I visited the exhibition of our photographs at Swadlincote Civic Centre  today. Below are some images from there.

Part of the poster explaining the exhibition.

Two photographs on display.

One of my images - unfortunately full of glare.

The second image, also full of glare.

The photographs were displayed in the entrance foyer, up the stairs and on the first floor landing. It is far from apparent from my poor flash photography, but the  lighting was quite subdued, and this for me highlighted how important lighting is for an exhibition. Colours appeared muted, and the black and white photos were often difficult to see. Positioning and lighting within a room are very important when displaying an image in any setting; for an image that is treasured the use of anti-reflective glass is expensive but probably worth while.

Nuthatch photograph: Comparison to one by Steve Young

I shall compare my chosen image with one produced by Steve Young.

Below is Steve's image

f/5.6; ISO 200; 1/100 second; Taken using Nikon D2X; Sigma 300 - 800 mm lens (at 750 mm)


The image below is mine.

f/5.5; ISO 400; 1/80 second; focal length 142mm

So how do they compare?
Composition: Thee cropping of my image mirrors Steve's. His image is superior in that the bird is on a natural tree trunk scenario compared to my man made feeder. My image has the advantage of the bird having a peanut in its beak.
Focusing: without comapring both images in the same media (computer or large print) it is dissficult to be sure, but I think Steve's focusibng on the eye is more accurate than mine.
Background: Steve's is a uniform green whilst mine shows other trees in the background. i believe the fact that these branches are parallel to the bird enhance the image; possibly the brightness at the centre bottom detracts. I see no problem with my photo in this area.
Lighting: Steve's photo is obviously taken in bright sunlight which enhance the colours of the bird. Mine was taken in duller light, and additionally the bird is in a duller winter plummage. For me this is no problem. I want to take photos representing the truth - this was early winter, the bird was immature with imperfect colouring - hey it was gorgeous!!
Cropping: I obviously don't know how much steve's image was cropped or enhanced, but mine was quite severly cropped. This will limit its ability to be printed in a large format, and ideally the focus of the shot would have been narrower to make the bird larger.

Conclusion: Steve's image is probably technically superior; however my image compares favourably and will remain a favourite of mine.

211: Presentation methods

Presentation Methods.

The traditional method to present photographic images is individual prints. Immediately you are presented with several questions:

·         Print size – 5 x 3 inches, 6 x 4 inches, 10 x 8 inches, 16 x 12 inches, A4, A3. The choice is endless.

·         Matt or Gloss

·         Print yourself, use local shops, use the internet

·         If you print yourself – which printer do you use?

·         How do you know the colour printed will be true to your original image?

In order to answer these questions one major issue must be considered. What is the purpose of the images?

My purpose is to produce a portfolio of images which will be a memento of my garden when I move home. For this purpose I shall produce many images which will vary in quality over a long period of time. A format such as a book would be ideal for this – easily portable, easily available at all times, flexible in the amount it can contain.

In the medium term and for the purpose of this module 10 images have been produced – insufficient for a book. The photographs could be printed individually and displayed in a binder – portable, but overlapping and duplicating the final aim of a book. With 2 or 3 further images a calendar could be produced – a subtle enhancement of the print, enabling the photographs to be viewed and appreciated daily. The 10 images could alternatively be printed and displayed on the walls of my home – but there are problems with this choice. My home does not have much spare wall space and the cost of prints and frames may be prohibitive.

For the purpose of this module I shall explain how I can produce a simple wall calendar using my own images. (See separate blog). This I shall compare with the production of these images for an exhibition.

211: Images for Presentation: Task 1a

Theme: Images of the garden and wildlife at Church Farm.

The following 10 images have been selected to be presented. The images are from the garden of Church Farm which is the theme of Task 1a.

These images have been chosen to be printed as a slimline calendar - one per month. Since their size will be approximately 4" x 3" I can choose images that have been highly cropped or taken using a high ISO setting. Low pixelation and graininess will not be a major issue.

