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Sunday, October 5, 2008 -
Photography means...
One of the other things I learnt at the course was that the word photography derives from Greek and means "writing with light"
Creative Digital Photography: Day 2
Following on from yesterday's experiences of Day 1:
Our first session today was about colour theory - and included lots of information about primary, secondary and tertiary colours, about colours which are opposite each other in the colour wheel and colours which harmonise. We headed out briefly for a quick colour based photo shoot but it was raining and pretty miserable so spent most of the time in Taj.
We then moved on to more advanced camera settings - covering aperture, shutter speed and exposure compensation in more detail - before heading out into the rain again for some more practice.
The final part of the course covered hints and tips for editing photos and Denise was careful to show techniques that could apply to all photo-editing software, and not just concentrating on Photoshop. I gained some helpful hints about exporting images for print and about recommended places locally to use for printing.
A good day, with lots of reaffirmations that I really do know how to handle my camera. I didn't pick up as much from the technical sessions but found the colour based session really informative. So, my next steps are:
Our first session today was about colour theory - and included lots of information about primary, secondary and tertiary colours, about colours which are opposite each other in the colour wheel and colours which harmonise. We headed out briefly for a quick colour based photo shoot but it was raining and pretty miserable so spent most of the time in Taj.
We then moved on to more advanced camera settings - covering aperture, shutter speed and exposure compensation in more detail - before heading out into the rain again for some more practice.
The final part of the course covered hints and tips for editing photos and Denise was careful to show techniques that could apply to all photo-editing software, and not just concentrating on Photoshop. I gained some helpful hints about exporting images for print and about recommended places locally to use for printing.
A good day, with lots of reaffirmations that I really do know how to handle my camera. I didn't pick up as much from the technical sessions but found the colour based session really informative. So, my next steps are:
- continue taking photos, making taking some based on projects - i.e. colour, photos that emulate masters of photography images etc
- look at more masters of photography and iconic photographs
- attend some of the Brighton Photo Fringe exhibitions, talks and workshops
- read more books
Labels: creative digital photography
Saturday, October 4, 2008 -
Creative Digital Photography: Day 1
Today I've attended the first day of the weekend course Creative Digital Photography with Denise Felkin. I've never had any photographic training before so I approached the course with a combination of nervousness and eager anticipation. There are 5 people on the course - 4 with different digital SLRs, 1 with a compact camera - covering different levels of previous experience. I am probably the most experienced with my camera having had my d80 for almost 18 months, others have had theirs for just a few weeks, but others have had previous film experience including dark room work whereas I have had zero so it all balances out pretty well.
The course started with some examples of masters of photography covering inspiring photographers like Diane Arbus, André Kertész, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jo Spence and Man Ray with examples of their work and elements of their biography.
The next subject was composition, with a brainstorm of what makes a good photograph. Everyone had different points to make during this, with some concentrating on the practical and others on the emotional. We also discussed the building blocks of photography with regards to composition concentrating on colour, tonality and contrast, line, form, shape, negative shapes, texture, perspective and depth, scale and pattern. We learnt about the rule of thirds, and how this can relate to depth in the image (foreground, midground and background) as well as right-to-left and top-to-bottom and the golden section.
We then moved on to getting to know our cameras, listing all the parts of a camera, before finding all the standard functions - ISO settings, white balance etc - on our models.
We finished the day learning about aperture and shutter speed and then were given homework to take a photograph of something which is not man made using the Programme mode of the camera (I would normally chose aperture priority mode). I chose the sea as it is a subject that I enjoy photographing and was delighted to discover that there were some great waves about. I decided to go for a close up on the sea and try and get a feeling of motion - in part because the sky wasn't very interesting and was a distraction. I ended up with 2 photos that I was reasonably pleased with:
and
both of which I plan to submit tomorrow.
The course started with some examples of masters of photography covering inspiring photographers like Diane Arbus, André Kertész, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jo Spence and Man Ray with examples of their work and elements of their biography.
The next subject was composition, with a brainstorm of what makes a good photograph. Everyone had different points to make during this, with some concentrating on the practical and others on the emotional. We also discussed the building blocks of photography with regards to composition concentrating on colour, tonality and contrast, line, form, shape, negative shapes, texture, perspective and depth, scale and pattern. We learnt about the rule of thirds, and how this can relate to depth in the image (foreground, midground and background) as well as right-to-left and top-to-bottom and the golden section.
We then moved on to getting to know our cameras, listing all the parts of a camera, before finding all the standard functions - ISO settings, white balance etc - on our models.
