module 1 Systems and Processes

 

Assignment 

Learning Outcomes

• Utilise and understand differences in camera sensor technology in the production of photography

• Utilise a range of systems relevant to contemporary photographers.
• Report on materials, techniques and processes relevant to contemporary photographers.
• Discuss key organisational 'tools" for future modules.

This assignment provides a framework of experience for the working practices of the photography department. Student experience and background varies greatly upon entry to the course, and the work produced within this unit will establish common practices required to successfully commence subsequent units. Emphasis is placed upon competencies in key areas of practice including Digital and silver based processes, health and safety issues and facility utilisation.

Ultimately this assignment require the student to collect and then collate, examples of the varied systems and processes they have been exposed to during their first year of study.

The student may wish to see the file (or files) as the centre-peice of their course, reflecting the dedication, effort and direction of personal experience.

Compile an evidence file (or files) containing the following:

• Health and safety information.
• IT skills; VLE resources ( Moodle) and blogging software (creation and editing)
• Basic studio procedures, lighting and relevant theory.
• Image-capture options and format
• Process options and practice, digital 'work-flow' and DAM software
• Image production options: image editing and digital output options
• Print finishing and destination
• portfolio planning and presentation 
• Exhibtion visit and evaluation

The evidence may be submitted in more than one file ( some of it may be provided in electronic form) but it must be organised and presented to a high standard - the work will no doubt be used throughout the remainder of the course and as such must be informative, comprehensive and thorough.

Assessment criteria

1. Consideration and use of different systems and processes for image production.
2. Quality of finished prints and usability of evidence file.
3. Awareness and adherence to accepted procedures, systems and processes.
4. Utilistion of research and information sources.

Basic Camera Functions

Shutter speed

Shutter speed is how fast or slow the shutter opens and closes, the faster the shutter the speed  the more ur subject will have been frozen in time and the slower the shutter speed the more blurred an image will be, like capturing movement in a photo. But if you was to slow the shutter speed down then you would have to make sure you turn your ISO down also as setting your shutter speed down more lets more light into the lens otherwise you would end up with an over exposed image. Shutter speed is measured in fractions of a second with 1/8 is a slow shutter speed and 1/1000 is a faster shutter speed, if you would set your shutter speed to a fast shutter speed then there would be less use of a tripod but if you was to slow your shutter speed down then you would have to use a tripod to prevent camera shake from happening and your image being blurry.

ISO sensitivity

ISO sensitivity is the sensitivity to light on a digital sensor or film, on my canon 7d my ISO values are 100, 125,160,200,250,320,400,500,640,800,1000,1250,1600,2000,2500,3200,4000,5000 and 6400 and every time you double your ISO you half the amount of time you were going to expose for, for example  say my camera needed one minute to expose an image of a dog then to stop movement in my image i would turn my ISO up and half my shutter speed so that i wouldnt get any movement in the image from the dog moveing.But you do have to think that if i have a high ISO then my image would be become grainy and a lower quality image.

Aperture

Aperture is the size of the hole that lets light in to record an image, the aperture does'nt just predict the amount of light that is recorded but also determines the depth that is in focus which is called "depth of Field" which i will talk about further down this page. Aperture is also referred to as f.stops which is the diameter or the size of the hole it records the image through. I always remember it as the bigger the number the smaller the hole and the smaller the number and the bigger the hole and the bigger the number the less light hits the sensor or film and the smaller the number the more light is let through on to the sensor or film.

Camera Sensors ( CMOS)

A CMOS sensor isa type of active pixel sensor and is in most digital cameras today, which is made using a complementary metal oxide semiconductor. It works by sending by when the light hits the CMOS sensor extra electronics next to each photo sensor converts the light energy to a voltage resulting in your photograph.