Ideally for a calendar the image would reflect the month portrayed , but since these photos were taken over a 16 week period this is not possible. However the images I have chosen are I believe varied in content and style.

The photo of the nuthatch will be on the front cover which needs to be in the portrait style. The rest are all in landscape style. The final images may be further cropped by the printers to 'fit' the calendar, so there is a risk that the composition may be subtly altered. By checking hte size of the final image I can recrop my images to that size to ensure that the cropping is of my chosing - not just random. For example if the pigeon image is cropped evenly all round the tail might be lost - spoiling the image.

----------------------------

For a calendar 13 images are required : 1 front cover and 12 months, so 3 further images are required. These would be:

This last image has neither been cropped, nor enhanced within Photoshop. I enclose it as a representative image of the whole of Church Farm, which I feel should be present in the calendar.

A look back at images taken in September

Whilst checking through all the images I have taken so far for the City and Guilds Photography Course I reviewed the images taken in September at the beginning of the course. I believe some of them are worthy of reconsideration.

These below were taken on September 25th and those of the honeysuckle, especially the close up images with raindrops are perhaps better than I realised at the time!

On September 29th I took several photographs at dawn. Some I have displayed in an earlier blog, but again upon reflection I should have included this image. The colours are magnificent; the circle of the flower heads mirrors that of the web; the background is fascinating - out of focus yet with a texture of its own. The 2 circles also have contrasting textures - coarse, dry flowerheads and delicate, wispy webs.

Both these images will in fact be included in my final folio, with the reasons being explained in separate blogs .

Comparison of Printers

In this blog I shall compare the printer I use at home to the printer at Burton College.

At home I have a Kodak ESP Series 3200 printer.

This printer will print, copy and scan. It's main purpose is to print home documents (letters etc...) easily and cheaply, and to scan images. This it does, but its quality is not brilliant. It would not be suitable to use to print quality photographic images, except to give a draft quality example of an image. It has 2 cartridges for ink - black and colour (containing cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks). It cannot be calibrated; it cost about £70

Burton College uses a HP Photosmart Pro B9180 Photo Printer. Details are given below. It is designed for one purpose alone -printing photos. It has 8 individual ink cartridges - cyan, magenta, yellow and black plus 4 others to give a wide variety of colour production. It can be calibrated to the monitor and costs about £500.

When I investigated 'Ptofessional Business Printers' on the internet the cost moved into the thousands of pounds, or even 'We will arrange to telephone you with a quote'. I assume that professional photographers must either have their own high quality printers, or have a contract with printers with precise quality contracts. The number of inks available increases with printer price, as I presume the quality control and monitoring of colour features do as well.

For myself, it seems unlikely that I will print my own photographs in the foreseeable future (if ever) - but will use on line printers initially recommended by trusted photographers.

Attracting birds and squirrels to the garden

All the food I use to attract birds in the garden is packed by ChapelWood. This is a well known company with high production standards, recommended by the RSPB. Orders can be placed on line, or through local garden centres.

I use 4 products:

Peanuts:
I use these in my feeders, hanging feeder and also on the ground. In this way I attract a wide variety of birds, including tits, finches, robins, sparrows, pigeons, magpies, crows, nuthatches and woodpeckers - plus regular grey squirrels.

Suet balls
These are used in specialist feeders, the log feeder and also added to the hanging feeder. These balls can be made at home - a mixture of nuts, seeds and suet, but I prefer to use manufactured suet balls.

Premium Bird seed
This includes sunflower and niger seeds, corn, barley and wheat. I place them on the hanging feeder, the ground and in special seed feeders. A variety of birds are attracted, with niger seeds being especially popular with finches. Chaffinches and bullfinches seem to prefer feeding on the ground. Pheasants and partridges seem partial to this mixture when it is on the ground.

Robin Seed

Some seed mixtures are designed to attract certain species of birds. I use this seed especially on the hanging feeder and on the ground. This mixture contains dried mealworm, pinhead oatmeal and kibbled peanuts.

