Category Archives: Photography Tips

Tips, advice and things I’ve learnt.

Photography: Improving my research

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At assessment of my first Open College of the Arts module, “Art of Photography”, research and context were highlighted as areas I needed to look at – particularly with regard to analysing the work of other photographers.  In my last assignment, my tutor highlighted there was little evidence of empirical research.  I’ve started looking to address this – starting with the visit to Manchester Art Gallery at the beginning of this month – and continue to do so.

I’ve been looking for other opportunities to engage in this manner more.  I’m going to go to the National Media Museum in Bradford in the near future and have been thinking about which of the Look/13 events in Liverpool could be of interest, along with other Redeye opportunities.

In addition to “getting out there” more to broaden my horizons, I’m also researching research; that is to say I’m reading “Behind the Image: Research in Photography” by Anna Fox and Natasha Carauna.  It’s proving to be an accessible and insightful guide to the subject, and I’m about half-way through – and have marked a fair few pages and sections to come back to…

Behind the Image: Research in Photography

Behind the Image: Research in Photography

Thinking about sources of research, recording my own inspiration and some methods on getting ideas down on paper has already proved useful.  My last assignment post reflects this as well as the mere act of thinking about research has also got me thinking more about the planning that goes in to a project overall.  The concept of recording characteristics of a subject, which I used for the Metrolink (not something from the book, but something that struck me as a good way to get themes down), I can see as a good possible starting point for planning the ideas and research that might be needed for a project – and is leading to me recording notes and ideas for the “potential projects” that have been lurking in my mind for a little while.  As the book mentions, over time I might expect to establish a “research framework” – my “tried and tested” approach to research, and I can already see that while that framework can’t be said to be “embryonic” at this stage, it’s certainly a glint in the eye.

Having written up my research, the practical help in the book reminded me of the familiar (from work) approach of mind-mapping.  Applying this to my photograph ideas helped me to get down a good number of ideas for the assignment:

"Mind Map"

“Mind Map”

This is the start of me focusing on this area, and I’ve picked out a few other things I intend to do to develop:

  • spend more time reading books and journals around the subject – theory/practice and other photographers’ work.
  • attend more exhibitions and talks
  • view/listen to more Podcasts on the subject.
  • think about how my other interests and thoughts inform my ideas for image and project creation.

….and in all the above cases I want to develop how I record my thoughts, as the process of getting them down on paper helps me to bring clarity to them as well as developing them further.  It’ll also serve as a useful resource to look back on in the future…

TAOP: Other Learnings – Exposure Issues

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After posting my assignment pictures on Flickr and adding to the OCA group on there, I got some feedback regarding the exposure of a couple of my images.  Essentially they were underexposed and it was suggested I review the Histograms for the images to recognise this and to allow me to make adjustments as appropriate.  Having never looked at Histograms I had no idea how to interpret what I was seeing.

I found the following tutorial which has helped me understand this:

I’ve summarised what I’ve learnt from this below:

Histograms essentially show you how many pixels of an image are at different tonal points (tone is the intensity of colour/light within an image).  On my camera these appear as an RGB Histogram and a separate Exposure Histogram.  The scale runs from 0 to 255 on the tonal axis.  0 is ‘little’ 255 ‘lots’.  The higher the graph, the more pixel of the image are within that tonal range.  So, on an Exposure Histogram a peak towards the left of the graph (nearer to 0) would mean there are a large number of dark pixels.  A peak towards the right of the graph (nearer to 255) would mean there are a large number of white pixels.

A Histogram’s appearance will depend very much on what you are shooting – shooting something with a lot of contrast may well show peaks towards either end of the graph.  Shooting a more balanced scene with less contrast would tend to show a more even distribution, with a peak more towards the mid-point of the graph for the mid-tones.

A quick and dirty example of the Exposure Histogram on the back of my camera is shown below:

There are a lot of dark tones here – from the black on the TV, speakers and media stand (and various black boxes) – so the Histogram is reflecting this with a peak toward the left-hand-side.  There are some mid-tones from the browns and other colours – hence the smaller peak in the middle of the graph.  Finally, the cream paint for the background is shown by a series of peaks toward the right-hand-side of the graph.  I think in this example the image is slightly under-exposed, with detail lacking in the black regions due to the lack of contrast provided by under-exposing the image.

I’m going to leave the Histogram on in my camera for a while so I get used to interpreting it to ensure pictures are properly exposed.

DIY Macro Studio

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I’m not going to claim credit for this, it comes from the following article on Strobist: How to build a DIY Macro studio.

Basically I did the above, using a white bin bag instead of tracing paper, and a beer box. It’s not very flexible as it’s quite small, but once I get hold of a bigger box I can try some larger objects. It’s fine for small things though.

Here’s the box itself:

And here are the results:

As ever, you can go to my Photostream by clicking one of the images above.

Funky Canon 5D Mark II Film

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It’s been around for a while, so a lot of people will have seen it already, but this is a film shot by Vincent Laforet using Canon’s new DSLR – the 5D Mark II.  As well as being a very good, full frame, DSLR it can also record video in full HD.

Follow the link to view:

Canon Digital Learning Center – Sample EOS 5D Mark II Video: Reverie.