Assignment five - Amendments & evaluation

Assignment Evaluation

When reviewing the client brief, I feel the images produced, reflect the requirement for the client. My initial shot list gave a huge variety of possible images to consider, which could still be a possibility in time. For the purpose of the assignment, the images produced were for the updating of the website, with images of the designer frames as way of promotion of the brands.

It was important to gain consent from the clients in the view of the camera, most people seemed very suspicious of me walking around taking pictures, which was also a reasonably confined space when considering candid shots.

I aimed to produce some images in a Taryn Simons style as this, clean, clinical style suited some of the images I needed for the opticians needs. Difficulties encountered with someof the images of photo’s in cabinets were the reflection from the strip ceiling lighting, for which I was allowed to open some of the cabinets and move the glasses around to a degree, some images have some reflection on the lenses which was unavoidable. Also, there was a lot of waiting around for willing ‘clients’ who were happy to have their photograph taken, even with the promise of them not ending up on the website, although one of the ladies was happy with this and one of the photo’s may well be used.

Ideally, I would have liked to include a child trying on some of the colourful glasses, which would have added a fun and human element to the images. The client was very happy with the designer images though, which was my objective.

Assignment 5 - tutor report

Assignment 5

Assignment five looks at professional photography being performed to order, for a contracted purpose, and deliver results that the client has asked for. This well-defined assignment should benefit the photography as it directs the creative effort, which is what I will explore.

This assignment started off with the suggestion of photographs taken for a opticians in my local town centre, photographs which could help to update their website. Researching the subject I came up with a list of possible shots, with updating the website in mind:

Assignment 5 - shot list for website update

This list would produce a good selection from which the opticians could pick from for their website and also a number of suitable images for the assignment,  but I felt the assignment would benefit from a little creativity & progressed with the idea of a set of images to depict 'a day in the life of an optician', bringing in the element of telling a story, which would add some direction to the assignment.

The assignment begins with the introduction of Emma, the Optometrist and subject of my assignment - permission obtained from third parties.

Emma's morning begins with her first consultation, which includes the reading test, directing the client to the correct area to read whilst explaining the reason for the test.

I used a speed light aimed at the ceiling to bounce light into the room without draining the light out of the subjects, the light balance needed to be altered using the sliders in Light Room and also the temperature needed reducing slightly.

Image 1
Canon 70d, RAW, exposure TV, ISO200, 28mm, f/4.0 1/30sec, wb daylight, Canon speedlight fired

The next step of the examination uses the slit lamp, which allows Emma to look at the back of the patient's eye to identify possible problems such as bleeding indicating further, urgent investigation.

As the speed light was used, the white balance was different in these two images, I used Lightroom to adjust the temperature of the white balance to get the best match for the color of the image using the wall and the red coat.

Image 2
Canon 70d, RAW, exposure TV, ISO200, 17mm, f/2.8 1/60sec, wb daylight, Canon speedlight fired

This image shows the lenses & prisms used for refraction,the measurement of strength of lenses required in order to correct the vision to the best possible result, know as the tools of the trade. I used a shallow depth of field to lead the eye to the numbers of the lenses showing the sequence of their storage.  Again the temperature of the white balance of this image was adjusted in Light room to keep the sequence of colour for the set of images.

Image 4
Canon 70d, RAW, exposure TV, ISO200, 54mm, f/5.0 1/25sec, wb daylight, Canon speedlight fired

I wanted to include a couple of still life images in this set, the sort of image produced by Taryn Simon's Contraband, where photographs were taken of items detained or seized from passengers and through the mail entering the United States from abroad. The series gives a fascinating view of what people are prepared to try to bring into a country, and what people feel might be an important item to take with them, it makes the view wonder why this particular item held such importance:   examples of Taryn Simon - Contraband

This image below of a slit lamp is take in a similar style, I would have preferred not to have any background such at the water pipe, but moving the equipment was a little tricky, the background saturation was reduced and shadows lifted in order to achieve the 'sterile' look of Simon's work, more negative space around the object would have produced a more authentic Taryn Simon style image but space was at a premium being in a small optometrist consultation room.

