reading be taken?  An incident light reading measures the amount of light falling on the subject and this gives an accurate reading to be used in determining exposure.  Such a reading is independent of the texture and colour of the subject, which means that it is not necessary to make adjustments to take those into account.  It is appropriate here to touch on how meters are calibrated, regardless of whether they are internal to a camera or hand-held.  The basic principle which is adopted in metering the brightness of a scene is to reduce it to an 18% reflectance grey card.  This has considerable significance where the subject is predominantly at one or another end of the scale, ie either black or white.  A black surface will cause the meter to calculate an exposure some times up to 2 stops higher than required and a white scene, such as snow goes the other way and causes up to 2 stops  under exposure, giving rise to grey snow scenes.  An incident light reading is independent of these factors so more likely to give you an accurate exposure.

There are practical considerations, however, and it may not be possible to take an incident light reading in most circumstances, so I use it primarily for studio work, whether by flash or other light sources, and also portrait and close up work outdoors.  My first hand held meter was a Weston Master V, which is currently not working, however in doing this research, I discovered a company which repairs these meters, so I may well do so.  What did it look like, well, somewhat like this:

The white plastic attachment seen in this photo is called an "invercone" and it fitted over the area where the selenium cell receptor was located.  This is shown in the photo below.  Using the invercone was how incident light was measured.  Reflected light measurements were made without this attachment, pointing the receptor directly at the subject.

The hand held meter which I currently use is an Sekonic Flashmate L-308S, which is shown below:

The digital display and multiple functions, make this a very versatile tool despite being one of the cheaper models.  In the picture above, the white area is a "lumisphere" which is used for taking incident light readings in the same way as the Weston.  The main advantage of this type of lightmeter is its ability to take readings of flash output.

For metering small areas, referred to as spot-metering, I recall using at college a Pentax Spotmeter V which looked like this:



A rather strange device which incorporated a viewfinder which you used to find the "spot" you wished to meter.

In-camera metering

Reading the manual for my camera, the Canon EOS 5D mark II, I find the following on a page describing the Metering Mode:

Not a wonderful scan on my part, but it illustrates the point.  There are 4 metering modes, all with specific attributes, well described in the illustration.  I have a tendency to use the default which is the evaluative mode, but this is not necessarily the most appropriate in all circumstances.  Having said that, it all depends on how much you get to know your camera.  In theory, partial and spot metering will provide the best exposure values where you are looking to apply your own compensation, for the scene.  Evaluative does many calculations across a number of zones and it could well be applying compensation, so adjusting further may not make much sense.

As the course text suggests, different scenes require different treatment and an understanding of how the metering works in the specific camera in use so that appropriate compensation, if any is required, can be applied at the time of taking the image.

Assignment 3 - Colour

Finally I have come to the end of the part in TAOP which has been dedicated to colour.  This has taken me an extraordinarily long time for a number of reasons, which I will not dwell on here.  During that time I have collected many images which were intended to be used in this, and many were rejected.  Because I took so long over this, I lost my focus and it has only been in the last month that this has returned.  Certainly I found that the way I look at subjects, or rather potential subjects, has changed somewhat and has driven me to look at images taken by others to see what it is that makes that image exceptional.  I have written about some in earlier passages of this blog, and some I have yet to write about.  I was particularly taken by the use of a colour accent by Thomas Zanon-Larcher, in most cases this was red which countered the typically black mood of the many of the images in the series.  The use of colour was incredibly effective in Karl Baden's street photography and is something which I must explore further and try out some of his ideas.

We started with the colour wheel such as the one below and examined the relationship between the colours:



Complementary Colours:

These being colours which are opposite each other and achieve harmony, where compositionally, when they are pure, they achieve maximum effect.

I learnt that Goethe had assigned values to the six colours in the wheel above which resulted in the following ratios:
Red : Green             1:1
Orange : Blue           1:2
Yellow : Violet         1:3

I saw in practice that this was very much the case in the real world which I observed when searching for suitable images.