We finished the day learning about aperture and shutter speed and then were given homework to take a photograph of something which is not man made using the Programme mode of the camera (I would normally chose aperture priority mode). I chose the sea as it is a subject that I enjoy photographing and was delighted to discover that there were some great waves about. I decided to go for a close up on the sea and try and get a feeling of motion - in part because the sky wasn't very interesting and was a distraction. I ended up with 2 photos that I was reasonably pleased with:
and
both of which I plan to submit tomorrow.
Labels: creative digital photography, photo
Friday, October 3, 2008 -
FOTB: Chris Orwig
On Monday I had the opportunity to borrow a colleague's ticket for Flash on the Beach to attend Chris Orwig's talk The Art and Craft of Photographic Impact. It was a really good way to spend an hour and I came away feeling quite inspired.
A couple of things that he mentioned gave me a different viewpoint - instead of A picture is worth a thousand words and trying to tell an entire story, how about using a photo as a poem - so more open to interpretation, and based more on emotions and interpretation. Another thing was about the photographers use of prediction skills - when photographing a child with their birthday cake, you want to take a photo as they blow the first candle out, or whilst their cheeks are puffed up ready to blow, not when the candles are all blown out. Similarly when photographing someone jumping or diving into the sea, you want motion. All fairly obvious, but quite nicely put.
One of the interesting tactics he used was that half way through the talk he turned the lights up and made us talk to our neighbours about what we thought of the talk so far. Quite a good way to liven it up.
He also made the point about photographing what really happens, not what should happen - he used weddings as an example, its all very well having the posed group shots, but what about the fun ones - this reminded me of my own wedding photos and the fact that we have photos from the 2 minutes that Richard's Dad wore his Mum's hat, and of me comforting my little pageboy who thought he was going to marry Aunty Jane and how much I still love these photos for keeping the memories alive. This is what I tried to do when I did some photos for my friend's wedding in April.
Finally he described some projects that he'd assigned for us all. They are available, along with some book recommendations and kit recommendations here.
A couple of things that he mentioned gave me a different viewpoint - instead of A picture is worth a thousand words and trying to tell an entire story, how about using a photo as a poem - so more open to interpretation, and based more on emotions and interpretation. Another thing was about the photographers use of prediction skills - when photographing a child with their birthday cake, you want to take a photo as they blow the first candle out, or whilst their cheeks are puffed up ready to blow, not when the candles are all blown out. Similarly when photographing someone jumping or diving into the sea, you want motion. All fairly obvious, but quite nicely put.
One of the interesting tactics he used was that half way through the talk he turned the lights up and made us talk to our neighbours about what we thought of the talk so far. Quite a good way to liven it up.
He also made the point about photographing what really happens, not what should happen - he used weddings as an example, its all very well having the posed group shots, but what about the fun ones - this reminded me of my own wedding photos and the fact that we have photos from the 2 minutes that Richard's Dad wore his Mum's hat, and of me comforting my little pageboy who thought he was going to marry Aunty Jane and how much I still love these photos for keeping the memories alive. This is what I tried to do when I did some photos for my friend's wedding in April.
Finally he described some projects that he'd assigned for us all. They are available, along with some book recommendations and kit recommendations here.
Labels: event
Saturday, September 27, 2008 -
FlickrBike
I was amused to read a Flickr Blog post the other day about bikes which automatically create a photographic map of where they’ve been. Especially as one of them is in Brighton and has it's own flickr stream. It seems to be a great combination of bike and gps, and reading what Lomokev's bike's profile says it uploads the photos automatically to flickr every 60 seconds. There is also a making of video which gives a few more details.
The latest photo from Lomokev's bike is:
The latest photo from Lomokev's bike is:
Labels: flickr
Saturday, September 20, 2008 -
Me, Right Now
A photogaphy meme, discovered from a tweet by Josh
1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair...just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.
5. Add it to the Pool
1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair...just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.
5. Add it to the Pool
Thursday, September 4, 2008 -
Largest reproduction of one of my photos
Today, whilst helping the Madgex team unpack the stand for dConstruct I got to see the largest reproduction of one of my photos to date.
The Original - one of my photos from the last Madgex hackday:
The Stand - with imagery created by Oli:
And as Innei had come along to help us set up, I managed to get some interaction shots as well:
and
The Original - one of my photos from the last Madgex hackday:
The Stand - with imagery created by Oli:
And as Innei had come along to help us set up, I managed to get some interaction shots as well:
and