Film Camera's

Film camera images are created by a chemical process between the film and the light which creates a negative on the film, the result of the images depends on what i spoke about above with the ISO aperture and shutter speed.With film the ISO  is determined when you buy the film so you would just be using the shutter speed like i explained above, and the size of the film determines the size of the image and the negative is what you use to recreate the image and use as storage. Photographic film is is a sheet of plastic coated in emulsion which contains light sensitive silver halide and to determine the light sensitivity of the film there is variable crystal sizes which also determine contrast and resolution of the film.There is also various film sizes depending on the choice of camera chosen, there is medium format cameras were the film measured at 6x4.5/6x7 and then theres polaroid which was an instamatic camera were you take the shot and a few seconds later your shot comes out the bottom of the camera, then there is large format and usual contact print would be 5x7 inches,and 8x10 inches.

Digital Camera's

Digital camera images are created by a sensor behind the mirror in the camera and with this process the size of the sensor determines the size of the image and instead of keeping your negatives you can store these images created on the digital camera with digital storage.

With a digital SLR to camera allows you to work in 3 main modes the first one is Manual which allows the user to control everything, then there is semi auto were the user is in control of one of the three main settings ( shutter speed, ISO, and aperture) and the camera sets the other 2 functions for you, and then there is auto and this is were the camera decides what it is set to.



here is what your camera should look
like if set to manual

Digital file storage and file types

JPEG- A jpeg file compresses the file size so you can fit more on a memory card and it does this by getting rid of information that cant be seen by the naked eye.

TIFF- A tiff file only slightly compress's an image.

RAW- A raw file doesnt compress any information and is the closet to film quality and doesnt get rid of any information so this would be the largest file.
While im at university i will store my images on an external portable hard drive like this:-

Histograms

An image histogram is a graphical representation of tonal distribution in a digital image, it works by plotting the number of pixels with each tonal value.A photographer can look at the histogram for a certain image and be able to see the entire tonal range of that image.

this is when an histogram looks correct

This is a histogram that is correct when it is not out the boundrie's of the box you know that the tones and exposure are correct  

This is a histogram that shows that the image taken is over exposed

A perfect histogram should not be clipped at either side and should be as symmetrical as possible.

A perfect histogram should look a little like this one below.

Colour temperature

Colour temperature is a characteristic of visible light which is important in lighting, the colour temperature of a light source is the temperature of of an ideal black body radiator (A black body is an idealized physical body that absorbs all incident electromagnetic radiation, regardless of frequency or angle of incidence)

Colour temps over 5,000 kelvins are called cool colours which would be blueish white colours .Lower colour temps such as  2,700-3,000 kelvins are called warm colours which would be yellowish right through to red.

Here is a diagram i sourced on google images that helped me to understand colour temperature

Here is were id select this on my canon 7d

Image processing options

There are a few options available for processing your images like adobe bridge in this application you can adjust your meta data to protect yourself  from copyright, numerically or alphabetically store photos so there would prevent any confusion in the future.

There is also adobe light room which is great for photographers, you can do all of what you can do on bridge and more, very good tool for keeping you organised. Never used this my self but need to start using this myself as it would help me with my bad organization skills.

Then there is a software called aperture which i have never used before but believed to be a very useful tool for photographers ( another piece of software i must try and get familiar with).     

DAM software

DAM software is a file management software for managing photographs, video's, animation and music this software can backup your work and rename change meta data and many other relevant useful tools ideal for keeping organised, this software can even help you categorize your files which i think is a great tool.

Shallow Depth of Field

Task

My task is to create a portrait using the shallow depth of field process with my camera set to the lowest aperture i can get with the lens i have available to me and my focal length to 55mm. I can have the image in colour or black and white that is up to me.

Research on shallow depth of field

 i first wanted to find a simple diagram or table that describes shallow depth of field in a simple and easy way to understand. Here is what i found.

So basically this diagram says that the bigger the number the smaller the aperture and the more in focus the image will be, which is greater depth of field and the smaller the number the wider the aperture and the wider the aperture means the more shallow the image

Here are some examples i picked of google images for shallow depth of field portraits

So task in hand i set my aperture to the widest i could get it which was 5.6 on a standard 18-55mm lens, i set my focal distance to 55mm and my ISO speed was set to 360 here is the result.

contacts 



 I did try getting the bokeh effect but my aperture didnt got that wide we being a standard 18-55mm lens. As you can see in the image my background is quite blurry, if i had a 50mm lens i would get the bokeh effect. But apart from not getting the bokeh effect as far as the shallow depth of field goes ive managed to get the background blurry which makes the heavy knit on his jumper stand out, i think that capturing the dreamy look in his eyes makes for a good portrait, i also like how the sun is shining on his face so one half of is face is in light and the other half is shadowed out.