Similar Colours:

These are colours which are adjacent to each other and it is easy to see how they work effectively.  In particular where the Violet, Blue and Green part of the wheel is classified as 'cool' and yellow, orange and red are 'warm'.  Examples of the use of these colours is seen in architecture and in the way office and other working space is painted.

Colour Contrast:

A strong contrast is achieved by colours which are a third of the way across the wheel from each other.  So Red and Yellow, Orange and Violet, Yellow and Blue (one of my favourite combinations), Green and Violet and Blue and Red.  These can be very effective in providing eye-catching design and this is where their appeal lies.

Colour Accent:

Very much used in design, colour accent is the placement of a small patch of colour in an area of largely different colour.

In Assignment 3 I am seeking to demonstrate my understanding of the relationships in the 4 classes defined above, taking 4 images for each.

Colour harmony through complementary colours

ISO 200, 300mm, f/9.5, 1/180

Using Photoshop's Filters I created a more abstract version of the above image in order to illustrate the relationships.

Lynx

I introduced dynamics into this image by giving a tilt at the time of taking it; this gives the movement shown by the red arrow. Otherwise the balance is through the two blocks of colour one on top of the other.  Looking at the colours, I did not get the relationship quite right as the orange is still somewhat dominant.

ISO 2500, 105mm, f/4.5, 1/10sec

I started this image more as a colour accent, but looked at cropping it severely in order to give more of a 1:1 relationships between the red and green.

Candles

Looking at the abstract version, the red and green are working well together, though the bright red is still dominant.  Movement is diagonally along the line of the 'lights'.  Balance is achieved through the two main blocks of colour as shown above.  The main blocks are dictated by the movement.

ISO 200, 88mm, f/22, 1/60 sec

Although the colours of the fishing nets and ropes are muted through hard use, the orange : blue relationship is evident.

Nets

The abstract makes the colours more vibrant and the ratio of 1:2 is very clear. There is movement along the line of the ropes and balance is achieved as all the elements are stacked one on top of the other.

ISO 200, 105mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec

Although muted, the relationship between yellow and violet of 1:3 is clearly visible here, even more so in the abstract below:

Heather

The balance in this image is straightforward as the colours are in 3 blocks, the central being bviolet with yellow either side.  Though there are these 'static' blocks, there is small movement running along the line of the 'branches'.

Colour harmony through similar colours

ISO 400, 28mm, f/9.0, 1/50 sec

Bluebell woods in Spring are a classic combination of blues and greens, with the vibrant green of the fresh foliage of the trees making a great backdrop to the Bluebells.

Bluebells

Though not so evident in the abstract version, this is a 1:1 relationship between the two colours and these provide a soothing image. Movement is diagonally left to right leading to the sun-lit area in the background.  Balance is straightforward, with the mass of Bluebells stretching across the frame in a single block, woith three further blocks on top, formed by the trees and the sun-lit background.

ISO 200, 105mm, f/4.0, 1/2000 sec

I decided that the yellow californian poppy was just large enough not to be considered an accent in this image.

Yellow Poppy

The greens in this image are slightly muted, so the vibrant yellow is dominant, however, as the two colours are adjacent in the wheel the combination is harmonious.  Movement is along the lines of the flower stems, as sown by the red lines above.  The yellow poppy dictates its own movement as shown above.  Balance is through the blocks of green colour going across the frame, with two smaller blocks on top, one yellow and one green.

ISO 100, 100mm, f/8.0, 1/125 sec

I had fun with this still life, illustrating the finer points of life....  The set up was lit with a single speedlight using a softbox modifier, pointing down to the right and 90deg to the camera, with light being bounced back using a gold reflector to the left of camera.  I wanted to use gold, to provide the 'warm' colour which I felt was required here.  This gold reflection is seen particularly in the reflection on the left hand side of the bottle, which brings it in into the composition.  I used a black velvet backdrop to kill unwanted stray light, as well as to bring the focus onto the glass of port and the cheese.

Port and cheese

The colours, as shown in the abstract are all adjacent, the red of the port, orange of the board and part of the cheese, with the rest being yellow.  Also, there is the orange of the reflection on the bottle.  All is working in harmony, with the proportions seeming to be appropriate.