Primary Colours (RGB , CMYK) and the MacBeth Chart: International Standard Reference Chart.

This is a card mounted colour reference chart produced by Gretag MacBeth. The sales information for the product states:

The Gretag MacBeth colour checker chart is designed as a colour calibration chart. It can be used with colour management software to calibrate the camera in line with the monitor and printer to produce accurate colours.

The internet description above describes the chart. It is an A4 sized cardboard chart. which is photographed alongside an object to allow calibration of equipment.

The 24 squares include the three additive primary colours (the three primary colours of light) - red, green and blue. This is shown below by the yellow marker.

Also included are the three subtractive primary colours which are those of reflected light - cyan, magenta and yellow. These three subtractive colours plus black form the basis for printed process colours - shown by the white marker.

In addition are the specialist colours such as skin tones (top 2 lines of chart above) plus the reference colours for greyscale. Greyscale in printing is a tonal scale from white to black (bottom row of chart)  used to control the quality of both colour and black and white processing.

Primary Colours (RGB)

Primary colours are a set of 3 pure colours from which all other colours can be mixed. The primary colours of light are red, green and blue - the additive primaries.  These additive colours can be mixed to form all other colours in photographic reproduction and display monitors. When all 3 colours overlap in equal amounts you get white; when 2 colours overlap you get cyan, magenta and yellow - hence the term 'additive' as other colours are produced by addition.

RGB Mode.

This is used by all computer monitors, even when displaying another colour mode (e.g. CMYK). Data is converted to RGB for the screen display.

Each pixel in an image is given an intensity value (0 for black up to 255 for white). A vivid blue pixel will have values such as - red 10, green 30, blue 240.

Primary Subtractive Colours (CMY)

These colours are created when the additive colour components are subtracted from white light. Thus if an object reflects blue and green light but absorbs red it will appear cyan - the red colour is 'subtracted'. Objects appear black when all 3 additive colours (red, blue and green) are absorbed.

Cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) are the basic colours used in printing. [Black is represented by K from the term 'key' plate - a term used in printing technology].

CMYK Mode

This is used in image editing applications when preparing an image for printing. An RGB image is converted to CMYK to create colour separations.

Editing is done in RGB mode and the image converted prior to printing. Some applications allow a CMYK preview  to enable the image to be viewed in CMYK mode whilst available to edit in RGB mode.

When preparing to print images ideally all equipment - camera, monitor and printer are calibrated so that 'what you see is what you get'. Mis-calibration can result in great diappointment when your images are printed - images can appear duller, more vivid or simply 'wrong' when this occurs. This is always a risk with commercial printing of images, and as such the company used must be 'trustworthy'.

Reference:

The Digital photographer's A-Z. Peter Cope. 2002.Thames and Hudson, London. ISBN 0-500-54247-3

Robin photograph: Comparison to one by Heather Angel

In this blog I intend to compare my final image of a robin to one published by Heather Angel.

The settings for this photograph were: f/5.6; ISO 400; 1/60 second; focal length 300mm

The image below is published by Heather Angel. (http://www.naturalvisions.co.uk/ )



The tonal range of the backgrounds are similar, although Heather's image appears to have more light upon the background foliage highlighting the yellow shades. Both images tell a story of the robin within the garden. The colours of the robin in my image are brighter.

The eye contact for both images is almost identical as the bird appears to pause, watch and listen. I have explained in a previous blog that the focusing upon the robin within my image is less than ideal - but the focusing upon the bird in Heather's image is also less than perfect.

Heather has composed her image so that the robin is almost central, with the log offering contrasts in texture; the log which disappears into the background brings the eye back to the robin with its increasing focus closer to the bird. My image places the bird well off centre, with the eyes being drawn around the chains of the feeder back to the bird.

Which is the better image? In this case I feel it is a matter of personal preference. Neither picture is a masterpiece, but to be honest the difference in experience between Heather and myself is massive. I am happy with my photo and am aware that it can be much improved. With Heather's experience I would not be happy with her image.