Health and Safety on location

All the following are based on doing a location based photo shoot:-

• I should take out a risk assesment were i want to do the photoshoot or asssigned to do the shoot.
• I should check to see if there was any fire precautions or any information on what to do if there was a fire.
• If i was to have an assistant i would share any health and safety concerns with them.
• I should check if all equipment is maintained properly and is safe to use including any type of lights i have taken out.
• Always make sure there is no water in or on your electrical equipment unless they have been water proofed. 

Risk assesments are done

Health and Saftey in the Studio 

 To prevent any accidents in the studio photographers should follow these simple guidlines:-

• To prevent tripping up all photographers should make sure all all tripods lights and props are secure on there stands and that there is enough room for people to move around in the studio.
• Be careful of banging your head on hanging lights such as softboxes.
• Always make sure that loose cables on the floor are covered with coloured gaffa tape to prevent any tripping.
• Photographers, models and suchlikes should not epose them selfs un nessicarliy to flash as its can be damageing on the eyes. 

 

Getting to Grips with Hyper focal Distance

My teacher Richard decided instead of trying to teach us in a class about hyper focal distance he would take us out on a day trip up to Silver dale and teach us how to do this on the coast. So packing up my tripod (which is an essential) a polythene bag so when i got there i got weight down my tripod with some stones, a tape measure and my camera, also to make things easier for me to understand i booked out the 50mm lens from the technician Kev.

 Here is some pics of our group at our first stop in Silver dale



 Here some of the students in my class after taking the view and capturing some images.

Here is our technician Kev teaching two of my class friends

Here is a table of hyper focal distance



This is the chart in meters.

My results on hyper focal distance before i got the chart above

I did this image by setting my camera to f.16 my ISO to 400 and my focal distance was set to infinity.So i would be focusing on the tree to the left and anything behind the tree would be in focus.

 My understanding of hyper focal distance is if i set my infinity sign on my 50mm lens to 16 as shown on the image below my aperture is set to f.16 my focal length is 50mm with my lens being a 50mm fixed prime lens then my hyperfocal distance point is 8.41 meters away

Here is a picture i took of the 50mm prime lens set to infinity.

So by using this lens and setting my infinity point to 16 my hyper focal distance point would be 8.2m distance away from the back of my camera or in feet it would be 17.3 feet away





For the image above i set my camera to 24mm and my exposure to f.16 so that would mean my hyper focal distance point would be 1.96meters away.

Blackburn university Department rules and procedures

All formal communication will be kept by tutors by email and letters and any other information will be given out in class tutorial and through moodle. ( moodle is the colleges virtual learning enviroment). And always keep in contact with your tutor about change in address or keeping up to date with your work and progress.

Attendance to all lessons is mandatory and to be successful on the course you will need regular contact with your tutors to discuss progress and the college requires at least 90% attendance. Abesence's for things like illness, family crises, medical or appointments will have to be told to your tutor as soon as possible. Were as if a student has a medical condition or mental health issues or on medication that affect your attendance or punctuality then discuss this with your tutor so they can make reasonable adjustments for the student.

Do not turn up to timetabled lessons late as the staff/tutor has the right to turn you away for that session to prevent any disruption from the class, if this is the case your personal tutor or course leader will be informed of this matter and will discuss this with the student.

Mobile phones are not allowed in sessions as can be very disruptive, phones should be switched of and not put on silent or vibrate, in exceptional circumstances e.g family emergency talk to your tutor and they will consider you leaving your phone on silent, also UCBC has strict rules on taking phones into an exam, if you take your phone in and it rings you will get zero marks for that particular exam.

Moodle is the college's/university's e-learning system which used throughout the college. It is used for many different purposes such as information about the course a student is on, lecture notes and additional learning resources as well as quiz's and chat rooms. Once you have activated the account you can access it with any computer with internet access.

