zaterdag 15 januari 2011
LoL: Winkel van Sinkel
The assignment here was to make two photo's of a small and personal shop: a photo of the front, and a portrait of the owner.
For once deciding on what to shoot was extremely simple, as I frequent a small shop in Eindhoven for exactly the same criteria as the assignment: a small personal shop, not yet part of a chain, probably mainly because it's just catering to a niche.
The Switch. A small, cramped shop, in my mind always a bit like a treasure trove in its mystery and content. The owner, however, presented a minor problem.
She was perfectly ok with me making photo's of the store, but a bit less enthousiastic about appearing herself in one of the photo's. Reason being bad experiences with what photo's are later used for, and a general dislike of being on the wrong end of a camera.
After a bit of asking nicely she did come up with a solution: a friend of hers occasionally minded the shop for her, and he already had posed as model more often. We make an appointment.
About two weeks later I come back for the shoot, and meet said friend. A middle-aged man with shoulderlong black hair, and an air both slightly pompous and rather carefree. Charming.
One thing was clear almost straight away: he liked the sense of attention that modelling brings. It was almost like he was dating my camera.
The shoot itself was not very pre-planned, and mostly involved me trying to get my lighting right with a brand-new flash.
One important lesson remained from this: watch out with dark backgrounds and models wearing dark clothing. My main issue was that his black vest was blending into the background, making everything even darker.
I went back later, and together we picked out a white shirt from the shop for the shoot.
The white helped even more than I anticipated in having him catch the attention in the extremely crowded shop. I left the surroundings rather dark to truthfully represent the store, but next time I'll have to do that a bit more deliberate, as it was commented on at the assessment as being a possible drawback.
For once deciding on what to shoot was extremely simple, as I frequent a small shop in Eindhoven for exactly the same criteria as the assignment: a small personal shop, not yet part of a chain, probably mainly because it's just catering to a niche.
The Switch. A small, cramped shop, in my mind always a bit like a treasure trove in its mystery and content. The owner, however, presented a minor problem.
She was perfectly ok with me making photo's of the store, but a bit less enthousiastic about appearing herself in one of the photo's. Reason being bad experiences with what photo's are later used for, and a general dislike of being on the wrong end of a camera.
After a bit of asking nicely she did come up with a solution: a friend of hers occasionally minded the shop for her, and he already had posed as model more often. We make an appointment.
About two weeks later I come back for the shoot, and meet said friend. A middle-aged man with shoulderlong black hair, and an air both slightly pompous and rather carefree. Charming.
One thing was clear almost straight away: he liked the sense of attention that modelling brings. It was almost like he was dating my camera.
The shoot itself was not very pre-planned, and mostly involved me trying to get my lighting right with a brand-new flash.
One important lesson remained from this: watch out with dark backgrounds and models wearing dark clothing. My main issue was that his black vest was blending into the background, making everything even darker.
I went back later, and together we picked out a white shirt from the shop for the shoot.
The white helped even more than I anticipated in having him catch the attention in the extremely crowded shop. I left the surroundings rather dark to truthfully represent the store, but next time I'll have to do that a bit more deliberate, as it was commented on at the assessment as being a possible drawback.
Light on Location: Building in Twilight
A rather straightforward and simple assignment: a building in twilight. No background stories, research, or themes.
The choice of building was influenced mostly not by how the actual building looked like, but where it stood, and whether it'd have enough free space around it to catch the light well in twilight.
The final choice was an apartment complex close to where I live, mainly for abovementioned reasons.
After that came the process of details: where to stand, what angle, what proportion of air / building in the photo, etc. etc.
I did a dry run during daylight, walking around the building to see what angle it looked best from.
Come twilight it proved that something as simple as the lights of the building can easily throw off all your plans: the most interesting thing became mysterious effect created by the yellow lighting of the walkways shining through the facade.
In the end it proved to be an accident that the photo turned out well: I was shooting next to very high, grass-like plants, and their silhouette waves at the bottom of the photo. This breaks an otherwise extremely dull composition, and adds a bit of subtlety.
And once again I am reminded that a low-key photo needs to look brighter than it should be on a monitor, in order to turn out well as print.
The choice of building was influenced mostly not by how the actual building looked like, but where it stood, and whether it'd have enough free space around it to catch the light well in twilight.
The final choice was an apartment complex close to where I live, mainly for abovementioned reasons.
After that came the process of details: where to stand, what angle, what proportion of air / building in the photo, etc. etc.
I did a dry run during daylight, walking around the building to see what angle it looked best from.
Come twilight it proved that something as simple as the lights of the building can easily throw off all your plans: the most interesting thing became mysterious effect created by the yellow lighting of the walkways shining through the facade.
In the end it proved to be an accident that the photo turned out well: I was shooting next to very high, grass-like plants, and their silhouette waves at the bottom of the photo. This breaks an otherwise extremely dull composition, and adds a bit of subtlety.
And once again I am reminded that a low-key photo needs to look brighter than it should be on a monitor, in order to turn out well as print.
Retrospect: First period - The Basics
This first period did teach me a couple of extremely important things, but arguably the most important ones don't concern actual photography.
It confirmed what I knew already, that I am too stubborn for my own good, and should step off it a little, and occasionally admit I am wrong.
It further showed the need for more careful planning, and the dire need to carry things through 100%, and not take it 90% of the way, lose focus, and hurry the last 10%, which lets the final product looks messy and shabby.
At the time of writing this is something that I still heavily struggle with, and which still showed in the assessments of period 2 and 3.
Photographically the main point was that it is not art, and one first needs to learn the rules before he breaks them. Quality is a first, artistry comes after.
Another realisation is that the hardest part for me is not to get the actual adjustments done, but to know what I need / want to change in the first place. Getting to know your camera, computer, and other assorted material inside out is relatively simple. Getting to know which way to start to solve a problem is something that'll end up being the main thing to learn.
And I fucking should stop worrying if I don't know exactly how to go about something ><
It confirmed what I knew already, that I am too stubborn for my own good, and should step off it a little, and occasionally admit I am wrong.
It further showed the need for more careful planning, and the dire need to carry things through 100%, and not take it 90% of the way, lose focus, and hurry the last 10%, which lets the final product looks messy and shabby.
At the time of writing this is something that I still heavily struggle with, and which still showed in the assessments of period 2 and 3.
Photographically the main point was that it is not art, and one first needs to learn the rules before he breaks them. Quality is a first, artistry comes after.
Another realisation is that the hardest part for me is not to get the actual adjustments done, but to know what I need / want to change in the first place. Getting to know your camera, computer, and other assorted material inside out is relatively simple. Getting to know which way to start to solve a problem is something that'll end up being the main thing to learn.
And I fucking should stop worrying if I don't know exactly how to go about something ><
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