Assignment 2 Introduction
Following discussion with my tutor the assignment will consist of the following components:
·
Project 3: “Experiments in Key”
·
Project 5: “An Impartial View”
·
Project 8: “The Decisive Moment”
The discussion
documents and images for the three projects are presented in three separate
posts, starting in this post with Project 3.
Project 3: “Experiments in Key”: Assignment Work
This project calls for the
student to produce two distinctly high-key images and two distinctly low-key
images, all in black and white.
Because I had agreed with my
tutor that all the assignment work should relate directly to the major project
(on our deliberate practice of feeding wild birds, and why we do this) I
decided to concentrate on images of wild birds and, in particular, water birds
that were either attracted to food provided for them by ourselves, or simply
present in the areas where birds were fed. Preliminary research involved
conducting internet searches, looking for and at high key and low key images of
birds and looking for inspiration, appropriate images and subject matter in the
many natural history books (including “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” and
the “British Wildlife Photography Awards” series) that I possess. Practice
involved several visits to lakes and ponds where wild birds are fed, together
with the field trips that I carried out in search of images for other project
work.
Workflow
I concentrated on photographing
birds (e.g. coots, tufted ducks and swans) that were predominantly “monochrome”
(either black or white, or a mixture of the two) and looking for lighting
conditions (e.g. back-lighting for silhouettes in high key images or dark
backgrounds in low sun for low key images) that would be appropriate for the
production of suitable images. The work was carried out in March and April 2014
and 50+ “candidate” colour images were produced.
The Raw images were downloaded
onto the computer and checked for flaws. Those that were deemed of suitable
quality were initially edited using Nikon “View NX2” software, converted into
8-bit “Tiff” files and then converted into black and white using “Photoshop
Elements 8”, with the colour (red, green and blue) and contrast sliders being
used to produce an effective image. The images were then lightened (for high
key images) or darkened (for low key images), using “Levels” (to adjust the
histogram) and the brightness, shadows/highlights and contrast settings, to
produce the final images.
This process was carried out on
around 25 images, from which the very difficult process of selecting two high
key and two low key images for submission was carried out: the selected images
are described below.
High Key Image 1: “Whooper Swans Landing”
High Key Image 1;
Nikon D7000 with 70-300mm zoom; ISO 500, 1/1000s, f/7.1
The photograph was taken
mid-afternoon in early March 2014 as three young whooper swans landed a few
hundred metres from the main hide at WWT Welney, Norfolk. The swans are fed
here every day during the winter time and many whooper swans arrive from the
neighbouring fields in order to take advantage of free hand-outs. I was here to
photograph the feeding of the swans, but this photograph was one of several
that I took of swans landing, in the hope (not realised) that I could produce a
sequence for Project 8: “The Decisive Moment”. The middle swan has just touched
down, whilst the others are about to. Ideally, I would have preferred the
leading swan to have touched down first and for it to be a little closer to the
other two (see later post) but I would have had to have cropped the image in
“letterbox” style anyway, in order to capture the direction of the birds’
movement and to eliminate messy vegetation at the top and bottom of the screen.
Because this image was cropped and subsequently printed in “letterbox” style I
have put a thin, black border around it in order to indicate its dimensions.
The photograph was taken more or
less into the sun, as can be seen from the birds’ shadows. I saw the potential
for producing a high key image, but wanted to retain some detail in the birds’
bodies and to retain some “realism” in the image. Image 1 represents a
compromise, but I wonder whether I should have lightened the image further, at
the expense of detail. Apart from the birds and their shadows, some detail on
the surface of the water and a small number of selected pieces of vegetation at
the top right hand corner of the image (a few more items of vegetation were
cloned out) are all that can be seen.
High Key Image 2;
Nikon D7000 with 70-300mm lens; ISO 500, 1/200s, f/18
These gulls were photographed on
a Scarborough beach in early April 2014, on a day of low cloud and mist, whilst
I was looking for images for Project 5: “An Impartial View”, which features
herring gulls. I was attracted by the symmetry of the gulls’ positioning and
the reflections of both sets of tail feathers in the little channel of water in
front of them. In post-processing I struggled to decide whether to crop in
“portrait” mode, to concentrate mainly on the gulls and their reflections, or
in “landscape” mode and, if the latter, whether to place the gulls centrally or
to one side. Eventually I chose the symmetrical, “landscape” crop, including a
reasonable amount of the smooth, featureless sand on either side of the gulls.