Image 5
Canon 70d, RAW, exposure TV, ISO200, 21mm, f/45.6 1/25sec, wb daylight, Canon speedlight fired

The image below, again in a Taryn Simon style, was taken using white A4 paper on the counter with one of the receptionists kindly holding the glasses (out of shot) by the arm and pointing upwards in order to reduce the shadows created by letting the glasses sit on the paper. I wanted the eye of the view to see the Dolce & Gabbana for obvious advertisement purposes in order for the opticians to use the photo for their website. I Lightroom I reduced shadow, increased clarity, black and quite a bit of white in order to get a cleaner, more clinical look.

Image 6
Canon 70d, RAW, exposure TV, ISO200, 55mm, f/5.0 1/125sec, wb daylight, Canon speedlight fired

For the image below, Emma had moved to the main part of the shop, where a patient wanted her glasses fitted correctly, Emma is seen here adding a dot to the lens in order to fit the frame to the face. I wanted to include an image of Emma working in the shop area in the set to show the variety in her working day. 

Image 7
Canon 70d, RAW, exposure TV, ISO200, 37mm, f/2.8 1/125sec, wb daylight, Canon speedlight fired

Emma finishes off her day with the required paperwork. The white balance of the image was matched to the images taken with the same wall as a background to ensure continuity throughout the set.

Image 8
Canon 70d, RAW, exposure TV, ISO200, 42mm, f/4.5 1/25sec, wb daylight, Canon speedlight fired

During the planning discussion, the owner of the optician's had asked for images of the designer frames, that they could use in the 'shop' or on the website. This image below of some Jimmy Choo sunglasses was taken with the focus on the sunglasses, I felt the blurred out 'Jimmy Choo' was obvious in the background and didn't need to be in focus, the subject of attention being the actual product. This, and the next couple of images are shot with a similar approach, the designer name in the background with the product in focus, shot in this way to gain continuity for a set of image that the client may wish to use.

Image 9
Canon 70d, RAW, exposure TV, ISO200, 44mm, f/2.8, 1/125, wb daylight

Again with image 10, the blurred out 'Tiffany & Co' was enough to gain the interest of the viewer. 

Image 10
Canon 70d, RAW, exposure TV, ISO200, 54mm, f/4.0, 1/160, wb daylight

The name of the designer, 'Dolce & Gabana', is a little harder to see in this image as it appears on the lens of the glasses, but the large, sparkly letters of the brand, leave the viewer/customer in no doubt of the designer.

Image 11
Canon 70d, RAW, exposure TV, ISO200, 38mm, f/3.5, 1/160, wb daylight

The client wanted images of the children's glasses, the first images of the racks of different coloured lenses appeared very flat, I soon discovered that taking photo's of glasses is very 'samey' , I felt the change in the angle of view added a more dynamic and fun look, which, after all, is what the client was looking for. I would've preferred to have a model child to added a different element to the images, unfortunately the only times I could take the images were in school hours. 

Image 12
Canon 70d, RAW, exposure TV, ISO200, 34mm, f/3.5, 1/160, wb daylight

For this image above I tried to capture the colours of the frames, putting the frame on an angle for added dynamism and movement. This was a difficult image to take as the restriction of space and reflection made it difficult to get what I wanted

Image 13

Canon 70d, RAW, exposure TV, ISO200, 31mm, f/3.5, 1/160, wb daylight

I wanted to show the variety of frames available to the customers and tried to get as many of the frames into my frame as possible. I cropped off the corner of the cabinet in the first image as this was too distracting from the subjects. I also converted into black and white to see what this looked like with regard to the lines, but felt the colours added the required depth for the subject I felt.

Contraband - Taryn Simon

The following photographs are part of a set of 1,075 photographs that were taken at both the US Customs and Border Protection Federal Inspection Site and the US Postal Service International Mail Facility at John F Kennedy International Airport, New York. From 16th November 2009 to 20th November 2009. Taryn Simon remained on site at JFL and continuously photographed items detained or seized from passengers and express mail entering the United States from abroad. http://tarynsimon.com/works_contraband.php

This is a fascinating  collection of images which conjour up a range of thoughts and emotions, from the viewer thinking why on earth would someone try to bring such items into another country to absolute revolt in cases such as the bird corpse, labeled as 'home decor' on a flight from Indonesia to Miami. It's also a very interesting view of people's lives and what they view as important and even precious and worth trying to smuggle into the country, of course there are also many cases of people simply not understanding the rules. I like the simplicity of the clinical white background, which, I guess, ensures a consistent cataloging of images, but I also feel this lends a sense of purity and respect for the item, which could initially be viewed as just rubbish but obviously have meant something to the owner. I like the equal, negative space around the subjects, something that seems to be quite consistent throughout the collection, this space, I feel, gives a sense of importance to the item.



