'Air raid shelter' Minorca, Spain 1937 Chim (1911-1956)
Sourced from Bridgeman Education. First impressions of this image at that it is a serious image, it feels 'worried' the children standing close together in a comforting way. Behind the children, the adults stay close, the distance from the camera make me feel like they need to keep a distance, to stay together in safety, they seem to move further back into the distance. The light cascades a protective crust surrounding them, the other side of the crust is darkness, unknown for those young faces, faces of the future with older faces keeping them safe.
I didn't realise when finding this image that Chim, in 1947, co-founded Magnum Photo's with Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Wow! what an interesting trio, I'm really looking forward to finding out more about these hugely influential photographers. I recently watched an hour long interview with Henri Cartier-Bresson, what in interesting character, he didn't want to accept praise or accolade. During the interview he said several times, 'I'm not a photographer, I am an anarchist' and 'you just need to know when to 'click''. I feel very excited when reading, searching, discovering anything about Magnum - Chim, Capa, Cartier-Bresson.

'Mafia'
Bevilaqua, Carlo (1900-1988)
This image entitled 'mafia', sourced from Bridgeman Education, was of instant interest to me, I'm not sure if it was the title of the image that caught my eye or the man in the image. I love the way it is lit, with the light catching the side of the sitter lighting his cheek. The unshaven chin, the rolled cigarette and the clothing give an image of a less fortunate individual until you look into the eye! Only one eye is visible, the other in shadow, the expression without looking at the eye could be mistaken as a happy state of mind but the glint in the eye leaves the viewer feeling as though he is looking straight into the eye of the viewer, with a sharp sense of purpose, hard, confident even though clearly an elderly gentleman, the large hands leaves me thinking that this was not a character to me crossed, he seems unaffraid.

Assignment 4 planning

I've had diffiulty in hosing  my 'object' and have found the student forums really helpful, just to discuss what others have done, what they've used to diffuse, filter, control the light has been extremly helpful. I've really felt as though I'm not alone and fellow students are only too keen to offer advice and suggestions.

I have a light reflector with the following effects/backgrounds, silver, gold, black, white and the main part a diffiser. The reflector is a 5 in 1 and measures 110cm in diameter, it's really very useful at it has tured out, the only issue being that it rolls around!

Exercise: shiny surfaces

Exercise: concentrating light

Exercise: contrast with shadow fill

Exercise: the lighting angle

Exercise: softening the light

Project: photographic lighting

This section looks at lighting, from the flash built into the camera, tungsten lamps, portable flash units and different effects. This will incur additional costs to my equipment but I have a birthday coming up so this will hopefully be good timing. It seems that a mains flash is the preferable choice as they can take different attachments for different effects that control of the quality of the light, also a meter would also be required, a lighting stand, a blue filter a white umbrella! This section looks quite technical so I'm sure I will learn some new skills.

Exercise: Outdoors at night

Project: Available light (text)

This project looks at indoor lighting and outdoor lighting at night. Tungsten, flourescent and vapour lamps. Tungsten, the most likely found at home, photographs reddish, the setting on the camera is designed to deal with these lightbulbs.

Most indoor lighting in public places is flourescent, the results of which can appear greenish. Flourescent lighting seems white to the eye but the camera picks up the fact that the lamps put out an uneven mixture of colours. But the colour cast can instead be yellowish, and in any case lacking in 'colourfulness'. The problem for photography is that floursecent lighting does not emit a full spectrum of colours. Digital cameras have a white balance setting designed to compensate, but its not always as successful as for tungsten lighting, because the composition of flourescent lamps varies.

Most flouresent lamps are in the form of long tubes, although more recent kinds are shaped like rings or look like the rounder tungsten lamps. They are known as CFL (compact florescent lights) and are beginning to replace tungsten lamps in the home for cost and environmental reasons. They can be seen to flicker rapidly.