This course holds many international trips which are both educational and cultral, the purpose of these trips is to broaden your field of inspiration, witness new developments and assist with research.

As this course requires specialist equipment you must take responsibilty for its purchase, maintanence and take it into class when necessary, failure to do this may result in you falling behind on your work, and there is also a chance that the tutor will bar you from seesion's if you do not bring the appropriate equipment.

Study time should be around 10 hours a week per credit, this means that for a 15 credit module you should set 150 hours of study in total. This amount includes college hours, private study and working towards assessment activities.

Points to help keep you safe when in college/university buildings

• Always listen to the tutor carefully when discussing safety.
• Take notice of any safety signs and notice's.
• Always tell a member of staff if are worried bout your own or somebody else's safety.
• Walk around college do not run.
• Never block fire emergency doors and exits.
• Do not sit or stand in corridors and stairways.
• Do not mess around with fire extinguishers or any other equipment.
• Always tell a member of staff if you notice broken equipment.
• Use all equipment as shown by your tutor or technican.
• If there is a risk assessment in place for the activity you are carrying out, make sure you read the assessment any any guidance before you start.

Emergency procedures

If you discover a fire:-

• Operate the nearest 'break glass' point to raise the alarm.

If the fire alarm sounds:-

• Close all windows and isolate equipment.
• Proceed to nearest fire assembly point leaving by the nearest safe exit.

Remember:-

• Close all doors behind you.
• Do not stop to collect any personal belongings.
• Do not use the lifts.
• Do not obstruct exits.
• Do not re-enter the building unless told to do so.

If a student has a disability or a broken limb then talk to your tutor and they will tell you how to evacuate the building.

If you have an accident while at the university a first aider can be called by dailing the campus emergency telephone number which is 2222. If the accident is more serious then your next of kin will be contacted to escort you to medical centre or an ambulance will be rang depending on the seriousness of the accident.

Library information

As soon as you enrol on a course you become of member of the university and colleges library, and carry your I.D around with you because you cant use the library without it, the university library allows you borrow 15 books at a time. There is other items available you can book out DVDs and films and even borrow a laptop for a couple of hours.

Book loans periods are standard books 4 weeks, short books for 1 week, and referencing books are usually one night.

Lte fines are as follow 10p for standard loans per day, 30p per day short loans 30p per day for films, and 50p for overnight loans.

Equipment available from photography technican

Digital Camera's:-

Canon EOS 5D DSLR x2

Canon EOS 40D DSLR x2

Canon EOS 20D DSLR

Canon EOS 350D DSLR

Leica D-LUX 1 compact

Sony cybershot DSC-f828 compact

Hassleblad CFV medium format back

Film Camera's :-

Canon EOS 1N SLR 35mm

Minolta Dynax 404si SLR 35mm

Mamiya RZ PRO11 medium format 6x7

Hassleblad 503cx medium format 6x6

Sinar Norma camera outfit large format 4x5

Cambo mono-rail studio camera large format 4x5

Seagull GC104 TLR cameras medium format 6x6 x10

Hassleblad film back x2

Zorki 4 + 50mm rangefinder 35mm

Lenses:-

Canon EFS 18-55mm 350D body only

Minolta AF 28-80mm

Tokina AF 35-300mm (minolta fitting)

Mamiya 80mm

Canon L 24-105mm x2

Canon EF 135mm

Canon 50mm macro 2.5

Canon EF 24mm (1N only)

Minolta AF 70-210mm

Mamiya 50mm

Hasselblad 80mm

Canon EFS 17-85mm

Canon 50mm 1.4

Canon 20mm 2.8

Canon 28mm 1.8

Canon 85mm 1.8

Canon EF 2x extender

Canon 50mm 1.8

Canon 200mm

Flash guns:-

Metz mecablitz x2

Canon 380EX speedlite

Canon ST-E2 speedlite transmitter

Canon 540EZ speedlite

Canon 580EX speedlite x2

Canon speedlite extender cable

Studio Equipment:-

Sekonic L-308B Lightmeter x4
Sekonic L-328 LightmeterManfrotto Tripods x3Cambo Studio TripodCambo Medium Product TableBowens Espirit Gemini Travel Pak (500W) x2Bowens Espirit Gemini Kit (500W)Daylight Fluorescent Uplighters x2