This bag of beans, below, shows the amount of effort that has gone into the preparation for travel for the beans, with the ball being taped around several times. The split in the bag just revealing the contents for the viewer to peek in further to see the contents.

Assignment 5 planning

The brief for the images for assgnment 5 are a set of images for a town centre opticians who want images to update their website - this has actually become a real brief.

Initial discussion with optometrist reveals they want a modern, fresh approach to promoting:

• the range of designer glasses
• coloured lenses for children

I reviewed other opticians websites & came up with a list of suggested images:

• young person using contacts
• middle aged woman trying to read menu...before & after?
• front of office/building - update on website
• demonstrate use of coloured lenses
• person having eye test
• optometrist talking with glasses in hand
• customer collecting from reception
• person/child having instructions on using contact lenses
• eyes of different colours

Assignment 4 - Amendments & evaluation

Evaluation:
Had I not had the brief to work too, my images would have been quite different. The challenges I found with the brief were establishing a plan for images that were of a non-tourism approach, this was really quite tough as the area I'd chosen was a key tourist destination for the city.I ignored the usual scenes that appeared in promotional publications, preferring the scenes that meant something to me as a local and also to people I'd spoken to during my planning.

My desire to take night time photo's of deprived areas following my inspiration from Todd Hido's images of houses at night time was thwarted by my nervousness with pointing my camera on a tripod at people's houses in areas I am not familiar with. I therefore changed my choice of area in order to take this kind of image. I would still like to produce a set of night time  images in such areas as these I find interesting and have more emotional connections for me.

I created a dilemma for myself in that my night time photography produced 2-3 nice images, but also my day time images had also. Putting them together I wondered if they looked like a set. After great deal of thought I decided to replace one of the day time with a night time, resulting in an equal set of 3 night with 3 day. I need to tie them together to consider the order of appearance in the blog and in the prints. When viewing Todd Hido's images when displayed in exhibitions, they are quite mided up, like jigsaws that just seem to work, telling a different story with each arrangement, giving the viewer the task of creating their own story. Hido prints out the images and puts into pairs, which then creates a chain that shows the shape and structure of the story, a 'paper movie'.



This is the approach I took to my final selection and the resulting order of appearance. I feel this technique was very useful, it allowed me to move the images around without the constraints of a keyboard and screen, giving the images an instant quality, allowing my thoughts and feelings to flow freely without delay. I'm sure I will use this approach in future.

 Hido states in his book 'On Landscapes, the interior and the nude':

"The viewer should be led along and then surprised. Just when the viewer knows what's coming, do something different. When they've just seen a number of houses at night, introduce a landscape from the daytime. The reader will think 'where'd this come from, and why is it so blurry' (many of Hido's landscapes are often blurry) That picture is there specifically to keep the reader engaged, to be the wrong picture at the night time. In a way, it contaminates the rhythm and spoils the sequence, but in just the right way. Todd Hido 'on landscapes, interiors, and the nude', Aperture p114.



Amendments:

My tutor commented that I may wish to replace the daytime images with night time in order to produce a cohesive set of images, the following replace images 1, 2 & 3:

I chose this image to replacement for image 1,  with the influence of Todd Hido in mind, I chose images that had a sense of feeling and reminiscence, with this image I was reminded of my daughters dolls house with the Georgian windows and pastel colour, the Christmas tree in the centre window, although not immediately noticeable, adds an element of interest and the perfectly placed street light gives the impression of a very bright moon. 

This image shows the Christmas tree outside the cathedral with all the messages from loved ones for this special time of year, once the viewer's eye moves from the star down to the bottom of the tree where the messages are pinned, a woman it noticed to the right of the frame, bending down looking at the messages, adding a human and a suggestion of emotion to the image

This replacement for image 3, shows part of the rear of the Bishops Palace where part of the castle wall is visible, when looking at this view while taking the image, I was drawn to the light on in the roof window with the light on in the porch way, with the car waiting outside the door, has someone arrived to collect a resident who's not yet ready to leave perhaps? 

Assignment 4 - tutor report