Afternoon trees photograph: comparison to ones by Richard Muir and Ansel Adams

This is my image of afternoon trees which I would like to compare with two images - one by Richard Muir and one by Ansel Adams.

The settings I used were: f/16; ISO 200; 1/80 second; focal length 40mm

Comparison to Richard Muir.

Initially the similarity is not obvious. Richard's image is taken in early autumn whereas mine is taken when all the leaves have fallen. The light appears to come from the side, and from the quality of the light was probably taken in early morning - the soft, bright and slightly 'yellow' light highlights the colours of the leaves. This is a warm image of autumn. In contrast my image was taken in fading afternoon sunlight and is back lit; it is stark and relatively cool.

However structurally they are similar, which they should be since Richard's image was the inspiration for mine. In both neither the top nor bottom of the trees is shown; the tree trunks are relatively thin and nearly vertical; the trees act as borders on each side of the photograph.

Which do I prefer? Richard's image. The play of the sunlight on the trees gives warmth and vitality to the image. I am pleased with my image, and think that its composition is successful. This shot could be repeated at another time of year in different lighting to come closer to Richard's image - but my current image is I feel good enough to stand on its own merit.

Comparison to Ansel Adams.

This image has even less similarity to my own. Its focus is upon a young sapling highlighted by (early morning?) sunlight, with numerous trees and is in black and white.

The similarity to my own image lies in the starkness of both images. However Adams image has the contrast of the bright and living sapling within the image, which gives a story to the image. 

In Conclusion by comparing my image to both those of Richard Muir and Ansel Adams I believe its great weakness is in its lack of story. Richard's tells of autumn, Adams gives a contrast; the aim of mine was to portray the late afternoon sunlight on the bare autumn trees but unfortunately it has not succeeded. The basic composition of mine can be kept but a story must be added - light, leaves, season - there are choices available. Again the moral is to practise and try again.

Photoshop as a means of displaying images

Within Photoshop is the capability to decide how to display your images for print production. This blog explains the work flow for this.

Initially:

File --> new --> (choose page size) A3

A blank page will appear which can be moved to sit next to your background images.

 By choosing the 'move' tool from the left hand tool box the image can be copied onto the blank page and placed in the desired spot:

The size of the image can be transformed, but it is important to maintain the scale of the image:
Edit --> transform --> scale, but keep pressing the 'Shift' key to maintain the scale.

Tick to accept the change. 

The image an also be given a frame as below:

Edit -->Stroke --> Black / Outside / 5 pixels

Several images can be transferred and placed as required on the blank sheet. A montage could be produced, or 4 images situated in 2 columns. This could then be saved as a JPEG and printed to A3 size or as required, for display.

This is an alternative means of displaying images to those previously described of books, calendars, large prints - several images in one print.

blurb - an online tool to produce books

In a previous blog I have mentioned using on line printers and discussed the use of Photobox to produce calendars. 'blurb' is another option - www.blurb.com .

Blurb can be used to produce books:

With 'blurb' I can cheaply print a book of my images, including any text I may like to include. such text could be purely descriptive, indicate the time of shots, why they were taken; it could include poetry or prose which I considered to be valid to the image. In other words there is a tremendous scope and versatility with this tool, and at a reasonable price.

For anyone who wishes to enter into professional photography a book would be an easy way to show your product to prospective customers. Several copies could be printed of a book recording the memories of a family holiday to be shared as a cherished memento.

One idea is to print the blog produced for this course as a book. This is really tempting. It would be an easily accessible version of my work; it would be a resource for the new skills I have learnt; it could be shared with my family and friends and would be a reminder to me of all that I had achieved - produced at a reasonable cost, and not too bulky as a final product compared to traditional portfolios in folders. Details of this follow below:

Other ideas:

In conclusion 'blurb' is an easy to use on line tool for the production of individualised books of photographic images, at a reasonable price.