Assorted Backdrop Equipment

(Backdrops – White & Black, Stands and pole)Lighting BoomSekonic L-208 Twinmate Lightmeter x6
Slik Tripods x 10Manfrotto Large Product TableBowens Espirit Gemini Travel Pak (250W) x2Bowens Espirit Gemini Kit (150W)Redhead Tungsten Light Kit

Assorted Light Modifiers

(Honeycomb Kit, Snoot, Brollies, soft boxes)Backlight pole and stand
Assorted Mains Extension Leads

Basic equipment needed for UCBC photography course by the student

DSLR camera should be either Canon or Nikon

Camera bag and cleaning equipment

Tripod

Speedlite of camera flash

Standard prime lens (e.g 50mm)

2GB minimum x2 CF cards or SD cards

External hard drive minimum of 500GB

Software Aperture or Photoshop

Portfolio professional standard

Light meter's and metering

A light meter is a device used to measure light, and is used to determine the proper exposure of a photograph. There are two types of readings there is incident, this is were you point the light meter at the
light source from your subject and then there is reflective readings and this were you point the meter at the subject and the meter reads the light coming of that subject, you usually have one of the reflective meters in your camera. You can buy light meters were they are both built in to the one device or you can have them in two seperate meters.



This is a light meter with a reflective meter built in and
an incident meter built in

This is a incident light meter only

This is a reflective light meter only

Vase of flowers

Shoot, edit and upload an image that represents a vase of flowers in a location or studio enviroment. Demonstrate an understanding of relevant theories mentioned in the presentation including, macro, tripod use, colour temperature, composition and exposure.

On this photo shoot i wanted it to be location based, so i tried a few different location based shoots.

Here are some of the results i got but they are not my final images.

My final piece

When i set up this shot i set up my tripod up and set my shutter to 1/125 of a second, my exposure to f/4.2 and my ISO to 3200 but looking back now i should of set my ISO low and slowed my shutter right down, although i think the grain in the image adds to the atmosphere of the overall shot and gives it an antique look.  I also think think that this shot looks more like an editorial piece for interior design rather than for the vase flowers, even though the vase f flowers is integral to to the shot.

Post production

In photo shop all i did was convert the image to black and white by taking the saturation of colour right down to the bottom with the sliders ( this is what the sliders look like on photo shop)

Apart from that i didn't really do anything else to the shot as the lighting, composition and exposure was all how i wanted it to be.

Greatly British

Great British’ This week, you are required to shoot a photograph entitled ‘Great British’. This image should build upon the themes discussed in the lecture/seminar. The power point for this session will be sent to your email. We will assess this image in critique on Tuesday 27th November 2012. Like most of these picture projects, the title encourages an approach where you ‘design’ an image to fit the description. I like the photograph by Martin Parr because it is not created to fit a brief, but just a moment observed and preserved. In my view this is the essence of photography, to utilise that unique quality of photography,‘preserving a moment’. This image could be as much about ‘the north’ as it could be about ‘Great British’, but I have selected it as an example for a subtle reason and that is that the British are fiercely proud of their homes. This is where the ‘Englishman’s home is his castle’ saying comes from. The main axis of the photograph is the way he is stood at the top of the ladder and the visual relationship between the man and the steps, and is head being framed by the window. Also the cobbles, pavement and stone are nostalgic and characterise a way of life that the man seems to fit. By all means continue to‘design photographs’ to fit purpose, but try to make time to observe and capture images that occur in day to day life. These are two very different ways of approaching photography, try to develop the ability to do both. Think about what it means to be ‘British’. Like most nationalities we have good and bad facets to our identity. The Olympic opening ceremony was an

interesting experience for me and has made me re­‐evaluate what it means to be ‘Great British’. Perhaps viewing this again would be good for contextual research.
Richard Peregrine November 21st 2012

Here are a few examples i found of photographers who have used greatly british as there theme.