ISO 100, 105mm, f/10, 1/125 sec

I could not resist this abstract of the blue bollard on the dockside, which is matched to the green, tending to aqua, of the sea.  The neutral stone provides an anchor for the colours.

Bollard

In essence there is balance between the neutral stone and the sea.  The bollard overlays the two main blocks, possibly causing an imbalance.  Movement is given by the shape of the bollard, almost like an arrow-head, pointing towards the top of the frame.

Colour contrast through contrasting colours.

ISO 100, 105mm, f/4.0, 1/750sec

 One of my favourite flowers, the aptly named 'bird of paradise' provided the inspiration for the first of this set of images illustrating colour contrast.

Bird of Paradise

Here the saturated orange of the flower contrasts with the greens of the background which I had thrown out of focus in order to provide a blended green.  These provide the blocks which give balance.  Movement follows the lines of the flower elements, suggesting, almost, an upward explosion.

ISO 200, 400mm, f/14, 1/200sec

Aviation is a passion of mine, so I just had to include this shot of a de Havilland Chipmunk performing at its home base of Old Warden.  Taken in bright sunshine using a shutter speed just low enough to start blurring the propeller.

Chipmunk

The bright yellow of the aircraft contrasts with the blue of the sky.  It is a popular choice of a pair of colours used as contrasts.  Movement is mainly defined along the line of the fuselage, right to left and down the wing to the bottom of the frame which anchors and gives a pivotal movement.  There pivotal movement is completed through the pilot's eyes as he looks forward and down into the turn being made by the Chipmunk.

There are two elements on this image, the yellow of the aircraft and the blue sky, with essentially 3 blocks giving the balance.

ISO 400, 24mm, f/16, 1/180 sec

The 84 foot high square beacon tower was erected by Trinity House in 1832 to distinguish the Gribben from Dodman Point and St Anthony's Head, and thus make navigation into Fowey and the harbours of St Austell Bay safer.  There was never a light  used on this tower, but is painted in broad red and white bands as a 'daymark'.

Navigation Tower

Red and blue are in contrast and not surprisingly red is used on the tower to aid visibility.  Much of the time, during the day, the backdrop to the tower would be the sky, when viewed from a boat at sea.

Balance here is achieved through the two blocks, one being the tower and the other being the sky and white cloud to the left.  The angle of the tower gives movement bottom left to top right.

ISO 200, 300mm, f/7.1, 1/50 sec

I spotted this abstract in a hotel foyer, with the early morning condensation on the glass blurring the outside world.  The green contrasts with the violet, particularly when seen in the abstract version below.

Bamboo

Potentially, this could also fall into the accent category, but I felt that as a substantial part of the image had the violet colour then this was no longer an accent.  The violet works with the bamboo silhouette to provide the balance across the frame.  Movement is expressed along the line of the stems, working diagonally from bottom left.

Colour accent using any combination

ISO 200, 135mm, f/8.0, 1/250 sec

A London garden square provided the opportunity to capture this image, using complementary colours.

Garden Poppy

A red poppy always stands out, and here they a particularly evident against the backdrop of a variety of greens.  If anything, the red of the poppies is even more exagerated in the abstract version, but very clearly an accent.  The colour of the poppy is so vibrant that it balances the other main element which is the green tree fern on the left.  Movement is diagonally into the the garden through the arch created by the fronds of the fern.

ISO 1600, 105mm, f/9.0, 1/125

Early evening, hence the high ISO setting, when I made use of the humble traffic light to provide an accent colour, red against a predominantly blue background; a natural colour contrast.  The yellow of the traffic light itself is very de-saturated, becoming neutral in this image.

Stop

The abstract image exaggerates the red accent, also confirming the neutrality of the yellow.  There are two main elements to this image: the red light and the main part which is the blue sky and the neutral lights housing.  The size of this latter area creates a balance.  Movement is through the red light as shown above.

ISO 200, 105mm, f/16, 1/60 sec

Once again, I am using red as an accent, here the red flowers of the Pelargonium provide the splash of colour against a yellow / neutral wall, using colour contrasts.