Because the conditions were misty
and overcast, converting to black and white made little difference to the
appearance of the image. Lightening in post-production to produce a high key
image resulted in loss of detail in the sand, whilst the detail in the birds’
wings and tails was maintained. Further lightening of High Key Image 2 as shown
caused a loss of resolution between the birds’ heads and the surrounding sand.
Low Key Image 1: “Great Crested Grebe”
Low Key Image 1;
Nikon D7000 with 70-300mm lens; ISO 500, 1/500s, f/4.8
The grebe was photographed in
Hyde Park, London, in mid-April, whilst I was looking for images for this and
other projects. I noticed that a pair of great crested grebes had taken up
residence close to a road bridge over the Long Water. Being accustomed to
seeing people walking around the lake, these grebes were very confiding and
allowed me to photograph them from just a few feet away. I was hoping to get a
sequence of the pair displaying for Project 8: “The Decisive Moment”, but
failed in this regard despite spending hours watching them. The grebes
regularly swam or dived under one of the arches of the bridge and I was
therefore able to capture a number of low key images, including Low Key Image
1, with the birds illuminated only by low light coming through from one or both
sides of the arch. Because the birds were moving (sometimes at high speeds) I
was forced to use a relatively high shutter speed and, on occasion, a high ISO
rating. Consequently, this and the other images of the grebes were naturally
under-exposed by up to three stops.
In post-production I made
adjustments to the image to ensure that the details of the bird’s plumage were
clear, despite the muted light, and that there was a little detail (including
that of the bird’s reflection) in the water, whilst the bird’s surroundings
were rendered essentially black. A few unwanted small items of debris, which
were illuminated by the light, were cloned out. I believe that this image works
well in colour, as well as black and white, when the orange hues on the bird’s
face and neck stand out.
Low Key Image 2: Mute Swan
Low Key Image 2;
Nikon D7000 with 70-300mm lens; ISO 640, 1/250s, f/4.5
Mute swans are normally
associated with high key images, when the uniform paleness of their plumage can
be used to good effect. However, when I made an evening visit to a park in St.
Albans in mid-April 2014 I was very attracted to the sight of this swan feeding
quietly amongst vegetation in deep shade along a stream. The evening sun was
illuminating its plumage, resulting in a sharply defined white profile against
an inky black background. The bird was feeding under the surface, occasionally
raising its head, when a stream of water would run off from the tip of its bill.
To capture motion I was using a fast shutter speed, which resulted in natural
under-exposure of around two stops (I was photographing in shutter priority).
As a consequence, plenty of detail was visible in the bird’s plumage. I took
over 50 photographs of the bird as it fed, with it side-on, front-on and with a
diagonal posture. In some exposures the water can be seen dropping from its
bill.
Choosing exposures to convert to
low key images proved to be very difficult: I liked them all! However, I eventually
chose this simple side profile image to use for the project. The image required
little post-production work; however, I did darken the shadows slightly to
emphasise the subtleties of the feathering. I also ensured that the bird’s
bill, the only significant coloured feature in the image, was rendered in a
different shade of grey to the rest of the bird’s plumage and that the bulk of
the bird’s reflection in the water was clearly visible, to provide a
counterpoint to the elegance of its shape.
Conclusions
I expected to find that it would
be easier to produce high key images of birds (of which there are many examples
in the literature and on the internet) than low key images. In fact the reverse
was true, although I was hampered by the lack of snow and ice in early 2014,
when this work was carried out (always useful for producing clean, light
backgrounds), as well as the misty conditions that are helpful for producing
“ethereal” high key images.
This project highlighted for me
the importance of lighting and contrast for producing dramatic and/or
atmospheric effects. In turn, these effects can be used to emphasise aspects of
the characters of the subjects. It is also interesting to note that some
subjects (here, swans) can be portrayed in both low key and high key images.
Whilst the high key images worked
well and generally looked better in black and white some of the low key images
(in particular low key Image 1 of the grebe) actually looked better (in my
opinion) in colour.
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