Martin Parr

What could be more british than a granny sat on a deck chair with a british flag in front of her face.



 Martin Parr sourced google images

When i thought about what i wanted to do for this brief i decided that i was going to base my image on a Bentley 8 because it was a true thoroughbred motoring racing from the early days of Brookland's. And this car was only affordable by the landed gentry. So to me this shot is Greatly British . I only wanted to concentrate on the car Mascot as this is what i wanted to represent as the British logo.

When i composed this image i set my shutter to 0.3 my exposure to f/5.6 with a standard 18-55mm lens and i zoomed into my subject at 55mm.and set up my tripod as close to the car as possible without damaging the car . On reflection if i was to re-shoot this image i would take a white board with me to the location and place it above so i wouldnt get that reflection in the chrome from the ceiling above. 

Post production

In photo shop i did a few slight adjustments, i spot healed all the flecks in the paint, and selected selective colour picker and brought out the maroon colour so it was a bit brighter. Then i brightened up the image slightly.

 





Environmental Portrait

One of the most popular images a professional photographer will be asked to take,is an ‘Environmental Portrait’.

This could be defined as a ‘portrait photograph that is location based and includes visual elements of an interior or exterior environment

You are required to select an individual that is not a member of your family and not a personal friend. Your subject must be human! The shot above by the Photographer Howard Frisk, successfully combines wide angle lens use, landscape and a stunning bit of hyper‐focal technique.

You can use shallow or deep depth of field, but your image must demonstrate an

Appropriate balance of person and place. You can use colour or black and white, keeping editing to ‘optimization’ rather than manipulation, in other words, ‘keep it real’!

Please upload to your flickr group by noon on 11^th December 2012.

Richard Peregrine

Research

Arnald Newman is legandary for his portrait photography, he was brilliant with a camera, he had a really good eye for obscure viewpoints, from my research that he was very fond of photographing people. The thing that attracts me to his work is definately his use of composition and he has appropriate amount of space and subject matter. 

Here are a few of my favourite photos by Arnald

These are perfect examples of Arnalds eye for unusual viewpoints when it came to photographing people. 

Here is a link to the enviromental booklet that i received from my tutor
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r9nq772kmszewpv/Environmental%20Portrait.pptx

So with the task in hand i came up with the idea of going to Riedys  music shop photographing one of the workers  next to the long line guitars they have in the shop, i set up my tripod at the end of the long line of guiitars.

Here is the link to the enviromental portrait given out in class
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r9nq772kmszewpv/Environmental%20Portrait.pptx

My enviromental portrait 

My camera settings for this shot were 1/100 of a second, exposure to f/4.5 and my ISO speed to 250, i used a 18-55mm lens for the photo as the section of the shop was in restricted on space and i didnt need a wide angle lens, to light this shot i used an external flash system attached to the camera pointing right of my subject to fill in the shadow at the side of him. The only slight adjustment i made to this image was convert the image to black and white other than that its untouched.

Triptych

For this shoot we had to take 3  photographs and and join them as one photograph to make a triptych

Here are some examples of some triptych photos i have sourced of google images.

As you can see they dont always use the same photo of all three as long as the images go in sync with each other you have your self a decent triptcyh photo

My triptych photo

I decided to go up to the local wind farm that has been installed recently up haslingden old road in oswaldtwistle and here is the result after placing them all together.

 For these 3 images i had my shutter set to 1/100 of second and my exposure to f/5.6 and my ISO speed to 160. I edited these images in three seperate colours because i think it shows how dramatic a subject can look and how different the subject can look in  different colour images on the same photograph. Although this is not a very good triptych it shows that i can develop and create this type of photograph

Post production

In the final process of creating this triptych i choose the files i wanted to use by browsing at my images in adobe bridge, picked my 3 pictures then placed them on a blank document in photo shop. I then cropped in the wind mills so they dominated the frame and then converted my files to sepia and black and white and added clarity to all my shots placed them together lined up as best as possible and here i have my triptych.