Pelargonium

The red of the pelargonium is very evident in the abstract version.  This is balanced by the somewhat larger but less vibrant brown of the window, though the grey stone beneath the pelargonium adds to the overall balance.  The background is yellow, though somewhat desaturated.  Movement is through the rythm of the decorative tiles moving to the left from the anchor point of the grey stone.

ISO 100, 100mm, f/8.0, 1/180 sec

A bit of fun here, with the yellow of the bath duck, collected somewhere on my travels, as an accent on the blue bath towel.  One of my standard set ups indoors, a single speedlight using a softbox modifier to the right and above the camera and shadows filled in using a white reflector.

Kool duck!

The abstract version does not really add much to the overall analysis of this image other than to exaggerate the yellow duck.  The large size of the blue area of the towel below the duck, balances the yellow accent of the duck.  Movement is provided by the sunglasses, diagonally top left to bottom right.

Henri Cartier-Bresson: A Question of Colour

It has taken me 2 months to write my thoughts about this fascinating exhibition which was located at Somerset House in London.  Somerset House is becoming a place I visit regularly to see photographic and other exhibitions.  The exhibition showed 10 Cartier-Bresson photographs alongside those by 15 other contemporary photographers, mostly from the USA.  These photographers included:  Karl Baden (US), Carolyn Drake (US), Melanie Einzig (US), Andy Freeberg (US), Harry Gruyaert (Belgium), Ernst Haas (Austrian), Fred Herzog (Canadian), Saul Leiter (US), Helen Levitt (US), Jeff Mermelstein (US), Joel Meyerowitz (US), Trent Parke (Australian), Boris Savelev (Ukranian), Robert Walker (Canadian), and Alex Webb (US).  

Whilst I am relatively familiar with Cartier-Bresson's work, I had not come across the work of any of the other photographers, excepting Joel Meyerowitz.  As a catalogue was not available and I wanted to learn more about the other photographers I researched their work using the internet as my tool.  My research was limited to finding out more about each of them and their work, but limiting myself to the photographs which were used in the exhibition, where I could identify them from my memory and the brief notes I made at the time.

Cartier-Bresson (HCB) worked almost entirely in black and white throughout his life, and it was more for commercial reasons that he made an occasional foray into producing work in colour.  In general, he was sceptical about colour photography, particularly in its use in photojournslim, due to the slow speed of colour film which frequently required artificial lighting, so the 'decisive moment' was gone.

The expression which is synonymous with HCB, "The Decisive Moment" comes from when he quoted Cardinal de Retz "There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment" in a preface to his book 'Images a la sauvette'.  Later, the English language edition of this book was titled 'The Decisive Moment'.  

The objective of the exhibition, conceived by the curator, William E. Ewing, was to see how contemporary photographers responded to the challenges put down by HCB and produced photographs in colour which had that 'decisive moment' quality about them.

Overall, the exhibition was, for me,  thought provoking and certainly has provided me with inspiration and I would certainly like to follow one or two of the ideas and styles which were exhibited.  In this blog I will be looking in particular at how colour is used and whether the image would convey the same story in black and white.

Starting with a classical HCB image to set the tone:

HCB - Brooklyn, New York 1947

The first of the photographers whose images feature in the exhibition is Karl Baden.

Karl Baden

Karl Baden's images were, to me a revelation.  He has certainly provided me with ideas, though I do not think that I will go as far as he has done in taking photographs while driving!  It is certainly an innovative method and the series displayed at the exhibition made great use of colour to grab the viewer's attention.  The series is called "In and out of the car, 2009 - 2012".  To view more from this set of these you need to look at the web site for the Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston:

http://www.howardyezerskigallery.com/artists_new/Baden/baden_car1.html

Colour certainly "makes" many of these images.  Examining one of my favourites, I find it amazing that he is able to "see" and take the picture in the scant seconds available during the drive-by.