Vapour discharge lamps are the third kind of artificial light but are not as widely used as tungsten or flourescent, except for street lighting, floodlight of public buildings and sports stadiums. Sodium lamps are easy to spot, they look yellow and photograph yellow or yellow-green. These cannot be corrected.

Exercise - cloudy weather and rain, part 3

IMG_5589, a photo by caroline..collins on Flickr.

This leaf is quite glossy, I feel the rain drops enhance the image giving it depth and interest compared to the leaf before the rain.

Exercise - cloudy weather and , part 3

IMG_5592, a photo by caroline..collins on Flickr.

I woudln't normally consider venturing out in the rain with my camera, but this image has captured the raindrops and spider web which if it hadn't been raining woudln't have been interesting at all.

1940's event with iPhone

This is another of the images I took at the 1940's event with my iphone. I like the way the man, the picnic baskets and the lady create an implied triangle, I like that the man is clearly waiting patiently for his lady to put on her gloves, it gives the image a feeling of respect and devotion. The tree frames the image from 3 sides, the branches accross the top, the trunk on the left and the shadow accross the bottom. The image is over exposed, blowing out the grass in the background but I like this, it contrasts with the shadows & for me this makes the image seem a little more timeless.

Exercise: variety with a low sun - edge lighting

variety with a low sun - edge lighting, a photo by caroline..collins on Flickr.

f/5.6 I was careful not to look into the sun for this image, whilst holding the bear with my left hand as still as possible and managed to focus on the eye, even though it's only a stuffed toy, the human eye is still drawn to an eye first. The texture of the ear of the bear is particularly noticible as the light seems to filter through it making what looks like a fuzzy edge.

Exercise: variety with a low sun - side lighting

variety with a low sun - side lighting, a photo by caroline..collins on Flickr.

f/5.6 The change in position to the side image changes the image quite dramatically, the colour of the 'fur' isn't as bright but what is most noticable is the detail that is highlighted, not only showing the texture of the 'fur' but also the velvet scarf. I feel the side lighting emphasises a more natural element, making what I feel to be an overall improvement to the image.

Exercise: variety with a low sun - front lighting

variety with a low sun - front lighting, a photo by caroline..collins on Flickr.

f/5.6 This image of the bear was taken at around 4.30pm facing almost directly into the sun. The colour of the 'fur' is quite bright and the velvet scarf has a shiny reflection.

Variety with low sun - back lighting

From iPhone, a photo by caroline..collins on Flickr.

I was delighted to come accross a 1940's weekend on a visit to Woodhall Spa in lincolnshire. I was also horified to find I didn't have my camera with me! Fortunately I had my ipone 4s which has a reasonable snap shot camera. I managed to get quite a few images of this event and was really impressed with how the camera performed. One of my favourite images, and one that fits nicely into this 'light' section of the course is of a Hurricane bomber on a fly by, the sunlight used as back lighting creating the sillouette. I don't know what the settings were but there looks to be an amount of noticible noise.

Project: The colour of light

This section looks at the way we see colour. What makes light visible and the others (radio-waves, x-rays, radar and light - electromagnetic radiation) is not simply the sensitivity of our eyes. As wavelengths get shorter the colour changes, from deep red, shorter again and we see orange, shorter still we see yellow, then green, then blue then violet. After violet, the radiation becomes invisible once more - it is ultraviolet.

Also reviewed is how we see brightness and how light becomes colour. When the sun sets, which depends on the weather, as the sun gets lower in the sky it becomes yellow, a little lower, orange and the best sunsets have a red sun by the time it reaches the horizon. The particles in the atmosphere scatter some of the light, shorter blue wavelengths are scattered more easily, leaving longer orange/reddish ones visible, this also makes the sky away from the sun look blue. In the shade on a sunny day, the light comes from the blue part of the sky.

In photography the 'colour temperature scale' principles are used. The temperature is measured in Kelvins, similar to Celsius but starting at the lowest possible temperature.

Exercise: Light throughout the day - Dawn to dusk

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