Feedback: Assignment 3

Tutor Reports Assignment 3

Overall Comments

There has been a real improvement shown in your appreciation of lighting since the first two assignments. So many images are working with the light -produce modelling, texture and colour saturation that wouldn’t have appeared were it not for some frontal and/or side lighting.

You have also started to take my advice about filling the frame: I’m left in no doubt what the subject is in all of these images, without reading the captions. The purpose of the shot, whether that is its lighting, composition, line, forms, textures or whatever else, is what the photograph needs to home in on. A background can set the scene and aid composition (as with ‘accent’ images for this assignment), but should never compete with the subject of the image, even if the subject is more conceptual and less solid, such as with shadows or reflections.

Your conceptual appreciation has slowly improved throughout these assignments. In this assignment students often struggle to think of colour relationships at the same time as all of the other ways that images are constructed. The result can be two objects together of the ‘correct’ colour relationship, but with no other creative input. In this set of images there are many pictures that would make good images regardless of the colour combination (even in black and white). I’ll comment on some individual images in more detail in the feedback section below.

Feedback on assignment 

I feel that the more natural settings and subjects (e.g. the red life-belt) work better than the set-up shots, such as the orange on the cloth. You have varied subject magnification to good effect. I think that the orange could have been taken even closer – perhaps creating a single curved edge/composition – for this image to work. That closeness would probably have rendered the background out of focus and less obvious and intrusive.

The areas that I think worked particularly well were:

The red life-belt as it was shot against a blanket of green without any real structure to draw the eye from the main subject. It is also placed off-centre, which balances against the slope of the bank and the angle of the trees.

The accent in the first image as it is such an intense red, highlighted by direct light, contrasted against dark blues and greens. Cropping a sliver off each side would remove the red and yellow in the top corners. I like the fact that you were brave enough to place the accent at the bottom of the frame.

I appreciate the subtlety of the blackberry image, as the colours are only just visible. Colour relationships work however saturated the colours are – they don’t necessarily have to be super-saturated. I’m not convinced that the berry is blue in this image, in fact I see some red in the top and background, but maybe that’s just a difference in our screens’ colour settings.

The tree stump is very simple, yet has a clear colour relationship as well as a clear composition; a circular form centred on the thirds.

The blue and red fence and gate is a striking shot, with great perspective making strong diagonal lines of the top and bottom rails. The glimpses of greenery through the gaps accentuate the bold, man-made colours.

Two of the colour harmony shots are very good images – the first image has very simple splashes of green/yellow against a cool blue. The structure appears quite delicate too. I also felt that the rose stood out as it has such soft lighting, as well as the centre being framed by slightly darker (shadowed?) areas.

I thought that the less successful images were:

The purple and green image (9^th) as the structure is complex and the bright sky draws the eye from the subject. The second shot as the daffodils are lost amongst the rest of the scene and compete with the (central) bench.

The bridge has small red areas but the dominating colours are the (brighter) sky and the bank beyond.

The pansy competes with the stone/concrete below it – a lower camera position may have excluded this.

The red and green bush doesn’t have a strong shape or structure to give a composition that can be used to keep the eye on the subject. 

A few shots would benefit from extra exposure, preferably in-camera by using exposure compensation, or in post-production using photo-editing software: The climbing frame, the purple/green shot that precedes the frame and the last image all have bright skies that have fooled the camera into under-exposing. They would all be improved by an extra half a stop to a stop of light.

Learning Logs or Blogs

It is good to see how your log has now developed in to a resource that charts your explorations of other photographers’ work, reflection on your own images and feedback, as well as evidence of wider reading. 

Hopefully your study and appreciation of the work of Michael Kenna has shown you that the image can be really strong, even with very little ‘content’, as long as the lighting and composition direct the eye to the areas of interest. 

Simplicity of line, form and shape – without distractions – is a great discipline to start with. After that you can add elements until you feel there are enough, but not too many. It is a bit like a painter starting with a blank canvas and an idea, rather than trying to paint over another picture – far easier!

Suggested reading/viewing

I recommend reading 'Approaching Photography' by Paul Hill, which explores the ‘why’ of photography, rather than the ‘how’.

I suggest that you also look online at the work of Uta Barth: She uses photography to photograph light, shade, pattern and shapes, without any real regard for subject matter. In fact the subject is light in all its forms and nuances.

For an approach that has a different take on the use of colour (and quite an early one for colour work) – almost as the subject of the photograph - see the subtle and minimalist photography of Keld Helmer-Peterson.

Pointers for the next assignment

Looking ahead, the next assignment is one where choosing a subject needs some care. It could be just one single object or a small group. It can be a simple shape, but would benefit from having many facets, textures, colours etc. 

A distinctive shape will help make for an interesting outline (shape), a good surface texture (and raking light) will give opportunities for texture shots (usually close-ups). It should also have some colour that can be shown off by direct light (colour shots). 

An object you can turn round will enable shots to be taken using sunlight at convenient times of day, as you may rotate it for best effect. Or, you may prefer an object in its natural environment where the sun's position will determine the times of shooting. 

Don’t rely solely on sunlight: Experiment with other light sources (e.g. cloudy daylight, tungsten lamps, a candle, a torch, Christmas lights, LEDs and more). Use reflectors to fill-in shadowed areas to balance contrast. See some of the examples on the OCA student’s web site for inspirations.