I thought it might be an interesting exercise to convert two examples of Karl Baden's work into black and white as shown below:

Karl Baden - Interstate 84 East

I used Lightroom's standard B&W option to do the conversion, without any adjustments.  To me the B&W version just lacks punch and is therefore less effective.

Karl Baden - Chestnut Hill

Again a standard conversion.  This time, I feel that the conversion into monochrome works and, in my mind, show that the image, irrespective of whether it is in colour or B&W, is true to HCB's "Decisive Moment".  The series causes me to ask the question as to whether these were done as part of a daily commute or on random journeys.  They are all, to some extent, amusing observations of life seen from a car.

Joel Meyerowitz

Joel Meyerowitz was a name I was previously familiar with, not least from the book "Street photography now" by Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren, but also from his coverage of Ground Zero after 9/11.  One of his well known images I include below:

Joel Meyerowitz, Camel Coats, Fifth Avenue, New York, 1975

This is an outstanding example of how colour and light can work together to produce a fantastic image.  This is certainly an example of a Decisive Moment.

Melanie Einzig

To me, Melanie Einzig supplied probably the most significant image in the exhibition.  It truly captures that Decisive Moment.  The image captures a courier going about his business, seemingly unaware of the tragedy unfolding behind him as an aircraft impacts one of the towers on 9/11.  The world changed that day.  Einzig did not publish this photograph for a number of years because she was was concerned about how it would be received.

Melanie Einzig, New York 11 Sept 2001

In "Street Photography Now" Einzig reveals that "Photographing in public keeps me awake and aware, always looking around, in awe at what we humans are up to".

References:

Somerset House web site:

http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/about/press/press-releases/cartier-bresson-a-question-of-colour

The Guardian web site:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/nov/07/henri-cartier-bresson-photography

Howard Yezerski Gallery:

http://www.howardyezerskigallery.com/artists_new/Baden/baden_car9.html

In Public - a street photography web site

http://www.in-public.com/MelanieEinzig

Thomas Zanon-Larcher

In researching various photographers, I came across Thomas Zanon-Larcher.  Sadly an exhibition of his work is ending as I write this, and I did not manage to go and see it, so my comments are based on the work which formed part of the exhibition as found on various internet pages.  The exhibition, "Falling: A Part" which was at the Wapping Project Bankside gallery in South London, used photographs from a number of series made by the photographer.

A particular series of images from that exhibition are relevant to this module on colour and its use in composition.

I quote here from a review by Jocelyn Phillips, who writes in Photomonitor (http://www.photomonitor.co.uk/2013/02/thomas-zanon-larcher-falling-a-part/):

"Four images in the show come from a wider group of sixteen, the initial idea for which was developed from Henrik Ibsern's 'A Doll's House' and in particular the controversial character of Nora, whose final actions in leaving her family were scandalous to the play's 19th century audiences."

Nora, Law School, Oslo - August 2006

In the image above, looking at it from the perspective of colour, the image has an overal blue hue, almost monochrome, however, the red skirt of the model, used as an accent, provides the contrast needed to make the figure "stand out" and not be entirely dwarfed by the columns of the Law School.

Nora, Train Station II, Oslo - August 2006

Once again, in this photograph of Nora at the train station, the red dress provides an accent in an otherwise monotone image.  The use of colour in this way is essential to this image.

Nora, Diechmannske Library, Oslo - August 2006

Reminiscent of the columns of the Oslo Law School, this time we are looking through the blue posts into the libarary which can be seen as a collection of randomly coloured books. This time, instead of using an accent colour, Nora's "top" matches the yellow of the doors and these make up a triangle which enables Nora to stand out from the mainly haphazard background of books.  In the same, warm colour, this time red, there are blocks of books which give the whole a greater sense of warmth and solidity.

Thomas Zanon-Larcher is an interesting photographer who is also very much a story teller.  I certainly need to learn more about his work.  Just from the images above, I am taking away learning points in the use of colour as an accent and how basic design principles "make" an image.

Photographs obtained from http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/2453/Thomas_Zanon-Larcher_Falling_A_Part  All are copyright Thomas Zanon-Larcher and have also been credited to the Wapping Project Bankside gallery.